In Brightest Day...

I am an addict...I've told you before,,,an addict of the plastic crack.

I have numerous Pushers. My main 'connection' is Mike from Mikes Comics N' Stuff in Anaheim over there in Sunny California.

This is how it works...he emails me with the 'gear' he has in stock, I surreptitiously send him some cash and a couple of weeks later I received an unmarked brown box full of baggies with my crack stowed safely inside.

I'm pleased to say that today was one of those days.

Today, my friends, was the day that the Green Lantern movie became an actual reality to me instead of an amorphous idea and pictures on a screen. Today I received the first wave of the Green Lantern Movie Masters figures from Mattel.

For those who are not familiar with the concept you see the trailers here :-

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/greenlantern/

Green Lantern is, in a nutshell, the story of test pilot Hal Jordan who is chosen to be the latest recruit in an intergalactic Police Corps who protect the universe from threats. The main weapon wielded by the Corps. members is a ring that channels the wearers willpower into reality, a great concept.

The majority of the Corps is made up from 3600 aliens which in turn is a great concept for a toyline. Imagination is the only boundary to the members.

The first wave is made up of three figures :-

Hal Jordan
Tomar Re
Rot Lop Fan

in addition to this wave Mattel also released a 'preview' figure in their most recent Green Lantern Classics wave, G'hu.

HAL JORDAN

The main focus of the film, Hal Jordan is played by Ryan Reynolds who seems to be making quite a career for himself in comic book adaptations having previously starred as Hannibal King in the Blade franchise and Deadpool in Wolverine : Origins. This time he's stepped into the DC Universe in the first of a rumoured trilogy of Green Lantern movies.

The Movie master range from Mattel is their 'collector' range aimed at Comic Book Geeks who want something a little more than the action figure line that will be released 'for the kids' (although personally I'm looking forward to those too) and featured more points of articulation and better sculpting.

The figures are at a 6-inch scale meaning that 6 inches equals 6 feet so the figures are scaled accordingly.

Each release in the Green Lantern Movie Masters range (13 figures) will come with a piece of a 'collect and connect' figure that will be approximately 15 inches tall of the main 'villain' of the movie - the embodiment of fear itself, Parallax. For wave one, all of the figures come with one of the tentacles.

Turning back to the figure itself and whilst I'm happy to have it in my collection it's...well...it's a little bit boring. Very well sculpted and actually a pretty good likeness of Ryan Reynolds when compared to the other figures in the wave he looks a little bland.

The figure, as well as the Collect and Connect piece also comes with the eponymous Green Lantern as an accessory.

Other than that the remainder of the wave don't come with any accessories whatsover, not even a Green Lantern, which I find a little strange but the other figures are so good it doesn't really matter.

"I know, right?..."

As you can see from the above shot, the striations of the costume have been reproduced excellently on the body and limbs of the figure as has the ring on the hand.

TOMAR RE

Tomar Re has been a familiar fixture in the Green Lantern comic book universe since his first appearance back in Green Lantern #6 in 1961.

Slightly altered for the movie the basics of the character are all still there and in the movie he'll be voiced by Captain Barbossa himself, Geoffrey Rush.

Again, the sculpting on the figure is great, the detail fantastic and plenty of articulation.

ROT LOP FAN


This was the most anticipated figure by Comic Book fans, the figure that has generally been held as the hallmark for 'will never be' figure and to give Mattel their due they have stayed more true to the comic design with this one than any of the other 'alien' figures we have seen revealed.

G'Hu

This is, without a doubt, my favourite figure of the bunch. Whilst not 'officially' one of the Movie Master line it is in the same style, the same scale and was classed as a movie 'preview' figure.

Very, very cool figure and extremely 'toyetic'.

Once again I am truly impressed with the level of detail that has gone into the sculpting of these figures and this, in some way, explains away the recent 'lazy' results from Mattel's main line 'DC Universe Classics', I just hope that the movie and sales of these figures has the success that they deserve.

Overall then, a very impressive start from Mattel. The next release in this line is the first in the 'oversized' Movie Masters, The Green Man, available only on Mattycollector.com from 16th May 2011 and the next wave of 4 figures should follow in mid-June.

The 'street date' for the other toylines for the movie is 1st May and I'll be posting reviews as and when thye items hit my collection. I'm just hoping that Mattel will get some UK shelf space back from the Hasbro juggernaut and give the Green Lantern product the promotion it deserves.

