BLUE BEETLE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

“When the Rock of Eternity exploded, the alien scarab encased within it fell to Texas and bonded to Jamie Reyes’ spine, making him the 3rd Blue Beetle. Jaime found that with a mere thought, he could use it to generate armor, tools and weaponry. He also learned the scarab was an advance agent for an expanionist alien species, that had bonded with Jaime. Together they beat back the alien attacks and Jaime’s heroic efforts earned him a spot in the Teen Titans.”

Blue Beetle’s suddenly all topical and relevant, and I honestly really love that.  While it’s too bad that the movie didn’t do great at the box office (that’s what happens when you blow your entire marketing budget for the year on The Flash), but it was certainly well-received by all those that actually saw it, and it was just confirmed by James Gunn that Xolo Maridueña will be one of the actors carried forward in his role by the new DCU.  I consider all of that a plus, and I hope it leads to plenty more awesome Blue Beetle merch.  In the meantime, I guess I’ll just have to entertain myself with the prior awesome Blue Beetle merch.  Somehow, I think I’ll manage.  It’s been a bit since I’ve looked at anything DC Universe Classics, so let’s do that for a change!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blue Beetle was released in the Trigon Series of DC Universe Classics.  It was the 13th series in the line, and is honestly kind of oddball, but in the best possible way.  At this point, Mattel was trying their “All-Stars” initiative, where one figure in each set was sans CnC piece (which Hasbro would later borrow when they relaunched Marvel Legends).  It was typically the set’s heavy hitter, which in the case of this line-up wound up being Jaime.  Good for him.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  At this point in the line, Mattel had begun experimenting with the articulation a touch.  DCUC was okay, but never anything amazing, but they did try to step them up a little bit, with modifications wherever they could fit them in.  Jaime was one of the line’s best articulated figures in its entire run, largely by virtue of needing to be a totally new sculpt, giving Mattel something of a blank canvas to work with on that front.  He gets both double elbows *and* double knees, which weren’t often seen, as well as universal joints at the wrists.  He’s still somewhat plagued by the reduced mobility on the joints that was common to the line, but given what we were usually working with, he’s quite impressive.  As I noted above, Jaime is an all-new sculpt, and it’s really good.  The figure isn’t saddled with the weirdly wide or overly bulky proportions of the line’s other figures.  All of his costume details are also sculpted, rather than anything relying purely on paint, again in contrast to much of the line.  He’s also got an evergreen appearance that fits with the general aesthetic of the line, while also staying true to how he was frequently depicted in his own book.  Heck, even the articulation is worked in pretty well.  Beetle’s paint work is pretty fun; the blue is a metallic sheen, which looks very slick, and the paint application is all quite clean.  The only slight downside is that he doesn’t get pupils on his eyes, but he honestly makes it work.  Jaime was packed with a removable set of wings to plug onto his back (which don’t require removing the horns from the scarab, Todd), as well as a weapon attachment for his arm.  He doesn’t get his arm cannon, which is a slight bummer, but, again, compared to the rest of the line, he was really ahead.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve stated before, I’ve been a fan of Jaime since shortly after his introduction.  I had his first DCD figure as soon as it hit, and for a lot of DCUC figures, I didn’t necessarily look to replace (at first, anyway), but this guy was a definite upgrade, who I very happily added to my collection the minute I found one at retail.  He’s hands down the best figure that DCUC spawned, and he holds up really well, even all these years later.