For the uninitiated this is where Toy Manufacturers from all over the world get to display all of the toys they have coming out over the next 12 months for hopeful pick-up to reach toy shelves throughout the year.
As an action figure junkie like myself, this is, at times, like a crack addict seeing a rock the size of the Taj Mahal but not being able to smoke it.
One of the most frustrating things is that all of the products we see (or SKU's to the manufacturers) are in no way guaranteed to even reach the store shelves, let alone my own, and one line that debuted some great stuff this year was Mattel's far-reaching animated line - Justice League Unlimited.
Unfortunately, despite two years on life support the plug has been pulled and word has come down from on high that 2011 is the very last year from JLU as the design and tooling resources get (rightfully) diverted toward Mattel's new animated line 'Young Justice'.
As a collector not in the US this line has basically been non-existent from inception with only three waves hitting retail in the UK, the rest of the time the kindness of friends or E-Bay has been our only avenue. This year however, Mattel installed yet another set of hoops to jump through with the announcement that 3 exclusive 3-packs of figures (with a total of 5 new sculpts) would ONLY be available at 4 Conventions across the US as long as supplies lasted. However, with a seemingly insane limit of 6 packs per person allowed to be purchased Mattel seem to be on the side of the scalpers.
Thankfully, I am lucky enough, like Spider-Man to have some Amazing Friends in the US and one of these, my good friend Brandon, was able to secure all three of these packs for me at the very first Con of the year - C2E2.
Needless to say, my heart skipped a beat with joy when I received the message that they were secure and therefore, it is my very great pleasure to bring you a photo review of these three packs which contain some lovely, lovely figures.
Again, for the uninitiated, the JLU line is scaled at 3.75 inches with a standard 5 points of articulation (neck, shoulders and hips). Accessories are kept to a minimum, Mattel preferring to keep costs down and making full use of reusable bodies (or 'bucks') and many, many repaints and re-packs. I hate to think about the amount of Superman and Batman figures that have been released in this line in varying forms.
The first three-pack I'm going to look at is KILLER FROST/FIRESTORM/ANGLE MAN.
This pack may well have been three brand new sculpts as Firestorm was very scarce on the shelves on actual release.
The figure features the Ronnie Raymond incarnation of Firestorm The Nuclear Man and is a very sharp, colourful figure.
The headsculpt (normally the only 'fresh' part of a JLU figure) is excellent with the Flame cast in orange translucent plastic.
Unfortunately, as can bee seen from the picture below there's quite a bit of paint spill on the forehead but this should be easily touched up and isn't too noticeable from a distance.
Overall - I'd give Firestorm a solid 4.5/5.
Killer Frost - The first 'new' sculpt. The reason why I use the parentheses is that Killer Frost is basically Live Wire's head with a different hairpiece.
Yes, this is an easy way to give us a new character very easily but does feel a little lazy.
The costume paint on the buck is very clean indeed and the blue is extremely rich.
Overall - 4/5
The next figure is, for me, the prize of the nine figures, Angle Man
As a person who is partial to the Yellow and Black attack this costume design is just perfect (as is Angle Man's facial hair).
The paintjob on this figure's body is again, excellent. The lines clean and clear with the yellow standing out massively against deep rich black.
The head paint again suffers from a touch of overspill on the top of the goggles and into the yellow lines on the helmet.
Conversely, though, the infinitely more fiddly facial hair is clean.
Overall - 4.5/5
The next three pack is the MIRROR MASTER/FLASH/HEATWAVE pack
This pack only features a single new sculpt in Heatwave...but my, my, my...what a sculpt it is.
As far as I can see, this figure is a 100% completely new sculpt which, for this stage of line is a great thing to see.
Pictures speak much louder than words so here's some more...
From what I can see, all paint jobs are clear, the sculpt and it is a great thing to see that Mattel can really knock it out of the park when they want to. Outstanding figure.
Overall - 5/5
The other two figures in this line have been released before but, to my eyes at least, it looks as though this Flash may have a slightly tweaked facial sculpt.
Both are good, solid 3.5/5 figures.
The final three pack is a Green Lantern themed pack which with 2011 being the 'year of Green Lantern' seems appropriate.
This pack features GOLDFACE/KYLE RAYNER/EVIL STAR featuring one repack and two new sculpts.
I am one of the few people who collect this line without a Kyle Rayner so I'm very, very pleased to have this figure. For all intents and purposes though this could just as well be Hal Jordan and I'm sure that the head will be swapped on many a collectors figure onto the SDCC Green Lantern from 2010 to finally get their 'Masked' Hal and I'm sure that Mattel had taken this into account when putting this pack together.
Overall - 4/5
The first of the new sculpts in this pack is Evil Star, a big, chunky, stocky figure with a great look.
Again, this is a repaint/reuse of an existing buck with a new headsculpt and once again the body paint is crisp and this time so is the head paintjob.
Great Figure - 4.5/5
The final figure in these three packs is again, a 100% new sculpt, the Green Lantern villan...Goldface.
Whilst I applaud Mattel for giving us fresh sculpts and new characters the QC on this figure has not bee as sharp as it could have been. On the above photo you can clearly see a very distinct mould line right across the face of the figure and there is some definite paintslop and rubbing.
I hope that the mould line isn't a factor with every figure.
Overall - 3.5/5
All in all, this set of three-packs are a great start to the 'last hurrah' of the JLU line. Some definite hits, no real misses and a nice set of characters to swell collectors shelves.
However, with the worrying rumours that the remainder of the figures shown at Toyfair may not make it out at all these could very well be the last releases we see from this wonderful line of figures and that would be a very sad thing.
