I
really thought that Hawk and Dove were going to be my last DC
Universe Classics purchases. Obviously I’ve got my stupid DC
Infinite Earths subscription, but I didn’t foresee buying any more
DCUC stuff other than maybe filling in some holes if I happened
across cheap older figures.
Then
Green Arrow fell off the shelf.
It
was kind of looking like I wasn’t going to find one, but we went
out to eat the other night and happened to be near a strip mall
featuring the Grand Slam of discount merchants – Big Lots, TJ Maxx,
Marshall’s, and Ross. Lil’ Troublemaker and I both behaved
ourselves during dinner, so we were allowed to go and look for toys
afterwards.
Side
Note: We ate at a pizza joint and our waitress was either
mind-bogglingly stoned or breathtakingly stupid. This young lady will
be lucky to have a career as a hat rack. I think she forgot to
actually put our order in because it took almost forty-five minutes
for our food to come. Of course, during that time she came to the
table and asked if we wanted our bill. She did not realize that our
food hadn’t come yet. She thought we were done. The food was great,
though.
We
went to Marshall’s first and they had the Young Justice Red Arrow
marked down to fifteen bucks. Not an incredible bargain, but the
figure looked really cool and I didn’t have a Red Arrow. He’s
been a great character in the cartoon and I wanted to have one.
We
hit the other stores and then ended up at Big Lots last. They had a
whole shelf of DCUC Wave 20 except for Hawk and Dove. The problem was
that not only were the figures not discounted, they were priced a bit
higher than what I would normally be willing to pay. But they had the
new Green Arrow that I had recently decided I needed, as well as a
DCUC Red Arrow, who I hadn’t even seen at retail yet. They both
looked pretty cool and I figured I’d go ahead and spend the money
and be done with it. I gave the YJ Red Arrow to Lil’ Troublemaker.
First
Glance:
I do like the hooded look a whole lot and overall this Green Arrow
looks a little more super heroic than the older one. Wait a minute –
does he not have any arrows? What?
Sculpt:
There are a fair number of new parts here. This isn’t just the old
Green Arrow figure with a new head.
Actually,
this isn’t
a new head. It’s the old head minus the little green hat and plus a
hood. That’s okay, though. The face was pretty much perfect on that
one anyway. I would have preferred it if the hood was sculpted onto
the shoulders with the head able to move independently within, but
they would have had to either produce a new head or sculpt some hair
on top of the existing one for that. As it is, the hood sits slightly
apart from the shoulders and looks more like he has a towel draped
over his head like Taz. It isn’t terrible, but it could be better.
Arrow
has a new torso, forearms, and a waist piece. The torso is a bit
simpler than the last one, but looks good with the new shoulder piece
and the hood/towel. The forearms are awesome and caught my attention.
There are little arrows sculpted onto them to look like
wrist-launchers. It’s a really cool touch. The waist piece is the
belt and the bottom of his tunic. I like the “G” on the belt
buckle and the dagger hanging from the belt would be a really nice
touch if it were functional. In a day when most GI Joe figures have
sheathes on their person that you can stick their little knives into
I find it just a little ridiculous that Mattel couldn’t manage the
same with a 6” scale figure.
His
quiver is a new, smaller version. I’m not sure which I prefer. The
large one on the old Arrow seems to make more sense, but the smaller
one looks cooler.
There is also a little thigh pouch. For snacks, I guess.
Mr.
Queen has the standard DCUC articulation. Ball joints at the neck and
shoulders, swivels at the biceps, waist, and thighs. The elbows,
abdomen, knees, and ankles have single joint pivots. The hips are the
funky Mattel swivel/pivots. Finally, the wrists are also swivel/pivot
ball joint analogs. I’m surprised and happy that Mattel went with
this so he can actually hold his bow as though he were shooting it.
Well, except for the fact that the bow… we’ll get to that.
Also,
the waist piece can move independently of the legs and the torso so
Arrow can still look fairly natural when you’re posing him.
All
of the joints on mine move freely and are tight enough.
Design:
The head looks great. The facial hair and mask and everything are
all tight and accurate.
Basically
this guy is a bunch of different shades of green and they all look
good. I don’t have any sort of errors on mine.
Accessories:
Green Arrow comes with his bow and Nekron’s right arm.
Green
Arrow’s bow sucks even more than the last one, and that’s
impressive because they’re both the same mold. I don’t like that
it is made with an arrow nocked but not drawn. It looks stupid. That
arrow isn’t even long enough for that bow to be drawn all the way
back. And at least the old version had a nice paint job. This one is
two colors and looks crappy.
Also,
this version does not include any extra arrows. I really shouldn’t
care because there’s nothing to do with them anyway, but the last
one did and so does Red Arrow. Mattel set the precedent. And there’s
certainly nothing about this figure that suggests there wasn’t a
budget for a few more small accessories.
I
don’t care about building Nekron unless I find the rest of this
series for cheap. And actually, I think I might have already sold the
parts that came with Hawk and Dove on eBay. But whatever.
Packaging:
Your standard DCUC blister.
Overall:
Aside from the hood being a little weird the figure itself looks
good. I kind of don’t care about the lack of arrows, but I kind of
do.
3
out of 5
Come
on back on Monday and I’ll tell you all about Red Arrow, who is
significantly less exciting.
-Phantom
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