Like the best DC Direct figures, the overall sculpt on the figure is great. Excellent work by Paul Harding (who also did the modern Guy head in the GL wave that followed this one). The head sculpt here is fantastic and the costume detail is translated well into 3D despite some of the artwork for the Red Lantern Guy being a little stylized if I recall. The t-crotch articulation and the super-tight fabric lines are a bit unsightly, but that’s more of a common theme with DC figures than a specific complaint about this sculpt (and if you check out that Paul Harding link, the original sculpted piece looks better in that area, I think the metallic paint is throwing things off a bit).
The paint work is the one spot where DC Direct tends to outshine Mattel when it comes to the Lanterns. I’m going to be a bit hypocritical here because I don’t want Mattel to use metallics, but I do enjoy it so when DC Direct does. Guy’s red areas are painted silver and then covered with a red clearcoat to get a great metallic effect. The paintwork was also pretty sharp throughout the figure, following the sculpted detail lines and even getting that one dab of green in just the right spot. There is a little slop in the hair, or rather on the ears. I’m not sure if the blood on the mouth is a paint app or a tampo, but it also looks fantastic and serves as a finishing touch on the figure.
And then there’s the one area where DC Direct doesn’t shine: articulation. The arms are almost nice with the single hinge and bicep/wrist swivels, but it turned out that the shoulder was also a simple swivel so the whole arm doesn’t do much (to make matters worse the left bicep on my guy is completely stuck and after I broke my Man-Of-Bats twice, I’m too shy to try and fix it). With the arms being limited, the head being only a swivel, and the leg articulation (limited t-crotch hips, single hinge knee) being mostly useless – the figure doesn’t really move too much. If I had the bicep issue resolved he could at least hold his chainsaw convincingly, but dramatic poses beyond that (then again, what chainsaw pose isn’t dramatic?) are out of the question.
For accessories, Guy included that aforementioned chainsaw and the par for the course Red Lantern stand. I love the chainsaw, but the clear plastic feels very brittle and it’s an odd fit for his hands. The handle on mine has already got a few stress marks despite my trying to gently get it in the figures hands. I fear it won’t take too much to break it.
Overall, if you’re a DC Direct buyer, then this figure is par for the course. Great sculpt, clean paints, but questionable articulation. The inclusion of the chainsaw is fantastic, but I wish the plastic were a little more user-friendly. If you want a toy to play with, this Guy probably isn’t for you, but if you want something to look cool on your shelves, he’s your man. If you’re like me, you’re surely sick of buying Green Lantern figures (and wondering where are the Flash Rogues, Wonder Woman characters, Morrison JLA, Villains, Space Characters…), but I still can’t seem to turn down one if it’s cool or if I liked the story. If Guy here had a working bicep, I’d be completely happy with him despite my GL fatigue.
It’s a little bittersweet to also realize that this could be one of the last DC Direct figures I’ll be buying anytime soon. While DC Comics has been slowly eroding my willingness to buy their comics, DC Direct just up and left my money on the table. The slim 2012 offerings are of little to no interest to me, so after I get reviews up for Natu & Warth (& Munk once I finally get around to snagging a loose one, stupid 4pk), it might be a long drought before any more DCD is featured here at IAT.
For more DC Direct Reviews, check out our Review Index.
Bonus Pic! I made this accidentally in photoshop when I hit the hue slider. It landed square on these colors.
aw man, those color altered Lanterns look cool! Now I wish I HAD picked up another Warth the other week at my shop’s anniversary sale! After balking initially on Soranik, I did snag her then for cheap. I’m still waiting for SinCorps Moose, Slush, and Tekik, myself.
That said, I’ve been following the same arcs and there seemed to be a point during the last couple issues of Blackest Night that Johns hit the wall and the whole GL line hasn’t really recovered. (About same time he was named Chief Creative Officer?) Considering not much of the GL mythos was affected by the nu52 reboot, there shouldn’t be too many problems, but they are evident, from minor things like Ganthet finding Kyle in NYC as opposed to LA, to how Guy knows J’onn while J’onn is practically first introduced to the GLC just a few months ago, and where JLI fits into Guy’s timeline.
Aside from that, Guy has only worn the ring twice, during BN for two issues and later in the War for Oa arc, where Kyle also wore the Blue (not counting the recent New Guardians issue where he wears all the rings at once). SinCorps Hal and Blue Kyle are about the only upcoming Lanterns I’m looking forward to, btw.
I have gotten the trio you mentioned (Guy, Soranik, Warth), but haven’t opened Guy yet. I’m not sure why? I know there is at least one seller on ebay who had some loose Munk’s and other figures from the 4pk, but it’s been a month since I’ve checked in and I’m not sure how many he had. Some figures seem unlimited, others he appears to only have a handful, total crapshoot.
Your GL figure buying habits are very much in line with mine. I only want alien Corps members/occasional derivative characters that make sense, i.e. no more blue Barry Allens. I did find a single Munnk (no staff) and picked up Warth and Natu, but a scale Galius Zed, non-movie tie-in figure or even a Mattel version of Arisia would be figures I would actually LOVE to own. Unfortunately, 2012 bring us more one-offs and fewer aliens with the Larfleeze seemingly being scrapped.
I’m stuck pretty much pre-Crisis in my knowledge of the goings-on in re. anything Green Lantern (well, there’s that whole Parallax thing)so much of this is just colors to me. 🙂
OTOH, have to say, don’t watch the Green Lantern movie. Just don’t. I made my mom very upset because I kept throwing up my hands and going “but THAT shouldn’t happen! And why did he do this? In the comic he would have just thought of a giant baseball bat, not a complicated trailer mounted 4-barrel .50 cal WW II Anti-Aircraft gun!” and such things. And there’s ZERO motivation for what Sinestro does during the end credits!