In brightest day, in blackest night

no evil shall escape my sight. 

Let those who worship evil's might

beware my power...

Green Lantern's light!

God of Thunder...

Spider-Man was obvious, X-Men...marketable, Captain America...inevitable but after the financial and critical success of Iron Man the door was open to allow Marvel Films to bring some of their second tier characters to life on the big screen. Thor, I believe, was a pretty big gamble for them.

Far from a sure bet, the Gods of Norse mythology having been all but eradicated from the brave new world that we inhabit, just how were Marvel going to do justice without it becoming a Beowulf-esque mess the answer, my dear friends, was the masterstroke of hiring Kenneth Branagh to helm this chapter in ongoing 'shared' universe.

Branagh is a man who knows his way round tales of brotherly intrigue and fallen princes, of old kings in grand palaces and of machiavellian schemes and betrayal not only that but he's no slouch as an actor himself so all the pieces fit. But how would he handle the all guns blazing action to appease the multiplex masses? I'm pleased to say to that the answer to that particular question is 'Very admirably. Thank you very much'.

This review will contain minor spoilers (depending on your mileage) so you may wish to turn back now safe in the knowledge that, to me, this is the best Marvel film yet and is a great movie in and of itself and that you should have no hesitation in plunking down your cash to see this in all it's glory. If you have the opportunity you should see it in IMAX, this movie deserves the very best viewing that you can afford.

So for those of us hardy souls who continue, here's a shot from the first part of the movie...

The movie proper begins with a swift summation of who the Gods are, their backstory and a sweeping aerial tracking shot through the kingdom and spires of Asgard and into the Throne Room of King Odin Allfather where the masses of Asgard are gathered for the return and seeming coronation of Prince Thor Odinson. This also provides us with our first glimpse of the Warriors Three from the funny books and they look PERFECT.

Not however as perfect as Asgard looks. In every single shot of the Realm of Asgard I was taken about with how beautifully the practical sets were built, lit and shot. The CGI enhancements adding to the golden splendour.

Vainglorious and arrogant Thor disobeys his father by leading an assault onto another realm by way of the Rainbow Bridge Bifrost and proceeds to make his way through a seeming checklist of what I wanted to see a live action Thor do, swing Moljnir, fly, bring down the lightning and generally kick large amounts of booty.

Needless to say, it all goes a little bit pear-shaped for the raiding party and they have to be rescued by Odin himself who, as punishment banishes Thor to Midgard (Earth) until he is truly worthy to take up the mantle of King and Guardian of Asgard.

The film then splits into two branches the Earth-bound 'fish out of water' tale and the Asgard based Shakespearean power struggle which carries the movie through to the climatic confrontation and the lessons learned.

There are beautiful nods to both the shared universe and the comics strewn across this movie most notably the intervention of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the by now ubiquitous Agent Coulson who would really like to know who this large blond warrior of a man is, where he comes from and why there is a large Hammer stuck into the ground in New Mexico.

This time however, Coulson has some assistance from an archer named Barton...Hmm I wonder who that could be (psst. for the non-comic books geeks...he's Hawkeye one of The Aven...Ah, I'll get to that later).

Needless to say after an encounter with the Destroyer, Thor takes back the mantle of the Prince of Asgard and returns to Asgard for the epic final confrontation which is, quite literally, earth shattering.

I cannot get over how well the Asgardian realm was handled, featured, used and explained in this movie. It is a Comic Book Geek's mad-acid tinged wet dream come to life. Jack Kirby himself would, I suspect, be VERY pleased with the translation from his imagination to the screen.

That's not to say that the film is solely a visual piece. Far from it. In fact, it is primarily a drama brought to life by not only an amazing Director but also a cast who are clearly relishing the material they are working with and bring their 'A' game to the table. Even the normally wooden Miss Portman brings some character to the role of Dr. Jane Foster but high praise must go to the other principles Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, a man who just before getting this role was considering returning to his native Australia (Boy, we should all be glad that he didn't), previous Branagh on-screen compadre Tom Hiddleston as the God of Mischief Loki and Idris Elba (The Wire) in an excellent turn as Heimdall, Guardian of Asgard.

