Tag Archives: Green Lantern

#0959: Guy Gardner & Kilowog

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

GUY GARDNER & KILOWOG

DC MINIMATES

Guy&Kilowog1

Today, I’ll be taking another look at the somewhat sad tale of DC Minimates. The line was amazing when it was new, and showed a ton of promise. And then, after eight series, it ended, and despite lots and lots (I mean LOTS) of requests, there’s been no return in the eight years since its demise. As amazing as it seemed at the time, the failure of DC Minimates seems pretty obvious looking back. In a desperate attempt to play catch-up with Marvel (who had a 15 series lead at this point), DC Direct frontloaded the line, by putting just about every heavy hitter in the first three series. This presented a bit of a problem for later series, as finding anchor figures was no simple task. As such, Series 4 and 5 went more or less anchor-less, instead relying on characters who were stand-ins for the heavy hitters. One such example is today’s set, which features the original stand-in Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, along with everyone’s favorite Poozer trainer, Kilowog!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Guy and Kilowog were released in Series 5 of DC Minimates. Due to the prominence of the Green Lantern books at the time, they were probably the best known pair in Series 5. That’s probably a first for either of them.

GUY GARDNER

Guy&Kilowog2Guy Gardner was originally introduced as the “back-up” Green Lantern of sector 2814, who was supposed to take over for Hal Jordan, should anything bad happen to him. Presumably, this was only if Hal was incapacitated in some way other than death, though, since the comics have established that there’s a different process in place for replacing a dead Lantern. When he first appeared, Guy really wasn’t much different than Hal. Which kinda makes sense when you think about it. However, when they decided to have Guy be more than a one-shot wonder, his personality was changed, to make him a bit more unique. Also a bit more surly, cocky, and all-around less friendly. It was at this point that Guy got a new, more ‘80s vintage design, which is the basis of this Minimate. The figure is a little shy of 2 ½ inches tall and has 12 points of articulation. He has 7 add-on pieces for is hair, vest, belt, boots, and the edges of his gloves. The wristbands, belt, and boots were re-used from a number of earlier figures, but the hair and vest are unique to Guy. They’re a pretty good approximation of Guy’s look in the comics, though the hair feels like it could use a touch more detail work. Guy’s paintwork is fairly straight forward. His colors are pretty well chosen, and the details are all nice and sharp. His face does seem just a touch high on the head, causing the eyebrows to be covered by the hair. Guy was packed with a smaller lantern power battery, the same as Hal’s.

KILOWOG

Guy&Kilowog3Kilowog is a surprisingly recent addition to the Green Lantern mythos, first showing up in the late ‘80s. He was around for less than a decade, before being killed by Hal Jordan during the horribly written Emerald Twilight. He then spent another decade or so being dead, but was brought back to life a few years before Green Lantern: Rebirth restored the GL Corps to its former glory. Despite being out of the game for quite a while, Kilowog is still one of the most prominent Green Lanterns. Kilowog uses his post-Rebirth design, which was mostly based on his DCAU look. The figure is built on the larger 2 ½ inch base body, since he was a pretty sizeable guy. It’s a little odd to see this body nowadays, but it’s not too bad for Kilowog. He has a unique head, which, aside from seeming a little squat, is a pretty good fit. He also has a bulkier add-on piece for his torso, which makes him a bit more imposing than some of the others to use the larger body. Though it has no character specific details, Kilowog was the only figure to use it. Kilowog’s paint isn’t too far removed from what Guy has. He uses all the same shades and such, which is good for consistency’s sake. His logo is slightly different than the ones seen on Guy and Hal, which is nice, since Kilowog sports his modern design. Kilowog was packed with a larger power battery (re-used from DCD’s Pocket Heroes line).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like every set in the DC Minimates line, I picked these two up from Cosmic Comix the week they were released. As both a Green Lantern geek and a Minimates geek, I was pretty excited for these two. That being said, neither of them is super stand out. I mean, they’re solid ‘mates, especially for the time, but they don’t do anything particularly noteworthy…which is probably why the pegwarmed pretty hard. Not bad little figures, though.

