Mandrake the Magician

The Phantom may be obscure, but at least he had a movie; when was the last time anyone heard of Mandrake the Magician? This dapper, sophisticated magician is more adept at hypnotic deception than anyone on Earth. Mandrake is the ultimate authority on anything involving magic or the supernatural. He is called upon by his fellow Defenders to penetrate the enemy using his incredibly powers of mental supremacy, deception, and the occult! According to some, Mandrake the Magician was the first costumed superhero in comics. He appeared four years before Superman, sure, and the tuxedo he wears (as part of his act as a stage magician) could count as a costume if you're being generous, but is "good at hypnosis" really a super power? It's not like he had Professor X-style psychic abilities, it was just hypnotism. There's a difference between being a teleporter and doing the cup and balls trick, right? Mandrake was sculpted by Djordje Djokovic, just like the rest of NECA's King Features figures, though clearly not the superhero physique they all had. Just as he has since the beginning, he wears a stylish tuxedo, top hat, and cape. Can't re-create that by painting flat colors on a muscly body! His shoes are very elegant black and white wingtips, there's a handkerchief in the breast pocket of his jacket, and he wears a vibrant red vest over his white shirt. His cape is black with a red lining, and a posing wire in the edges allows you to have it flare out dramatically behind him however you like. Lee Falk created Mandrake the Magician in 1924, when he was just 19, but didn't sell the strip until a decade later. Mandrake was a forerunner of today's Tony Stark, being supremely confident and a little bit condescending. And in fact, with his pencil-thin mustache, he even looks like Tony looked in the comics until Robert Downey Jr. came around. It's going to be interesting to see what ways NECA finds to reuse these molds. Will they re-up their partnership with WB to make a Joker for Adam West to face? Tuxedo Freddy Krueger? It was easy to find ways to use a generic superhero body, but a man in evening wear is much harder. Despite a potentially limited future, the articulation is just as great as it always is, with hinged toes, swivel/hinge ankles, swivel/hinge knees, balljointed hips, a balljoint waist, swivel/hinge wrists, double-swivel/hinged elbows, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a barbell-jointed head. Plus, of course, the posing wire in the cape. Good stuff! Mandy has fists in the package, but you can trade the right hand for one shaped to hold his crystal-topped cane, and trade the left for either a hand that's open and gesturing as he does when he's using his powers, or a hand with the trigger finger extended. The Defenders of the Earth cartoon gave its heroes ray guns rather than real weapons, because it was a cartoon in the 1980s; this is the same mold we've seen the other figures carry, in dark metallic blue, with two translucent blue energy effects: a small muzzle flare and a longer blast with an impact at the end. Not exactly things a magician would need, but no one says you can't lend them to a different figure of your choice. There's something inherently neat about getting a random stage magician toy. You don't care about Mandrake? Fine, then this is John Zatara, Zatanna's father. He's never had a toy before, and NECA's stuff is fairly close to the old DC Direct scale, so why not call this a figure of a character who's never had any merchandise? After all, he was based on Mandrake both in powers and in appearance. Lots of characters were in the '40s. Mandrake the Magician is a surprisingly influential character in the history of comics, even if he's overlooked today, and it's exciting that NECA's finally gotten their toy of him out. -- 10/09/22