Enemy Ace

Enemy Ace (DC Direct)

Backstory/Ramblings:

Full Frontal

Bio

Last Saturday I was out at the Flea Market near where I live, I go almost every week on an errand run. Usually I just go to see what type of old toys people have, I even picked some REMCO toys from a dealer once. Last week I found this, it’s something that I wouldn’t have thought would turn up in a place like that. It was a semi-MIB Enemy Ace action figure from DC Direct. This is actually one of the oldest toys produced by the company (to my knowledge anyway) made in 1998. It’s a rather large box even when recognizing what’s inside: Ace Himself, a separate helmet piece, a black wolf, and a model of his Fokker DR-1 plane (the propeller even works! —detail here folks). As for backstory on the character, I have only seen him once; even then it was just as a cameo on Batman Brave and the Bold. To sum up what I’ve learned, he’s a slightly more heroic fictional counterpart to Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron).  He’s jumped through time, first appearing in WW1 centered stories, then moving onto stories set in the Second World War (I don’t know if he even exists anymore with all the reboots DC has done in the past). I do however have a compulsion to fill the villains ranks of my (primarily DCUC) DC collection, and this character is obscure enough that I’d wager this is the only version we’ll ever get.

Box Contents

Articulation:

This is a fairly articulate figure for DC Direct’s time (but in comparison to the recent DC Collectables, it fairly poor). The figure has a swivel at the neck and shoulders, both have 360 range of movement even with the jacket. The figure also bends at the elbow, offering 90 degrees of movement. The legs are unusual, the hip joint is strangely similar to the hips of a MOTUC figure but are greatly hindered by the sculpt of the jacket. The figure also has a bend at the knee joint. The wolf is a solid piece of plastic and has no possibility.

Sculpt:

Hans Von Hammer was his name...

Sculpting on this toy isn’t awful, but a few parts seem under detailed (mainly his uniform). The Fur sculpt doesn’t seem to mesh as well in hand, this is the only part of the figure that has a sense of realism, everything else looks like it could only be made of plastic. The yellow piece of the helmet is made of a very pliable plastic that can be moved and displayed in different positions. The wolf seems to be in scale with the figure as well as other 6-7 inch toys.  The plane can almost seat figures that are in micro-machine scale.

Paint Work:

Ghost/Snowball

The paint on this figure is decent, nothing seems to be painted out of place (ala Arkham Origins Killer Croc and his extra teeth) but there seems to be an issue with the helmet. The helmet on my figure has already worn of some of the paint on the face, if you have this figure be extra careful if you remove the piece. From what I’ve seen, the lenses on the helmet should be made of transparent or at least opaque plastic.

In Review:

Sandtrooper... and Brains?

This is far from my favorite DC character, he’s C/D list at best. That being said I’m glad I can add another character to my DC collection. The wolf is my favorite part of this pack (repaint into a baby direwolf?). I’d recommend this figure to anyone that finds it for cheap (as did I) or someone who is a fan of the character. This figure, in box can sometimes be both hard to find and on the pricier side, but if you’re like me, you might randomly luck out.

Where to Find:

              Ebay

Comparison Shot