Tag Archives: Solomon Grundy Series

#3765: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

“While training in a flight simulator, test pilot Hal ‘Highball’ Jordan was suddenly transported to the crash site of an alien spacecraft. Recognizing Jordan as a man without fear, the injured alien passed to Jordan his green power ring and energy battery or ‘lantern’ which charged the ring. Jordan has since used the ring’s fantastic powers for good, distinguishing himself as one of the finest members of the elite intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.”

Well, it hasn’t been a *whole* year since my last venture into DC Universe Classics, but it’s still been since April, which is a fair bit.  But, I’m feeling the need to dive back into it for a little bit.  Perhaps it’s some residual nostalgia from Friday’s Super Powers review, perhaps its that I snagged a stack of loose DCUC figures just before the end of the year.  Whatever the case, DCUC is a line that well and truly gripped me for most of its run, so I do have quite a good number of them.  Today, I’m delving into the earlier days of the line, with Earth’s second Green Lantern, Hal Jordan!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in Series 3 of Mattel’s DC Universe Classics, which hit in the fall of 2007.  While this wasn’t Mattel’s first Hal Jordan (the infamous Holiday Hal from JLU hit in 2005), it was the first to go to retail.  He was the assortment’s heavy hitter, and was paired off with Sinestro for the hero/villain dynamic that headlined the first few assortments.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and has 23 points of articulation.  Hal was built on the medium male base body, which was first used by Black Manta in the prior series, along with a new head and right hand, all of them supplied by the Four Horsemen.  The head’s the real star piece, as it has to do the heavy lifting.  It’s a really strong, sort of quintessential Bronze Age Hal.  It’s not *exactly* Jose Garcia-Lopez, but the vibe is certainly quite similar, and it just reads well for the character.  It’s also very sharply defined, and avoids being too reliant on paint to sell it.  That said, the paint does alright selling it, and does do more of the heavy lifting on the rest of the figure.  GL’s one of those character’s where a fully painted suit isn’t too distracting, since it’s supposed to be sleek and one-piece anyway.  Application’s generally pretty clean, and there’s even som slight accenting on the green sections to highlight the sculpt.  At this point, I do have to address the one major oddity of this figure: the residue.  Yes, the first batch of Hals, which my copy hails from, have some sort of issue with the interaction of the plastic and the mold release, and when exposed to air for long periods of time, they develop a white filmy substance over the arms and legs.  Said substance wipes off with a damp cloth, with not notable harm to the figure, but it will re-appear over time, and he’ll have to be wiped again.  So, just remember to wipe your Hals periodically.  It’s not weird.  Don’t make it weird.  Mattel did a later re-release of Hal under the “All-Star” banner, which fixed this issue, as well as tweaking some of the paint/color choices.  Both versions included Hal’s power battery, which seems to be an oddly bright green; I’ve always envisioned it being more on par with the color of his suit, but it’s more of a lime green here.  The Series 3 release also got a piece to the Solomon Grundy Collect-N-Connect, while the “All-Star” version got a stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hal’s the figure that sold me on DCUC as a while.  I’d been a solid DC Direct devotee, and had been buying pretty much every Hal they’d put out, looking for that perfect version.  This one came along and blew them all away.  I was so excited by the prototype shots of this guy, that I bought what I could find of the first two series solely based on the fact that he was coming.  This set hit right around Baltimore Comic Con in 2007, so he was at the very top of my list of things to look out for.  I snagged him almost immediately after making it through the door, and was very happy and content.  Almost 20 years later, I’m still quite happy and content, even if it does involve the periodic wiping of the Hal.  I did manage to snag the later release as well, so I’ve got one without need of wiping, which is well enough.  In general, though, this Hal is a figure that makes me quite happy.

#2092: Nightwing

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

NIGHTWING

DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS (MATTEL)

“After his parents were murdered, young Dick Grayson was adopted by Bruce Wayne, becoming his ward… and, as the first Robin The Boy Wonder, his partner in the war against crime. Years later, Robin struck out on his own as Nightwing and now lives in the corruption-ridden city of Bludhaven where by day he serves as a member of that city’s police department.”

Mattel’s DC Universe Classics was born out of DC Superheroes, a line that was itself born out of their earlier Batman line.  DC Superheroes introduced some Superman characters into the mix, but was otherwise still very Batman-focused.  When it came time for DC Universe Classics, there was no corner of the DCU unavailable, so Mattel got a lot deeper with their coverage.  However, they still didn’t stray too far from the Batman side of things, meaning it wasn’t a huge surprise to see two of his sidekicks crop up early in the line’s run.  I’ve already looked at the Robin, so how about the former Robin, aka Nightwing?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing was part of Series 3 of DC Universe Classics, alongside the previously reviewed Tim Drake Robin, Green Lantern, Sinestro, and Deathstroke.  He was the third figure Mattel had done of Nightwing at this scale, and like Robin before him, this figure marked the first time that the Four Horsemen worked on the character.  Nightwing is seen here in his traditional blue/black costume, which had been his consistent look for over a decade when this figure hit shelves, meaning it was a pretty safe choice.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  Nightwing used the mid-sized male body, which was first introduced for this very assortment, and would be used simultaneously for both him and Hal Jordan.  It’s a little on the bulky side for how Dick is usually portrayed, especially in the shoulders, but within the context of the line, it worked alright.  Nightwing had a unique head, forearms, and shins.  The head depicts an early-to-mid ’00s Nightwing, as denoted by the hairstyle.  While I might like it to be a little more expressive, it’s otherwise a pretty strong take on the character, and there’s plenty of detail work, especially in the texturing of the hair.  The forearms and shins depict the most inconsistent element of this Nightwing costume: the cuffs for the gloves and boots.  They were frequently all different shapes, sizes, and positions, and by the time of Hush, Jim Lee had removed them completely.  That streamlined look is honestly my preferred interpretation, but to Mattel’s credit, there’s been very little action figure coverage with these pieces included, so it does help the figure stand out from DCD’s offerings.  The paintwork on Nightwing is mostly pretty basic, straight color work.  The blue is appropriately bright, and the application is clean.  There’s some ever so slight accenting on the hair, which helps bring out the sculpted textures, and that’s pretty nice.  Nightwing was packed with his usual Eskrima sticks (which he can store on his back, another unique feature of this figure), as well as the head/torso of the Grundy CnC.  Why he got the largest piece over the comparatively much smaller Robin figure is anyone’s guess, but mine didn’t have it anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Okay, it’s a DCUC review, so you know the drill: this assortment was hard to find at retail, and I never saw a Nightwing in person.  I managed to track down GL and Sinestro, my two main wants, in-package and new, and got the reissue of Robin a little later, but Nightwing never turned up.  I already had the Hush figure, so I wasn’t too worried about it, but when this guy was among a large DCUC collection that got traded into All Time Toys last year, I jumped at the opportunity to get him.  I’ve got a lot of Nightwing figures, and I can’t say this one really stands out from the pack, but he’s certainly not a bad figure.