ItsAllTrueReview: DC
Classics Color of Fear 2pk

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Our Blackest Night Double Feature continues with a review the newest DC Classics 2-pack from Mattel, the Color of Fear.

We’ve talked about lead time before and how for most licensees, they have difficulty getting product to market that is well-timed with the events happening in the comics. The Color of Fear 2pk is meant to tie-in with last year’s Sinestro Corps War (that really needed a better name), but that event tied directly into Blackest Night (Blackest Year!) anyway, so all things being the same, this is an opportune time for Mattel to be releasing this 2pk. With both Mattel and DC Direct producing Blackest Night figures it’s good to be a Green Lantern fan. If you’re unfamiliar with Blackest Night, you can learn more at the Blackest Night mini-site at DCComics.com.

One of the best parts of Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night has been the cast of characters introduced as new Lanterns. From Larfleeze to Dex-Starr, the cast of the GL franchise seems to be growing by the Wednesday. And these characters, some with rich backstories, are catching on with fans. My biggest complaint about Blackest Night is that they aren’t spending enough time on of these new characters. The storyline has so many threads, that a lot of characters have been little more than eye candy in the background. I hope that, going forward, DC finds a way to publish more stories about these other Lanterns (if they all survive Blackest Night) and that includes characters like Romat-Ru and Karu-Sil, the two characters featured in today’s review.

Even though I read Sinestro Corps War, I was only familiar with Karu-Sil when I first heard about the 2pk. Karu-Sil is a little bit older (her first appearance features her in a blue/purple Sinestro Corps uniform) than Romat-Ru and she’s been featured a little more prominently while dealing with Guy Gardner and the Zamarons. Romat-Ru is no slouch though. He blends into the mythos of GL by being a member of the same race as the classic Green Lantern Tomar-Re, and is that planet’s most notorious serial killer. In the current titles, he is often shown as being a lieutenant in the Sinestro Corps and being sent on missions at Sinestro’s behest.

Karu-Sil

Karu-Sil uses the first female buck with a few additions. The main drawback to this buck is the tiny arms, but if you keep the biceps turned inward, it helps the figure look a lot less fragile. Sil features new forearms with the trademark bands, new hands (w/ sculpted ring), a belt, and a new collar, all topped off with a great headsculpt. One of the reasons Karu-Sil might stand out among the other Sinestro Corps members is that she’s usually drawn from a distance at first – and you can mistake her for a beautiful woman at a distance. It’s not until you get up close to see her crazy eye and bare teeth, and by then – it’s too late for you. The 4H have perfectly captured Van Sciver’s depiction and sold the figure just on the headsculpt.

Sil doesn’t require a lot of paintwork, but what is there is good. The tampos are perfect. The fingernails are a nice touch. The boots are painted-on details, but it works. Her exposed eye (under her hair) is great and really catches your attention the first time you see it under there. Articulation is what you’ve come to expect on DC Classics. Her head should have good movement, but the hair blocks it. On the two we inspected for the review, both had a warped left leg due to the packaging.

Karu-Sil comes packed with one of her ‘Fathers Three’. You can read her full bio here, but essentially she was raised by a trio of the animals after her family was slaughtered. A passerby Green Lantern saw her with them, thought she needed help, and killed her adopted family in an attempt to “rescue” her. Oops. When she gets her Sinestro ring, she recreates the trio and treats them as she would the real beasts. This does lead me to the one complaint – I want two more! The ring constuct features an articulated neck.

Romat-Ru

Romat-Ru uses the main buck from the DC Classics line. He has Adam Strange’s lower legs for the sculpted boot lines and features new forearms, new hands, a belt, and a Xudarian head sculpt. I’m against screaming head sculpts, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Xudarian with their mouth closed. I still assume they can, and I still hope that this doesn’t mean the eventual Tomar-Re will be a screamer (via reuse) too. I do have to admit that it looks good here.

Paintwork is good all around with crisp lines and sharp tampos. The figure is articulated like every other DC Classic, but he does have the triple barbell that prevents the neck peg from moving and decreases the range the head can move. He can look side-to-side and down. That’s it.

In Conclusion…

Overall, these are two more solid figures to add to your DC shelf. The two figures blend well with the shorter Sinestro from earlier in the line (despite his being more of an orange-yellow) or the metallic yellow of Kryb and Sinestro from DC Direct. As a whole, they’re making for a great front of the shelf group – especially while the story line is running in the comics.

