ECLIPSO

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

“Long ago the Spectre defeated the Spirit of Wrath, exiling its physical manifestation to a black diamond called the Heart of Darkness. And so it remained until Dr. Bruce Gordon found a fragment – and was possessed by Eclipso, the Earthly incarnation of the Spirit of Wrath. During a lunar or solar eclipse, Gordon’s alter ego would grant him superhuman strength, light-powers and use him in its ancient schemes for control over all mortal beings. Since then, Eclipso has possessed others, and is ever ready to tempt and corrupt both superhumans and ordinary people.”

When introduced in House of Secrets #61 in 1963, Eclipso was effectively a superhero comics take on Jekyll and Hyde, two sides of of one man, each struggling for dominance, and ultimately reaching an impasse in all their efforts.  In the ’90s, the character’s history was reworked into what is mentioned above.  Eclipso himself was an ancient entity, a precursor to the Spectre, judged to be too cruel a spirit and banished by the Spectre proper when he finally took his place.  All that’s not terrible for a guy who looks as hokey as this one.  He’s done alright for himself on the toy front, with three whole figures.  Crazy, I know.  I’m looking at the last of those three today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Eclipso was released in Series 12 of DC Universe Classics, the first assortment to be released in 2010.  Series 12 would mark perhaps one of the most obscure selections of characters the line ever boasted, so I suppose Eclipso was right at home with them.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  Generally standard articulation, but it’s notable that this marked the first assortment to remove the rocker ankles.  Ultimately, they weren’t blessed with a particularly great range anyway, but it marked the first step towards the sorts of things that lead to the line’s decline.  For this figure directly, it wasn’t that bad.  Eclipso was built on the mid-sized male body, with an all-new head, left hand, collar, and belt, as well as the right hand from the Series 11 Deadman figure.  The new parts were generally pretty impressive.  They’re up to par with the rest of the line at the time.  The head sculpt was certainly an expressive one, definitely on the more cartoony side, but it definitely fits the character.  The new hand holds his black diamond, which is a fun touch.  It’s posed so that he can hold it out to look through it, as he did in the comics.  Beyond the new sculpted parts, Eclipso relies on paint work to sell his design.  Generally, it works pretty well for the look.  The belt even gets a little bit of accenting, which is pretty cool.  Eclipso was packed with no parts of his own, but did include the left leg of the Darkseid Collect-N-Connect.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

2010 marked a turning point for DCUC in that, in contrast to prior years, the figures actually were generally easy to find, at least with minor searching.  Eclipso wound up was the first figure I got from that year, alongside Dr. Mid-Nite, both of whom were picked up for me by my parents, while I was away on a trip.  He’s not really a star piece for me, but he’s definitely one of those by-the-numbers figures that filled in the DCUC ranks nicely.