Green Lantern Classics: Black Hand

Black Hand is an old Green Lantern villain from the 60's who I'd never heard of until Blackest Night, when he killed himself then helped Nekron nearly wipe out all life in the Universe. I've made no secret of my general dislike of that story line, so it probably won't come as a huge surprise when I say I have relatively little interest in this particular incarnation of this relatively obscure super villain.

But screw all that: he came with Arkillo's other arm, which was the last piece I was missing.

In terms of sculpt and paint, this is a perfectly fine figure. I like the metallic studs, and the head's pretty well done. He certainly looks like a contemplative zombie, which is a pretty good approximation of how he appeared throughout most of Blackest Night.

Before I get to articulation, let's talk quality control. My figure had an unusual defect, albeit a correctable one. There was a weird knob in his elbow joint, effectively preventing it from moving at all. I twisted it off with a Leatherman, which freed up the joint. Yeah, there's a small patch missing paint now, but at least his arm works again.

Hand has both double elbows and knees, which is rare for these figures. To be honest, I'm not really clear on why Mattel decided to invest in these joints here: they're not really essential to the character.

I already mentioned he came with Arkillo's arm. In addition, he's also got yet another useless pair of 3D glasses. I can't help but wonder how many kids tried wearing these into the theater only to receive a crash-course on the difference between dual-color and polarized 3D projections.

Frankly, I feel like this could have used another accessory. Something iconic, something interesting. Say, Batman's skull. Come on: that was just about the only cool thing about Blackest Night: how could they leave it out?

While I got half of this wave at a discount, I paid fifteen dollars plus shipping for William Hand here (I picked him up on Entertainment Earth, which had him cheaper than anywhere else I could find). I'm not thrilled with this figure at that price, but I really wanted that arm.