Series Three: Hockey Superstars

A unique tangent in the line of Ducks action figures, this line was dedicated to the battles that the team faced on the ice, as well as with the Saurians. Featuring realistic poses, spring-powered action, rolling skates, and even some opponents as accessories, this series stands out amidst the other 20 Ducks figures.

Powersave Wildwing

Any hockey player will tell you that the toughest position to play is goalie, because it requires not only great mental focus, but great flexibility. Mattel finally realized that simple rotating joints for the hips, shoulders, and wrists weren't going to cut it for an action figure like this, and so they came up with a very unique joint system held together by a series of thick rubber bands. This allows for an incredible degree of flexibility at the shoulders and leg joints. This figure is the only one out of the entire set of 25 that has jointed knees and flexible elbows. Although poses are limited because of the rubber bands, this action figure comes out of the gate with the best rating of the series. Wildwing's accessories include a goalie stick, a puck, and a net made of red plastic and white fabric netting.

Spinshot Nosedive

With a tough grimace on his helmeted head, Nosedive's figure features an incredibly realistic pose. However, because of the lack of mobility in his arms, poses are very limited. Nosedive's main action is to wind around in circles at the hips to build tension in a spring. When a button on his back is pushed, his upper body spins to slap a waiting puck. The action itself is pretty clumsy, and because of the rolling skates this figure loses balance often while performing it. Nosedive comes with two pucks, his own hockey stick, and a standup plastic opponent from the Maine Quahogs.

Slapshot Duke L'Orange
Although he doesn't take the best in the series, this is by far the best out of the Duke figures. His gritted, dark-eyed facial expression is excellently sculpted, as is his pose and body posture. Like Nosedive, he suffers from limited posability. Duke is the only duck in this series to wear a purple away jersey, and not the white home jersey. His movement is to wind around at the hips, have a button pressed to release the spring action, and snap his arms forward to slap a puck. While his action is very much like Nosedive's, it is much more physically accurate to a real hockey slapshot, and doesn't throw the figure off balance. Duke comes with his own hockey stick, two pucks, and a standup opponent, also from the Quahogs.

Bodycheck Grin

Much like Duke's series 3 figure, Grin's has the best facial sculpt out of all of his incarnations. His size is far more accurate as well. His body looks as though it were frozen in mid-action as he was about to slam someone into the boards. While he has no spring-loaded action feature, there is a lever on his left shoulder which causes the bent arm to raise and lower for bodychecking action. He holds his hockey stick with his other hand. Because of his body pose, Grin suffers from the least degree of posability in the series. Grin's accessories are his stick and two pucks.

Evil Chameleon

Without a doubt, Chameleon gets the worst action figure of this series. Essentially, the figure is Wildwing's body in an away jersey. But press down on Chameleon's head, and you'll switch off with a hideously ugly impression of Wildwing, with green feathers and bug-eyes. While the switching feature is a pretty good way of illustrating Chameleon's ability to morph, the faces are poorly sculpted and the figure seems to lack creativity. Chameleon comes with a goalie stick and two pucks.

Notes: The third most popular series of Ducks action figures, behind series 1 and 2 respectively, series 3 remained on the shelves for months, and you'll have a good chance of finding them both new and used on online auction sites. The easiest accessory to lose is the little black pucks, so it's good the figures (minus Wildwing) come with two each!