I found this review particularly difficult to write. Some figures you love right away, some figures make you love them, some figures just fill out the shelf a bit (or came with a critical C&C piece), and some figures you buy only because you maintain a DC Universe Classics Checklist. These guys are the last two.
This part of the review is usually where I give a brief bio on the character, but I think we can gloss over ol’ Hal Jordan a bit. He’s normally green, a bit of a spotlight hog, and he’d sleep with your sister without so much a second thought about how you’d feel about it tomorrow. I think that sums it up.
These two figures showcase Hal Jordan as he appeared for three total panels in two comics in 2010 when he was very temporarily in possession of a black ring and a white ring.
When you look at the rest of DCUC Wave 17, the obvious omission is a Red Lantern Mera. Toy Guru commented that making a Mera would cost the equivalent of 4 other figures, and so collectors were left with an incomplete set and Wave 17 was short an obvious sixth figure. To finish off the spectrum, Mattel turned to ol’ reliable – Hal Jordan.
Hal’s sculpt is almost entirely the original buck, but with the “recession” ankles. Each figure includes a newly sculpted head & ring hand. It looks like the hands have the proper sculpted rings on them, but it’s hard to tell on the final figures. White Hal’s looks more like an orange ring and my Black Hal has a black blob on his hand that kinda has the Black Lantern symbol in it.
On the head sculpts, both are well executed, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why White Lantern Hal is so unhappy. The Black Lantern makes sense – heck, Hal was even screaming in the two panels from Green Lantern #50 where he was black. Admittedly, Hal Jordan was also yelling in his one panel as a White Lantern, but the concept behind a White Lantern just implies he should have a more tranquil expression. White Lantern Sinestro is smiling after all.
While the Black Hal head sculpt is my favorite of the two, there was one critical error on the figure. He should have gray skin. When Nekron turned nine of the resurrected heroes into Black Lanterns – they got groovy black costumes and healthy gray skin tones. Hal doesn’t look bad with normal skin, but I’d prefer if the figure matched the other DC Direct Black Lanterns at least. Continue to Page 2…
Your white Hal did turn out bad. Mine are both perfect as far as paint. I was really surprised to see all the lanterns as I opened up the figures because I hadn’t paid that much attention before but then they let me down with the Hal twins.
I might like him better with better paint, but I don’t know. I’m still not big on the grimacing head. It’s done well, but it’s just off.
I feel a bit dumb on the lantern front. The other figures were pictured coming with them while these two weren’t. I wonder if we could’ve raised a bigger stink with the photos came out and gotten them. I think we were too busy being disappointed the rumor was true to notice…
And the last panel in your review explains the look on White Lantern Hal’s face…
But seriously, I’m just not ‘down’ with the Skittles Lanterns concept. I’m too old school or just plain fuddy-duddy I guess.
OTOH there’s a sad part of me that wants that Screaming Hal Black Lantern head on a ‘normal’ GL body.
I can’t believe they didn’t bother with Lanterns for these guys. I mean, zero ‘development’ involved, right? Even if they’re supposed to be different and unique from a standard Lantern, they could have ignored that, not like THAT hasn’t happened before, right? Yeesh.
I can enjoy Geoff John’s writing if I look at like big summer blockbusters. I read most of the Bat-titles (Snyder, Simone, Miller, Morrison, etc) for good literature in comics form and I read the GL titles with a metaphorical bucket of popcorn. That said, I’ve enjoyed the skittles on that front and don’t step back to see that it is rather silly.
I have a feeling that Mattel can/wants to use these new Hal heads on the green body – or heck, they can follow DCD’s suit and use them for the full Hal spectrum – screaming yellow, grimacing orange, regular blue, etc. DCUC20 could be an all Hal wave… 😉
the faces make me wonder if they weren’t originally planning Red Hal and Blue/Green Hal? First thing I thought of when I saw the pictures was: I’m getting extra Red Lanterns and an extra Black Hal and swapping heads!
That grimace is reminiscent of the Agent Orange arc where Hal is constantly fighting the influence of the Blue ring. I know DCD is doing the Blue/Green Hal, but in a boxset with Indigo Munk and Sapphire Fatality. I’m not a big enough fan to buy it for them. (forget 4th, new “not-Arkis Chumukk” dude?)
someone linked to the Amazon pages for this series at $15.99. when I checked them out last night, most of them were $14.99, while Black Hal was $25+. I had him in my cart until check-out, then balked on BH and “classic Joker”. I’m hoping to find him cheaper, later. Still doing that Red Hal. Not sure about the Blue Hal, but also just got my extra GLC Kyle for his Blue look.
Kyle will be borrowing extra Flash’s lantern. Red Hal will get….crap, GLC didn’t give us Red LANTERNs, either! WHOTTAGYP! DCD Atrocitus is the ONLY Red LANTERN we have!
