As far as news I care about goes, few things top Miss Martian. Female characters generally get shafted by toy makers and as such I doubted that we would ever see Miss Martian in the 6-inch scale, especially when characters like Batman and Sportsmaster got opted into the line first. However she's possibly here finally and does look great. Possibly too busty for the character but it's not something I'd complain about.

The face sculpt is great, easily among the best female faces in Mattel's 6-inch DC lines. And she even gets an alternate head with shorter hair! I do find the alternate head preferable to a playset, even there's arguably less value there. She's set to be 2-packed with Superboy.

See? THIS is the Superboy we should have had. Instead the first release was the solar or whatever suit which, to the best of my memory, was only worn during his initial appearance (and was perfect as a con exclusive but lousy as a general release). Superbody looks fairly solid although I really would have preferred shorter sleeves. He doesn't seem to get any accessories.

The Superboy/Miss Martian 2-pack will go up for pre-order on MattyCollector from August 1st to August 15th with a price of US$50. That US$50 buys ONLY the figures, as they don't come with stands/playsets like the normal releases despite being priced over retail. Rip-off? Yup. Will I and a lot of other people still buy it? Yup. The other catch is that Mattel won't go ahead with the release if they don't get enough pre-orders. Expect to see certain individuals try to get the word out there as much as possible to ensure that the pre-order goal is met. Given that the line got canceled at retail, this is massive news.

Watchmen figures have been a fairly big fan request ever since Watchmen hit theaters a few years ago. The new mini-series prequel, Before Watchmen, seems to have provided Mattel with the perfect opportunity to give us better quality Watchmen figures since the DC Direct ones released around the time of the film were pretty bad.

The first two selections in the line are Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan. You'll immediately notice Dr. Manhattan's arm has fallen off. I don't think it's meant to do that. While the Dr. Manhattan looks okay, Rorschach is probably the bigger draw (speaking of, I hope that he's not actually going to be taller than Dr. Manhattan) given the additional detail in his design. It would have been really cool if Rorschach came with alternate heads or some other means of changing his face but the figure is cool anyway.

Monsieur Mallah and the Brain are this year's club exclusive for Club Infinite Earths. The duo are relatively obscure baddies, mostly because they arch the equally obscure Doom Patrol (perhaps best known for having Beast Boy as a former member). The Brain, who I should point out HAS tried to take over the world, was once a villainous scientist who experimented on animals before becoming a proverbial brain in the jar (and providing an excellent foil to Doom Patrolsman Robot Man, who is in a similar predicament). His henchman and lover, Monsieur Mallah, was a gorilla who received experiments designed to raise his IQ. While LGBT has always been a controversial topic in commons, the Brain and Mallah's love reaches whole new levels of weird so it's understandably not featured when the characters appear in the cartoons (so far they've been in Teen Titans, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Young Justice).

Monsieur Mallah disappointingly recycles most of the DC Universe Classics Gorilla Grodd's body. It's a terrible, cheap mold with very little poseability that didn't do Grodd justice and I'm baffled as to why they opted to recycle it. You'll also notice that Mallah wears his iconic ammo strap but I don't recall the character coming with any weapons.

The Brain looks great. He's just a static piece with decent sculpting. I would honestly love to own him if only to use him as a chess piece. However, the club exclusivity means that I probably won't ever get a copy.

Speaking of Doom Patrol, Elasti-Girl is getting an oversized and an undersized figure (the two come packaged together). The character has the ability to grow and shrink after being exposed to strange volcanic gases. While this power sounds useful and in no way would brand her a freak, Elasti-Girl initially had no control over it which led her to be shunned and subsequently invited into Doom Patrol as one of its founding members.

For those of you keeping count at home, Elasti-Girl is the fourth Doom Patrolsman Mattel has done (following Beast Boy, Robot Man, and Negative Man) and the second growing female (after Giganta). She is an oversized figure and looks to be around for Giganta's height. And, if Rocket Red is any indication, she'll probably be sold for at least US$45.

I think Elasti-Girl looks pretty good. Granted, there's really nothing overly special about the sculpt or paint but she's a fairly solid-looking figure that I'll probably end up buying despite not being a big Doom Patrol fan (and despite the character not even appearing in the stuff I have read).

After being pulled from the All-Stars schedule, some wondered if Larfleeze had been shelved for the foreseeable future. This was proven to not be the case, as he's been "adopted" by the Club Infinite Earths. It's good and bad news, given that the line is much more expensive online (between markup and shipping) and being unable to spot-check quality before buying but at least we're getting him.

The Wally West Flash will also be available in next year's collection. With the glossy deco and absence of bolts on the boots, I find myself liking it a lot more than the previously released Barry Allen although I'm not sure if I'll pick one up just for that.

Green Lantern fans will no doubt be pleased to hear that Saint Walker will be joining the line as well. Saint Walker is the first non-deputy Blue Lantern to appear in Mattel's 6-inch DC lines and seems to use a taller body mold with much of the updated articulation.

Phantom Stranger, on the other hand, seems to be a bland recycle. Oh well, supposedly the 2014 selection will be better across the board although 2014 is contingent on 2013 club subscriptions.

With quite a few cool new items, are there any that you guys are particularly excited for?