#0946: Green Lantern

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

GREEN LANTERN

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2013)

GLTarget1

Batman: Brave & the Bold is a show that really doesn’t get enough credit. It’s one of DC’s better outputs in recent years, giving us four seasons of episodes built around showcasing some of the more sidelined members of the DCU. While the show was great, the corresponding toyline was more than a little disappointing. Rather than focusing on the obscure characters the show had been designed to highlight, Mattel offered a litany of senseless Batman variants, with only the occasional non-Bat character. What’s more, the figures were plagued with rather pointless accessories, and every one of them had large, distracting plugs on their arms, legs, and backs, ruining the streamlined nature of the show’s designs. What does all this have to do with today’s review? Well, in 2013, after running the B:BatB line into the ground, Mattel decided to reuse some of the molds to create a line of figures based on the New 52 incarnation of the Justice League. While they were sticking more with heavy hitters, the line offered a few new faces, and, more importantly, removed the silly, gimmicky plugs. Today, I’ll be looking at the Green Lantern figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GLTarget2Green Lantern was released in the first assortment of the Target-exclusive Justice League line, which hit in 2013. He’s patterned after Hal Jordan’s New 52 appearance, which kinda seems a little counter to Brave and the Bold’s more classical influences. Granted, the New 52 GL design was a less glaring departure than some of the others, so he doesn’t look super out of place. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation. That’s not a lot of movement. I mean, I get that the designs can be a little hard to articulate, but they didn’t even give him (or anyone else in the line) knee movement. That’s rather annoying. Structurally, he uses a slightly re-tooled version of the basic Brave and the Bold body, which removes the previously mentioned plugs. Brave and the Bold had a rather unique styling to it, which somewhat eschewed the proportions of the characters. It was one of those styles that looks pretty good in animation, but isn’t very easy to translate into three dimensions. This base body tries its best to make it work, but doesn’t really succeed. The biggest issue is that it’s just a lot more rigid and stiff than any of the characters on the show, which makes it look super off, and calls extra attention to the weird proportions. GL’s one new piece is his head. You would think they might base it on Hal’s Brave and the Bold appearance, so as to continue the styling started with the body, but instead, Mattel’s opted to go with their own, more realistic take on Hal. The more realistic styling only further pronounces the issues with the body, which is really unfortunate. Hal’s paint manages to be pretty decent. The colors are nice and vibrant, and the lines are all very clean. I wish the ring had a bit more to make it stand out, but at least it’s there. Hal included a construct accessory, which is nice in theory. In practice, it’s less nice, since it’s re-used from one of the JLU Lanterns, and therefore is nowhere near large enough to fit over tis figure’s hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Being the GL geek that I am, I was a bit letdown by the lack of a Hal Jordan in the Brave and the Bold line. When I found out about this line, I quite excitedly went out and tracked down this figure. The final product isn’t quite what I wanted. He’s far from terrible, but there’s definitely some room for improvement, and the overall effort feels rather lackluster.

#0858: Green Lantern

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

GREEN LANTERN

DC ICONS (DCC)

