Young Justice Amazo

A couple years ago, Mattel released three 2-figure sets, each with a 'Collect-and-Connect' or 'BAF' component to build the android Amazo. The three 2-packs needed to gather together the complete Amazo are: Flash and Kid Flash, Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian, and Ra's al Ghul and Cheshire.

I believe each set retailed for around $20, and I know they were plagued with the same distribution issues Mattel is famous for. I don't think I ever saw the Flash/Kid Flash set at retail, I may have seen the Ra's/Cheshire set once or twice, and ironically (to me anyways, because I would have assumed it the most popular set) I saw Manhunter/Miss Martian many times. In fact, that set might still be on the shelves at my local Toys R Us at full price right now.

I didn't buy any of these sets at retail - but stumbled onto all three at Big Lots for five dollars each last month - during a 'buy one, get one half off' sale to boot! I will blog about the main figures from these sets soon, but today I wanted to look at the Amazo figure himself.

I've always liked the ridiculous Silver Age Amazo design. I was disappointed with his 'blank slate' design in the Justice League/JLU cartoon series, but really loved his characterization and storylines.  His appearance in modern cartoons like Batman: Under the Red Hood and Young Justice have been brief but fun, and I think Amazo's Young Justice design is a nice modern take while still maintaining a lot of the original's design cues.

The action figure is very simple, five points of articulation (although his head is on a ball joint and not just a single swivel), which is consistent with the entire YJ line of action figures. He's a couple inches taller than the standard YJ figure to reflect his larger than life stance in the cartoon.

I held a grudge for years against Mattel due to the fact that Mattel made their DCUC Amazo a Wal-Mart exclusive (which put him out of my reach) and so I am glad to have found this one at such an incredible price. I'm surprised I was able to find all three sets to complete him at the same time too! I like the concept of collect-and-connect/build-a-figure parts to build a larger character, but it is flawed in actual practice when certain parts become harder to find than others due to poor case ratios and shoddy distribution (or retailer exclusivity.)

I am sure all modern action figure collectors out there have random BAF parts laying about and can attest to this frustration!