The sculpt on Red Arrow is good, but we’ve seen it before on wave nine’s Green Arrow figure. The only new parts on this figure are his “R” belt and his head sculpt. The head definitely looks like Roy, but I don’t really like the smile he’s making. He’s showing both upper and lower teeth, which doesn’t look very natural.
Roy’s paint job is really nice, but again it shares the same qualities as the first Green Arrow’s only in red. I was surprised to see that there was slop on the figure, especially with the red fleck issues that my Hawk’s face had.
Red Arrow has the basic articulation of a DC Classics figure, but with a couple of differences. He has the swivel/hinge “archer wrists”, which allow him to hold his bow properly. Roy seems to have a bit more ball joint movement with his head, where as the original GA figure could only look side to side. Lastly, Roy lost the rocker ankles which the original Green Arrow had.
Roy also comes with the same bow/arrow accessory that the original GA figure had, but this time it’s been molded in red and doesn’t have any extra paint apps to bring out the detail. Roy also was given three extra arrows that are brand new sculpts. It’s cool to see more proper accessories, but frustrating because they can’t go in his quiver or attach to the bow.
All around this is a pretty good figure, especially since the Green Arrow body he’s based on had a nice sculpt. This version of Roy will fit nicely on shelf with a modern collection, without having any annoying additions like a robotic arm or baseball cap. He also goes pretty well with the new Green Arrow, which you’ll see tomorrow.
-Vault
I hardly think there’s a DC fan who doesnt wish that you were Kidding about that story detail. As for Roy he looks good but Like your review says it’s just Green Arrow in a new color.
So if we started the week with your favorite, am I to guess Ollie is your least?
Nah, I’m going the opposite of Noisy. We’re ending the week with my favorite!
At least they didn’t give him a detachable (or cyborg) arm and a dead cat weapon. 😉
Yeah…
Small miracles, right?
I didn’t realize this was (almost) the *exact* same body as w9 GA. I never compared the two, mostly because that GA is precariously balance in the middle of a JLA grouping and I don’t want to pick up half a dozen other figures (again) pulling him out. (for some reason, Hal, Barry, and Atom tend to take the plunge semi-regularly. ok, more Hal/Barry, DCIH Atom and a victim of their suicidal plummets.)
I don’t get that face, either. Grimace? Constipated? Shooting (up)? It makes no sense and just looks weird. Either way, just add red ballcap and he’s nu52 Roy, which is probably another reason they chose this look.
One thing they did overlook is he has a tribal band on his right bicep (re: The Titans v1), but that may have been retconned away in recent Crises? or “the sleeve covers that exact spot”?
I would still prefer the “Brown Arrow” Arsenal costume from The Titans over this regression to make his mentor(s) happy. I don’t think that one would need anything other than the basic buck? Maybe a holster belt? I think the only new (non-head) piece would be the mini-crossbow, which could be re-used for an eventual Huntress. I wouldn’t even mind the yellow vest on black body suit look, which could have used the Vigilante body with new (soft plastic?) vest.
I really liked Roy as Arsenal, so I’d definitely love a figure of that.
Nice figure but Speedy would have been better.
Especially if he came with a syringe, a belt around his arm, and mabye a spoon and lighter. Of course, that might not work for a “mom-friendly” retail fig. Still, that cover is one of the more iconic, more memorable comic book covers for DC (not to mention comics in general).
Hmm… mabye I can strip the syringe off that plague doctor fig…
I think I’d prefer the happy go lucky Teen Titans version haha
Speedy would be cool, but I doubt they’d ever get to poor Garth.
Is Roy still a former heroin addict in the new 52, or was that retconned out along with his dead daughter, missing arm, and everything else? I’ve made this joke before, but Speedy/Arsenal/Red Arrow makes me laugh, since he’s the luckiest junkie ever. Like watching Requiem for a Dream in reverse…
I don’t really know what’s what in the new 52, and I’m pretty sure neither do some of the writers.
“Over this time Vandal Savage tried to harvest his organs, he was shot in the chest by Brother Blood, and his throat was slit and he was left for dead”-lol
I never knew speedys life was so tragic..well other than the heroin which is pretty much all I know about the character.
Great review
Thanks Doc.
The Rant was well deserved Noisy, poor Speedie’s history was a big factor in me passing on him.
It was my rant, but thanks for the compliment. 🙂
It’s definitely hard to like the character after all that bad writing.
smack is whack!!
and seriously, all his arrows look like sex toys.
How else do you think he “punishes evil”?
You forgot to mention his erectile dysfunction and going to work for Deathstroke’s bastardized version of the Titans pre-reboot. Seriously, how does James Robinson keep getting work?
I think the facial expression is supposed to be growling/gritting/grimacing, not smiling, so showing upper and lower teeth works for me. I wish he wasn’t making any kind of facial expression at all. “Neutral” is the best option if there’s only one head for a figure. It seems to be a more and more common thing in DCUC figures to have expressive faces, though. Maybe the Horsemen are getting bored of sculpting neutral faces.
I’d been asking for this version of Roy for a while now. I figured it would be an easy retool for Mattel (as in, a figure that it would be hard for them to screw up), and it would give us a good modern representation of Roy, one that was actually relevant for a few years when I started requesting it (leave it to Mattel to wait until a version of a characters’s totally irrelevant before releasing the figure).
well, the lead time is a year… *insert serious eye rolling*
So if we start that clock ticking in 2006, when Roy first took on the Red Arrow identity, that means Mattel was only 5 years late, rather than six? Roy went back to being Arsenal (drugged up, impotent, dead-cat-hugging, Deathstroke-following Arsenal. Seriously, how is James Robinson a professional writer?) in 2010, so even if there is a year lead time, they still got this one into the pipeline a good year after Roy gave up the Red Arrow identity.
You know what, I have to amend that last post. I’d forgotten until I just looked it up that it was JT Krul, not James Robinson, who wrote “Rise of Arsenal.” So, it was a group effort between the Cry for Justice and Rise of Arsenal creative teams to make a story arc that friggin’ bad.
Lead time had nothing to do with this figure, the “we have a green arrow body and need a cheap figure” aspect did though haha.
And that’s why this figure would have made a ton of sense 2-6 years ago, and why I repeatedly posted on various forums that Mattel could make a really good figure with just a new head. The base figure is one of the better examples of a DCUC body, and at the time he was a heavily featured part of a fairly successful JLA relaunch. So Mattel of course waits several years until the character has become completely unlikable (try reading “Cry For Justice” and “Rise of Arsenal” and tell me it’s possible to care about Roy Harper after that), taken up a different superhero identity, and then been rebooted to release this figure.