GLIcon1

After the success of Barry Allen as the second iteration of the Flash, DC got to work on re-imagining as many of their old superheroes as they could. In the years since super hero comics had faded away, the magic and mysticism had fallen out of favor. When the heroes returned, science fiction was all the rage, so, when the new Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, debuted in 1959, his origin was tailored to fit that new sci-fi mold. It was a pretty successful idea, so successful, in fact, that years later, the original Green Lantern’s powers were re-tooled to be more in line with his successor’s. Anyway, I’m a pretty big fan of the second incarnation of GL, and I was happy to see him added to DC Collectibles’ new DC Icons line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GLIcon2Green Lantern is a deluxe figure in the DC Icons line, released to coincide with the release of Series 2. He’s #09 in the line, placing him just after Series 2 chronologically. He was designed by Ivan Reis and sculpted by Sam Greenwell and Erick Sosa. GL’s based on his appearance during the “Dark Days” storyline, which is a fancy way of saying he’s a New 52 figure. The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and has 31 points of articulation. Like Barry, he’s a bit taller than Mr. Miracle, but I find he doesn’t scale as well with other lines (such as ML) due to his head being slightly smaller than Barry’s. Also like Barry, he has lateral movement on his shins, which is much appreciated. He’s also got cut joints at the tops of his gloves, which are a bit redundant, but serve a purpose I’ll get to in a sec. Structurally, Hal is fairly similar to Barry (and by extension, the rest of the line). Despite being a New 52 design, this sculpt doesn’t feel over burdened with unnecessary details. The extra lines that are there feel well placed, and make the figure as a whole very appealing to look at. The head is a pretty sharp piece of work too, though perhaps not as sharp as the rest of the sculpt. Like the Flash, I feel the face is lacking a bit in expression, but it’s not quite as bad here. Hal’s paint is very nicely done; the greens are all a nice metallic shade, and the whites of the gloves have a nice white finish. The application is a little thick on the face, but not terribly so, and there’s a bit of chipping at the wrist joints. Aside from those issues, it’s pretty solid, though. Now, so far I haven’t outlined anything that’s all that different from a normal release. Why’s this guy a deluxe figure? Accessories, that’s why. He comes with hands in fists and gripping positions, a power batter, a giant green construct fist, and a full set of construct armor, made up of a helmet/wingpack, shoulder pads, two big gun hands, thigh armor, and big stompy boots. This is how you adequately showcase Green Lantern’s powers! The extra joints on the figure’s forearms are there to allow for them to be swapped for the construct gun-hands, which is a pretty good way of handling things. However, the giant fist is still a slip over piece, which is a bit of an issue, since Hal’s right forearm has some trouble staying in place. Had the fist been handled the same way as the gun-hands this wouldn’t have been a problem.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I’ve gotten away from it in recent years (in no small part due to DC doing a whole lot of sucking), at my core, I’m a huge Green Lantern geek. So, I was pretty thrilled to hear he’d be in this line. I was a little less thrilled when I found out he was a New 52 figure, but, I gotta be honest, in hand, I don’t care all that much. This is a really awesome Green Lantern, regardless of which incarnation he is. Undoubtedly the coolest figure I’ve picked up from this line. I am content to have this as my default GL. Of course, if they wanted to do a Neal Adams version of Hal later on, I certainly wouldn’t say no…

GLIcon3

#0516: Katma Tui

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

KATMA TUI

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

KatmaTuiDCUC1

Occasionally, the randomized list from which I pick the next review doesn’t seem quite as random as it should be. Right now, it seems like it’s in a DC Universe Classics sort of a mood. Which is alright, I guess. This does, however, mean that my typical re-hash of my issues with Mattel seems more than a little redundant. So, yay for the readers! No “Ethan hates Mattel” rant.  One of the things that the line definitely had a focus on (outside of re-creating Super Powers) was the Green Lantern side of the DC Universe. Since I’m a pretty big GL fan, I really didn’t have a problem with that. So, what do you get when you combine DCUC’s penchant for making somewhat obscure characters with a focus on Green Lantern stuff? You get Katma Tui, (gesundheit!) one of the earliest non-earth Green Lanterns. Katma was somewhat prominent in the GL books into the mid-80s, where she was paired up quite nicely with Earth GL John Stewart. Then she was killed off rather stupidly, and, in a rarity for comics characters, she actually stayed dead. Hence the obscurity. But, here she is, so let’s review the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

KatmaTuiDCUC2Katma was released in the 11th Series of DC Universe Classics. The series marked the first real entrance of GL stuff; John Stewart was the anchor figure, Kilowog was the Collect-n-Connect, and there were also two GL villains (Shark and Cyborg Superman) featured. Katma mostly squeaked in by association. The figure is about 6 inches tall, with 25 points of articulation. Katma is based on her late 70s look, from when she was one of the main characters in Green Lantern Corps. It’s the way the character looked when she was at her best, and it’s more distinctive than the generic GL uniform she had before, so it’s a good choice of design. Sculpturally, Katma’s rather straight-forward, especially for a DCUC figure. She was built on the first female buck (the only one at the time) with a new head and right hand. The buck isn’t a bad body, though it isn’t without issues. The most glaring is how small the arms are in comparison with the rest of the figure. If they were just a little bulkier, they’d look a lot better. Other than that, the body’s pretty decently proportioned (an argument could be made that the legs are a touch too long. I’m a rather long-legged person, so I don’t notice that kind of thing very often). No insanely large breasts or impossibly small waist, which is always nice to see. The new pieces fair better than the re-use here. He hand is pretty standard, but still well sculpted. The head is easily the best piece of the figure. It’s a pretty much pitch-perfect recreation of how Katma’s been depicted in the comics. To a fan of the character, it’s pretty clear who it’s meant to be. The hair in particular is spot-on, both in shape and in the level of texture and detail present. The figure’s paintwork is decent, if maybe not outstanding. The work on the head is generally pretty clean, and they managed not to make her eyes look too wonky, so that’s good. The costume isn’t quite as good. The logo looks pretty sharp at least, but most of the transitions between the green and black areas of the figure are really soft, which doesn’t grant her the sharp look she should have. Also, this is probably more of a personal preference thing, but the green just feels too dark. Katma came armed with sword and shield constructs, as well as the torso of Kilowog.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Green Arrow from the other day, Katma was a DCUC figure I was actually able to find at retail. My dad and I ended up coming across a pair of Katmas at our local TRU, which was pretty cool. If I’m honest, Katma’s not one of the most thrilling DCUCs produced. That said, she’s still a pretty solid figure, and I’m happy that the character was given the chance to get an action figure. My GL collection wouldn’t have been the same without her!

