There’s a lot of smaller animal characters in the DC Universe and I don’t know if there’s a good way for Mattel to get to them. They took their first stab at it in this wave with a “three-pack” of B’dg, Dex-Starr, & Despotellis. I put three-pack in quotes because Despotellis isn’t a figure. He’s an accessory, which makes this a two-pack in my eyes. Anyway, I want a lot of the smaller characters like Detective Chimp, Ch’p, Rex the Wonder Dog, etc., but I don’t feel like I got my money’s worth with this two-pack of pack-ins so I’m not sure how I want Mattel to handle them going forward.
B’dg was the highlight for me. In the early 80s, the Green Lantern Corps recruited a young freedom fighter named Ch’p into the Corps. Ch’p’s planet is home to an intelligent race of chipmunks. Ch’p’s history is a pretty fun read, but he ultimately dies at the hands of a yellow truck. When the Green Lantern Corps is reformed post-Rebirth, another member of Ch’p’s race is recruited. Enter B’dg. B’dg hasn’t gotten to be much more than a background character, but it’s nice seeing a chipmunk in the GLC again. No, really.
B’dg is an all-new sculpt and it’s spot-on. He’s got a limited ball-jointed head and cut joints at the shoulders and hips. It’s not much, but it works on a figure his size. The paint and tampos on B’dg were nice and clean too. He does usually need to rest on his tail for balance, but otherwise he’s a great little figure.
Though you can’t tell from some of the artist’s depictions, the DC Direct pack-in, or the Mattel figure, Dex-Starr is a normal (albeit blue) Earth cat. When drawn correctly, he’s just like every house cat you’ve ever seen except that he wears a Red Lantern uniform and coughs blood instead of hairballs. So what went wrong? I don’t know. Some artists feel the need to draw him somewhat anthropomorphized and that artwork apparently ended up as the source material for both figures. It’s a shame, because Dex-Starr was one of the breakout characters and we basically missed our chance at getting a proper figure from both DC toymakers.
Little Dexter was abandoned as a kitten, but was quickly adopted by a lonely woman in New York City. He lived with her for a time, but a robbery attempt on the woman’s apartment went awry and she was killed. Dexter quickly found himself without a home for a second time. He lived on the streets as an alley cat until he was caught by two morons who planned to get their kicks by drowning him. Luckily, a red ring found Dex just before he hit the water and a new character was born. Dex-Starr is easily the second most popular Red Lantern after Atrocitus.
The figure itself is fine if Dex-Starr was from a planet of upright cats the way that B’dg is from a planet of upright chipmunks. The sculpt is done well and the animal head is excellent with the open mouth/screaming looking great with or without the “vomit blood” attachment. Speaking of that, I don’t know if it has to be pink or what, but it really should’ve been red! Dex features the same articulation as B’Dg, except that his head is a simply swivel joint. Like B’dg, Dex-Star usually has to rest on his tail to stand.
The two little figures included an accessory of the Yellow Lantern Despotellis. It’s actually my second Despotellis. I got my first one in what I now know was a “two pack” with Sinestro from DC Direct. Despotellis is a sentient virus and therefore invisible to the naked eye. That easily makes him the most out of scale DC figure ever, but I still think it’s a cool idea. Like the DC Direct one before it, Despotellis does have an articulation point that allows the “head” of the virus to rotate. Despotellis is cast in translucent yellow and required no paint.
Overall, I appreciated G’Hu’s figure, but he’s probably destined for storage unless I buy some other Movie Lanterns to put him with. He’s a solid figure with a neat sculpt, decent paint, and some interesting articulation, but he’s just not part of DCUC despite how he was sold.
For the “three pack”, B’dg is destined for my shelves based on the merits of the figure while Dex-Starr earns a reprieve for being a decent sculpt even if it doesn’t depict him appropriately. The head sculpt looking great with or without the attachment is what really impresses me. Despotellis will go in the accessory bin, I think DC Direct did a better job on him. Plus, they didn’t try to sell it as a unique figure either.
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Corrections : “Sinestro is a sentient virus and therefore is invisible unless you have a microscope.” lol
Great review, though I have seemed to just stop collecting DCU. GLC are 17.99 at TRU and I can’t pay that.
Thanks for catching that for me. I gotta get these done earlier. LOL
I found all my GLC2 at Wal-Mart for the standard $15. I don’t think $18 would make me stop, but it would make it a lot harder.
I would have preferred a comic-based G’Hu, but I’m definitely game for some of the movie lanterns, mainly Rot Lop Fan! Although, I’m considering using black paint to make them appear in more of a comic style.
Any chance they’ll make a Princess Iolande figure in the Movie Masters line? She looks great!
Rot Lop Fan really seems to have been the one that won a lot of folks over. If they do read the boards, they should probably note that for a future DCUC…
I don’t think there’s been any female Mobie Masters yet has there? She’d be a good one though!
What’s the story on the Guardian MM 2pks? I saw some pics of them over the weekend (from WonderCon??) and thought about actually getting some GL-movie based stuff just for the Guardians. esp since the DCD Guardian 2pks have all been bought up, it seems.
No clue G’hu was already in the comics, as I skipped Rebirth up to the SinCorps War and even missed out on a chunk of that as I wasn’t getting GLC yet. Dude looks weird enough to be in either the SinCorps or Red Corps, not the Green.
As for the other MM GLs, I’d have to see some reviews before I buy them. Rot Lop Fan is just too goofy a design from the pics I’ve seen to pick him up, and don’t get me started on why Green Man is now Green FROG. Kilowog is the only one that even looks decent enough for me to buy, and I’ve already got several versions of him (DCD, DCUC, JLU, custom JLU: Kil head/Darkseid body)
As for the rest, I hope we get some more Corps in a third GLC wave or in DCUC, esp the Blue and Sapphire Corps, or at least Bleez, Arisia, Miri, Indigo-1/Munk/Bat-thing, Lyssa Drak, among others.