However, special mention MUST go to Sir Anthony Hopkins, the welsh wonder, for bringing his chops to the table and simply inhabiting Odin Allfather in a way that we've not seen from Hopkins in a long, long time. Yes, this film is not Shadowlands but Hopkins still delivers an extremely strong performance as a weary yet benevolent ruler and father. This will, of course be ignored by most critics as they will dismiss this as a 'Comic Book Movie' and therefore not entirely worthy of praise but I am steadfast in my belief that not a single member of this cast 'phoned it in' which, of course, makes for an intensely dramatic two hours.

This has, as I said above, proved that it doesn't always have to be only the top tier of characters that get a look in and get the treatment that they deserve. Thor is a worthy chapter in the shared universe cannon that the Marvel Universe takes to the next level with the upcoming Joss Whedon helmed movie The Avengers (which co-incidentally began shooting today somewhere in New Mexico). Before that though we've got Captain America to look forward to in July which, from what I have seen, will be yet another step up for the franchise.

Ryan Reynolds has got one hell of a bar to reach for in this June's 'Green Lantern' and unfortunately I think he'll fall short, by a long chalk.

As the spell of a grieving father once went 'Whoever so hold this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor'...

He was Worthy, we are not.

Oh...by the way...just in case you don't usually do this, stay and watch the credits for not only a sumptuous visual 3D feast, not only for the amazingly Bondian 'Thor will return in The Avengers' final credit but for the BEST post-credit sequence yet.

JLU - Con-Exclusive 3 Packs

Every February the geek masses (as well as the more professional members of the Toy Industry) descend on New York City for the world's biggest Toy event. The Annual Toy Far.

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.

Thor - 8" Rotocast Movie Figure

2011 has, so far, been a year devoid of toys to really get me excited. Sure, I've had my Masters of the Universe Classics monthly fix from Mattycollector but with several tentpole cinema releases this year I was anxious to see what goodies the licensors had in store for us addicts of the plastic crack.

The first movie out of the gate is Thor (opening in the UK on 27th April 2011) and true to form, approximately a month before the release, the toys hit the shelves.

First debuted to the world's toy press at the New York Toy Fair in February the initial tranche of releases contains the first wave of the 3.75 inch figures (Thor, Odin, Loki & an Ice Giant) and an 8 inch rotocast figure of Thor which is the subject of this review.

I'm going to swiftly deal with the 3.75 inch figures first. They were, in my opinion, really insubstantial and fragile looking. Not at all what I expected from this license. It is good that Hasbro are maintaining a consistent look across all of their Marvel movie waves and I'm sure that the Captain America set will be no different but when compared to rest of the fare to tempt the toy dollars from Mom and Pop's purse they look really tiny.

In my local Toys R Us they are displayed right next to the chunky, bright figures from Brave and the Bold, same price point, different kettle of fish.

Even I, a hardcore toy collector had the full wave in my hands and put them back on the shelf...not a good sign.

But then I picked up what I truly had gone in for, the 8 inch rotocast.

This is a figure with limited POA (points of articulation) - 5 to be exact, neck, shoulders and hips but what it loses in posability it more than makes up for in sculpting.

The facial sculpt of this figure IS Chris Helmsworth as Thor.

The costume is excellently realised from the scaled arm armour all the way down to the pitting on the head of Moljnir. There are actually two separate variants of this figure. The one pictured and another issue with a 'powered up' look utilising blue translucent plastic for the head of Moljnir and the blue of Thor's jerkin.

I did notice a slight paint difference in the two with the paint on the translucent variant being 'heavier' and not as natural as the standard figure. The case ratio for these seemed to be 70/30 weighted in favour of the standard.

I find myself now wanting to pick up the previously released Iron Man Mark VI rotocast in the same scale and the 10" Incredible Hulk to really start to build up my movie Avengers in this scale. I really hope that we see a future Captain America figure in this manner.

Having dealt with the sculpting and the paint I'll now hit the all important info...the price point.

This figure costs £10.99 in Toys R Us and I was pleasantly surprised to see the same price at Forbidden Planet. I feel that this, in the modern pricing structure for toys aimed at the collectors market is certainly very reasonable and certainly much better than the asking price of £7.99 for the 3.75" line.

All in, I'm very, very happy with this figure being on my shelves and would happily give it a solid 4.5 out of 5


This figure is available at all branches of Toys R Us, Forbidden Planet and also from select dealers on Amazon in the UK. In the US it can be found at Walmart, Target, Toys R Us and all specialised Toy dealers.


Pick him up...For Asgard!!!!!!!!