LEGION TOYS: Karate Kid (Mattel 12-Pack)

by Derek William Crabbe
He is the man who would fight for your honor. He'll be the hero you're dreaming of. You'll live forever, knowing together, that you did it all for the glory of love. Obviously, we are talking about Val Armorr a.k.a. Karate Kid, who is the master of every known form of Martial Arts from the 31st Century!

Val's claim to fame on the Wizard World Super-Hero Showdown Message Board was that this was a guy who could break Daxamite's jaws and put Kryptonians in a Klenarian Muscle Lock. And before you start snickering at "Super-Karate", realize that Karate Kid kicks meteorites IN DA FACE!!!! and lives to tell about it.

Sculpt:
Karate Kid is on the "tween" Kamandi buck. He certainly shares shoulders and the roled-up-sleeves on-his-bicep-swivel with Robin The Boy Wonder. His boots are similar to those of Black Adam or Captain Marvel, but don't have the same level of height as the adult figures and were most likely a new sculpt. The tunic overlay, with his bitchin' yellow 70's collar and his leather wrist straps are the most unique parts of his outfit. The head sculpt is terrific and gives a strong sense of determination and drive that you'd expect from the master of every form of martial art in the 31st Century.

Articulation:
There are 25-points of articulation that I count on Karate Kid. Head moves from left to right and up and down. Arms can move up and down, as well as rotate in a circular fashion. There are bicep cuts that swivel, and in a rarity for a DCUC figure he is double-jointed at the elbows and the fists can rotate as well. Technically, he has an ab-crunch, but his plastic tunic really prevents any discernible movement, so I did not include that in my count. He has a waist swivel. His legs move up and he can also do the splits. Swivels are just above the knee. Knee joints and ankle rockers complete the standard articulation.

Paint:
The paint application is very good on my figure.There's not a lot of bleed between the whites, yellows, blacks, browns, golds, and flesh tones of the piece. The danger a collector may face is that the whites could easily pick up other colors if stored with more colorful figures and the white on my figure does have a slight grey wash, which, not only can pick up unwanted color but can easily get dirty.

Overall:
Val Armorr stands out because of his wonderful costume design that has been expertly brought to life in plastic form. He is a prized action-figure in my collection, and a seminal member of the Legion of Super-Heroes crossed off my want-list. Don't mess with this Class 15 fighter, unless you want to get your butt-stomped! That means you Class 12 Batman!!

Super Karate News! 

Join us here next week as The Legion of Super-Bloggers begins our monthly review of the Seventies' Karate Kid comic-book!