HOURMAN

AMAZING ANDROIDS (DC DIRECT)

“Created in the 843rd century, Hourman is a two-year-old android with incredible time-manipulation abilities. Encoded with the enhanced genetic code of Rex “Tick Tock” Tyler, the original Hourman, this new hero has power in abundance but is just starting to learn about human nature.”

While some of DC’s Golden Age heroes got revamped for the Silver Age, there were a good number of notable ones that did not. Rex Tyler, the original Hourman, remained the only one with that title until his son Rick was introduced in the ’80s. A third Hourman, an android from the future who frequently went by just “Tyler” was introduced in the ’90s, and is one those kind of quirky characters who’s bounced around a bit since. He did get an action figure, and was even the first Hourman in toy form, for what it’s worth.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hourman was part of the Amazing Androids set of figures from DC Direct, released in November of 2000.  At the time of release, he was probably the most relevant of the three figures, since he was still cropping up pretty regularly in JLA and JSA, but that’s certainly shifted in recent years.  This release remains his only action figure, and given its rough aftermarket value, I guess that makes sense.  The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  I suppose an argument could be made for 11, since there *is* a joint on the neck, but it’s effectively rendered pointless by the hood/cape.  The sculpt was an all-new one, and honestly not a bad one.  It’s pretty basic, and captures the general design of the character, in all his rather simple glory.  The cape’s neat, because it’s got some pretty fun texturing, so it’s clearly a different material than the rest of him.  Perhaps the strangest thing about the sculpt is how his action feature works into everything.  His hourglass is designed to spin, not unlike a kitchen timer, but it also means spinning part of his pecs along with it, which is super funny looking.  It’s an odd choice, and kind of showcases DCD’s struggle earlier on to figure out what exactly they were trying to do.  So, you know, it’s gimmicky.  His paint work is on the simpler side, but does what it needs to.  It’s pretty darn thick, though, much like Amazo, and that does sort of dull the detailing on the sculpt a bit.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this set hit, I was all about Amazo, and didn’t really know this version of Hourman.  But, after the JSA relaunch, I found myself drawn to this version of the character, so I saved up my allowance money and bought myself one from Cosmic Comix.  I can’t really say I remember much about owning the figure after that, but I do have something of a soft spot for him, which is only helped by the fact that he’s literally the only figure of this character ever made.