BLUE BEETLE

DC ICONS (DC COLLECTIBLES)

Oh, man, DC Icons.  It’s been, like, two years since I talked about that one, and even then, it was a one-off, generally retrospective review.  It’s unfortunate that the line was as short-lived as it was, especially given the number of late-run figures that got cancelled before the end.  To this day, the death of the Blue Beetle and Booster Gold set still haunts me.  It’s just out there, waiting.  Watching.  Waiting, but again.  At the very least, on the Blue Beetle front, while we may not have gotten Ted Kord, we did get his successor Jaime Reyes, which isn’t so bad a consolation prize.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blue Beetle was figure 06 in the DC Icons line-up.  He was part of the second round of figures, wedged in between Flash and Black Adam in the numbering. The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  The articulation on the line’s earlier figures was a bit tricky, but by the second round they’d started fixing things up.  Beetle’s set-up was honestly amongst the best, especially when it came to the hip articulation.  The only drawback is the shoulder set-up, which, due to the armor, are a bit stiff, but certainly still workable.  The design for this figure was done by Ivan Reis, as were pretty much all of the line, specifically cued in on his Infinite Crisis design, though it’s worth noting that’s effectively the same general look he’s had since his original appearances.  The sculpt proper was handled by Paul Harding, and it’s truly one of the best for the line.  It’s a very sleek recreation of his armored appearance, not terribly far removed from the DCUC figure, I suppose, but certainly sharper and with more depth to the assembly, thanks to some of the armored pieces being overlayed pieces on the core body.  The color work for Beetle is a little different from other Jaime figures in that it’s not directly metallic.  Rather, it’s a flatter coloring, but with a minor metallic sheen, which reads closer to how he presents on the printed page.  Jaime is packed with his wings, which are pretty much a standard, as well as two different gun attachments, which swap out at the forearms.  It’s a slightly lighter selection compared to others in the line, but it’s not bare minimum.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wanted one of these when they were first released, but as the most desired figure in the second set, he was honestly never super plentiful.  When I got back into the line a little later, he was still no easier to get, so I’ve just been keeping my eye out for a while.  Thankfully, one turned up at All Time, so I got a chance to finally snag one.  He’s a solid, pretty fun figure, and another strong Jaime Reyes figure.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.