Imagine my surprise when I arrived home from this summer’s big con to find that Britt had posted a review about the line of figures that stood out for me at the show earlier in the day. As Britt points out, these guys are very similar to the Spider-Man and Friends line, but these guys have an added bit of design spice with their very subtle Dini/Timm animated influences. IMO, this slightly more squared look makes them a better looking line of toys, despite the fact that Spider-Man is the Greatest Superhero Ever. In fact, the only downside to the line that I could see is that there appears to be no female heroes included – no Wonder Woman, no Batgirl, no Black Canary, etc. – and judging from the amount of little girls I saw dressed up as their favorite amazon during the course of the 36 hours I was in San Diego, this is a flat-out stupid oversight on Mattel’s part. Once again, as the father to a little girl, this is really, really annoying and I hope that the toy companies come around to understand that not all parents out there want to buy their daughters the latest Bratz lineup.

Nonetheless, this is a pretty sweet looking line with a nice mix of characters in the first round. The Aquaman sub is particularly neat looking vehicle, and Hawkman stands out as the coolest looking character. There’s little doubt in my mind that Mattell’s got a winner here, and if they add some female heroes to round two, my household will be an even happier one.

Enough words – let the pictures tell the story. Lots more after the jump.

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