#0422: Tomar Re

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

TOMAR RE

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS

Although my interest in the character has waned a bit in the last few years, I’m still quite a bit of a Green Lantern fan. So, that means I find myself drawn to just about everything Green Lantern-related when it comes to toys. Some of it’s good and some of it’s bad. Today, I’ll be looking at the DC Universe Classics interpretation of Tomar Re, one of the many non-earth GLs. What’s interesting is that the last GL figure I looked at was ALSO a Tomar Re figure, from the movie line. I promise that this one’s better.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tomar Re was released in the DC Universe Classics line as part of a Green Lantern themed 5-pack. He was one of two characters released exclusively in the set. Something that’s important to note about this figure is that while he’s called Tomar Re on the box, the figure actually seems to be a bit more in line with the look of Tomar’s son Tomar Tu. The differences are minor: Re was generally depicted with larger eyes with pupils and a less present mask. Ultimately, the two essentially look the same, and Tomar Re is the one more people know, so it’s a forgivable change. The figure is about 6 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation. Tomar is built on the medium sized male buck, which is a good fit for the character. His right hand has a Green Lantern ring, and it’s been used on numerous GL figures. He has a new head, though it appears it uses the previously released Romat Ru’s head as a starting point. Romat’s scars have been filled in and a mask has been added, which is enough to sufficiently differentiate the two. The head is a truly beautiful sculpt, and it does a fantastic job of translating Tomar’s look into three dimensions. The paint work on Tomar is nicely done. Everything is very clean, and all of the details are sharp. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, but the green used here is slightly iridescent, which looks really cool and gives the costume the appropriate other-worldly vibe. Tomar includes his lantern-shaped power battery, which is a re-use of the one included with the Series 3 Hal Jordan figure. It’s been done in a darker green, which really makes it work.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the last two figures I reviewed, Tomar was acquired from The House of Fun. The store is a really cool place, and I definitely need to go back soon. Unlike the last two, Tomar isn’t a figure I missed in stores, and he doesn’t command a huge aftermarket price. I just was iffy about buying the whole 5-pack when I really only wanted 2-3 of the figures included. So, when I found Tomar on his own I was very happy. Tomar has long been one of my favorite Lanterns. I’ve always thought he has one of the coolest looks. The figure showcases the character spectacularly. I can’t believe I passed him up for so long.

#0394: Tomar Re

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

TOMAR RE

GREEN LANTERN (MOVIE)

The 2011 Green Lantern was certainly not the greatest thing to be shown on the silver screen. That being said it’s far from the worst, and I personally found it to be about on par with the Tim Burton Batman films, which suited me just fine. One of the nice things about one of your favorite characters getting a movie is all the toys that are bound to be released to coincide. Sadly, while I found the Green Lantern movie to be inoffensive, the same can’t be said for the vast majority of the toys released for it. One of the few figures from the line I didn’t hate is Tomar Re, the subject of today’s review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tomar Re was technically part of the first series of Green Lantern figures, but he was not amongst the initial assortment of figures. I think he came in the second wave of product. The figure is about 3 ¾ inches tall and he features 8 points of articulation. The articulation is one of the most annoying parts of this line, because it was about 10 years out of date at the time of release. It’s completely useless for anything outside of a standing pose, and in some cases it couldn’t even do that. Case in point, Tomar’s right leg is slightly warped, and the articulation is such that standing is not a thing that happens. Tomar’s sculpt is fine. There was a deluxe Tomar in wonky colors that was released first, so technically this one’s a re-use of that one. There’s some okay texture work on the body, which is nice, I suppose. However, the head is rather smooth, and definitely too squat for the character. In fact, the whole body is off when compared to the on screen character. He’s just too bulky. Were this figure 10-15 years older, the scale might be excusable, but come on, Hasbro’s Battle Droids from 1999 looked better than this. The paintwork is rather vaguely handled. In some places, lines are very sharp, but in others, everything just sort of runs together. That’s sort of what they looked like in the movie, but it wasn’t this bad. He just ends up being a bit of a mush of colors. Tomar included a construct of some sort, but I threw all the constructs together, so I don’t remember which was his.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Tomar from a Walmart near where I was vacationing the year these were released. This was notably two days AFTER I broke down and bought the wonky colored deluxe Tomar because I hadn’t been able to find this one. Yay. It’s hard to say much about this figure that isn’t negative. I honestly don’t hate it, and I really think it was one of the better small scale figures Mattel offered in this line, but that isn’t saying much. There’s a reason this line didn’t sell well, and it wasn’t the poor performance of the movie.

