Packaging - **1/2
While these packages are identical to what we saw with the rest of wave 17, I'm a bit less pleased with these three.

It's not the graphics or design of course - nothing there has changed. But the inner trays on two of these - Wonder Woman and Flash - have caused warped joints due to the action pose and the position in the inner tray. For Wonder Woman, it's an ankle, while the Flash has a knee issue. That's not acceptable, especially since the pins on the ankles and knees tend to be a little soft to begin with.

Sculpting - Luthor ****; Flash, Anti-Monitor ***1/2; Wonder Woman ***;
I love all four of these figures, even though some are pretty basic.

Like the Flash - he has the usual base body, but they've punched it up a bit with the addition of the sculpted wings on the head and legs. The color combo with the cool head sculpt makes him one of my favorite Flash figures - not something I was expecting from the rainbow wave.

Wonder Woman is also using a fairly standard female body, but the head sculpt is gorgeous. At first, I thought the sculpted mask made her look a little to cheeky, but it really grew on me the longer I had her. The hair sculpt is excellent, and while the body is fairly basic, the few additional details (like the high collar and whip) add quite a bit to the standard look.

I really like Lex's armor as well. It's very detailed, although some of the texture work gets lost to the eye due to the clear orange color. His head sculpt is excellent as well, with more realism than we often get in a comic based line. He gets my top spot, but Anti-Monitor is pretty close behind.

He not only has terrific detail work - look at those cool teeth! - but he has a cloth cape, a big plus in my book. He's a little smaller than some of the other Collect and Connect figures, but that's a minor quibble.

Paint - Luthor ****; Wonder Woman, Flash, Anti-Monitor ***1/2;
All four figures are very clean, with some minor exceptions on a few cut lines and an errant mark here or there. This is certainly above average mass market work, more in line with what we see on lower run collector series.

Wonder Woman and Anti-Monitor have the most small detail work, and for the most part it's extremely well done. Wonder Woman's mask is clean, with only a little slop on the star, and a bit around the lips. her costume lines are quite clean, and she's as pretty as you expect the Amazonian princess to be.

While the silver and blue on Anti-Monitor look great, it's the molten mouth that wins me over. I love the look of the rocky teeth, mossy hygiene and all.

Flash has fairly clean costume lines as well, although some of the black edging is a little fuzzy. I particularly like the lightening style belt, and the symbol is also well done.

But Lex takes the top spot for me, all due to my general love of clear figures. I've always thought they were cool, but this is the first one I remember buying that looks like a Creamsicle as well.

Articulation - ***1/2
Flash has the usual male articulation - ball jointed neck and shoulders, pin elbows, knees, and ankles, cut waist, thighs, biceps and wrists, hinge hips and ab-crunch chest. All the joints work well, although his left knee was weakened by the packaging.

Lex is identical except when it comes to the wrists. There's no cuts there, but on the left arm there's a cut higher by the elbow. I assumed the right arm would have one as well, but if it's there, I couldn't get it to budge.

Wonder Woman has the usual female body articulation - ball jointed neck and shoulders, pin elbows, knees, and ankles, cut thighs, biceps and wrists, hinge hips and sorta swivel, sorta ball chest.

Anti-Monitor is similar to the other male figures in the line, but lacks the ball neck joint. His is merely a cut joint, but the armor and head design would have restricted any other type of joint anyway.

While Flash, Wonder Woman and Lex don't appear to have any swivel action to their ankles, Anti-Monitor does, allowing his feet to be flat on the ground in deeper stances. However, the stiff tubes on his arms do restrict their mobility a bit.

All four stand great on their own, and shouldn't require any assistance to remain upright.

Accessories - Luthor, WW, Flash ***; Anti-Monitor Bupkis
As usual, each figure comes with a a piece to build the Anti-Monitor figure. He doesn't have any accessories for himself, but that won't effect my Overall score for him since it's not an expectation.

Wonder Woman, Flash and Lex Luthor all come with a lantern of the appropriate color. That's a nice addition, although Lex's doesn't have a handle. Several are just re-used from other figures, but that's a minor quibble.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
Kids looking for a Rainbow Brite version of these characters will be mighty pleased, and the funky colors might actually make it easier for them to convince their parents to pick them up. No way their mom or dad is going to say "But you already have that Wonder Woman".

Value - **
The biggest issue I have with this set is the price, no doubt about it. You will be hard pressed to find them for less than $16, and $18 isn't unusual. With that price, I have to knock a half star off average.

Things to Watch Out For -
I didn't have any issues with the quality on this set, or with stuck joints.

Overall - ***1/2
I was mighty tempted on a couple of these to go the full four stars. But the current price tag is just too high for me to go there. If these were down around $15, I would have gone that half star extra.

Anti-Monitor is going to be high on my list of great BAF's for 2011, and I suspect Wonder Woman will also be high on the list of best female figures. While I'm not a huge Flash fan, I can certainly see the appeal of this version, and I love the funky translucent orange armor on Lex. Overall, this is a killer group of figures, and adds some much needed color to the shelf.

Score Recap:
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpting - Luthor ****; Flash, Anti-Monitor ***1/2; Wonder Woman
Paint - Luthor ****; Wonder Woman, Flash, Anti-Monitor ***1/2;
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - Luthor, WW, Flash ***; Anti-Monitor Bupkis
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - **
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy -
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Mike's Comics N Stuff is where I snagged my set, where you can get the full set of 7 for $103, or the individuals for $17.

- Big Bad Toy Store has the set of 7 for $105, or the singles for $17.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
There's been a metric ton of DCUC figures over the last few years:

- just last week I started my look at wave 18.

- other recent reviews covered the new Green Lantern waves: wave 2 part 2 and part 1, and wave 1 part 2 and part 1.

- Series 16 was split up too, into part 1 and part 2.

- I finished off wave 15 in two parts, one here and one here.

- and wave 14 was also in part 1 and part 2.

- the SDCC Plastic Man was the previous review.

- I split the wave 13 up into two sections, part 1 and part 2.

- I covered half of wave 12, but it took awhile to pick up the second half.

- prior to that was part 1 and part 2 of wave 11.

- big surprise, wave 10 was before that, 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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