{"id":10549,"date":"2010-12-15T03:24:16","date_gmt":"2010-12-15T09:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=10549"},"modified":"2010-12-22T02:49:19","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T08:49:19","slug":"dcclassics-com-low-maash-arkillo-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=10549","title":{"rendered":"DCClassics.Com:
Low, Maash, & Arkillo Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>The so-called Green Lantern Classics (it doesn’t actually say that on the packaging) is the newest subline of DC Universe Classics. The first wave is chock full of modern takes on characters from the GL mythos including the three Yellow Lanterns in today’s review: Low, Maash, & the Collect ‘N Connect Arkillo. <\/p>\n

I guess I shouldn’t call them Yellow Lanterns. They’re officially members of the Sinestro Corps, but that’s essentially the same thing. Sinestro spent years toiling away with a solitary yellow ring (& Guy played with it for awhile), but, when Geoff Johns rebirthed Hal Jordan, it kicked off the “rainbowification” of the Green Lantern mythos. While more colors would follow, the Sinestro Corps popped up first – an entire gang of individuals with the ability to “instill great fear”.<\/p>\n

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Maash (that’s him on the left) was conceived as triplets, but fused into one body before birth. The three heads have distinct personalities, but the lower two really only disagree about how best to kill you. His uppermost head isn’t really interested in killing and maiming, but he has no choice – he must bear witness to the atrocities his “brothers” commit.<\/p>\n

Low (yep, right side this time – process of elimination, good call) is a giant parasite. He’ll suck you dry and fill your rotting carcass with eggs. And… that’s pretty much it. See, there’s a lot of Yellow Lanterns and they don’t get much screen time. This pair probably has a couple dozen appearances between them and mostly background ones at that. In a recent issue of Green Lantern Corps<\/em>, Maash appeared and Kyle referred to him by name. It felt odd – almost like product placement.<\/p>\n

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Low & Maash are Mattel’s first entry in a new way to sell similar figures – all the pieces for both figures are in one box. This is certainly nothing new, I’ve long lamented that Mattel doesn’t invest enough in alternate parts for the DC line, but this is an interesting way to go about it. Since they’re two different characters, completists are easily parlayed into buying two. Moreover, the figure is packaged both ways – as Low and as Maash – so MOC completists can similarly have both.<\/p>\n

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The figure is built on a basic buck with Romat Ru’s forearms & belt added to get the details right. The new sculpting is limited to the interchangeable head and hands. Low’s stuff is fine – accurate and well-sculpted for an evil worm head with claw hands, but he’s a plain character. Maash’s head is where the 4H really shine. The head had to be difficult to work into three dimensions (it’s hard for some of the artists to draw on the page), but they nailed it. Not only does it look great, but the three faces each have their own personality. The two lower heads look crazed and murderous, while the uppermost head looks appropriately anguished. I picked these up at BBTS in a full case to get both, but if I only had one (you only need one to build Arkillo) he would be Maash on my shelves all the time.<\/p>\n

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The interchangeable heads work well and pop on & off easily. They’re both softer pieces to accommodate the swapping, so that does lead to them popping off while you’re trying to pose them now and again. The hands are a different story though. They’re a little scary to swap out. The have a hard white peg that fits into the cavity on the forearm while the hand itself is made of a softer plastic. This combination leaves you pulling with a little more force than you want to when changing them. I haven’t had anything break or tear, but I don’t imagine I’ll be pulling them out of their socket too many more times. <\/p>\n

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The paintwork was fine with these two. The Sinestro Corp uniforms were painted well on both and the detailing on the heads really helps the two sculpts standout. My favorite thing about Low is the blue hue for his alien parts.<\/p>\n

Below the neck, articulation is standard and what you’ve come to expect from Mattel. There are some new joints in the wave, but not on these two figures. The Maash head has decent swivel and can tilt forward while the Low head doesn’t really want to move. It can turn, but it’s sculpted to meet the torso and wants to pop off like I mentioned above.<\/p>\n

I did have a stuck joint on Maash’s right hip. You can see it slightly ajar in the first couple pics. I was planning to unfreeze it after the review, but it came loose while I was posing him for the pic with Hal, so… crisis averted? I was worried about it tearing like the DCUC3\/DCUC4 figures, but it came free without damage. Still, always be careful with stuck joints. Continue to Arkillo…<\/a><\/P><\/p>\n

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I didn’t like Arkillo as a character at first. He was just Kilowog for the Sinesto Corps. He was big. He was the drill sergeant. He even had “KILO” in his name (that is one thing I hate about most of the new GJ characters, his naming conventions are tacky). After Sinestro Corps War<\/em> ended, I read the issues where Arkillo acted as a temporary head of the SC, fought Mongul, got his tongue ripped out for his trouble, and managed a few other cool things before getting pushed into the background again. I preferred those later Arkillo appearances and it colors my opinion of how I want Arkillo to look. See, he was drawn two distinct ways.<\/p>\n

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The first one, in the left inset above, is how he appeared in Sinestro Corps War<\/em> while the inset on the right shows him in his more recent appearances. DC Direct’s Arkillo will be based on the newer art while the Mattel version uses the previous look. The sculpt on the Mattel version is well done, but it’s not how I see Arkillo. I had to get over that to really appreciate the figure.<\/p>\n

