Your tolerance for "Mega Rod" jokes will need to be high before you continue any further. Big Barda is an interesting toy with a few big mistakes that hold her back from greatness. Even with these weaknesses, she still manages to come off as a good action figure in Mattel's 7th wave of their DC Universe Classics line.
Name: Big Barda
Line: DC Universe Classics, Wave 7, Figure 5
Manufacturer: Mattel
Released: Early 2009
Price: Retail: $11.50-$13.99, Online: $12.99-$17.99
Scale: 6.00 in.
Accessories: Mega Rod
Collect & Connect Piece: Atom Smasher's Left Arm
Big Barda's most obvious problem is that she isn't "big". I know you've probably heard this from 100 different reviewers already, but it's true and I can't avoid it. Even by classic Kirby standards, she's too short and too slim, which is a product of Mattel's rampant reutilization of parts. On her own she looks just fine, and when posed with Mr. Miracle, or even other female figures, it's the exact opposite. Her proportions are a little off like most female toys, with exceedingly long legs and a hyper-thin waist. This doesn't look human (way to go Mattel and your realistic female body standards!), but it does represent her comic book depictions quite well. Both hands are sculpted open, and having one first available for punching poses would have been an improvement in my eyes.
The details present here are just splendid. She has a lot of unique sculpted details in her outfit, as well as a consistent scaled-pattern across most of her body. Nothing here just relies on paint to bring out the intricacies; instead everything is either raised or recessed to denote all the small costume minutiae. The scales really break up the basic mold and add some three-dimensionality to great effect too. She just has a textured look to her that really improves her look overall. The accessory has some Kirby-tech sculpting with jagged lines and protruding circles. It's a good look, but I just have to smirk at the idea of her "mega rod" anyway. Could we come up with a more suggestive name and design if we had to? Her cape is super-stiff with extra deep folds and flaps, which look good, yet they make it hard to stand her straight up because of an altered center of gravity. The face is difficult to see because of her helmet, though it has very smooth features that don't seem angled or strong enough for a character like Barda. Her helmet looks the part, and looks huge rested upon her head.
Sculpt Score: 8 / 10
In regards to paint, Barda has another problem a lot of people seem to be complaining about. The gold color used on her chest and skirt is distinctly different than the yellow/green used on her helmet and "limb-band" studs. The disparity in color is particularly distracting from her helmet to the chest, and it does throw off her whole look a little. All the same, the more I'm around it, the less it's starting to bother me, because the helmet does match the studs relatively well, although both are just a bit too green and not a clean yellow like you'd hope for. Anyway you describe it, some more unity in color would have been a better choice. The other colors all look fine together, with a good balance between the light blue and dark blue of her costume, the bold red, and solid black arm/leg bands. For some reason her helmet has a metallic blue paintjob that looks just fine on its own, but nothing else on the figure matches it. The two colors being used for the drybrush effect on her scales complement each other so well. They're both beautiful blues anyway, and when balancing off one another, they look even better.
Sadly the applications don't do the effect justice. The brushing is perfect and consistent across the large open areas of her legs, arms, and waist, but as the effect moves closer to joints and edges, it becomes almost nonexistent and looks just a little off. Other detail applications don't get much better. The yellow circles painted on her bands are actually more like shapeless globs than circles. The red and black at her skirt are a little better, but they have crooked lines and poor coverage too. Her helmet and face are both very clean, and the eyes look perfect. Her accessory is just a basic gold with no other paint details, but it looks fine as is. There's no apparent slop anywhere, which can occasionally be a problem for figures in this line, so I'm glad Barda managed to avoid that fate. In the end, this paint job is good, although really disjointed, and that hurts its score.
Paint Score: 7 / 10
Big Barda technically has the standard DCUC articulation model, but you won't be posing her quite as well as her brothers and sisters due to a few restricted joints. Just to clarify, she has the following points: hinges at the knees, ankles, elbows, and abdomen; swivels at the wrist, biceps, waist, and thighs; ball-style at the shoulders and neck and swivel/hinge combination hips that operate like a ball-joint. This would be a pretty good set of articulation if every point was capable of actually moving, but a few of them aren't. Her neck essentially functions like a swivel, and a very limited one at that, only able to move 10-15 degrees right or left. Her waist is also weird for me; it's only able to spin in one direction, although you can get it to go all the way around, so you can get her to point any way you want, it just takes a little longer.
The biggest problem is that her skirt locks bother of her hips in place, allowing you to move them a max of 15 degrees outward, as if she were really terrible at doing the splits. Abysmally bad at the splits, because those legs aren't going anywhere. What this all means is that posing her is never going to get that exciting, as you can't place her in any really deep stances, the best you're going to get will be similar to the picture above. One good note is that her articulation looks amazing with the sculpt. Most of the joints are well hidden at her arm and leg bands, while the hips are covered by her skirt, and even her neck is hidden too. Of course these same things that make it look so good are also the things limiting its functionality, so it's a tradeoff. None of the joints were actually broken, stuck, or too loose and that's a good way to retain extra points in this category. My hat is off to Mattel for improving quality control in their figures' articulation.
Articulation Score: 7 / 10
Big Barda isn't a very well known or much loved character in the scheme of things, so she's not going to be inherently entertaining to a lot of people. Unfortunately she's also limited in her ability to pose dynamically because of the limited articulation points, which can limit the fun collectors are going to get out of her. She's a female toy, and isn't big, scary, menacing, or anything else that might make her more enjoyable, so this one is a pure collector's figure. Even her accessory isn't that much fun (for us anyway). On the positive note, she does have enough articulation to do a little, she comes in decent packaging with biography and backstory to add some life and character to the toy, as well as coming with a piece of the Collect & Connect Atom Smasher figure. Building the figure once you've collected all the pieces is always a blast, and Big Barda plays a vital role in that process.
Fun Score: 6 / 10
This doesn't feel like a cheap toy to me at all. She has a cool texture, a good weight, and feel sturdy at all of her joints unlike some previous DCUC female figures (Starfire anyone?). This makes her seem a little more worth the $12-$15 that you're going to have to pay to get her. On the other hands, she's not a huge figure that's offering a lot of plastic for the price, but you shouldn't feel like you're getting ripped off from a design standpoint either, because it's evident someone spent a lot of time making this action figure, even if the results weren't perfect. She does include a small accessory, as well as Atom Smasher's left arm, so that's a little extra in every package to improve her worth. I think just a little bit lower price and an appropriately sized Barda would have pushed her to the top here, but as she stands now, she's just a solid, though not amazing value.
Value Score: 8 / 10
Summary
8 - Dynamic look and design, really great fine details, didn't cheat anywhere, scales add great texture, way too small, a fist would be nice, stronger facial features or expression would be an improvement too.
7 - Some strange and mismatched color choices across most of the figure, some terrible applications, some decent applications, some amazing applications, brush effect really brings out texture in legs, overall an attractive figure.
7 - Some points are really restricted, still has a lot of articulation to offer, can find some fun poses and she's still playable too, nothing's broken or loose, looks really good with sculpt.
6 - Kind of boring character, nothing inherently exciting about the figure, articulation is okay but limiting for play/display, includes an accessory but it's kind of lame, packaging is a plus, C&C piece helps too.
8 - Includes some extras, feels good in your hands, someone spent time on her, price is just a hair too high, she's too small!
Overall Score: 72 / 100 - This is a Good Toy
Despite a strong sculpt and value, Big Barda is held back by her limited fun factor that's coupled with average paint and articulation.
P.S. This could be the figure I'm giving away this month, just leave a comment for a chance to win (if it's the one).
-The Articulated One
