Tag Archives: Hourman

#3871: Hourman

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

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.

 

#3771: Green Lantern, Starman, & Hourman

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

GREEN LANTERN, STARMAN, & HOURMAN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE TOYS)

Hey!  It’s Super Powers!  Hooray!  I love Super Powers!  …I’m kinda running out of things to say about it, though.  I mean, I expected a little over 30 of these reviews at the outset, and then, there were, like, more.  Not that I’m complaining, mind you.  It’s a good problem to have.  While the vintage line did have an impressive coverage of the JLA, it featured only a single member of the JSA, Dr. Fate.  And he was very lonely indeed.  But, it’s okay, because 40 years later, he’s finally getting some team mates!  And it’s not just one: it’s a whole three-pack!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Green Lantern, Starman, and Hourman were released as part of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation in a three-pack.  This marks the second “standard” three-pack, following up on the Peacemaker set from earlier.  There doesn’t really seam to have been a specific theme to the three chosen beyond “let’s do JSA.”

GREEN LANTERN — ALAN SCOTT

If you’re jumping into the JSA, it’s hard to not go for Alan Scott.  He’s pretty obvious, and alongside Jay Garrick, he’s one of the central and most consistently depicted members of the team.  He’s also my favorite, so you’ll definitely hear no complaints from me.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  He’s got an all-new sculpt, and it’s on par with a lot of the more recent offerings, which is to say it’s quite good.  It captures the vibe of the line, while also getting down Alan as a character.  Perhaps the only slight oddity is the lack of a collar on the shirt, but with the cape it’s not too distracting.  Compared to the rather horrid 7-inch figure, though, this is a breath of fresh air.  They even gave him the proper ring shape!  He’s got a cloth cape, which is a little more complex, having the collar and also being two-toned.  I definitely dig it, and it’s avoiding some of the issues of the other capes from the line.  The paint work here is slightly on the messy side, but not terribly so.  The color work is at least pretty nice, and they’ve again got the proper lantern shape for his logo, which I do like to see.  He gets no accessories, even though the hand posing seems like he’s begging for a power battery.  I’d guess that was probably a budget thing.

STARMAN

It’s Starman!  There’s actually been a lot of Starmen at DC.  This is the orginal, Ted Knight.  But not *that* Ted Knight.  Even though that one narrated for Super Friends.  Do you think the real Ted Knight knew about the fake Ted Knight?  Makes you think, right?  The figure stands almost 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Okay, so, you see the height? Yeah, that ain’t right.  Here’s why: he’s on the old Superman mold.  Not the nice, new, improved one we just got before the end of the year.  No, the McFarlane Series 1 version, which is too tall and too bulky, and has its feet too close together.  I totally get re-using Superman for a Starman; they’re costumes are quite similar.  But why not use the new one?  It’s right there.  Now Ted’s really tall, and looks out of place with the other JSA-ers.  He gets a new head, which I also don’t love, because it feels like an earlier run head, as well as a new belt piece and an updated right arm with a new gripping hand.  He gets a cloth cape, which is okay.  I do particularly like the printed star on the back.  The paint on this guy is fine.  Decent, and it gets the job done, but it’s not much to write home about.  Starman gets the only accessory in this set, which is his Cosmic Rod, which fits nicely in his right hand.

HOURMAN

It’s drug use, but as a super power.  You know, for kids!  Like Starman, there have been a few Hourmen, but this is Rex Tyler, the original.  He’s built on a smaller base body, shared with Vigilante.  Rex has been up and down in terms of sizing and scaling, so the shorter at least adds some variety of scaling to the set.  He’s got a new head sculpt, which is…fine.  I can’t say I love it, but it’s alright.  Passable.  I’ll discuss it more in the paint section.  He’s also got a new belt and necklace, both of which work pretty well.  It’s topped off with a cape, which has a pretty impressive printed pattern on it and its own collar as well.  The paint work, especially on the head, is iffy.  The mask is missing the black section, which I always feel throws off the general look.  The DCUC figure did it the same way, and it bugged me there too.  The eye holes also feel like they’re painted up far too high, and the nose coverage feels like it goes too low.  And the eyebrows are just…I don’t know.  Don’t love them, that’s for sure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, there was no way I was missing this one.  I’ve been waiting a long time for more JSA-ers in the line, and I honestly never really expected to see them.  So, I jumped right on the pre-orders for this one.  Of the the three, Alan is by far the stand out, and by far my favorite.  The whole set’s worth it just for him.  Which is good, because the other two…well, they’re less than stellar.  That was a bit of a letdown.  I mean, they’re not awful.  Still better than the earlier figures from the line, but maybe not quite as good as the more recent stuff.  But, I’m not gonna knock more JSA Super Powers.

