Contemporary Wonder Girl By Hervé St.Louis Feb 6, 2005 - 10:23:00 AM

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This is the first action figure of the current Wonder Girl appearing in the Teen Titans and Wonder Woman comics. Cassandra "Cassie" Elizabeth Sandsmark, has aged a lot since her introduction in 1996. A regular of the Young Justice series, this Wonder Girl has the hottest member of the Wonder Woman clan to appear in years. I mean, she has blond hair. Guys always prefer blondes.

Likeness

There are two incarnations of the second Wonder Girl created in the 1990s. The first was young and had short black hair and goggles. In the new Teen Titans series by Geoff Johns, Wonder Girl's red top replaces her old black one. Her hairs are longer and cover part of her face. Instead of sporting sneakers like in the past, she has long black boots. She still has her tank top. The action figure captures this well.

Sculpt

The sculpt is almost perfect. Just like the Modern Superman released in 2003, Wondergirl's right leg is bent because of the light plastic used by DCDirect. However, the rest of her sculpt is excellent. She really looks like the sweet sixteen girl next door. Yet, her pose is confident and shows that she can jump into action whenever needed. The hairs block the motion of her head to some extent.

Paint

The paint job is competent, although there the red paint on her pants does not cover all the black underneath. Some shading should have been added to her hair. The hue is almost fluorescent yellow! The main beef with the paint job is that every inch of this figure has paint that's easy to dirty. Don't hold her by the belly too often. The paint will darken quickly.

Scale

The shortest figure of the first wave of the Contemporary Teen Titans, Wonder Girl fits very well with all of the figures in this wave. She also fits very well with older Teen Titans figures such as Cyborg, Starfire and Raven. Of course, next to the original Wonder Girl, Donna Troy, she looks like she's with her older sister, although a bit shorter. The Justice League Wonder Woman looks quite awkward as she is so tall.

Stability

This figure is very stable, although her bent right thigh and weak knees may cause more problems down the line. Her feet are shorter than they should. Usually this would have affected the figure's stability, but she is not top heavy, so there are no problems. For extra security, use the Teen Titans action figure stand that comes with Wonder Girl.

Articulation

Wonder Girl has articulations at the neck, the shoulders, the elbows, the forearms, the hips and the knees. She has a ball-jointed head whose motion her hair limits. Her shoulders are ball-jointed too. Her forearms' articulations include her Amazon handcuffs. It's easy to pretend that she's flying.

Plastic

The plastic used for Wonder Girl is cheaper and softer than the one used by older DC Direct action figures of several years past. Too bad. This plastic makes figures' knee joint bend faster and break easily.

Props

Wonder Girl comes with a golden lasso made of light fabric with foil lining, similar to the one used for all older Wonder Woman action figures. A set of goggles would have been fun, even if they didn't fit on her head and would hang on her neck.

Packaging

DC Direct is improving the packaging on some of its action figures and making it safer for the environment. The box is very small anc compact. There's a short bubble and a card stock that's about half as big as other DC Direct action figures' cards. On the back cover, there are shots of all the Titans figures from this wave. DC Direct used the exact packaging for all figures, saving themselves some costs.

Cost

This figure, like other recent DC Direct figure is cheaper than older figures. However, not all retailers may pass on the savings to their customers. Bought in bulk master cases, these figures are cheaper for stores than when they order specific quantities.

Availability

This figure is widely available in specialty shops that carry comic books and action figures. Although the Teen Titans comic book and the animated series are very popular, the Wonder Girl action figure is not a fast mover. She does not appear in the cartoon series and is a substitute for the first Wonder Girl. However, this figure might prove popular with customizers unsatisfied with the first DCDirect Wonder Girl.

Purchase Wonder Girl at The Comic Book Bin
Read related reviews such as:

Modern Superman
Supergirl
Silver Age Superman and Lois
Mattel Batman and Superman

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