Ol’
Swampy here represents the end of my coverage of the current crop of
DC Collectibles releases. All of the figures and sets I’ve reviewed
over the past couple of weeks should still be available at your local
comic shop or online somewhere, so I hope some of you have gotten
some good information out of these.
I wanted a figure of this crazy-ass, heavy metal album cover, Viking warrior, asparagus from Hell version of Swamp Thing since the first time I saw it in the pages of the New 52 comic. As a matter of fact, the second I saw that image I I commented on how much I wanted a figure depicting Battle Wings Swamp Thing. At the time I never imagined I would actually get one. Mattel had just released their strangely greasy, too-tall SwampThing for the DCUC line as a SDCC Exclusive and I doubted we’d see another any time soon, even from a different company. Swamp Things has never exactly been a merchandising success, so I doubted an action figure would be very high on DC Collectibles’ list. Luckily for all of us, somebody at DCC loved this design as much as I do.
The
deal here is that Alec Holland (the New 52 Alec) figures out he can
morph his swampy body into this warrior form with wings and a sword
and that wild crown of antlers except that they’re not really
antlers because those would be part of the Red. So these are
branches. But in all honesty I don’t care what the story is behind
this look because the story behind the story is obviously this:
Scott
Snyder: “Hey, Yanick – can you draw Swamp Thing as though he were
from a Manowar album cover?”
Yanick
Paquette: “FUCK YES I CAN.”
Scott
Snyder: “Rad.”
Even
Mrs. Troublemaker – a long-time fan of Swamp Thing – had to admit
that even though she didn’t like Swamp Thing looking like this,
taken in the context of it just being a rad design it was pretty
awesome.
First
Glance:
While I am typically pretty stoked about new action figures, I was
more excited about this Swamp Thing than I’ve been about one in a
long time. When the lady at the comic shop set it on the counter, I
was exactly as blown away as I was hoping to be. This thing is
impressive, both in size and sculpt.
Articulation:
Wow. All I can say is, “Wow”. I did not expect this level of
articulation from a DCC figure, especially not one this big.
Head
– ball joint
Shoulders
– ball joint
Biceps
- swivel
Elbows
–pivot
Wrists
– swivel
Wings
– swivel/pivot
Hips
– ball joint
Thighs
- swivel
Knees
– double pivot
Foot
– swivel/pivot
Swamp
Thing’s head has as much motion as I could have wanted. I
appreciate that New 52 Swamp Thing doesn’t have the shneck of his
predecessor.
The
arms have a great range of motion. The combination of the
ball-jointed shoulders with the bicep swivels is great. The elbows
have a deeper pivot than I would have expected from thick arms with
this much sculpted detail. The wrists could have been ball joints,
but I think the swivels probably look better.
The
wing joints are about as subtle as such things can be. Organic wings
are always a tough proposition in action figures. It’s extremely
difficult to design a natural junction with any sort of articulation.
Swamp
Thing’s hips are admittedly a bit unsightly, but if that’s the
trade we have to make for the range of posability this figure has,
I’m okay with it. Combined with the knees and feet, the legs are
great.
And
those feet require their own paragraph. It took me a second to figure
out just what the heck was going on. There is a joint about mid-foot
that pivots up and down and also swivels side to side. It works
fairly well and does a lot to keep the figure balanced in more
dynamic poses. It also looks a lot better than most ankle joints I
see, but that has more to do with the surrounding sculpt than the
design of the joint.
This
is a fantastically articulated figure. It isn’t the best ever, but
it is so much more than what I expected. All of the joints are tight
and work well and you can achieve a ton of dynamic and interesting
poses. The figure is also balanced well and can stand unassisted in a
large variety of poses.
Sculpt:
How so I even talk about the sculpt on this figure? There’s so much
going on it’s ridiculous.
The
head is a masterpiece. The horns are asymmetrical and yet balanced.
They have tons of detail and all of the little offshoot branches have
distinctive and random forms. These don’t look planned
is my point. The face looks serious. The deep set eyes under the
thick brow create a menacing look. And just to add to the metal
theme, look at that Lemmy mustache.