It was tiring enough to me, it would probably make your head explode. 🙂
And yet they’re gonna do another one. *sigh*
I gotta expand on this because I’m an idiot. See, I’m used to Hal having his usual go-to ring constructs. The Giant Baseball Bat. The Giant Hand. The Giant Mallet. The Giant Mousetrap. Just a good solid dose of BURNING HARD GREEN LIGHT. Dig?
But the movie? Guns? Makes no sense. I mean, we see Hal conjure up an Anti-aircraft gun from scratch. EVERY SINGLE PART of a .50 cal Browning M2 machine gun x4, slapslapslapclick and THEN it starts shooting green light belts of ammo, with shells ejecting and everything. WHY? WHY use up all that willpower when a giant baseball bat would have done as well? Why would Movie Hal WANT to think of a super intricate mental weapon?
See, that nonsense took me completely out of the movie. It may do the same to you. STAY AWAY! 🙂
If it was the constructs that drove you crazy and not the lack of plot, even in the :extended” version, which did include a couple explanatory scenes, then I don’t know what to say. This is Hollywood, who bungled rebooting Superman a few years back and are working on rebooting him AGAIN, just like Marvel’s Hulk.
Sure, it was “Hal”, who worked for Ferris Aircraft, etc, but the constructs were pure Kyle and “ex-Marine” John, who was supposed to have an unidentified barfight cameo, but it was cut? As for Sinestro, people who read the novelisation say it made sense there , but NOT so much onscreen.
Personally, I’m still annoyed over the current retcon, where Johns has a mixed group of Guardians, as opposed to the all-male group we had before GL:Rebirth.
Oh, the rest of it made me bonkers too, rest assured! It’s just easier to hit that point on the constructs because it’s instant and visual and wouldn’t take lots more writing to dissect.
It’s kind of like the very first Punisher movie, where the director didn’t want the big skull on Frank’s chest because it was way too ‘comic book-y’, yet did this make-up thing with Dolph to create the visual cue of a skull on his face. It’s a complete mis-understanding of what works about the I.P. they’re trying to monetize in a motion picture paradigm. 🙂
(Does The Punisher need that big-a** skull on his chest? No. But he doesn’t need the white make-up skull and the instruction to try not to move his face at all because he’s like, dead,dead inside, right? Man, he’s not the ’30s pulp hero ‘The Avenger’ ya know. 🙂 )
I have to agree about the movie being subpar, but I suggest you still watch it because it does actually set up the next movie and that’s a story I’d like to see play out. It’s also a pretty fun watch if you don’t have your hopes too high. The worst part of the movie for me was that Johns was so heavily involved in it and kept touting it’s greatness but the whole story was such a mess and Reynolds (who does the best with what he’s given) is not Hal Jordan. That was a bad casting choice. The choice of villains was also pretty bad. Parallax was not properly done and reminded me of the Cloud Galactus that threatened the Fantastic 4 and Hammond was over the top cheesy and annoying at points which really took me out of the movie. If they had just followed a simple story of Hal discovering that Sinestro was a tyrant, imprisoning him within the battery (where he would of course find Parallax) and then have him break out in the end with a Yellow ring and his blue suit then they could have moved on to a 2-part Sinestro Corps war movie that would have been epic.
Movie had a few cool moments,but squandered the chance to have some cool constructs that made sense in the moment or even make Hal likable. The race track construct scene was juts awful and over-complicated way to save those people.
Topless robot did a pretty funny breakdown of some of key scenes in GL (profanity laced so be warned) http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/06/topless_robot_presents_the_best_scenes_from_the_gr.php
Back to GG, love this figure(Wraal is awesome too), just not happy I broke the handle of the chainsaw about 2 seconds into trying to get it out of the package! Not sure why they went with such fragile plastic for it.
Sadly, that was a pretty accurate take on the plot of the movie. How could Johns have read that script and endorsed it in any way?
How? Paycheck, maybe? Name attached to movie maybe? I dunno, Ego can make poor choices. 🙂
Paycheck I could see but after the work he did bringing Hal back and creating the SC war you would think he wouldn’t want his name attached to that movie.
Well, it’s just my perspective, but I think it helps to remember just how powerful the desire to have a name on a BIG HOLLYWOOD MOVIE can be. People to this day still have dreams of fame FAME F A M E that would be attached to simply having one’s name in the credits in any capacity.
Doesn’t matter if the movie was bad, because we fanboys are just stupid nitpickers who really don’t UNDERSTAND things. We’re not in the ‘INDUSTRY’, dig?
I mean, there’s a reason why the comics world has let Hollywood totally take over SDCC. Money, fame, hot chicks for booth babes. Money Money Money.
Mattel, I don’t believe that they go to SDCC because of the comic fans, I believe they go to be seen by Hollywood suits, see the frantic cattlecall of fans lining up to snatch at eBay fodder. “Look! toys are still relevant! Look at that crowd!”
ahhh, I need to take some anti-cynicism pills or something. 🙂
Johns got his big break working for Richard Donner LONG before he ever took a side gig writing comics. You’d think he’d be used to all the Hollywood BS by now.
As for Johns’ involvement in the film, I just gotta say: it was probably minimal. That’s why he was reduced to a cheerleader when it came out. He may have started in movies, but once Hollywood got ahold of GREEN LANTERN they no doubt muscled him and the rest of the DC crew out of the picture. This happened with BATMAN and SUPERMAN too.
Well, I wouldn’t doubt that. I mean, they’re just comic book people, right? what do they know? 🙂
(Johns pre-comic pedigree notwithstanding)
You guys are probably right about Johns but he tweeted about it so much, it made it sound like he was on the set most of the time.