DC Classics.Com Club Infinite
Earths Rocket Red Review

NoisyDvL5

But that’s all past. I’m writing this review and I’m at odds with what to do. Yes, he’s out of scale. And that’s really the only thing wrong with him. If you’re a toy collector buying this line for cool toys, I imagine you’re pretty happy with this guy. He’s a figure that’s technically impressive. Visually, he’s comic-accurate. The great articulation is there, right down to the rocker ankles. The paint’s mostly fine. He just has this one huge drawback.

Rocket Red has been built using the standard male C&C buck that’s been in use since 2009 for figures like Atom-Smasher, Trigon, Apache Chief, & Colossal Boy. It does its job as the basic buck scaled up to a little over 9” and features all the same articulation, including the rocker ankles. Everything has great range except the shoulders which are partially blocked by the soft plastic chest armor.

His arm cannons are a nice sculpt, but are odd to pose with too. I find myself wanting them to have been add-on pieces over reused forearms that could hopefully swivel around a bit. It’s probably just fallout from the limits placed on the shoulders, but I can’t always get them where I want them.

For new pieces, we have the head, that aforementioned chest armor, new forearms & hands, what essentially amounts to a diaper, and new lowers legs and foot to get the boots right. All the sculpts on these are excellent and not only bring the 2D look into reality, but make for a good looking if you’re not concerned with the height issues.

One disappointment I had with the sculpt was the flash lines on his faceplate. Both mine and Vault’s had this, it’s only really noticeable up close, but it’s just an unfortunate place to have these happen. It almost makes the faceplate look cracked.

At first glance, you might think the paintwork is sparse, but all the white areas have been given a pearlized coat to help give the figure a more mechanical figure. It looks great. I did have a little slop on the silver area of the mask and the red inner collar on the torso though. One funny thing to note is that the 4H didn’t sculpt the pelvic armor to cover the goods from below, so the paint work made up for that by painting a stripe of the pearlized paint from front to back. Now, the pearlized paint is thinner than normal because it’s normally a white/glittery paint being painted over something molded white. It’s not meant to go over other colors, and it gives his crotch piece a weird, pinkish stripe from front to back.

Overall, I can’t decide if being out of scale, the one thing wrong here, is enough to blast the figure. I did hate it on Swamp Thing, but I didn’t like much about him other than that either. I’ve let other collect & connect’s pass on scale (like Stel, who was completely wrong, but looked cool) and been really disppointed by others (shrimpy Anti-Monitor). It’s a tough one to decide – the “licensing” collector in me, that wants DC product all but rejects this figure. He’s not the versin I’d come to love and he’s woefully wrong. The toy collector in me that doesn’t concern itself with such things has been able to have some fun with him, as evidenced by the pictures, because of the great articulation and “toyetic” quality this design possesses.

This is one I just can’t say is good or bad one way or the other. I’m too conflicted. I do still consider this figure a gaffe on Mattel’s part. I don’t think it helps subscribers feel good about their purchase (I hate that it was scheduled to get here right when we have to decide on 2013 subscriptions, if you couldn’t tell). I don’t think it represents what the subscription can truly be. And I really don’t want them to do something like this again. I don’t know if next year is going to happen, but the good news is that it doesn’t seem like it will. Everything revealed for the rest of this year and the beginning of next year looks fantastic. One bad figure, or almost bad figure, whatever this is, isn’t enough to get me to not subscribe this year. Hopefully, I’m not alone.

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62 thoughts on “DC Classics.Com Club Infinite
Earths Rocket Red Review”

  1. What makes this even MORE frustrating is they made that Adam Strange figure. You KNOW at least some of that tooling could’ve been reused to cut costs…

  2. Geoff is a god to them I guess so, they do dumb crap like this. Mine is still in the box. Mattel shoulda polled us on the design for this one.

    1. The whispers at the conventions imply that it’s not Mattel that wants to make all the Geoff Johns versions. Which version is made must be approved by DC licensing. Neither Mattel or the collectors can override their edicts.

        1. AFI’s Julius reported that DC selected Rocket Red for the sub and that DC licensing selected the version. As for the elements chosen to make the figure (like the question asked) that would all be done by the Four Horsemen, so the answer isn’t in conflict with where the figure originated. The only remaining issue is who decided it would be a build-a-figure.

      1. not quite, there’s still the #0 issue in September, and it seems the JLI will be appearing in BATWING of all places, after that?