#0388: Alan Scott & Solomon Grundy

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , ,

ALAN SCOTT & SOLOMON GRUNDY

DC POCKET HEROES

Before Minimates made it onto the scene, minifigures hadn’t yet settled on being “block” figures. In 2002, DC Direct decided to do a line of smaller scale figures, which were inspired by Mego’s Pocket Super Heroes line of the 80s. Instead of dedicated character sculpts like the original figures, DC Direct opted for a basic body with add-on pieces, not unlike Minimates or LEGO Minifigures (or Kubricks, a contemporary of DC Pocket Heroes.) The line never really hit it big, but it was successful enough to get seven assortments of two-packs and four larger boxed sets. It covered characters from all over the DC Universe, but tended to focus more on “classic” characters and looks. Today, I’ll be taking a look at the line’s versions of Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern, and Solomon Grundy.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Alan and Grundy were released in the third assortment of the first series of DC Pocket Heroes, released in December of 2002.

ALAN SCOTT

Alan Scott isn’t really anybody’s default Green Lantern, but he’s the original, making him very important. His figure is about 3 ½ inches tall and features 6 points of articulation. He’s based on Alan’s original appearance, back when he was THE Green Lantern. Admittedly, it’s a goofy design, and it doesn’t have the sleekness of the Silver Age design, but it’s not bad. He makes use of the standard Pocket Heroes body, with add-ons for the hair and cape/collar. Unlike Minimates, these pieces aren’t removable, making him a more traditional action figure. The hair and cape are both basic pieces for the line, but they suit the character well, so the re-use is certainly warranted. The base Pocket Heroes body is an interesting piece. It’s a lot clumsier in terms of design than other such bodies. It wasn’t as versatile as DC Direct wanted it to be. However, Alan is one of the characters that fits pretty well on it. The only real issue I see is that the sculpted boots don’t line up with Alan’s actual boots. I don’t know why they didn’t just leave the boots off the sculpt, but I guess that’s what they went with. The paint on Alan Scott is serviceable. It’s nothing amazing, and there are definitely some issues, especially on the color overlay of the boots (the green bleeds through the red, and the red bleeds through the yellow). He’s also got a gash of paint missing on his right eye. However, the paint is mostly bold and colorful, and it looks good for the character. Alan Scott included no accessories.

SOLOMON GRUNDY

Solomon Grundy. Born on a Monday. So, yeah… Grundy is technically a zombie, I guess, and he was a recurrent foe for a few of the Golden Age DC heroes. He had more than a few run-ins with Alan Scott, so this pairing is sensible. Grundy is about 3 ½ inches tall and he sports 6 points of articulation. He’s based on Grundy’s classic, more reserved design. Like Alan, he makes use of the standard Pocket Heroes body, with an add-on for his hair. The hair was new to this figure, though it would eventually see re-use on the line’s version of Bizarro. The body doesn’t work as well here as it did for Alan. The body is very clearly meant to be used for characters in tights, wearing boots. Grundy has neither of those, resulting in an odd looking figure. Obviously a generic suit body wouldn’t have really worked either, but this looks silly. The figure’s paint isn’t too bad, given that they had to work around the base body. Everything is relatively clean, and the detail lines are pretty sharp. The face is kind of gooney looking, though. An, to top it all off, my Grundy figure’s …uhh…backside… fell off right out of the package, which makes him look even sillier!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Golden Age Green Lantern. When I was in 2nd grade, I even dressed up as him for Halloween. So, it’s no surprise that I picked up his Pocket Heroes figure. He actually wasn’t as easy for me to get a hold of as some of the others, though. I actually ended up having to special order this set through a local comicbook store because it had sold out. All in all, Pocket Heroes are a sort of a goofy little set of figures. Some of them didn’t really work, but some of them really did. This set includes one of each.

