Packaging - ***
I skipped the packaged photo this time, but if you would like to see the green Steppenwolf in his plastic prison, check the previous review. As I mentioned then, the packages are the same as we've seen with the previous 10 waves, with some new stickers added to a few of the bubbles highlighting key information.

Key features are the character specific personalized text (especially on the back), and photos of the full wave for your in aisle edification.

Sculpting - ****
With these four, I can honestly say there's not a sculpt I'm dissatisfied with. The Four Horsemen always do a bang up job with this series (and Mattel was smart to bring them in), but these four are still standouts.

Katma is another lovely lady, but she instead of just being another generic model pretty female head sculpt, she has all her own personality. She even has sculpted eyebrows (something the much larger Cover Girls Statues have been known to lack) as well as finely sculpted strands of hair (another failing of the Cover Girls statues). 

She stands great on her own, and both hands are sculpted in fists. That works with the included accessories, and makes sense considering the sculpted ring on her right hand. In darkest night blah blah blah.

John Stewart and Kilowog also have sculpted fists for both hands, and sport exceptional head sculpts. Kilowog's head is made from a softer rubbery material, and has some really nice sharply cut detailing in the skin folds, pig nose and funky ears. Both also have the sculpted ring, although Kilowog's is much bigger, quite the source of pride for him in the GL Corps team locker room.

Kilowog also has sculpted, wrinkled skin on the tops of his shoulders, where the Green Lantern uniform doesn't quite cover his entire body. The transition between the skin and uniform is sculpted as well (rather than simply painted), lending more realism to the overall appearance. It's those small details that really count.

John's head sculpt is a very accurate portrayal, and my favorite aspect is the stern expression. By painting the pupils toward the top of the eyes, they enhance the badassery of the expression as well.

Finally, there's Deadman, perhaps my favorite of the non-BAF figures in this set. I wasn't expecting much out of him - he's a fairly low level character without many powers (other than his whole ghostly 'boo' routine) who sports one of the goofiest collars since Elvis did Hawaii. And yet the FH have translated the comic book version in to one bad looking mama jamma in 3-D form. The detailing on the face is very impressive considering the scale (remember, these are all just 6" tall), with deathly wrinkles and popping veins.

All the figures stand great on their own, and all use standard body parts with the obvious exception of Kilowog. Being the CnC, he towers over the others at around 9" tall, but that seems just about right for the 6" scale. It's not just his height of course, but the large amount of volume this guy takes up.

Paint - Deadman ****; John, Kilowog ***1/2; Katma ***
While the overall quality of Mattel's paint ops has improved with recent waves of DC Universe Classics, there are still a few issues here and there.

Of the three, Katma has the most obvious issue. On her left hip are a couple paint (or glue) drips, very easy to see even with the nekkid eye. Her cut lines between the green, black and white colors are also somewhat sloppy, exhibiting more over spray than I'd like to see.

John suffers from some of this same over spray on his costume, but the face paint work is quite good. The hair line is a bit off, but that's only noticeable under close scrutiny, and I love the way they painted the eyes up under the top lids, giving him a "You feel lucky, punk?" look.

Kilowog has the best paint job on his Green Lantern outfit, but he also has the fewest cut lines to cause him trouble. I also really like the slight wash they used to bring out the details of his muscular body and wrinkly face.

Deadman has the most impressive paint job of the series, however.  Not only is everything here very clean, including the eyes and dark bags, but they varied the red with different parts of his uniform. The collar, gloves, belt and booties are a slightly lighter red, offset against the body that has a darker wash. This two tone effect is subtle, but adds a lot of visual flair to an otherwise basic body suit.

If I were looking for a nit to pick, I'd say that his teeth could be done up a little neater, but it's not as much of an issue as it is with Shark, where the paint is severely botched. Here it just looks like someone needs to give him a Sonic Care for his deathday.

Articulation - Deadman, John, Katma ***1/2; Kilowog ***
Deadman, John and Katma have the same articulation as past figures, using the same base bodies.

That means there's ball joints at the neck and shoulders, with cut biceps, wrists, waist and hips, pin elbows, ankles and knees, an ab crunch, and the cool hinge hips that the line is well known for. The pins are all very sturdy, and I didn't have any trouble with stuck or weak joints.

However, like the other four in this wave (and far too many in other recent waves), the ball jointed neck is pretty much useless for anything beyond turning. You could use a simple cut joint for that. I managed to get a little more tilt out of Katma than the other two, but it's still not adequate.

Kilowog scores a bit lower for three reasons. First, his neck IS a cut joint, a situation necessitated by his CnC status, as well as his general character design. Second, there's no cut thigh joint. And third, you can't bring the legs together quite as far as you should for proper posing. This leaves his feet out so far that they never quite rest flat on the shelf.