I haven’t heard much about them yet honestly. I’ve been shying away from Movie Masters news so I don’t get the bug.
Here’s comic G’Hu, he’s a little less weird.
The thing with more Corps figure is that I still want ’em, but it’s like when you’ve had too much candy. You still love chocolate, but you don’t want to ever see it again for a few weeks? I’m feeling that way about GL toys and I’ve still got to choke down the Deputies! But I still want all the ones you mention.
I REALLY am not happy that I have to buy G’Hu to get that arm. I have no intention of collecting the GL movie figures so this is a totally wasted slot for me, and at the current price, it stings even more.
I agree that Despotellis probably should have been an accessory and I think an actual threepack of true mini-figures would have made the price easier to swallow.
Although I have to disagree with you about which Despotellis is higher quality. I think the DCUC one OWNS the DC direct one. The tiny little stick legs on the DCUC don’t look organic at all.
*Little stick legs on the DC Direct one that should be.
I haven’t seen a ton of negativity towards it. At least not as much as I expected. Glad to see I’m not alone.
On Des’, I realize I like the inorganic aspect of the DCD one specifically now that you point it out. That’s interesting.
If I were compelled to buy any of these things, it would be the “three-pack”. That being said, why the hell hasn’t Vault bought it yet?
It’s Armless Stel Week! That’s why. So far, we’ve just gotten one case between the 2 Wal-Marts that have shelf space.
He clarified that for me at Toys R Us yesterday. I made him buy something equally awesome, however.
I will say that we NEED Attrocitus now.
I’m hoping that the fact that he’ll be the main bad guy in the GL animated series mean’s he’s more likely for a future release.
I would like DCUC to get to Atrocitus! I have the DCD but that sculptor chose to turn his biceps parallel with his body instead of perpendicular. It’s almost impossible to pose. If I were a better customizer, I’d happily put some DCUC articulation in the figure though because I liked it otherwise.
Y’know, I really want to like Dex, but I hate anything that gives rise to trendy internet comedy (as kitties naturally do), and that upright look makes it hard for me to take him seriously.
Add me to the anti-G’Hu train. Please tell me he at least had one cool moment in the comics, otherwise that’ll be twice (including Creeper) that I’ve bought an ugly figure just for a damn part.
Is B’dg’s fur really supposed to flair out like that at his collar?
LOL There is a lot of kitty comedy with Dex-Starr too.
G’Hu’s one shining moment was when he was caught in a prison riot. The other GLs had contained the prisoners, but G’Hu was caught in there with them. They were trying to get to him to save him, but by the time they did, he’d already taken care of the situation single-handedly. That’s been about it.
B’dg does have the tuft of fur on his neck. It does stick out farther on the figure for the articulation though. I think of it look a sweater on a pomeranian.
What does Despotellis say in the last ‘panel’?
I didn’t script anything out exactly, but he’s intended to be demanding credit that he came in a 2pk with Sinestro because the other Despotellis was treated like a figure.
The actual words are simply Sinestro’s reduced if I remember correctly.
Sorry, nothing cool. 😀
All three mini-figures seem like the kind of thing that should’ve been stuck in with other figures as pack-ins. Seeing them carded is hilarious, as pretty much the entire card is empty. I dunno, they are smaller and have less articulation then the CNC parts, doesn’t make sense to have Stel grossly oversized when it probably would’ve costed out to have the mini-figures packed in with an in-scale Stel.
I wish I’d taken a picture of the card. Bad combination on Mattel’s part to include the package size just as they attempt this minifigures three pack.
And I completely agree with you. I’m sure that Stel’s C&C piece is the most expensive thing in the package! I wonder if DC collectors would go for a wave of pack-ins instead of a collect and connect.
I want to build Stel but both of these are going to be a tough buy for me. I might get them online so I can’t talk myself out of it!!
I agree that I would have rather had a wave of pack ins instead of Stel. I agree that Stel has a superb sculpt and paint though. I, honestly, think that DCUC should drop the C&C figures and just start doing pack ins. I know they would be hesitant to do so since you can’t reuse much from pack in/accessories, though it isn’t like they’ve gotten further use out of the Giganta parts. I’d love to see: Detective Chimp, Rex the Wonder Dog, Krypto, Ace the Bat-Hound (shared dog parts!), Streaky (shared parts with Dex-Starr), Mr. Mxyztylpk, Bat-Mite, Bottle City of Kandor, Oberon, etc.
I wouldn’t want to drop C&Cs entirely, but I think enough fans could get behind one wave of pack-in characters.
Yeah, G’Hu doesn’t belong in a DCUC Wave. The train grows ever slightly longer. 😉
Thanks for the review! Appreciate the background on Dex, B’dg, and G’Hu as well–I’ve read Most of the stuff from Rebrith but I’ve not seen anything about their histories.
I’ve pre-ordered this wave but i hsn’t arrived yet. Despite the 3 pack beoming a 2+1, I still can’t wait! 😛
I don’t see anyone mentioning this, but it strikes me that Despotellis IS in scale. After all, he looks like a yellow construct, and if you happened to be a microscopic organism, and you happened to have a yellow power ring, how would you make yourself visible if you wanted to be seen? I for one would make a sizable construct of myself. I love the character, because I just assume that the real Despotellis is inside there somewhere. If I want him to turn off his construct and return microscopic…well I put the construct away.