#0345: Green Lantern

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

GREEN LANTERN

DC SUPER HEROES (TOYBIZ)

The now defunct toy company Toybiz is a name that is most commonly associated with making Marvel toys. This isn’t surprising, of course. They ended up bailing Marvel out of bankruptcy in the mid-90s, leading to them becoming a part of Marvel proper and thereby passing the name onto Marvel’s in-house toy making branch. However, their first major property was not Marvel. No, it was actually Marvel’s main competition, DC. See, when Super Powers ended, DC was looking to move the DC license elsewhere. They turned to a small upstart company by the name of Toybiz, who launched a line simply titled DC Superheroes. The line was pretty much the same scale as Kenner’s Super Powers, mostly because it was pretty much just a slightly lower budget version of Super Powers. The sculpts were just slightly tweaked and made out of inferior plastic. Needless to say, DC wasn’t thrilled by this offering, and after just two series, the rights reverted back to Kenner. Today, I’ll be taking a look at that line’s version of Green Lantern!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in the second series of Toybiz’s DC Super Heroes line. The figure is just shy of 5 inches tall and he features 7 points of articulation. The second series is a little different from the first in that they actually featured new sculpts, rather than just retooled SP ones. So, for better or for worse, GL got a brand new sculpt, wholly unique from his SP counterpart. I suppose it’s not fair to compare the work of Kenner at their prime to that of Toybiz in their infancy, but the sculpt of the TB Green Lantern is not up to the quality of his predecessor. The sculpt is wide and oddly proportioned. He’s got these bent arms, which are honestly impressive, because I’m surprised he could bend arms that thick. The torso is huge and ill defined, and the legs lack any real detail. The head looks not unlike a papier-mâché head sculpted over a balloon, which is not a compliment. To top it all off, the joints are horrendously obvious, to the point where you have to question if they did that on purpose. I suppose if I were really trying to find something nice to say, I’d say he bears a passing resemblance to the Filmation version of the character, which isn’t a terrible thing. The paint is…well it’s there. It’s mostly cleanly applied, but other than that, there’s not much to be said of it. The figure is incredibly shiny, which really plays up the whole obvious toy angle. The figure came with an array to let him squirt water from his ring or something. I don’t know, I bought mine loose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is another from the haul I picked up during the summer from the super cool Yesterday’s Fun. As an avid Green Lantern collector, it’s a figure I’d been looking to pick up for some time now, I’d just never gotten around to it. They had one for a reasonable price, so I went for it. Now I’m reminded of why I put off buying it. It’s not a terrible figure, it’s just overwhelmingly mediocre. It feels like one of those incredibly obvious toys they’d use on a TV show to more easily convey that it’s a toy. I just don’t quite know what they were thinking with this one, especially since it followed up figures that re-used the far superior Super Powers sculpts.

#0292: Green Lantern

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

GREEN LANTERN

JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR (DC COLLECTIBLES)

GreenLanternWar

Every so often, I have to go back to the basics. In my case, the basics tend to be either DC or Marvel figures. Bonus points if they’re animation related!

