Once Burned

For years, Marvel's Superhero Squad line was one of my favorites. I've still got a few dozen of these displayed prominently in my collection. Phoenix here is probably the best of the line. Really incredible work.

So. What happened? The line's still around; if anything, it seems to have expanded. But I have a hard time caring. And it's not the toys that bug me (well, not primarily). It's the show.

A little background: the line started as an attempt to cajole young children in taking an interest in Marvel characters. I'm not sure how well it worked on the intended audience, but a lot of collectors fell in love with the designs and the implied humor.

Whatever the reason, the toys were successful enough to expand the property into an animated program. The results were... less than good. In fact, what I saw was so bad, I haven't been able to bring myself to buy one of the toys since.

I feel like there's something wrong with that. If the toys are good, they're good independent of the show. Granted, Hasbro's redesigned things a bit to match the look, but they're still pretty similar.

Intellectually I don't believe this should matter, but I just haven't had the same interest in the figures.

That said, I've come close to picking up some of the Thor-themed figures that are being released to coincide with the movie. Some of those are cool, and I have an easier time thinking about the purchase.

I certainly don't love what this implies about me as a consumer. But, then again, it's my money.

Stop me if you've heard this one...

Seriously, stop me if you've heard this one: it has me in stitches.

You shouldn't buy the Green Lantern Classics 3-Pack containing B'Dg, Despotellis, and Dex-Starr [snicker].

I mean, come on. This is basically a pack of three accessories and a torso for a build a figure. Let's set the torso aside for a moment, and focus on the figures.

Two of them are AWESOME. More specifically, the sheer fact they exist is awesome. A chipmunk Green Lantern? That's incredible.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that B'Dg isn't a real chipmunk: he's actually an alien from the planet H'lven, whose similar appearance to that of an Earth rodent is entirely coincidental.)

Dex-Starr is a house cat. From Earth (more specifically, Brooklyn). His Red Lantern ring allows him to create energy constructs and breathe fire. He wears it on his tail. His is a tale of vengeance and tragedy.

I fucking love DC Comics.

The third figure who comes in the pack is Despotellis, a sentient virus. Eh. Whatever.

There's nothing ostensibly wrong with the figures, themselves. Articulation is fairly limited, but fine for this scale (Despotellis has no articulation, but... who cares). In terms of appearance, B'Dg and Dex-Starr are that perfect mixture of adorable and badass that make them impossible not to love.

Why shouldn't you buy them? Because THEY COST THREE TIMES AS MUCH AS THEY SHOULD. If you miraculously manage to find them at retail price, they'll still set you back fifteen. In New York City, your options are further limited. I found these at a comic shop, which had marked them up to twenty. And when I say "up" I mean down, because Toys R Us is scamming customers out of $21 for these (or at least they are for the first wave: this wave wasn't in stock last time I stopped by).

These are glorified accessories, not full figures. I mean, look at this - B'Dg is smaller than Kyle Raynor's sword:

But the joke is, if you're anything like me, you'll buy them anyway. Why? Well, two reasons. First, there's this:

Ha! I love him so damn much! Oh, there was a second reason, too. That's right: because we're suckers.

On the plus side, Dex-Starr comes with flame-breath. Also, the build-a-figure piece is Stel's torso, which has some custom potential, even if you're not planning on completing him.

We're still suckers, though.

Custom: Nite-Lik (Sort of)

Had they been packaged individually, Skallox and Nite-Lik are the kind of figures I generally skip, despite the fact they're among some of the nicest offerings I've seen from Mattel. Seriously, these are fantastic toys.

However, they're not exactly A-list characters. In fact, this is Nite-Lik's first appearance (though apparently he's going to be showing up in the comics).

What made the difference was the alternate head and hands (this is the third release in the Green Lantern Classics line that's used this technique; I own the others, too).

The thing is, unless you're a customizer, having an extra head doesn't do you a lot of good. Ultimately, you can only display one figure at a time, right?

With Green Lanterns, you always have the option of a simple head swap with one of your extra Hal Jordan bodies (most of us have at least one or two lying around). Even the Sinestro Corps have had enough releases to make the Low/Maash set somewhat logical (though, in my case, I wound up using Low's hands on another project; I'm still waiting to find a use for his head).

But these are the first Red Lanterns released: ostensibly, you either need to buy both or display one.

But look closer. Nite-Lik actually comes with an upper chest covering, containing the Red Lantern symbol. If this isn't custom bait, I don't know what is:

I'm starting to wonder if Mattel is actively trying to encourage customizing. If not corporate, I can't shake the suspicion the Four Horsemen might have had this in mind.

