I was
really
excited about this figure.
Arkham
Origins was not the best
game ever and is certainly the weakest of the Arkham
games. But if it had one strong point, it was the boss battles. Well,
some of the boss battles. The ones that relied on innovation and
utilization of the villains’ characteristics rather than on sending
swarms of goons to artificially increase the difficulty.
The
Firefly boss battle was one of the former. He flew and he shot fire.
And both of those characteristics were used not only to make an
effective battle, but also to take him down. The battle was epic and
involved a lot of timing and use of Batman’s grapnel. It was
something different and fun.
The character design – as with almost all of the Arkham designs – was a fantastic variation on Firefly’s standard look. An element of function was introduced into his wings and costume, while still maintaining a very super-villainy look. I was excited to get this figure in hand and see how DCC had incorporated their usual articulation and features into this character design.
FIRST
GLANCE
Firefly
is a figure that fills up the package and catches the eye. The
contrasting colors look good. This is one of those figures that will
probably have toy collectors unfamiliar with the character (because
I’m sure there are lots of those…) giving it a second look.
PACKAGING
This
is the superior DCC clamshell with the perforated back. It’s still
hazardous and I recommend wearing protective gloves while opening it,
but at least you don’t need scissors to do so. The new shape of the
package seems particularly suited to Mr. Lynns.
LOOKS
Even
after battling Firefly in the game and then unlocking his character
trophy I didn’t realize how complex this guy’s gear was. There is
a lot of gadgetry here and DCC has done an excellent job of
representing it.
That
helmet looks amazing.
I love the lenses, I love the breathing mask with the tubes, and I
love the antenna. The thing is so insectile while still looking like
a real thing. You don’t look at it and think, “This was made by a
man trying to dress up like a bug.”
I
think the exoskeleton is what really sells this design. While I’m
sure an engineer or pretty much anybody smarter than me could pick it
apart, it has a kind of logic to it. Looking at the chest harness and
fasteners and the shoulder supports and the braces running down the
figure’s legs, it seems totally reasonable that a guy could strap
two huge, winged fans on his back and fly around. It almost bears a
little resemblance to that thing they built on Mythbusters.
The point is that it all looks so functional. There are clasps and
straps and buckles. It looks like it supports weight in the right
places.
Uh…
and this is a toy review, not a critique of the character design, so…
the figure captures all of that detail!
Part of the success of this figure comes from the fact that
many of the pieces are actually separately sculpted parts and look
great because of that.
The
jumpsuit has a couple of different textures on it. The base looks
like a nylon with some dry brushing to give it a little more depth.
The padding is crisp and well defined. Yellow is a notoriously
difficult color to work with on toys, but the folks at DCC applied it
well enough to look good. The lines are clean and it’s thick enough
that the lower layer colors don’t show through. I really dig the
high collar, though that is the source of one of my problems with the
figure, which I’ll get to later.
There’s
some nice asymmetry on the figure. He has grenades under his right
arm and some sort of gauntlet thing on his left. Both hands are posed
to do very specific things – hold the flamethrower. But they do
look okay empty.
Firefly’s
boots look extremely uncomfortable, but also like they would provide
great support for somebody that was, say, landing suddenly from a
great height. The sculpt is angular and clean – clearly these are a
rigid material.
ACCESSORIES
Even
though the separate pieces that Firefly comes with are permanent
pieces of his gear I’m going to treat them as accessories. Because
otherwise he doesn’t come with anything.
Firefly
comes with two wings and his flamethrower.
The
flamethrower has a rubber fuel line attached that actually isn’t
attached. I thought it was, but then I moved the thing too far in one
direction and it popped out. Fortunately, it plugged right back in.
The other end plugs into this little hole in the back of the figure’s
harness. This brings up an issue I have with the character design –
where is the fuel source for his flamethrower? That flamethrower does
look great. The sculpt is simple but solid and the paint is great.
DCC doesn’t try to pull the bullshit that Mattel does.
The
wings are a problem. For some strange reason the designers decided to
create these weird shapes for the wing plugs rather than any kind of
conventional connection points. As a result the wings don’t attach
very well and don’t sit evenly. The wings do look
good. The sculpt is nice and clean and the paint job on the front is
great. But it looks like I spoke too soon when I complimented DCC on
their accessory paint because the backsides of the wings are
unpainted. It looks weird.
FUN
Sadly,
this figure is no fun.
The
first issue is the articulation. While Firefly does have a decent
amount, a lot of it is limited:
Head
– swivel
Shoulders
– ball joints
Elbows
– pivots with swivels at the top
Wrists
– swivel
Hips
– ball joints
Knees
– pivots
That
seems okay, right? Not so much. The shoulders and hips are very
limited as to how far they can move. The elbows swivel all the way
around, but the pivots have a very shallow bend. The arms just needed
a lot more range. Firefly can hold his flamethrower in exactly one
position, and that’s the only thing he looks good doing. And even
that isn’t great because he can’t turn his head far enough to
track where he’s aiming.
The
hip joints are limited by the brace pieces and the knees have an even
shallower pivot than the elbows, but that really doesn’t matter
because there are no ankle joints.
I
could live with the limited leg articulation because this guy flies
and doesn’t really need a lot of lower body action (though being
able to point his feet downward would be nice). But he needed a lot
better articulation in his arms.
OVERALL
Compered
to the DC Direct figures of the past Firefly is very good. He’s
more than a statue with five points of articulation. But not much
more. When put up against most of DC Collectibles’ more recent
releases – especially a lot of the Arkham
figures – he just doesn’t quite impress. He looks great, but
there are some fundamental flaws with his design.
3
out of 5
He
may not be the most exciting figure ever, but Firefly still looks
neat hanging from the ceiling. Help Needless Things out and buy one
from Amazon!:
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