Something seemed to happen with the Black Hal in shipping, a few of the stores seemed to be getting him seperately than the others. I don’t know of any long term shortage though.
I agree on the heads, these two are primed for Mattel to duplicate the full spectrum of Hals like DC Direct did. Though it’s high time we saw Sapphire & Indigo Hals…
There is no excuse for the lack of Lanterns. Just lazy on their part. Cool looking wave, but little details like that make it frustrating, especially when he comes with an open hand for holding a lantern! Thye make the excuse when they come with closed fists that “The 4horsemen designed them that way” so they do not include a lantern. Now he has an open hand so what is the excuse now? Craziness thy name is Mattel.
Ya know, the ‘blame the 4Hmen’ bit gets old. I’m fairly sure when they do a sculpt they have directions and they don’t just willy-nilly go “OK! Fists for this guy, we don’t want anyone thinking he can carry or hold anything!!”
There’s a Japanese phrase I can’t recall just now that generally translates as “It can’t be helped!!”, it’s used when someone bores thru all the levels of excuses and dodging and unspoken lies and pushes one into a position of owning up to a failure. I suspect Mattel would be saying that alot were there a similar cultural background.
Sho ga nai.
Drives me crazy when people say that…..
Right? It’s like the ultimate blow-off because it completely shuts down any discussion.
Rather like Mattel saying ‘Logistics’… 🙂
The wave seems pretty light on new pieces too. I haven’t done a new piece count in awhile, but it surely seems like there should have been money in the budget for the lanterns.
Meanwhile, the INTERNET ONLY/MATTY STORE “EXCLUSIVE” MOTUC gets new pieces for almost EVERY figure, but Mera’s sculpt costs out to equalling FOUR others???
SHO GA NAI!
More like Sho nuff get off…your asses and stop lying to people who know better!
The cost of four others is hard for me wrap my brain around. The sad thing is Wonder Woman received so many new pieces that can only be tooled for her whereas Mera’s could’ve at least had two uses.
I also agree ,that the lack of lanterns suck….suck ballz!
Seriously though, I already wanted the BL Hal over the WL one, and this review helped cement that choice for me. Good review Noisy!
The Black one is definitely the better figure!
Ah, I understand! White Lantern Hal just saw the Green Lantern movie, went and flew through Hector Hammond and Parallax, y’know, just to be safe, and then washed off all the sinew and guts with dirty hose water, set to the music of Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”
God, you silly people, why can’t you understand Mattel’s thought process? It all makes perfect sense.
If you suffer from schizophrenia.
I’m buying Orange Lex Luthor and then putting the Anti-Monitor’s limb in the box with the rest of the limbs of toys that Mattel didn’t make good enough.
Thanks for the great review, by the way.
LOL
You’re welcome. 😉
Both my Hals were pretty good, and while this wave wasn’t thrilling all my figures were in good condition and there are several I really think were quite well done (Atom, Scarecrow) and Anti-Monitor really is pretty damn great.
I really appreciated the Atom & Luthor. I haven’t spent much time with Scarecrow yet.
Noisy
What had you planned on footnoting with the asterisk in this sentence:
Mattel similarly missed the boat, by providing lanterns for all the other figures in this wave* and not tossing in two more repaints to cover white & black.
thanks
TSR
ooo, that’s a good question.
I really don’t remember. Reading over that paragraph, the only thing I can think of is that we still don’t have a ‘true’ indigo lantern (I know the staff is the lantern). The Four Horsemen sculpted Diana’s violet lantern as seen in the picture I linked to, so I’m still holding out hope that either DC Direct or Mattel will make the indigo one.
Cool, you hit every issue I had with these (from White Hal’s expression to Black Hal’s skin to the lack of lanterns). Really I don’t pick up as many DCU figs as I would like (due to price) but these were high on my list until I got good looks at them. Now not so much, oh well.
Black Hal is still fun to have around since he’s screaming all the time, but otherwise yeah.
Aww, no “AAAAAGH!” for Black Hal? 😛
LOL Im too busy to remember everything anymore. 😉
Just the fact that there are that many Hals is ridiculous.
I do love that last joke. Looks like Hal will be trying to get a discharge (pun not intended but I’m going to allow it) soon.
i get what your saying about the messed up paint job because im OCD about my figures if theres the tinest thing wrong i have 2 obsesses about it like on my sinestro corp mongul the ab crunch wasnt working but it did after a little nudge and on the left side when u pushit bck as far as possiable theres a tiny paint problem and i have 2 hide it …….BUT one thing u need to know and probly already do is there isnt and shouldnt ever be a black lantern because there rings are powered off hearts so there should be a power battery mayb a kewl accesory like a central power battery like a SDCC exclusive would be cool