        1. Thanks for the link, Sander! Now that they killed that version after a handful of appearances, he’s due a figure, right? 😉

  4. I can’t get over those diapers. But your dio pics made him more endearing somehow. I say we go with our inner toy collector. Otherwise, eBay the sucker.

    1. Good luck with that… I have mine on eBay for $35 and if he sells for at least that much, I’ll still be losing $7. No bidders, yet.

      1. yeah, I wanted to ebay the Star Sisters, but I hear people are taking big hits IF they can sell the set. only the true die hard POP fans are biting on that.

        1. i’d scrap them for customs… by now, if you have a goddess, her pelvis has shattered/is near shattering, swap her limbs onto one of the sisters… use the other two for target practice, whatev.

          1. that’s the only reason I bought them, for customs, but there’s no character that they can easily be turned into. Purple chick could MAYBE be Lilandra, but that’s it.
            Might give a set to my niece while they’re visiting this week from NYC?
            I was going to get my cousin a Dana/Zuul, but not at $25+!

    2. My inner toy collector is usually wiser than the license-slave…

      I don’t think I’ll eBay him anytime soon. Vault did eBay has and got the $30 back, but I still “have them all” (well, I missing two, but…). He won’t survive the first purge though…

  5. Great review, as always, Noisy! As a TF fan, I especially liked the slam from Optimus.

    And, hey, if anyone cites Rocket Red as a reason to avoid the new sub, somebody can just link them to this review. Isn’t it worth your $30-45 for this level of comedy? I submit that it is.

    1. LOL Thanks!

      Originally, I left OP trying to cheer him up and the other figures groaning, but I decided it was best to come straight from Prime’s mouth. 😉

  6. I don’t normally comment on these comics-character reviews — as good as they are — because comics have never been a massive part of my life and as such, I never really collected the toys. Never really gave a tinker’s dam.

    But I’m always happy to chime in with an idea. If you’re looking for someone for this guy to hang out with, what about the football / baseball robots? He’s about the same size, and frankly, he looks more like the barsinistrous offspring of Casey Jones and Tony Stark than an actual superhero. All he needs to complete his ex-treeeeeeeeeme sporting image is a tiny Gatorade bottle.

      1. He’s bigger, right?

        The only thing I could think of that he would fit in with were those handful of DCSH Megos that Hasbro tried out about fifteen years ago. The styles woudn’t match, but the scale would be close.

        He does make for a good unnamed Iron Man villain, I’m told…

  7. “The classic Rocket Red couldn’t have been done under the restrictions placed on this year’s sub. He’s essentially a 100% tool.”

    Nope.
    I’ve been saying all along Matty could have used the Freeze/Lex armor body with a new head for the RR Brigade armor. I never was a fan of Dmitri’s Apokolips armor, so an armor that came with a sheet of red numbers and we could army build would have been the best option, IN MY OPINION. (which I was bugging Georg about the stickers on the DC Direct boards about for years!)

    I do agree with you this version was chosen because someone was butt kissing Geoff, then add to that the “need” for an “oversize” quarterly figure, so they chose to do the Gavril armor on the BAF buck, since he was getting page time in Brightest Day: Justice League: Generation Lost. IN A TOTALLY DIFFERENT ARMOR. The early issues of BD:JL:GL had Gavril in a kitbash armor he was always repairing before he finally settled into the “modern” armor that was created a few years prior, and he then wore into the now ending JLI. WHERE HE WAS PROMPTLY KILLED. oy.

    And NOW we get to repeat this next year with LEAD, finally finishing* the Metal Men is a good thing, esp after the “lead paint” fiasco that previously had Matty claiming he was off the table. I even offered up alternative names in one Q&A which got answered right before SDCC and was told they would not change his name. That should have clued us in that he was short-listed, and then we find out he was already in prototype form for SDCC a few weeks later.

    UNfortunately, Lead will be using the BAF DARKSEID base which also towers over the rest of the team. I don’t know why they couldn’t use the DCSH Darkseid base, as it does have the width, but isn’t twice the size of the rest of the team. We can’t win for losing.

    *(I only speak of finishing the ROBOTS in the Metal Men, not Doc Magnus, who should be an easy suit buck with new head!)

    1. I said essentially. 😉 While your kitbash would be okay, I would want updated lower arms, lower legs, and entire torso, and the head to all match. And in an ideal world, a removable helmet, since we’re wishing.

      I think when DC licensing approves these modern versions, it’s essentially Geoff buttkissing Geoff.