These are minor quibbles on an otherwise fantastic BAF, and for the most part he'll just stand around looking impressive. But you won't get too many extreme poses out of him, and I wish the legs would come together a bit tighter.

Accessories - Katma, John ***1/2; Deadman **1/2; Kilowog Bupkis
While it might not seem fair that Kilowog, as the CnC figure, gets graded along with the other figures here, let's not forget that in some past waves the CnC figure has gotten their own accessories. Sadly, that's not the case with the big guy. Unless you count the God awful goofy little blue display stand - and why would you?

Deadman gets the standard average score here, but that's only if you're interested in Kilowog, since his only accessory is one of the body parts. If you have a general torpor when it comes to the big K, then you can drop Deadman to a Bupkis here.

Katma and John both do much better. Both come with two Lantern created effect accessories that fit tightly on their right fists. For Katma, there's a shield and a sword like beam. For John, it's an impressive looking gun and a large fist, poised to take you out.

These look and work great, and I wish they could have found a way budget-wise to include something like this for Kilowog.

Fun Factor - ****
With the new Batman Brave and the Bold cartoon highlighting the Green Lantern Corps quite a bit (although it's Guy, not John that's the main GL), I think kids would find all three of the Lanterns in this series to be a great addition to their toy box battles. Of course, Kilowog would be their first choice, but since you have to pick up the entire wave, you could further explain to them who the others are and how they relate, including Shark and the Sinestro Corps Supes.

And what kid wouldn't want an icky looking zombie-like guy in red Liberace pajamas?

Value - **1/2
I'm still grading these at $13 or so that most retailers were carrying them in 2009. Sadly, it looks like those days are numbered, with the prices rising to $15 or so at many stores. Doubly sad, because I'm not sure the series can survive the price hike, and I know this category will be dropping for me in the future.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. The entire wave was sturdy and well made, with quality joints and little chance for breakage under normal conditions.

Overall - Deadman ****; Kilowog, Katma, John ***1/2
For me, wave 11 was full of surprises. Maybe it's because waves 9 and 10 were so damn hard to find at retail, or maybe it's because these three waves were released so close together. Either way, I really hadn't set my sights on wave 11 in earnest, so just getting them with such little pain was a nice surprise right out of the gate.

DCUC has given us plenty of great figures if you're a New Gods fan, and this wave increased that series with the addition of Steppenwolf. But it's the GL figures that really stand out and add a tremendous amount of variety to your already crowded shelf.

The two best surprises for me were Kilowog and Deadman. Kilowog may be the best CnC figure they've done, certainly my favorite for 2009. And Deadman was a character I had almost no interest in, and yet won me over the minute he was out of the package.

DCUC collectors can't breathe easy quite yet though - wave 12 is right around the corner, and with the price hike it's going to hurt our wallets more than ever.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ****
Paint - Deadman ****; John, Kilowog ***1/2; Katma ***
Articulation - Deadman, John, Katma ***1/2; Kilowog ***
Accessories - Katma, John ***1/2; Deadman **1/2; Kilowog Bupkis
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **1/2
Overall - Deadman ****; Kilowog, Katma, John ***1/2

Where to Buy -
These guys are just now starting to hit retail stores, so I'd give them a shot for at least the next month. While finding the variants is never easy, it's gotten less frustrating to find the regular figures with a little patience.

If you lack patience, you can hit Big Bad Toy Store, where they have the set of 8 for $125, or individual figures in the $17 - $22 range.

Related Links -
I've covered a bunch of these waves:

- as I mentioned, earlier this week I covered the first half of wave 11.

- before that was wave 10 of course, with some here and some here.

- you can find wave 9 part 1 here, and part 2 over here.

- I split wave 8 up into two parts, one here and one here.

- prior to that was wave 7 (duh), which I covered here.

- I broke wave six into two reviews, one here and one here.

- no, I never reviewed wave 5, but prior to that was wave 4 which I also broke into this review, and this one.

- of course, prior to that was wave 3.

- last up in the DCSH figures were the Clayface and Bruce to Bats figures.

- before that was Mongul, who is also one of the best figures this year and Parasite and Steel. 

- don't forget the 12" version of the smaller Batman, and the 12" Cyborg Superman.

- in this smaller line, the fourth series was Superman themed, with Brainiac and Darkseid. There's also the Batgirl and Superman from the two packs. 

- there's the guest review of series 3 Batman and Azrael.

- a guest review of series 2 Doomsday, and another of the series 2 Superman.

- my review of the series 2 Bizarro and Supergirl.

- my review of the Batman and Killer Croc from wave 1.

- and finally, my review of Bane and Scarecrow that were released internationally as part of the old Mattel line, and then re-released with wave 1 of the DCSH.

- and while the aren't technically DCUC, the new Public Enemies figures are close enough for most of us. I split the review into part 1 and part 2.

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