The 6 inch Young Justice Sportsmaster figure from Mattel

The Young Justice comic book still stands as being one of my favorite titles of all time. I loved every aspect of that book and was so sad to see it go. How could you not love a book that brought us fantastic characters like Harm, Secret, SlowBo and Nina Dowd?

When I heard that Warner Bros was going to make a cartoon based on the book I was thrilled. When I heard that there would be a supporting toy line that was similar to the already existing DC Universe Classics line, my excitement tripled. Could a Miss Martin figure be in the works? At long last, we might get Kon El in his black t-shirt and jeans. The possibilities excited me.

So, I watched online sites and hunted in retail establishments and when the time came I snatched whatever Young Justice 6 inch figures I could. Artemis and Robin were the first round and I loved them. The bases and accessories were outstanding. The second round featured the amazingly well done Red Arrow and Aqualad and this past holiday season delivered the third round of figures which included both Sportsmaster and Superboy.

In my opinion, the mark was set pretty high by previous waves. In a previous review I talked about how much I liked the Red Arrow figure and maybe one day I will talk about the outstanding Aqualad figure, but today let us talk about Sportsmaster.

Sportsmaster has always been a somewhat cheesy villain. His name is a bit weird and in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon he really didn’t seem like that much of a threat. Young Justice changed all that.

This is a guy that you start to realize is an excellent hand to hand combatant and a force to be reckoned with. (For proof of this, check out the ‘Targets’ episode.) Given this new life breathed into Sportsmaster, I was expecting an equally menacing figure and what I got fell a bit short.

I know that I said I would try to remain positive in the reviews and I will but there are some definite concerns with this specific figure but there are also some very big plusses.

Let’s start on the positive side. Sportsmaster has a lot of the standard articulation we would expect. The head turns left to right ( not up and down ) . There is the ab crunch, elbow joint, wrist, waist, knees, thigh, ankle and so on and so forth. This all helps him pose quite easily and hold the vast array of weaponry that is packaged with the figure.

When I say a vast array, let me clarify. He has a baseball bat, boomerang, two throwing stars, two daggers, a spear and nunchuks . These various weapons can be placed on the weapons rack that is attached to the base. The stars and daggers can be firmly placed into the target that is attached to the base or he can hold them and the grip on the weapons worked beautifully.

When it comes to accessories, this figure is stacked. To top it off, he also has a wing chun dummy that can be attached to the base and the bases interlock and can be arranged to your liking with relative ease. There is a lot to love about both the accessories and the base.

The 6 inch Young Justice Sportsmaster figure in package.

The figure itself is where my concerns come in. The in-package pose left the right leg bowed and I am slowly but surely mending that issue. If you look in the picture, you can see that he doesn’t quite stand flat on his feet.

Another concern is the head sculpt of the figure. The head seems too small. This gives the appearance of a rather long neck and the face of the figure doesn’t match the menacing nature of the character.

My final concern on the figure is the paint application. There are some stray marks on the bicep of the figure I purchased. There is also some missing paint around the bicep where the sleeve was meant to be added. It is nothing too serious and I have definitely seen worse but for those people who want the perfect paint application , definitely pay attention to the figure that you purchase.

The base and accessories , as always with the Young Justice line, are superb! The figure is just “ok”.  Regardless of my concerns, I am happy to add him to my collection and pleased to see him on my shelf next to Red Arrow and ready for a show down.