And I did, but I had to have it in person. The sculpt is a great rendition of his early appearances. The open mouth is a bit extreme, but I realize two things. One, you don’t really see Arkillo with his mouth closed all that often and, two, no yellow Lantern has had a closed mouth yet, so it’d be dumb if Arkillo were the first. I’ll probably still pick up the DC Direct Arkillo and look into the possibility of the heads being interchangeable, but I’ll worry about that when DC Direct gets around to releasing that very much delayed figure.<\/p>\n

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Arkillo uses the bulky collect and connect buck for the fourth time. I used to hate this buck – I didn’t like it on Brimstone or Kilowog because the hips were awkward and the lack of thigh cuts made deep poses difficult. The thigh cuts are still missing, but the hips on Validus and Arkillo work much better and make it easier to like the figure. Arkillo does feature a new upper torso, new forearms, new hands, and a belt.<\/p>\n

The articulation works basically the same as the previous figures. Ball joints at the head, shoulders, hinges at the elbows, knees, & ankles (rocker), swivels at the biceps, waist, and wrists, the Mattel hips, and an ab crunch. Arkillo doesn’t move as fluidly as Validus, but he’s better than Kilowog & Brimstone.<\/p>\n

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I had no paint issues with Arkillo. The yellow lines were not as sharp as I would like, but they’re all straight and look good unless you’re really inspecting the figure up close. The different finishes on the head sculpt help bring out the details and sell the open mouth. The tampos for the two Sinestro Corps symbol are both clean and, more importantly, applied correctly.<\/p>\n

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I’m sure that none of these three characters were probably that high on longtime DC fans want lists. You’ll be hard pressed to find me nitpicking character selection, but even I bristled at Low & Maash, two rank and file Sinestro Corps members. And while I was a little more excited about Arkillo, a character who had gotten a little more exposure, I have to admit that all three characters turned out nicely on the shelf. Plus, the Sinestro Corps explodes when you pick up this wave* and I can’t complain about that. Now, that just needs to happen to a few other DC teams and I’ll be a happy camper.<\/p>\n

* – Yes, I know that I forgot to include Cyborg Superman in the group shot.<\/em><\/p>\n

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For more DCUC reviews, check out our DC Classics Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The so-called Green Lantern Classics (it doesn’t actually say that on the packaging) is the newest subline of DC Universe Classics. The first wave is chock full of modern takes on characters from the GL mythos including the three Yellow Lanterns in today’s review: Low, Maash, & the Collect ‘N Connect Arkillo. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":10550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[6,34,10],"tags":[363,665,521,824,825,362],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/arkTN.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-2K9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11216,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11216","url_meta":{"origin":10549,"position":0},"title":"DCClassics.Com: GL Classics Manhunter Review","date":"January 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"We're closing out our Green Lantern Classics reviews with a look at the wave's armybuilder, the Manhunter. I have no love for the concept of the Manhunters, the figure's rather bland, and you're probably going to be wondering why I actually bought two Manhunters by the end of the review.","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4997,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=4997","url_meta":{"origin":10549,"position":1},"title":"DC Direct Blackest Night Series 7 & 8","date":"April 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of Monday's DC solicits, DC Direct announced two new waves of Blackest Night figures, wave seven in November and wave eight in December. With wave six already on the schedule for November 3rd, that's going to make for an avalanche of new figures right before the holidays. There's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"newsimages\/dcd\/rlmer.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10671,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=10671","url_meta":{"origin":10549,"position":2},"title":"Sponsor Announcement: Ka-Razy Kings of Toys","date":"December 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Hey there, folks! We hope you're enjoying the Christmas season. Though, while you're at it, we have some big & important news: As Zelda Rubinstein would say it best, \"they're heeeeeeee're!!!!!!!\" Yes, Green Lantern Classics Series 1 and DC Universe Wave 15 are both now in stock! Now's your chance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sponsors"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3046,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3046","url_meta":{"origin":10549,"position":3},"title":"DC Direct solicits new Blackest Night product: Mongul, Nekron, more Black Lanterns, & Rings!","date":"December 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"DC Direct solicits hit the 'net today and there were a few surprises for Blackest Night fans. First up we had the figures previously announced in ToyFare #150: BLACKEST NIGHT SERIES 5 ACTION FIGURES Behold the Power of the Black Lanterns! This fifth series of action figures based on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2635,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2635","url_meta":{"origin":10549,"position":4},"title":"ItsAllTrueReview: DC Classics Color of Fear 2pk","date":"November 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2741,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2741","url_meta":{"origin":10549,"position":5},"title":"ToyFare 150: Blackest Night is the DC Direct line that won’t die","date":"December 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"ToyFare #150 went on sale yesterday (12\/9) and among it's pages we saw the world premiere of MOTUC Evil Lyn, some future Wal-Mart exclusives DC 2pks (via ActionFigurePics.Com), and an article on the future of the DC Direct Blackest Night line (be sure to check out the magazine for pictures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10549"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10549"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10646,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10549\/revisions\/10646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}