Check out what Jin Saotome did with that piece. I'm afraid I didn't get quite so creative. I just wanted to see if I could make a decent Nite-Lik out of the pieces left over from my custom Green Lantern Batman. Here's what I was working with:

The body is from the infamous Batman covered in "mud" from the Clayface 2-Pack, with forearms swapped with Green Lantern. I trimmed down and sculpted over some of the belt, then filled in the hole in Batman's back where his cape originally plugged in. I also added some claws to his feet, because... well, just because I felt like it.

Here's what that looked like:

Next up, paint. Lots and lots of paint. Layers. Followed by sealant. I used a metallic paint, hoping to match the shine on his collar. It was a long way from perfect, but it came closer than the original. Here's the body that came in the pack beside mine (I'm sure you can tell, but just in case the custom is the one on the left).

And here they are with heads and hands (my custom is on the right this time):

Not perfect, but pretty cool if I do say so myself.

So, with just a little paint, some clay, and left over parts, I managed to build a second Red Lantern. Oh, also about six hours of time.

All to avoid buying a second $20 figure. If that seems insane to you, then welcome to the world of customizing toys....

Scud: the Disposable Assassin

Back in high school, a friend of mine was really into Scud. He lent me a bunch of issues - most of the run, if memory serves - and I read through them. I remember really liking it... at first. I felt like it got repetitive pretty fast, though it probably didn't help that I went through them in a single sitting.

But the series had an interesting visual style and was intriguingly twisted. There was something appealing about the concept, even if it was a little light to ground an entire series on.

At any rate, I've known about the toy from Shocker for a while. Right off the back, I was impressed with how well they captured the character. I'd have bought one a while ago, but I was turned off by the price (sixteen to twenty at most comic shops). This is a cool figure, but it's not exactly a large one.

Well, for whatever reason, I stumbled across this at Toys R Us for ten, which seemed more reasonable. I picked him up, in part to get a feel for Shocker as a company. I'm pretty sure this is the first of their action figures I've ever bought, as hard as that is to believe, and I figured $10 was a small price to pay for a cool toy and some research.

I'm really happy I picked him up. The figure includes a bit of shading that really punches up the visual impact. The guns are highly stylized and extremely thin, which works with the overall 'sketched' look they've captured. I'm also happy to report that the self-destruct warning appears on Scud's back, and is legible:

The character design lends itself to including a great deal of articulation, and Shocker took advantage. By my count, Scud has eight ball joints (head, chest, shoulders, hips, and even wrists), six pins (ankles, elbows, and knees), and five cuts (upper arms, upper legs, and waist). With a few exceptions, those joints give you any range of motion you could imagine. His head can tilt almost all the way back, so it's looking up: I wouldn't have expected that.

The only major exception is with the hips, which only give you a little motion to the sides. Honestly, I don't think you'll miss it, though: this has some fantastic articulation. But that's nothing to the balance. Because the figure's so light, he'll retain a huge number of poses. He won't hold this next one forever, but the fact he balanced at all is pretty impressive:

The joints are all fairly loose, and they'll pop out pretty easily. Actually, there's a sense in which Scud feels more like a building set than an action figure, save that he comes pre-assembled.

Stylistically, this is a very different kind of figure than what I'm used to. He almost feels more like a descendant of Stikfas figures than a relation of DC Universe Classics. That's fitting, seeing as Scud isn't exactly a toy Mattel or Hasbro would be likely to make.

In terms of accessories, Scud fares pretty well. He comes with an extra pair of hands, in case you want to display him unarmed. I don't expect many collectors will want to do so, but it's always nice having a few extra hands hanging around.

In addition, he also comes with an Isz from The Maxx, another series I was introduced to by the aforementioned friend from high school. These guys are a little better known than Scud, since The Maxx was produced as an animated series on MTV (which is actually what I know them from). The Isz are basically a cross between piranas and Smurfs. Since I don't have any pirana toys on display, I've put him on the shelf beside my wife's Smurfs. I'm sure they'll get along.

This is a really nice toy. The next time you're in Toys R Us, I recommend keeping an eye out for these. If you find them, at least run them by the price scanners. Though that does tread upon the one warning I'd offer: this is a good toy - maybe even a great one - but it doesn't feel like it should be an expensive one. Ten bucks, in today's market, feels about right. Not cheap, not a bargain, but fair. Any more than that, and it had better be a character you can't live without.

