DCUC Green Lantern: Ya Learn Something New Every Day

Well, it just took me one animated movie, a Batman villain, a corp of intergalactic peacekeepers, and an action figure to learn my lesson for the day. And that is: DC Universe Classic figures have a standard 23 points of articulation, not 21! Yup, their ankles can move forward and back as well as inwards and out.

So I'd like to apologize to anyone out there who's been reading my reviews and either a)believing me, or b)realizing that I can't count. Silly me.

Well, it was really the DCSH Bane figure below that alerted me to inward and outward ankle articulation, but I'd somehow failed to notice them on all the DCUC figures I had, all them being so well articulated as such. Perhaps Bane's lack of thigh cut joints and double hip/leg joints prompted me to be a little more thourough in looking for articulation in his feet.

So what triggered this sudden discovery in DCUC figures?

Well, DC's been putting out some decent animated movies of late, and so the latest to hit the shelves was Green Lantern: First Flight. The great news for all of us here in Singapore is that these movies are also produced in the Southeast Asia region friendly Code 3 (as opposed to 1 in the US). And for those who don't already know, Code 3s here are much cheaper than Code 1s. So much like the Wonder Woman Animated movie, when I saw the GL:1st Flight DVD going for S$20 in a store, I grabbed it. And watched it. And loved it...And opened DCUC Hal Jordan!

And it was when I was posing him on the stand he comes with and taking shots of him to put up here that I realized he has more ankle movement than I thought. A quick check on my recently acquired Boy Wonder Robin confirmed that I am definitely no Rain Man.

Apologies for misleading all 3(?) of you who read my posts. Let this be the first correct one in a new Emerald Dawn of DCUC reviews.

While the first 8 waves of DCUC action figures have flown into stores thick and fast here even in Southeast Asia, waves 9,10, and 11, have been a bit of a wait. A bit of a long wait, in fact.

Wave 10 was announced for Fall of this year and 11 after that, but wave 9 has been slow to come in here in Singapore mainly because of a 30% wholesale price hike. That means the average retail of a DCUC figure from now on is expected to be S$40-45, and that's scared away most of the smaller stores/retaliers who bring DCUC in on their own. And the big stores here like Toys 'R' Us, Metro, and Robinsons still have stock of previous waves, making them reluctant to bring in new stock while old stuff is still on shelves. (TRU especially, since they even have tons of DC Superhereos Bizarro, Mongul, Darksaid, Black S/skirt Supergirl, and Kal-El going for the low, low price of $9.80.) We can only pray that stores will bring in they new stuff, price be damned! :P

So it's back to Wave 3 for one of the original Maginificent Seven: Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, Protector of Sector 3814 (Known to us civilians as Earth).

I have to admit that Hal never really seemed like an interesting guy to me. I mean, Bats has his Daddy/Mommy issues and Supes has his save the world or love the woman/want to be human dilemma. Hal just never seemed to have the problems these guys had. But watching Green Lantern First Flight changed my view of him a whole lot. And I bet watching this trailer will make you wanna watch the movie!










We're now on the right road to Hal worship!

So how could I resist the action fig after the movie?

He's got all 23 points of articulation for a standard DCUC fig--that's Ball joint head, swivel n hinge shoulders, hinge elbows, swivel wrists, ab crunch joint, swivel waist, swivel n hinge leg joints, hinge knees, swivel thigh cut joints, and double hinge ankles. Phew!

Oh, and he also comes with a standard issue Green Lantern accessory of, well, a power battery that looks like a green lantern.

What I like about characters with flying powers in this line is that if they come with the base, you get to pose them in ways that you couldn't for grounded heroes. So you get a whole range of taking off/landing/flight combat poses you can put them in that, let's say, Robin would look weird in. And most of the time flying dudes don't do no kung fu, which grounded heroes do (but call martial arts, just to be more sophisticated :P). So it works conversely in that you get a whole diffrent range of poses for the kung fu groundies too.

So we've got on the flying side of the Magnificaent 7 Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Hal here.

And the Martial Artists/Grounded guys would be Batman, The Flash, and also Wonder Woman (She knows some kickass moves, all right. Just check out that animated movie of her's. ;])

Then we've got Aquaman. Hmm.

For some reason our friendly neighbourhood seahorse rider the hardest to find of the Mag 7 here on our sunny island in the sea. And I'm pretty sure he ain't in the waters around us.

But the King if the Seven Seas stands pretty much alone when compared to our good Hal. Jordan's a definite must have for any Green Lantern fan. He's a must have to complete the Magnificent Seven, and he's a must have to lead the members of the Corp when Wave 11 comes a knockin' with the likes of John Stewart, Katma Tui, and Collect n Connect Kilowog in there. Heck, even Cyborg Superman, who's also part of the currently ongoing Blackest Night storyline, is in there.

Then all we would need is a decent sized Sinestro (Oh, I love his character in the animated movie btw! :P).

Ratings!

Character Accuracy: 9.5/10 - Hard to go wrong here. I definitely prefer this uniform to the Abin Sur two-pack "sleeveless" version. Some might like that he's got the white hair at the temples but I think that would just make him look old. (And add to that near-pedophile rep he's somehow gotten. Hah!)

Aesthetics: 9.5/10 - His insignia is very well painted and outlined, his head on the whole is brilliant. The face has a slight frown of concentration, and you can see just the right amount of nostril flare to match. And just look at that hair! Makes one wonder if all pilots have such nice, vibrant, healthy looking locks... He does lose some points for his green being rather flat, and his ring kinda fudged (ok, at least they got paint on it right). His lantern accessory is also just molded green plastic.

Poseability: 9.5/10 - I have to say I'm impressed. It's funny, I've not actually had a flying hero who doesn't have a cape. This is great cos he can kneel, crouch, or be put in a pose where his waist is turned and he doesn't look awkward, and it's a right sight better than I ever thought. :)

Overall: 9.6/10 - The extra tenth on his score is just solely cos of the lack of a cape. (He can kneel! He can kneel! On one knee!) I know, it's strange, but Hal the figure turned out to be as much as a surprise as Green Lantern: First Flight. Get him while you still can!