Our 2nd entry in Armless Stel Week is a look at Nautkeloi / Medphyll. There’s just one figure in this review, but it includes alternate heads to be either of the two featured Green Lanterns. It’s cool that these two guys have found their way into the line, but I can’t help feeling bored by this lineup.
In the first wave of Green Lantern Classics, Mattel introduced alternate heads into the DC Classics line. In that wave, a Yellow Lantern was featured that included alternate head and hands to recreate the characters Low or Maash. It was pretty cool – I bought two to have one of each. Mattel embraced that concept even more in the second wave, making combo figures of two Green Lanterns and two Red Lanterns.
As I said in the teaser, the figure includes heads to be either Medphyll or Nautkeloi. Both are classic Green Lanterns, each appearing very early in Hal’s book and both were created by the legendary team of John Broome & Gil Kane.
Nautkeloi is probably the more obscure of two, but it’s hard to say because his appearance is likely the more memorable. His differentiating characteristic is his fish head in a bowl. I think most Green Lantern fans are aware of him, but they might not know just how little we know about him. The character is right around fifty years old, but has only appeared a handful of times and usually as a background character at that. We know he’s from the ocean world of Aeros and… that’s about it. We don’t even know what sector he’s from. Maybe Johns, Bedard, or Tomasi should get on that? Despite his uninspiring appearance list, Nautkeloi’s head was included in DC Direct 1/6th scale line which makes this his second figure (and a third movie-based version is on the way).
Medphyll, on the other hand, might be less identifiable, but has more appearances and story under his belt. He’s a sentient plant hailing from the planet J586. He’s got a few serious battles under his belt including a tussle with the “Anti-Green Lantern Corps” (where’re those figures?!), subduing and befriending Swamp Thing, joining the Darkstars after the Corps was dismantled, and ultimately getting killed by Jack Knight… wait, that last part doesn’t seem to have happened anymore. As they say, he “got better”. Like Nautkeloi, Medphyll is again appearing as a background character in the Green Lantern title.
Once again, we’re talking about a figure that’s mostly just a new head. We’ve got the Hal body and deco from neck to ankles, but the figure does feature new bifurcated feet. This is great for Medphyll because he does have bifurcated feet, but not so much for Nautkeloi since he doesn’t. I’m not going to make a mountain out of a molehill, but it does annoy me a bit.
The centerpiece of the figure is again the head. I’m not as fond of the Medphyll head. It looks okay. I’ve never been exactly sure what Medphyll is – sometimes he’s a plant and other times he’s a vegetable. Is his face made of wood with leaves for hair? Or his face like a potato with asparagus hair? I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone does, but the Four Horsemen had to make a decision to render him in 3D. It looks like they leaned more towards plant and gave him a tree head. It works.
I ended up really liking the Nautkeloi head though. It’s actually three pieces – the collar, the helmet, and the head. The helmet has more of a modern look to it, but I don’t know if the Four Horsemen based it on any artist’s interpretation in particular. Similarly, the head looks modern, but I’m not sure if it comes from specific source material. He does look a little silly with his “bass mouth”, but I like it. I can look at the pieces individually, but it’s really the whole ensemble that works for me. The figure just looks much sharper as Nautkeloi than it does as Medphyll. Continue to Page 2…
Great review as always!
An idea!
Use one of your 40 extra Hal Jordans for the body of Fish Fella since he doesn’t need the fancy alien feet!
I’ve thought about it, even using that crappy Sinestro from the 5pk.
Yep, I’m planning to slap Naut’s head on the metallic Hal from the two-pack with Sinestro. I ended up buying four Low/Maash bodies to have each character plus a few customs I made. However, thanks to the GL 5pk I have a spare GL body and I’m not crazy about “Creepy Eyes” Hal so he’ll be sacrificied for a retro-Sci-Fi version of Nauty.
Great comics, ND!
The metallic might be cool for a wet look! You’ll have to show us a pic when you try it!
One of my favorite GL Corps stories was when Medphyll was nearly killed by *yellow snow*!
That is a great one! His inability to deal with the cold while the color negated his power was a great touch.
Actually, both Medphyll & Nautkeloi have been drawn with bifurcated feet and regular feet.
I knew that Medphyll had had regular feet at times, but I couldn’t find Nautkeloi with them. I went through all the trades and showcases I have with his appearances and google some others.
I don’t doubt that you’re right though, a character who appears so infrequently over such a long period is bound to get drawn a bunch of different ways, I just couldn’t find it.
FYI, these are in stock now @ bigbadtoystore.com
Thanks for the heads up. I’m hoping to find Sapphire locally since I don’t want to pay shipping for just one figure. Armless Stel mocks me though…
at least you can find them down there! I have to drive into StL county to find some at TRU, and they’re pegwarming w1 everywhere sans Kyle. I was hoping to find a couple extra Kyles to swap his head around, but it looks like I’m SOL and lucky to have ordered the case from BBTS.
I’ve taken a couple extra heads and swapped them onto GL bodies, starting with J’onn and Jemm. altho I think J’onn might look better on the 5pk John body as opposed to the “standard” GL uniform. (also, Ultra-Humanite makes a great looking larger GL! LOL)
I’d like to get a couple extra Sapphires, too, but *IF* they ever hit retail around here (unlikely, see above), they’ll probably be the first ones gone, too, like Kyle. I’m thinking of getting a case of w2 from BBTS, as well. maybe a few extra SS just in case?
So far it was only Walmart here. Our TRU is similar maxed out and they aren’t selling anything at $18. I haven’t even been by TRU for about a month now, but Vault gives me the udpates. I had the case on order at BBTS, but picked them up locally and cancelled the pre-order. I assumed Walmart would make these easy for me like they generally do, but the other Walmart with space never even got one case! Ugh.
I have a terrible aversion to modding figures unless I have duplicates – It’s stupid, I know – but some of your swaps sound fantastic.
yeah, I wanted at least one extra Kyle for his STAS/JLU costume, but no luck, so far.
We have a pile of GLC1 at our TRU. There might be a Kyle in there? But he’s still $18. Yuck.
Right, broccoli-head and fishbowl-head are what’s needed for any “serious” Green Lantern shelf xD
😀 Exactly!
Awesome review! And easy fix to not having to buy an extra figure is putting your Nautkeloi head on a spare Hal Jordan body. If you’re like me, you’ve got at least five extra Hal Jordan’s lying around. I used the grey templed figure from the 5 pack. All you have to do is heat the head, pop it off, and the Nautkeloi head will fit right on the peg. That way, he’ll also have more accurate feet.
Grey templed Hal is my go to Hal because I prefer him as that older, wiser character, but I might go that route. That reminds me, I forgot to mention that these two could have conceivably been in the black shouldered early GL costume too.
If I ran across a cheap Abin 2pk, that’d fix things right up!
Hey guys. So I know this is a very late post but I just read this for the very first time. Way back in 1985 a little book called Who’s Who in the DC Universe came out and in those 26 volumes or issues there is one volume that shows different about Nautkeloi in volume IX dated November 85 pages 26 & 27 there is a two page splash on the Green Lantern Corp. Ther are 20 plus members pictured and it clearly shows Medphyl and Nauk fairly close and they are both sporting the same exact feet, (BIFURCATED) just like RICKCORONEL said But just like another member here also said these guys dont get drawn very often so when someone does decide to do so they may not know the whole history of that character and just draw them in a plain Humanoid form. Just though I share.