Speaking of which, Shocker has a release of The Tick coming out. I'm definitely going to be keeping my eyes out for that.

Dinosaur Skulls Toob

My wife and I were in Michaels the other day, picking up some paint and assorted supplies, when we stumbled across this.

I'm not entirely knew to the "Toob" phenomenon - actually, I reviewed a set years ago in The Clearance Bin - but this is by far the coolest.

The set includes nineteen skulls in all, and there's some nice detail here. The paint, while nothing complicated, is effective, conveying the fossilized motif nicely.

These are about the size of a 6 - 7 inch figure's head. The entire set was priced at $6.99, not a bad deal in itself. We had a 50% coupon off one item, so we sort of paid $3.50 (I say "sort of," because it meant we couldn't use the coupon on something else that started at $5, so we really paid... oh, never mind).

To be honest, I have no idea what I'm going to do with these. Some might end up as set dressing littered around a He-Man diorama; some might even turn into custom heads. At any rate, I'm glad I picked them up, especially at that price.

Green Lantern Classics: Medphyll and NautKeLoi

I picked this pair up at a comic shop a week ago. They're part of the second (and apparently final) wave of Green Lantern Classics figures Mattel released.

Like Low and Maash, you get one Green Lantern body and two heads. Of course, you can always buy a second figure, so you can display both.

Or, I don't know, you could swap out the head for one of your extra Hal or Sinestro figures from the Green Lantern's Light five-pack you bought on Ebay. Your choice.

The new body is actually a slight update. In addition to using a darker paint, they've swapped out the "human" feet for something a bit more alien.

The heads are pretty good, but not spectacular. They're very silver-age in appearance, so they don't fit in perfectly with the more modern versions we've been getting (particularly with the villains). Still, they're close enough, so it's no big deal.

If I was only going to display one, I'd probably go with NautKeLoi (that's fish-head, for those of you with a Masters in nerdery), though I wish they had went with a closed mouth.

I like the water tank he wears. The dome does come off, so you can attach and pose his head. Unfortunately, the dome doesn't leave any extra room between his head and the clear plastic on the sides, so he needs to be looking straight forward when it's on.

These are definitely army-builders, but they're good army builders. I suspect whoever planned this released them knowing collectors had extra bodies, and I, for one, appreciate that. I'm not fawning over these figures, but I basically got two Green Lanterns for the price of... well... about one and a half (twenty bucks... really?).

You also get one of Stel's legs. Barring this line going on clearance, I don't anticipate ever having the pieces to finish him, so that's going into the custom bin.

Custom Green Lantern

So, I've got this head off of Grendel's mother. And I've got all these extra Green Lantern figures lying around. Seemed obvious to me.

I haven't bothered naming the character, but I've been referring to him as "the magician." The concept (besides just being a generic alien in the Corps) is that he uses his ring to enable and enhance his magic. Several members of the Corps use their rings to construct guns and other technological weapons; I figured that, with the sheer amount of magic energy floating around the DCU, someone could just as easily construct runic shapes. Sort of a Doctor Fate of the Lantern Corps, I guess. Yeah, I know Alan Scott is already sort of a mystic Green Lantern, but he's not part of the Corps.

In terms of construction....

My wife was kind enough to drill a larger hole in Grendel's mother's head (she doesn't trust me not to break her tools; I don't trust myself not to take off a finger - we have a good arrangement). I used kneadatite to sculpt back in enough of a neck to fit around the ball joint, then painted it. Here's the head in progress (the painting was about 1/3rd done at this point, but you can see how it works).

I honestly don't remember whether the body I used came off of Hal or Sinestro, but they're identical... so who cares? The only alteration I made was to the forearms, which I pained shiny green.

The hands belong to Low, from the Maash/Low Sinestro Corps figure (hey, I could only have one at a time anyway, and Maash was cooler). I painted these similar to the head, changed the ring from yellow to green, and swapped them for the "normal" ones. The pegs are different shapes, so it's not a perfect fit. Still, they seem secure enough.

The cape is from a Shadowrun figure named Liada we bought years ago for her accessories. I considered trying to redo the clasp as a Green Lantern symbol, but decided that sounded like a lot of work.

The whole thing came together nicely. The head's a little loose (and it's angled up a little more than I'd like), but I think the end effect is pretty cool.

At some point, I'd like to get him a green marble to hold as a crystal ball. I'm also going to keep my eyes out for a good tail: I wanted to include one, but despite having a good half dozen options in my bins, I just couldn't find anything that looked right.

For the time being, though, I'm declaring him finished.