by Christopher Troy
Before addressing the topic of this article, I just want to point out the current FPNYC-fueled addiction in my life: The Persona 3&4 keychains by Megahouse. The cult-fave PS2/PSP J-rpgs released by Atlus have seen little to no merchandise (outside of a few artbooks, statues or a Figma or 2), and this is the first time I’ve seen certain characters from both games get the plastic treatment. FPNYC has (or had, not sure if I’ve cleaned them out or not on Thursday) them in stock for about $7 a pop, and if you’re a Persona fan, their cute, well made and worth it. Anywho, speaking of the supernatural, let’s get onto Blackest Night.
Aside from a massive crossover with a ton of spin-off/tie in books that’s STILL affecting the modern DC Universe, Blackest Night was a huge merchandise hit for DC comics. At FPNYC alone, you can find t-shirts based on all the various corps that appeared in Green Lantern/Green Lantern Corp and Blackest Night, magnets, shot-glasses, and plastic rings. We’ll be focusing on the figures that have spawned from the event, as 6 lines of toys have been released, and we have at least 1 or 2 more due out before the “Brightest Day” line drops in 2011.
Best Bet: The New Guardians:
Ironically, my best of choices were both wave one releases: Red Lantern Guardian Atrocious and Blue Lantern Saint Walker. While we’ve seen releases from the other 5 corps (Sinstero was released in his redesigned Corp outfit during the actual Green Lantern line FYI), these 2 remains my favorite due to the great sculpts based on awesome designs, and excellent metallic paint jobs on their respected uniforms that make them pop out a bit. And yes, I know I’m performing an act of comic nerd heresy for not picking Larfreeze, I’m just not a fan of the figure, despite Geoff Johns writing the hell of him in the proper Green Lantern title.
Best Bet: Green Lantern Corp:
Nothing against John or Hal, both those figures got awesome DCUC figures that have better sculpts and poseability, so screw them! Kyle and Arisa get the pick, as their sculpts are based on Patrick Gleason’s slick pencils from Green Lantern Corp ongoing which means their awesome by default, and the fact that I’m a huge Kyle Rayner fan-man. This is the 1st time Arisa received a figure, making her one of the handful female green Lantern figures ever to be released, and this is the first figure based on Kyle’s post Sinstero Corp War design, meaning you can now have a collection of modern Earth GLs. And for the record, DC direct loses points for not releasing a Red-Lantern Guy yet. There’s a Heroclix coming out for crying out loud!
Best Black Lantern figures:
I’ll be honest, outside of the recent “Brave and the Bold” animated series, I couldn’t give a toss about Aquaman when not written by Grant Morrison. The same goes with Firestorm, only he wasn’t a member of Morrison’s team, and I’m too lazy to check Google to see if Firestorm appeared on TBAB yet. However a zombie shark summoning Aquaman? In orange scales? Plus look at Firestorm, who’s clearly made of children s’ nightmares! These 2 are easily the best of the bunch, at least in my opinion! The clash of iconic costumes meat night of the living dead make for great visuals, and the people of DC Direct did a great job of capturing the Blackest Night’s art teams designs!
That’s all for this week! We have a ton of Blackest Night figures in stock, packaged with bases and lanterns, but grab what you can now, as the 7th and 8th waves will have a ton of fan favorite figures we’ll be looking at next week that are sure to fly off the shelves!