#1156: Justice Guild

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

THE STREAK, TOM TURBINE, BLACK SIREN, & GREEN GUARDSMAN

JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED (MATTEL)

justiceguild1

Some of the best characters are the ones that come about because creative teams aren’t allowed to use a pre-existing character.  One of the most famous examples of this is Watchmen, which was originally meant to make use of DC’s recently acquired Charlton characters.  DC seems to do this to their creators rather frequently, as this also cropped up a few times during the course of the DC Animated Universe.  My particular favorite of these was The Justice Guild of America, from the Justice League episode “Legends.”  The episode was originally drafted with the Justice Society in mind, but was ultimately changed when DC decided the direction of the story didn’t fit how they wanted the JSA portrayed.  Fortunately, this worked out pretty well, as it gave the creators more free reign with the characters, and resulted in one of the most entertaining entries in Justice League.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These four were released as one of Matty Collector-exclusive four-packs from Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line.  Now, it’s a Mattel review, so you’re probably already expecting a bit of Mattel hate.  Well, here it is:  Who in their right mind releases a four-pack based on a five member team?  On top of that, one of the four members released here is Black Siren, who is part of a duo with the unreleased member Catman.  The back of her box even has Catman in both of the screen shots of her!  Were they just rubbing it in our faces?  Seeing as the four-packs were actually just four single-carded figures packed together, and thus there wasn’t an issue of needing to redo the packaging, couldn’t they just have made this a five-pack?  Or, if they really felt the need to go with arbitrary number schemes, couldn’t they have just made it a six-pack and just thrown in a Green Lantern figure to round the set out?  No, that would be sensible.  Can’t have that, especially not on a Matty Collector-exclusive.  It wouldn’t be right!  Okay, I vented, let’s actually look at the figures.

THE STREAK

justiceguild2“The Streak possessed super speed and was the leader of the Justice Guild of America, a team of Super Heroes from a simpler time.  Things got complicated when a group of strange heroes calling themselves the Justice League visited their home town of Seaboard City.” The Streak is the Guild’s answer to Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash.  As such, he takes a lot of design cues from Garrick, but trades out Jay’s more unique helmet for an old-school racing helmet. The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  He’s built on the mid-sized body (patterned on Green Lantern’s sculpt), which is a good fit for him.  He has an all-new head, as well as new legs to add in his boot cuffs.  The new pieces do a pretty good job of capturing his look on the show, and the head in particular is a very good rendition of the Streak’s look.  The paint on the Streak is bright, clean, and bold, which are all good things.  The red is noticeably brighter than the JLU version of the Flash (as it should be).  As a whole, this is a design that looks really good as an action figure.

TOM TURBINE

justiceguild4“A power belt allowed Tom Turbine to generate energy as needed.  He and The Justice Guild protected Seaboard City for years, though between missions he continued to work on his pet project: a gateway capable of piercing the dimensional barriers between multiple earths!” Tom Turbine actually has a couple of analogues in the JSA.  While he actually replaced Al Pratt’s the Atom in “Legends,” and borrows from the Atom in a few areas of design, as well as stature, he also has a similar power set and limitations to Hourman, as well as the general demeanor of Mr. Terrific.  This results in him being by far the most unique of the five Justice Guilders, as well as the most rounded.  He’s built on the same medium body as the Streak, but the only piece that’s actually shared is the torso.  The head, arms, and legs are all unique to this figure, and he’s also got an add-on for his belt.  These new pieces are alright, though I can’t say any of them are as spot-on as the Streak.  The legs make him a little shorter, but it’s not actually enough to be all that noticeable.  I do like that the arms have two fists, since that’s sort of key to the character, but I can’t help but sort of wish they’d just sculpted them into the hands on the hips pose he sported a few times in the episode, since it’s not like the articulation’s good for anything anyway.  The head’s really where the accuracy slips up a bit.  It’s close, but just too squared off for Tom, who was slightly rounder in the face.  Tom’s paintwork is pretty solid.  The colors match up with those seen on the show, and everything’s pretty clean.  The change between the neck and the yellow of his shirt isn’t quite as overt as I’d like, but it’s hard to say what they could have done to fix that.

