Picture: Team-Up

I wanted to get Man-Bat in there, too, but he's wired in flight in the back of my DCU display. Maybe next time.

Picture: Cave

Picture: Consultation

Picture: In Blackest Night

Tube Shot Glasses

Those are "Luau Tube Shot Glasses," which cost me a buck at... just some discount store in Queens. In case it wasn't already obvious, I didn't pick these up for a party or anything.

Actually, four of the glasses are, at least for the time being, completely superfluous to me. I bought this solely for the two green ones:

Bet you know where this is going. That's right: I was gambling the size would be right. And, wouldn't you know it...

With absolutely no energy expended or work required, I've got a pretty nice energy blast for my 13 inch DC Direct Green Lantern figure. The opening wedges over his fist, and (at least so far) hasn't scraped the paint or given me any problems. Perfect fit, actually:

The two glasses stack, allowing for an extended blast. Alternatively, they can always be divvied up:

The figure on the right, in case you missed it, is the custom I can be a Green Lantern Barbie my wife made. It's not quite as snug a fit there, but it balances fairly well.

I'm not crazy about the bottoms of the glasses, and I might eventually attach something more interesting, assuming I can find something that works as a construct. In the meantime, not too bad for a buck and no work.

Displayed: DC Universe

Two or three times a year, I pick up my DC Universe figures and reassemble the display shelf I have set up. Most of these are DC Universe Classics (or the Green Lantern Classics off-shoot), though there are also several DC Direct figures mixed in. About a third of the characters are wired up in flight: everyone else is either balanced, placed on a stand, or leaned against another character (or a Batcycle).

The flyers all stay in place; everyone else basically just topples over in time (which is why I decided to snap some pictures ASAP).

The big addition this year has been to the Lantern Corps. With the upcoming movie, I've been buying like crazy, and even trying my hand at a custom or two.

I know I mentioned this when I talked about the plastic appetizer swords I found in a party supply store, but I didn't have a photo available at the time. Here's Hal and Sinestro fighting (the yellow electricity on Sinestro's left arm came from the same Liada Shadowrun figure who donated her cape to the aforementioned custom Green Lantern I made.

Here's a quick shot of Batman and Catwoman hanging out in front of the Batcycle I repainted last year.

Ebaying: Streaky the Supercat

I've been reading through a tome of old Supergirl reprints lately. Man, the Golden Age was bizarre. I mean REALLY bizarre. Do you have any idea how many times Supergirl's horse turned into a human and they made out? It's more than you'd think.

At this point, I figure most people are pretty familiar with Supergirl, herself; the girl from Krypton rocketed to Earth like her older cousin (and his dog). I don't think that her pet Supercat is quite as well known.

Of course, they're both far better known than the aforementioned Comet, the Super-horse. And let's not even get started on Beppo, the Super-Monkey.

Unlike Supeman, Supergirl, Krypto, and Beppo, Streaky was not from Krypton. No, like Comet, he hailed from Earth (but unlike Comet, he was an actual animal, rather than a centaur accidentally transformed into a horse, given superpowers by Circe, then trapped in distant space by an evil curse for thousands of years). No, Streaky's just a cat who got his powers by accident.

The significance of Streaky is that he was originally included as an accessory with the 13 inch DC Direct Supergirl figure. And the significance of that action figure is that I never bought it.

I actually came close a few times when I've seen it on clearance. Whenever I've mentioned this to Lindsay, she's pointed out that we already have a 12-inch Supergirl, in the form of Barbie. And, ultimately, that 12-inch figure is better scaled to the 13-inch DC Direct figures we actually own.

Also, while the head sculpt on the DC Direct Supergirl looks nice, the costume on the Barbie looks better. In fact, taken as a whole, the Barbie's probably a nicer toy.

But, I pointed out time and time again, THE DC DIRECT SUPERGIRL COMES WITH STREAKY.

This argument never carried the weight I'd expected it to, and, in the end, I agreed dropping a significant amount of cash on a character we already own just so I could have a small toy cat accessory probably wasn't the best use of our funds....

Jump ahead to a few months ago. I was searching around Ebay, and hope against hope, someone was letting their Streaky go. For around six bucks (including shipping), I wound up getting a Streaky of my own.

So. How is it?

Pretty good, overall, though it's a bit small (it must seem miniscule beside the larger DC Direct Supergirl). It has a cut neck, but no other joints, which is a bit disappointing. The cape's pretty nice, though, and the expression is awfully cute.

The fact I paid less for this than I did for Dex-Starr hasn't escaped my notice. In case you were wondering.