This 2pk is still available, but it was said to be selling “better than expected” by Toy Guru. Unfortunately, it is the next to last Matty 2pk. While there seems to be a future for other DCUC multi-packs on Mattycollector, the low sales of the earlier 2pks (Battle for Earth-3 & Space Heroes) seems to have put the kibosh of Matty’s plans for now. The last 2pk, Justice in the Jungle featuring B’Wana Beast & Animal Man, is scheduled for December.

23 thoughts on “ItsAllTrueReview: DC
Classics Color of Fear 2pk”

  1. Pingback: ItsAllTrueReview: DC Direct Kryb & Indigo « It'sAllTrue.Net

  2. Wow. You are right about Karu sil getting creepier as you get closer. That right eye really jumps out and grabs you in that third picture.

  3. I was starting to wonder when your next review was going to be. I believe you almost went through all of November without doing a single one.

    Placing Sinestro next to Karu-Sil is ingenious. That’s the first picture that he’s been in and not looked ridiculously small.

  4. I appreciate the super articulation, but so many cuts really hurt the aesthetic. That thigh cut is awful. Isn’t there technology to put that swivel joint up in the hip?

    1. of course there is, motuc managed to get teela’s thighs PERFECT and that line is also done by the infamous mattel… so i think they just hate DCU fans. 😉 hey, they did giganta w/ ball hips, they use balls in the motuc girls, it’s just the DCU girls who suffer from what i like to call karen carpenter arms and the ugly mid-thigh Swivel of Ruination.

      1. Are you kidding? Have you seen under the skirt? Those are horrid joints under there – they have to give ALL the girls skirts to cover them up. And last I checked, Adora & Teela DIDN’T wear skirts. But now they have to because the girls don’t even get a proper lower abdomen!!

        I’ll take thigh cuts over the MOTU girls any time.

        1. of course i’ve looked under the skirt… what kind of pervert do you take me for, that was the first thing i did on opening. and if the hip itself isn’t the prettiest, it more than supplies the articulation that DCU fans are used to while providing a sleeker,smore feminine thigh. i would further add that giganta’s skirt was totally in character for her, and really, so was teela’s. the piece of the onesie she’s wearing which you’re calling a skirt BARELY falls past her crotch, so it generally looks like her old counterpart.

          now, on a gal like wonder woman, wear her hips are pretty visible, it wouldn’t work. but for a gal like supergirl, who is wearing a skirt, it’s look fine. and really, a few tweaks to the buck and you could pass most outfits w/ any kind of lower body wear into those hips and keep those sleek, silky thighs.

          i look at it like this, one of things that WOWED me most about wonder woman and power girl were the proto pics showing these curvy yet muscular gals w/ gorgeous legs. then come figure time, the arms are anorexic and the gorgeous bare legs are spindly and cut right in the middle… that’s literally a deal breaker for me. they were so fugly compared to the protos, i passed. the ball hip may not be your cup of tea, but for me, it’s way better than what you DC fans are currently getting. or in the case of black canary, not getting at all.

    2. I don’t have a big problem with thigh cuts, but I’ll take the DCUC hips over the MOTU ones anyday. I’m still wondering how they’ll do a non loin-cloth figure.

  5. I think someone needs to run a poll on how many of these sets people bought. I finally broke down and ordered three and want to know how many others are doing the same, if not more.

    I’m actually taking advantage of this week’s sale and bought all three for Karu Sil’s “pack”, so I’m going to have some head swappage to build up this Corps. Even my DCUC SinCorps Sinestro might get a head swap (to Amon?), as the DCD version looks superior (not even holding his height issue against him!) I never did see that TRU GL 2pk for Abin, tho.

    1. I do want to do that, but man too much stuff coming for me to be able to affod it.

      The GL 2pk is being rereleased again, but I’m not sure when.

  6. Karu-sil is by far one of my favorite in my collection, right up there with the joker and green arrow. there is something about them that really makes me appreciate this collection that seems to never stop growing. it is a shame that this will be the one of the last 2 packs. hopefully later on we get exclusive singles that will continue this matty exclusive trends. Im still looking for my Jason Todd

    1. There seems to be a lot of rumors about multi-packs on Matty. We’ll have to see what happens.

      And Karu-Sil being so great was a nice surprise.

  7. Great review. Love that shot of all the corps so far. Where did you get that yellow construct shotgun. I need one of those!

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