ATOM

JLA (HASBRO)

“A true product of modern science, the Atom was born when physicist Ray Palmer harnessed a fragment of a white dwarf star, giving him unique powers that allow him to radically reduce his size while retaining his full mass – and all with just a thought.”

After spending a stretch of time aged down to a teenager and hanging out with the Teen Titans, by the mid-to-late ‘90s, Ray Palmer had returned to pretty much just being his regular old Atom self.  And, as had been frequent in the years prior, that resulted in his inclusion as a recurring character for the JLA, even as it reformatted into a more core team line-up towards the end of the decade.  Atom was on the shortlist of characters who didn’t quite make the cut for Kenner’s Total Justice line, and would have had at least a “micro” version of himself (albeit in his wonky teen look) had the line continued.  When it came time for Hasbro’s JLA continuation, Atom managed to sneak in for the line’s final assortment, with what was his first proper action figure.  Let’s check him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Atom was released in Series 4 of Hasbro’s JLA line.  He, alongside Red Tornado and Wonder Woman, represented the “new” for the assortment, a fitting send-off for the line, filling in some of the classic roster.  Atom is pretty much as classic as the line got, in fact, because he was just in his original costume, rather than an updated equivalent like most of the line.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As with a lot of these figures, Atom was banking on a lot of parts re-use.  Curiously, his parts weren’t re-used from JLA or its predecessor Total Justice.  Rather, his body from the neck down is the Batman & Robin line’s Dick Grayson figure.  It gives Atom the distinction of being hands down the least pre-posed figure in the whole line, by virtue of his very basic standing pose.  It’s honestly not a bad bit of re-use, though, with its generally basic layout of design elements and the nice raised gloves sculpt.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is pretty respectable, and fits well with the re-used parts.  I like the sculpted insignia in the forehead quite a bit.  The figure’s paint work is generally not bad.  Unlike others in the line, he doesn’t have to ignore any sculpted costume elements, or anything like that, and the colors are generally a good match for how he was being colored in the comics at the time.  Mine’s got a spot of wear on his nose, but that’s hardly the fault of the figure.  Atom was packed with a JLA display stand in bright red, as well as a miniature version of himself, which I unfortunately lost a good many years ago.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was very excited for this figure when he was announced.  I recall seeing him on Raving Toy Maniac, and having my dad print out the picture of him, which I carried around with me a lot while I waited for his release.  My dad made a point of tracking him down for me relatively quickly after they started hitting, and gave him to me for some sort of occasion, although I can’t recall exactly what.  I think the mini Atom made it maybe a week from opening, and then I just had the main one, who did get a heck of a lot of play time from me.  He’s honestly just a pretty clean, solid take on the character, not really held back by the usual weirdness of this line, which is really cool.