      Strangely, I’m not the least bit upset about Lead. (this is why it’s hard to run a toy site, a problem in one review isn’t in another… hypocrisy abounds!) I know that his “bigger” is wider and not taller, but the group shot at SDCC did look good to me. Maybe because he always seemed to be getting bigger spreading out to protect the team? I don’t know. I do agree that the ol’ DCSH body would’ve worked just fine, but that one gets a pass from me (at least for now).

  10. I like this figure much more than I thought I would. I as well wish that his hand rockets are a separate piece. This must be the one time I have complained about a sculpted element on a DCUC!!! I actually use him as an Iron Man villain. Giant Russian robot person? Sounds like an Iron Man villain. Hilarious photos is this review, made my day a little brighter! 😀

    1. Thanks!

      And, yeah, he’s a giant russian robot, so Iron Man should be more than happy to kick his ass, right? That seems to be the best use.

  11. I love that pic with Leech. His mouth is sculpted such that I imagine him always yelling when he’s talking.

  13. The faceplate is driving me crazy. They’re not even mold lines, or flash, the plastic didn’t fill properly, and left gaps. Evey figure I’ve seen has this, and it bugs the crap out of me.

    Having the same problem with the arm-blasters. They seem really badly placed.

    Otherwise, it’s a fun big robot figure.

    1. I just called ’em flash lines because I was in hurry, I wonder what the technical term for this issue is…

      I know, I kinda hate that he’s a fun, big robot figure. I wanted to loathe him!!!

      2. not a flow issue, as the face plate is the only area affected. possibly a “dirty” mold? the few times I ran a similar machine at an old job making 3D/raised magnets, we’d have to blow it out every few minutes or toss the crosshatched ones back in the grinder. This is a PRIME example of poor QC.

  14. Love the pics, Noisy! The only thing that could be better than this figure would be if, for the remaining seven slots of the 2013 sub, they made Orange, Red, Indigo, Blue, Green, White and Black Lantern versions of Rocket Red! Wouldn’t that be awesome????????!!!!!????

    Yeah, I hate myself.

    2. yup! I ordered extras just for the heads for another Dmitri (unmasked this time) and Chief for Doom Patrol.

      and they’re finally shipping after all this time!!!
      I should have them by next week!

  17. Out of curiosity, what was RR’s MOTU name that Leech was proposing? Is RR talking over it because it ain’t family-friendly? };D

  18. Noisy, I’ve been waiting with bated breath for your review and pictures of this figure…and you did not disappoint!
    I totally sympathize with your cunundrum: How do you give a good review to a figure that’s made well and looks pretty great, but is so completely out of scale that it’s all you can focus on when you look at it? And in the wrong costume, to boot! And they were just so damn adamant that he was to-scale every time they were questioned in various “Ask Matty” forums. And God-forbid they include “number” stickers so that RR could at least be used as an army builder. It’s like they WANT to piss us off sometimes. But, yeah, the figure they sent me looks pretty cool. I guess.

    1. Thanks, TC! This was one I was dreading. I really had no idea how to approach it. I didn’t want it to be a bitchfest, but how do you stress to Mattel not to do this again without that?

  20. Maybe I’m weird in that the scale doesn’t bug me as much as the overall football player wearing a diaper look. I hate the veins in the armor on the arms. The scale is terrible too, don’t get me wrong, but not the worst thing for me.

    1. If they’d been able to do give him some more robotic-looking limbs, it would’ve helped all around – but then been totally inaccurate. No winning with this guy.

  21. I’ll take my one from my sub, but here’s where Mattel lost me: I would have bought multiples from the day-of sale to army-build and customize. When they made him out of scale, they lost 4-5 more purchases. Whoops.

  22. A couple of things: I was optimistic that this suit might reflect the Joe Staton version that was designed back in the mid-80s in GLC. Course, upon googling that design, I realized it wasn’t nearly as close as I remembered. Second, this scale is so bafflingly large, that it doesn’t even fit in with my DC DIRECY J.L.I. figs! My sad, lonely pant-suit Black Canary can’t even make friends with this RR. 🙁

  23. i like this figure … the scale did’t bother me.. but the price did…
    remmeber when you could get an entire series of figures with a baf this big for the the exact same price…sigh…

  25. I was so excited about this figure that I completely missed the review! (can you sense my sarcasm) I enjoyed the pictures though. My thoughts on the actual figure pretty much mirror your own. I think it’s a nice looking figure but the scale is super off. I thought maybe it wouldn’t look so bad with the other figures but it stands out as badly as Lobo did before him. Oh well, this wil most likely be the only year we have a sub to complain about anyway.

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