Elasti-Girl

Looks like our guess from last month was wrong: the oversized DC Signature Collection figures are not all going to be the ones we were able to vote on. Celebrity Rita Farr was a professional swimmer and Hollywood actress until exposure to mysterious gasses in Africa changed her life forever. Imbued with the ability to drastically change the sie of her body (from massive to microscopic), the ashamed Farr became a recluse, leaving her Hollywood career behind. But when Dr. Niles Caulder discovered Farr's unique talents and convinced her to join the Doom Patrol, she returned to a life of fame as Elasti-Girl. The idea behind the Doom Patrol was that they were all freaks, but it might seem like Rita got off easy: she's not a robot, she's not radioactive, she's not green... she could easily pass for normal. Her problem was that she couldn't control her powers at first, and so would grow or shrink at random - not the best feature for a movie star to have. Just imagine, say, Alexandra Holden plugging away at some role that nobody will ever remember her for anyway, when suddenly she hiccups and is a foot taller than everyone else in the scene. Career suicide! Elasti-Girl stands 10" tall, because she shares her underlying body with Giganta. It's not just a straight port of that sculpt, though: she has new hands, that are open, rather than balled into fists, and the shins are new because Mattel actually bothered to have the Four Horsemen sculpt the upper edges of her boots rather than just painting them on; additionally, they must have reworked the abdomen, because the lower half of her costume (aka, the skirt part) is a rubber piece that fits over the figure, and if the abs were the same size here as they were on Giganta, the waist would stick way out once the dress was on. We do have a construction flaw to mention here, as well: Elasti-Girl has two identical arms. If Giganta is to be believed, they're both the left arm. We know the kind of trouble Mattel has with switching arms on their MOTU Classics, so who knows if this is a common problem or not? Luckily, the mistake isn't too blatant - the hands are still right, and that's what really matters. There's a dark smudge of paint near Rita's shoulder, but the rest of the paint is good. The top and bottom of her minidress are the same shade of red, despite one being painted and the other molded from PVC. Her boots, belt and headband are purple, and her gloves and the stripe down the center of his top are the pale gray that Mattel uses in place of white. She's quite pretty, as you'd expect from an actress, and her face is entirely painted, not just molded in color. Elasti-Girl comes either with an accessory or a pack-in, depending on how you want to define the terms. Is an accessory, as we've said, only something designed to be used by the character? If so, then this isn't an accessory. It's a mini (less than 1" tall) version of Elasti-Girl, showing her when her powers are headed in the other direction. It's a neat little piece, given only minimal detail, but it's enough to get the idea across. Rita Farr was a fairly unique character in the '60s: while most token females on superteams were given passive powers, like Sue Storm's invisibility or Jean Grey's telekinesis, Elasti-Girl was the most physical member of the Doom Patrol, providing more muscle than even Robotman could. She was not a damsel in distress, needed to be protected from danger - she was a kick-ass woman before comics had kick-ass women. Rita had a lot of personality, and Mike Thompson's portrait on the back of the box shows that as well. The look on her face is rather piercing and impatient, as if she's staring down some villain who had the audacity to waste her time today. The face has a bit of a "Terry Farrell"/"Sela Ward" feel to it, which makes sense since Rita was also an actress, and you know how celebrites tend to look alike. With the release of this figure, we're one step closer to completing the Doom Patrol team - we just need Mento and The Chief to finish the set. We'd been expecting Elasti-Girl to show up as a BAF ever since Giganta hit, but that never happened. And the truth is the BAF probably wouldn't have been as good as this DCSC release. In parting, we leave you with this OAFEnet Fun Fact: the existence of this character is the reason all The Incredibles merchandise had to refer to Helen Parr as "Mrs. Incredible," even though DC's Elasti-Girl didn't have her first action figure until 2009. -- 10/25/12

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