As a kid, most of my DC action figures were based on the cartoons of the time, Batman: The Animated Series being chief among them. DC Collectibles (formerly DC Direct) has recently announced that they plan to do a rather extensive line of figures based on B:TAS, which excites me greatly. I’ve been away from DCD/DCC collecting for a while, so I thought I’d see what to expect from the new line by taking a look at a few figures from their line done to tie in with the recent Justice League: War animated feature. Being me, I started with Green Lantern. Just go with it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GreenLanternWarWilsonGreen Lantern was released in the first series of DC Collectible’s Justice League: War line. He’s based on the character’s design in the film of the same name, which is in turn inspired by the character’s current look in the comics. The most distinctive piece of the GL figure is the streamlined nature of the design. The figure is about 6 ½ inches tall and features 13 points of articulation. The articulation is fine overall, but he could really use some ankle and wrist articulation, the lack of which is becoming a disturbing trend in the action figure industry. Still, the lack of these points isn’t quite as detrimental here as it was on, say, Mattel’s recent General Zod. He’s certainly less stiff looking. A lot of this has to do with the sculpt, which, while it isn’t perfect, does have a decent fluidity to it. The sculpt, aside from a new head, is shared with series-mate Flash. It’s a pretty good starting point. The physique looks to be accurate to the design from the movie, and is basic enough to work for a few different characters. The head is a pretty great likeness to GL’s design in the movie, and has a nice amount of character. The figure mostly relies on paint to depict his costume details. It’s mostly straight forward work, and it’s decent but not perfect. He’s got quite a few fuzzy lines, especially on the edge of his neck. The painted on ring is also a bit sloppy, almost like it hasn’t been completely painted. Piece by piece, GL is sloppy, but he actually looks pretty darn good as a whole. The figure includes no accessories, which seems like a missed opportunity.

GreenLanternWar2 GreenLanternWar5

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is something of an experimental purchase for me. I had a slight interest in it when it was announced, mostly due to the whole Green Lantern thing. Once the first series was released, I just kind of forgot about it and moved on. A few weeks ago, I was house sitting for a friend. He had told me I was welcome to watch any of the movies on his shelf, and I noticed he had a pretty much complete set of the DC Animated Movies. I’d fallen a bit behind on them, so I decided to catch up. JL: War wasn’t my favorite movie ever, but it was entertaining enough for me to decide to go ahead and pick up a few of the figures. I’m glad I did. Even if GL isn’t perfect, he’s a nice enough figure that I’m happy to add him to my collection.

#0252: Hal Jordan – Black Lantern

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

HAL JORDAN – BLACK LANTERN

S-WORLD MINIFIGURES

BlackLanternLego

Yesterday, I spoke of the somewhat complicated nature of knowing just who Green Lantern is at any given time. Well, today, I’m adding yet another layer to that. Not only is it possible for Green Lantern to be any number of individuals, but thanks to writer Geoff Johns, it’s also possible that they may not be Green Lantern, but instead they might be a whole other color of lantern for the day. During the event Blackest Night, Nekron and Black Hand (who both have figures reviewed on this site; check them out!) created their own brand of lantern, called the Black Lantern. Essentially, they were zombies, reanimated various dead heroes. However, given the number of heroes who have died and returned through other means, they figured it would be a good idea to grab those guys too. Which is where today’s figure hails from.

Also of note, there’s another new concept for this review: bootlegs. Bootlegs are unauthorized reproductions or imitations of existing characters or toys, usually done on the cheap, and meant to nab the casual buyer who doesn’t really know any better. Today, I’ll be looking at the first of a few bootleg Legos, or Bootlegos if you will.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Lantern Hal Jordan, being a bootleg, has no official series he is tied to. Near as I can tell from the research I’ve done, he’s from a larger set of Green Lantern themed Bootlegos, produced under the name “S-World”. Mine was purchased on his own, so I can’t really speak to the others. The figure stands about 2 inches tall, and has 7 points of articulation. The quality of the plastic used is a little different, but for all intents and purposes, this guy was built on a standard Lego Minifigure body. His sole add-on is a hair piece, which also appears to be an almost exact replica of one of Lego’s generic male hair pieces. The rest of the figure’s details are handled via paint. The painted work is quite surprising for a bootleg. It rivals official Lego work, and is a step above the work being put out currently by some of the bigger toy companies. The details are applied exquisitely, and capture the Black Lantern design very well. The figure includes a light sabre hilt and two clear blue blasters, which I believe are meant to be some sort of makeshift lantern, and a display stand with the S-World logo on it. Interestingly, the stand is different from Lego’s own Minifigure stand, making it the only unique piece present!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Black Lantern Hal Jordan and two other “Bootlegos” from a dealer at Mego Meet. They were simply labeled “Lego Figures” so I didn’t know their exact origin when I bought them. They came in small sealed bags, like you would find inside the box of a real Lego product, so I wasn’t sure if they were some kind of promotional item or something. Some research later clued me in to their bootleg nature, but I must say, I’m really quite impressed with these figures. The quality is almost exactly that of real Lego product, and they’ve actually gone a lot deeper with their character choices than the real Lego stuff has. I’m curious to see if they stick around much longer, though…