Swamp
Thing’s torso is a mixture of bark and moss and leafy stuff. I like
the way that all of the bark looks like pieces of armor plating.
The
shoulders work a lot better than the hips. The plating there does a
good job of concealing the ball joints and blending them in. The
textures of the arms match the torso and then blend down into the
bark gauntlets. Swamp Thing’s hands both have great shapes and
textures. The right hand is spread out and the left is a fist. Both
are covered in detail and have bark fingernails.
The
legs are similar to the arms in that a tremendous amount of sculpted
moss and textures blend down into more bark armor. These greave-like
shapes form the knee joints and house the foot articulation nicely.
It’s worth noting that the trademark pink flower that has been
present on many interpretations of Swamp Thing is sculpted onto the
back of the right leg.
This
figure is so varied and yet so uniform. There are so many different
shapes and textures, but they all blend together in a very organic
way. The articulation doesn’t blend in perfectly, but as good as it
is I can forgive the little bit that it takes away from the profile.
Coloring:
The whole figure is covered in a blend of greens and browns, with
washes of different shades of both to bring out all of the detail of
the sculpt. The armored bark portions are primarily brown with dark
brown washes.
Swamp
Thing’s red eyes are centered well. The pink flower on the back of
his leg is precisely painted.
My
one issue with the figure is the way his knees were done. This is
really weird, too. The upper right knee joint has a clear piece and
the upper left knee joint has a brown piece, while the lower joints
are painted. The brown joint isn’t so bad, but the clear one is
very noticeable. This isn’t a huge deal, but it’s just one of
those odd toymaking decisions that I don’t get.
Flair:
I kind of wish the wings were removable, but I really don’t care
because I would never
display this Swamp Thing without them. They look absolutely amazing.
The “feathers” resemble a palm-like leaf and the moss that they
sprout from looks fantastic. These are some of the best looking wings
I have seen on an action figure and they’re made out of friggin’
plants.
The
hinges may not be aesthetically pleasing, but they work well and are
tight enough to hold the wings in a pose.
Accessories:
Swamp Thing comes with a shield and a sword that plug into his left
and right arms, respectively.
Each
arm has a growth of branches sticking out of the forearm:
These
branches are cleverly disguising plugs that pulls out of the arms to
leave notches for Swamp Thing’s weapons to fit into:
The
weapons (and branch plugs) fit snugly and don’t just fall out.
The
shield looks like a giant knot from a tree. The paint job matches
Swamp Thing and it looks very natural when it is attached. You’d
never know it was a separate piece.
The
sword looks like a sharpened piece of bark and looks just as good
attached as the shield does.
These
are a great couple of accessories that interact with the figure
perfectly.
Packaging:
Just a window box. I do like the uniformity of the DCC window boxes,
though. They are all designed to look like the stupid new DC logo,
with the logo itself peeling down to reveal whatever the product or
franchise is.
Value:
I’ve seen this figure listed between forty and fifty bucks, but I
paid a bit less than that for mine. I would go so far as to say it’s
easily worth the fifty. You can find it cheaper, though, and should.
Overall:
This is one of those very special figures that I would recommend to
any collector. This needs
to be in your collection. It’s a fine example of what a specialty
company can do with its own licenses when somebody that cares is on
the project. I can’t imagine a better Swamp Thing happening. Yes,
the knee joint thing bothered me, but the rest of the figure is so
outstanding that I don’t care.
5
out of 5
You
know the drill – local comic shop, then BigBad or EE, then maybe
Amazon. Go buy this. It will make you happy.
-Phantom
Great review & pictures! I almost succumbed to my inner evils and bought this one. Almost. Instead, I went ahead and bought the Bats-Bane 2-pack for my son. I wish I had extra moolah to get this one too. I never read any of the newer 52 stuff but the Swamp Thing here is really bad-a**!
ReplyDeleteI haven't even put him on the shelf yet. Every time I try to I end up messing around with him for a few minutes and then just put him back on the desk. He's such an excellent figure.
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