BLACK SIREN

justiceguild5“A nuclear blast destroyed the world Black Siren fought to protect, along with the other members of the Justice Guild.  Then the world and the Guild were back, returned to life by the mental powers of Ray Thompson.  When the truth was revealed, the Guild has to destroy everything again – including themselves.”  Okay, seriously?  That’s Black Siren’s bio?  It’s not even about Black Siren!  It’s just a synopsis of “Legends” (and not even a particularly good one, at that).  I’m guessing Siren got the short end of the stick on bios, since any actual bio for her would have to mention Catman, and we wouldn’t want to remind everyone we left him out.  Of course, this bio mentions Ray, who was also never released, so zero points there.  Second round of venting done.  Okay, so Black Siren was based on Black Canary, who would eventually be properly brought into the show when the roster was expanded.  Her partnership with Catman is patterned on Black Canary’s frequent partnering with Wildcat (another thing that would be properly brought into the show later down the line).  Ultimately, Black Siren is kind of the shallowest character introduced in “Legends,” with her main purpose being to showcase the casual sexism of a bygone era.  Anyway, her figure is built on the standard female body, which wasn’t really one of the stronger bases they had at their disposal.  The legs are oddly spaced, causing the arms to bash into them, and pretty much all of the articulation is useless.  For her part, Black Siren got a unique head sculpt, which is a reasonable enough piece, I suppose.  The jawline seems a bit solid for Siren, but it’s not the worst.  Now, she really should also have a unique set of legs to properly replicate the boots, since those bands should be three-dimensional, but she just get’s the normal legs.  It seems odd that everyone else got all the pieces they needed and she didn’t.  The paintwork on Siren is pretty good overall.  The application is pretty solid and crisp.  Most of the colors match, but the lavender sections should be a more straight grey to be totally show accurate.  Siren is the only figure in the set to get an accessory: a display stand.  It’s good, because she can’t stand without it.  Of course, this is really the sort of thing that should have been standard for all of the figures.

GREEN GUARDSMAN

justiceguild3“Powerless against anything aluminum, the Green Guardsman used his power ring to protect Seaboard City as a member of the Justice Guild.  A young John Stewart, who would grow up to become Green Lantern, read comic books of his adventures!” That’s a better bio, I suppose, but the bit about John seems really tacked on.  John doesn’t really interact with Green Guardsman at all.  So, in case it wasn’t obvious, Green Guardsman takes the place of Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern.  Like the other male figures in the set, Guardsman is built on the medium male body, with a unique head and an add-on piece for the cape.  The head’s okay, but probably the weakest of those included in the set.  It’s looks a little smooshed at the front.  The cape would actually go on to be shared with Alan Scott himself later on the line.  It’s a decent enough piece, but it makes him really difficult to keep standing.  The paintwork on Green Guardsman is about on par with the rest of the set.  It’s bright and bold, and the lifework is all pretty clean.  The only real nit is that the ring gets kind of lost on the hand.  Maybe an outline or something would have made it stand out?  Guardsman includes no accessories.  While that’s somewhat more forgivable with the others, this guy would have really benefited from some constructs or something.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this set hit Matty Collector, I had pretty much completely checked out of the JLU line, and Matty Collector too.  Turns out, a pretty large portion of the collector-base had done the same thing, which meant this, and a lot of the other sets from the same time period ended up being marked down on Matty Collector and later closed out and made available at a number of other retailers.  I ended up finding these four at Power Comics on small business Saturday, for a rather good price.  I’m still not happy about Catman being left out, especially since he’s never, ever going to get a figure at this point.  That being said, the rest if the figures are pretty cool, and I guess some are better then none.