Review > Firestorm (Jason Rusch)

December 13, 2008 | Poe

The modern Firestorm (Jason Rusch) was supposed to ship with the first shipments of DC Universe Classics Wave 2, but for various reasons it was held back–not the least of which was fans appeared to want the classic Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) more anyway.

Refresh shipments of Wave 2 are arriving in stores now, with the modern Firestorm (and nothing else). I picked one up off Toys R Us’s website, but they appear to have sold out.

When a mortally wounded Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond) fell from the sky, he cascaded Jason Rusch in atomic energies. Jason thus bonded with the “Firestorm Matrix” and gained the ability to fuse his body with others. Eventually, Jason merged with Professor Stein, original host of the Firestorm Matrix, to carry on the mantle and the mission of Firestorm…

It’s very clear Jason Rusch was the original Firestorm the Horsemen sculpted, and the Ronnie Raymond one was the actual repaint. In the comics, Raymond’s gloves were relatively small, ending at about the wrist, and had no lines on them. Rusch’s gloves go to his elbow and are marked with white lines. The Ronnie Raymond Firestorm has elbow-length yellow gloves and raised markings on his gloves (which are painted white on Rusch). Moreover, the chest markings on classic Firestorm are mostly painted on, rather than being raised as part of the sculpt, since again, the only raised parts were made for the Rusch Firestorm.

While I like both figures, I think I like the Rusch Firestorm a bit better. I don’t have any nostalgic attachment to the classic Firestorm, and the newer look is sleeker and a tad more stylish. More importantly, the sculpt serves the character better, since it was designed for him.

The paint work on Rusch is a little better, too–the yellow is a tad darker, and he has a nice wash around his torso.

Rusch didn’t have any stuck joints. All was not perfect, though; his biceps had been put on the opposite arms. I used a hair dryer to heat the arms, removed them, heated the elbows so I could pop out the pins and swapped the biceps. He’s fine now.

News round-up, 12/12/08

December 12, 2008 | Poe

Contest update – just identify as many as you can

December 12, 2008 | Poe

I had assumed you all would just use the magic of Google to find all the items in my holiday contest. Apparently I overestimated you–my mistake.

So let’s change the rules. Just try to identify as many as you can in a single email to me (no follow-ups) by Sunday night at 11:59pm. The person who gets the most right wins; in the event of a tie, I’ll flip a coin, or if it’s more than a two-way tie I’ll find some other random method of generating a winner.

On an unrelated note, I’m impressed that Spikor is doing so well in the poll. I’d assumed Hordak would run away with it and Scare-Glow would be in second place, but I’m glad to see there are so many fellow Spikor fans.

Pic of the day

December 11, 2008 | Poe

Kongzilla by Doc Roc (sculpted by Randy Bowen)

Poe’s note: This is a rare Randy Bowen statue from more than ten years ago…which I would probably slaughter a goat to get an action figure of. Like, a goat I’d raised from a little kid and named and everything.

Review > Orion and Lightray TRU Exclusive

December 11, 2008 | Poe

(Click on any photo for a hi-res version.)

Don’t you hate it when you buy a DVD right when it comes out, only for the “super special director’s cut mega edition with a free puppy and a coupon for a bikini wax” to come out for five bucks more a few months later?

Wait, that needs some set-up.

Mattel’s DC Universe Classics two-packs are finally showing up at retail. They’re a Toys ‘R Us exclusive, but so far they seem much more plentful than Walmart’s borderline-mythical wave. The four packs are: Cyborg Superman and Mongul, Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Azrael, Hal Jordan (first appearance) and Abin Sur, and the subject of today’s review, Orion and Lightray. The first four are re-releases of DC Super Heroes figures.

This was the only pack I was interested in. I’ve got the first four figures and didn’t feel like I needed another Hal Jordan or a figure of Abin Sur, who was alive for about five minutes in the DCU before giving his ring to Jordan. But Lightray was a brand-new figure, and while Orion is mostly a re-release of the DCUC1 figure, he has a spiffy new removable helmet–hence my labored DVD metaphor that began this review! (more…)

Kids and MOTUC

December 10, 2008 | Poe

I’m not going to suggest this story is representative of how kids might react to MOTUC were it a normal retail line, but this story warmed my already-pretty-fuzzy heart.

Back in 2002 my son quickly fell in love with the relaunch of MotU but due to not being able to find anyone other than He-Man and Skeletor variants he also quickly fell out of love with it. Now he’s 11 and here comes the MotUC. I showed him pics of the upcoming exclusive and he never seemed to be interested but when he saw the actual King Grayskull figure he flipped out saying that it’s the most awesome figure he’s ever seen and that he wants one now. I go on the internet and show him pictures of the other figures coming out and he’s all excited saying he wants 1 of each too. I also had to go online and disappoint him by showing him that King Grayskull is sold out and that you can only get him by paying around $75. I also had to disappoint him even further by explaining I’m not about to pay $75 for a figure and that he may have to wait for Christmas. Well he wanted it now. I had to go to Atlanta with my girlfriend this past weekend and when I got back to my parents’ house to pick my son up he shows me the receipt from where he purchased it for $68. Turns out he wanted it so bad he washed and vacuumed family members’ cars for $20 each and he raked and mowed my parent’s yard. All that for a King Grayskull figure. Makes a father proud!

PGPoA’s Holiday Contest

December 10, 2008 | Poe

I’d been thinking about doing this, and a few of the comments in my last Odds ‘n Ends have sealed the deal.

The contest is easy, and I’m not even going to bother with a bunch of rules and so forth: the first person to email me with a complete list of every item in my holiday Odds ‘n Ends photo, along with the action figure it originally came with, wins a free Santa Spud (seen here). Anyone can enter except me (obviously), OB1, Red Kryptonite and Dr. Mrs. Ghostal.

To help make things fair, I’m going to edit or delete every previous comment in which someone has identified an item.

For reference, I’ve posted the Odds ‘n Ends holiday photo after the jump.

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News round-up, 12/10/08

December 10, 2008 | Poe

Wow, where did yesterday go? Anyway…