This action figure is obviously Zatanna in her classic magician outfit. You can see she's also got the fish net stockings we saw previously in DCUC wave 9 on Black Canary. They look good from the front but in the back, you can see where the stocking ties together and, in my opinion, it looks a little sloppy.
There are also some other similarities between Zatanna and Black Canary with regards to body parts. The upper legs and hip pieces appear to be the same mold as well as the upper portion (bicep) of their arms. The other pieces are pretty much unique to Zatanna.
Zatanna shares the general same body shape as the smaller female DCUC action figures, like Black Canary, Harley Quinn, Batgirl and Catwoman. Their body type is skinnier than the more muscular Wonder Woman and Big Barda. However, Mattel has made Zatanna slightly taller by making the calf pieces slightly longer.
There is rarely any disappointment in the face sculpts of any DCUC action figures, and Zatanna's is no different. The face is beautiful and her black hair is nicely detailed and highlighted with a dark blue coloring. We've seen this before on other characters with black hair, like Wonder Woman and Superman. There are faults however with the overall sculpt of this action figure as it does not blend well with the articulation. More on this in a later.
The paint job is decent but not perfect. My Zatanna has a couple yellow paint blotches on her white shirt close to the sculpt lines. Generally, there aren't too many difficult areas to paint so we don't find too many problems here.
Accessories include Zatanna's removable magician hat and her magic wand. The hat fits nicely on Zatanna's head. Its a nice fit but not super tight. There is a lip on the inside of the hat to hook onto Zatanna's hair line to keep it from wobbling but its not totally secure and will fall off if she is not standing up or being moved around. The wand fits in either of Zatanna's open sculpted hand but not securely either. Using one of those small invisible elastic bands is essential. Her hat can pretty good into either hand. Also included, is one piece of the collect and connect action figure Ultra-Humanite.
Articulation is where Zatanna loses it, totally. Much like Black Canary, because of the fish net stockings, Mattel has not included the side hip joints. This means that her legs can only move forward and backwards but not out to the sides (like the splits). This also makes it hard to pose this action figure in multiple standing positions. What makes this worse Zatanna's feet. They are high heels so and very narrow so it makes it VERY hard to get her to stand without falling over. The swivel joints at the thighs and calfs do not help out at all. I had the hardest time getting any kind of variety of poses with her. There also are no holes in bottom of her feet to use one of Mattel's DCUC blue plastic stands. Unfortunately, the legs were just part of the problem. Zatanna's head can barely move left or right because of her long hair sculpt. The hair is a hard plastic and does not allow for much movement. Another problem is the lower part of her yellow vest does not allow for much movement in the waist. The vest is a hard but thin plastic piece and although the waist can be turned, it potentially can crack the plastic of the vest in the front.
Overall, despite the pretty face sculpt and generally a great looking action figure from afar, DCUC Zatanna does have a lot of flaws with her sculpt design and articulation. As far as character's go, Zatanna definitely is the most popular in Wave 14 which means more people are probably looking to purchase her. If you are one of these people, don't expect to much out of her. She looks good on the shelf, if you can get her to stand but that's about it.
Design/Sculpt - 4, Paint - 7, Articulation - 5, Accessories - 6, Fun - 3
Value - 5
Zatanna is definitely not one of my favorite action figures from the DC Universe Classics toy line but some people may still want to include her in their collection just because of the love for the character or to even collect the Ultra Humanite pieces. Wave 14 was a Walmart exclusive set so a lot of people found it difficult to find these action figures. Chances are, you won't find them anymore at your local walmart so the best bet to get any of the DC Universe Classics wave 14 action figures would be of course, eBay.
To find DC Universe Classics Zatanna on eBay, click here
To find DC Universe Classics Wave 14 action figures on eBay, click here
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