Review > Dr. Mid-Nite (DC Universe Classics)

While removing a bullet from a witness to a crime, Dr. Charles McNider was blinded by a grenade meant to silence his patient. During recovery from his injuries, McNider was startled when an owl crashed through his window. Removing his bandages to investigate, He could see in perfect darkness. He later found out that he could not see in daylight and developed special goggles and “black-out” bombs to help him see in light and fight crime. He adopted the owl, “Hooty,” and joined the Justice Society of America to continue his fight against evil.

Packaging: In celebration of DC Comics’ 75th Anniversary, Wave 12 marks the switchover to a new theme and an updated package design. Rather than featuring comic book art for only the characters appearing in a given wave, the packaging is showcasing a rotating cast of characters. In addition each figure also comes with an anniversary button featuring classic DC art.

Design & Sculpt: As with most DCUC figures, Dr. Mid-Nite is based on his “classic” look. While some Dr. Mid-Nite is re-use of pre-existing parts he does sport some new tooling. There are a small number of areas where Mattel could have cut corners, but fortunately they didn’t, and its the small details that help this figure. Dr. Mid-Nite’s vest is sculpted into separate pieces: upper & lower torso, and the bottom with his belt. Had they stuck with a standard buck and given him a solid vest, a la Iron’s tunic, it would have rendered his ab-crunch joints useless.

I’m pretty happy with the head sculpt; his face has more or less a blank expression, but he’s sort of looks like he’s gritting his teeth. I like the fact that they sculpted the goggles onto his head rather than making them a separate piece. We’ve seen glued on goggles with characters like Booster Gold and Eradicator, and I think overall they end up looking a little bit too toy-ish. The cape is also well implemented; I like how it’s all bunched up around his shoulders. No matter how many capes the Four Horsemen sculpt they manage to keep them unique and interesting to each charater.

Plastic & Paint: Dr. Mid-Nite’s parts are molded in their respective color so there is very little in terms of paint apps except for the details such as his face, half moons, and belt. This is an area where Mattel really could have cheapened out, but to their credit the half moon buttons and belt are sculpted on rather than painted.There are a few specks of paint here and there around the halfmoons, but those can be easily removed. Still, they’re annoying.

Articulation: Dr. Mid-Nite sports the standard DCUC articulation: a ball jointed head (with limited swivel articulation), ball-and-hinge joints at the shoulders, H-hinges at the hips, standard hinges at the elbows, knees, torso, and ankles, and swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, and lower thighs. Dr. Mid-Nite also features a first for DCUC articulation, swivels at the calves, similar to that seen on MOTUC figures. It’s not a huge addition, but it’s a nice touch. Though, I would have rather had full use of the ball jointed head. Also it should be noted that the lower part of his vest slightly impedes the hip articulation, but it’s nothing drastic.

Accessories: Dr. Mid-Nite is accompanied by his trusty owl, Hooty. Hooty is nicely sculpted & painted, plus he fits nice and snug on Mid-Nite’s arm and he even includes swivel neck articulation.  The Wave 12 Collect & Connect character is Darkseid, Dr. Mid-Nite comes with Darkseid’s left arm. Finally Dr. Mid-Nite includes the DC Collector’s pin featuring vintage DC artwork

Quality Control: I’m afraid my Dr. Mid-Nite is a victim of the dreaded dynamic package pre-posing. When I removed the figure from the package, his left leg was warped. I’m not sure if this was due to the quality of plastic used or the pre-posing itself, either way it really hurt this figure a lot in my eyes. After a warm bath in some boiling water to re-set the leg and a quick dip in some ice water to cool it quickly the leg seems fine.

Overall: Dr. Mid-Nite features a lot of great new tooling by the Four Horsemen, and represents yet another addition to the JSA ranks. I admit that I wanted to like this figure a lot more than I do, but with the warped leg out-of-package and a head that can’t look up or down, it really sours the milk. If he were an A-list character I may have been a bit more disappointed, but because he is already relative unknown in my book, he’ll gets a pass. The unique tooling boosts up his score, but  he will most likely be relegated to obscurity at the back of my shelf.

[raven 2.5]