{"id":28350,"date":"2014-06-30T00:47:25","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T05:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=28350"},"modified":"2014-07-07T02:21:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T07:21:39","slug":"dc-collectibles-crime-syndicate-deathstorm-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=28350","title":{"rendered":"DC Collectibles Crime
Syndicate Deathstorm
Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Sometimes<\/em> I wish I were a little more strong-willed when it comes to toy collecting. After picking up Superwoman & Talon, my DC Collectibles embargo has largely been in flux. I\u2019m still not going to read many, if any, of the comics DC is putting out. If there\u2019s a raving review, a favorite creator, or something that calls back to the storyline I was interested in, maybe, but otherwise, I\u2019m good. <\/p>\n

As such, I haven\u2019t been reading Forever Evil. I\u2019ve seen covers, a friend has told me a thing or two, but for the most part, I have no idea what the rebooted characters are doing. So why do I want to buy toys of them? Really, I\u2019m asking! I could take the easy out and say that it\u2019s because they look cool and have good articulation. I could be a little more somber and say that buying DC figures is just second nature. The truth is probably somewhere in between. <\/p>\n

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After Superwoman and Talon, I\u2019d been keeping an eye out for Deathstorm. If there was a ranking of Firestorm fans, I imagine I could pull a pretty high spot. Well, at least back in 2004. I haven\u2019t suffered the last 10 years of crappy characterization, changes, and reboots well. They kinda make me miss the limbo he spent the late 90s in\u2026 y\u2019know, when we he was an underwear model. He\u2019s had a hard go since, the 80s okay? I admit it. But I do love Firestorm. He is one of the few characters where I have nearly every comic appearance (up through 2004). I also love buying his figure on the rare occasion one gets made. <\/p>\n

One I never got around to picking up was the Black Lantern Firestorm, or Deathstorm. I always meant to, but I just don\u2019t run into DC Direct that often here in SWMO. And I know I could\u2019ve ordered it, but DCD\/DCC quality scares me \u2013 I\u2019d rather see it first (which is ironic as a MOTU subscriber, I know). I\u2019ll eventually snag one of eBay sometime. Until then, though, my thirst for a skull-faced Firestorm was quenched by this new-52, thrice-recycled idea figure.<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t know the origin of the new Deathstorm in The New 52. He is part of the Crime Syndicate, so I\u2019m safe in saying he\u2019s an evil doppelganger from Earth-3. While he looks undeniably cool, I do have to take a moment to laugh at how lame comics can sometimes be. Clearly, something is neat about Firestorm with a skull face. I bought this guy, right? But, even with my not really paying attention to DC Comics these days, I know this is at least third, unrelated version of Firestorm with a skull face to appear in the last few years. I imagine the pitch sessions involve someone shouting \u201cthat\u2019d be awesome\u201d and then being given the thumbs up with no real regard to storytelling or context.<\/p>\n

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But none of that matters, because this is a toy review. Bad singers have good songs. Bad authors have good books. And bad characters can have cool figures (and, heck, Deathstorm 3.0 might be cool, I really don\u2019t know). And Deathstorm not only looked pretty slick in the box, he turned out to be pretty nice all around too.<\/p>\n

The sculpt is probably 100% original. DCD could use some shared tooling in certain areas, but they tend not to. Even if shared tooling was in play, Deathstorm still has a ton of unique detail. Both the upper and lower torso feature appropriately sculpted costume elements, as do the arms and lower legs. And atop that is a well sculpted skeleton face that appears to be in mid-cackle. It\u2019s appropriately creepy and that it\u2019s molded in translucent orange for the flame to also double as light-piping is a fantastic touch.<\/p>\n

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The only sculpt element I wasn\u2019t hot on was the arms. Firestorm\u2019s well-known for his awesome, late-70s poofy sleeves. Deathstorm\u2019s are similar, but not as poofy. The odd choice here though was to make the articulation internal and give the arms a rubbery coating. Truthfully, it looks great. But as any toy collector can tell you, softer materials give us pause. Whether it\u2019s my white, \u201ccornstarch\u201d covered JLU figures, my leaking SDCC Swamp Thing, or my slightly yellow Stay-Puft, I\u2019ve been burned by softer plastics. Burned bad. (And I know my examples all Mattel, but still). It\u2019s neat, but I am worried how it will hold up over time. There\u2019s a bicep swivel and a hinged elbow under there and some cracks in the paint are already visible. As I said, it\u2019s not bad, just an area of concern for me. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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For the rest of the articulation, the arms are rounded out with ball shoulders and wrists. They have good range as long as you\u2019re not too worried about those rubber sleeves. The neck is ball-jointed with great tilt, but minimal up and down movement. Moving downward, we\u2019ve also got an ab crunch, waist swivel, ball hips, thigh swivels, double-hinge knees, and inverted ball ankles. All this adds up to some great poses! That\u2019s been my biggest surprise with these new DCC figures. I love the articulation that they\u2019re finally adding in with these Crime Syndicate and Capullo Batman figures.*<\/p>\n

* – Though, I just saw the first batch of Earth 2 figures and was disappointed to see some of this articulation missing on those guys. Sculpts weren\u2019t that great either. DCC is still inconsistent it seems. <\/em><\/p>\n

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The paintwork on Deathstorm is fairly well done with a few problem areas. There was some slop around the mask edges including a chip on the teeth fresh out of the box, but it\u2019s forgivable. Some of the black paint on the gauntlets is too light and the red underneath shows through. These both kinda work with the corpse motif though, so I wasn\u2019t concerned when I bought it. The chest logo is sharp and the skull is painted well, so I was happy to grab him. The pictures make it look sloppier than it is in person. I also should note that I like the color scheme quite a bit. He\u2019s appropriately dark and drab in comparison to his reimagined counterpart.<\/p>\n

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Deathstorm included no accessories. As such, $25 is still steep for me on these. I wholly blame that on buying these in person though. I joke a lot about how I don\u2019t think I could pick up the Figuarts Rangers in person at $40 a pop, but online? Online money isn\u2019t0 real money, right? It\u2019s the same with MOTU, which is really more of a monthly bill at this point too. Honestly, I don\u2019t think $25 is bad for well-articulated, direct market figures, but I do have to note the hesitancy at the store. I\u2019ve got a really funny story about Owlman if anyone wants to hear it.<\/p>\n

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Overall, despite being from the New 52, I was excited to find this figure while my wife and I were travelling recently (sorry for the crappy packaged shot, but I couldn\u2019t wait til I got home to open him!). I hadn\u2019t seen it here locally and thought it looked cool enough to own in the online pics. In hand, the figure didn\u2019t disappoint. The sculpting is fantastic and the drab color scheme makes for one of the best looking Deathstorms yet. With DCC stepping up their game on the articulation and not letting up on the sculpt side, they\u2019re truly making some great toys right now. And, yeah, I shouldn\u2019t balk so much at that $25 MSRP, though some accessories or stand would probably make me feel a little bit better. <\/p>\n

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More DC Direct Reviews:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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For all our Reviews, check out our Review Index<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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