By Chris Troy
It’s been awhile Forbidden Planet Faithful! I’m back after spending some down in Orlando (I rode on Star Tours, YAY!) and now I’m once again ready to tell you what new stuffs FPNYC has gotten in.
And with my return, I’ve brought the NFL with me! That’s right, I’m talking about sports on a comic shop’s blog, but I severely doubt I’m the only dude who’s bought a comic book and follows the Jets on a weekly basis. McFarlane Toys just released their 2nd wave of NFL Elite figures, which is the latest revision of their long-time NFL line of figures. This wave sees 8 releases, including a few returning stars like Tony Romo and Mark “Nacho” Sanchez of my beloved NY Jets, as well as Goth-Wizard & Super Bowl MYP Aaron Rodgers. These are more mini-statues then action figures, which comes as no surprise to anyone who’s purchased a McFarlane figure over the years. But hey, these are pro-atheletes, they shouldn’t be posing with the Justice League, no matter how good of a game Drew Brees throws. The sculpting is solid though, and the details to the uniforms and helmets are NFL accurate. For about $15-20 a pop, you can’t go wrong with these, unless you’re a Patriots fan, then we need to have some words.
Moving on to a more familiar topic, DC has launched it’s new 52 intiative, and despite a rough start with Justice League, the line has been pretty good so far. From someone who was only reading a handful of DC books per month. I now found myself actually caring about the likes Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Wonder Woman. The Bat-books have been pretty great as well (Detective Comics, Batman, Batgirl, and Batwoman), Demon Knights is incredible as was Action Comics. I’m super-excited for Peter Milligan’s “Justice League Dark”, but man o’ man, Suicide Squad was bad. Real bad. Especially when you remember that Gail Simone’s excellent “Secret Six” was cancelled for it. Which brings me to the 2nd wave of Batman Legacy figures! WE FINALLY GOT A CATMAN FIGURE PEOPLE! AND IT’S FRIGGIN AWESOME! The line also has a Golden Age Batman and a silver-age Barbara Gordon Batgirl, but again, CATMAN! This is awesome and I will kill someone to own it. Each figure goes for about $20 a pop and is comparable to the DCUC line in terms of scale, articulation and sculpt.
DCUC Wave 18 is out, and man, talk about scraping the bottom of the nostalgia barrel, as the line is based on the Super Friends/Super Powers cartoon from the 70s/80s for the most part, with 2 members of the classic Suicide Squad to round out the line. You have Black Vulcan, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Toyman, Samurai, and El Dorado making up the core line, with Apache Chief as the Collect and Connect figure. While Boomerang and Bronze Tiger has some degree of popularity thanks to Brightest Day and Secret Six, I really don’t see how the other 4 are supposed to appeal to today’s audience. Again, standard $20 price tag, and who knows, these more obscure figures may shoot up in value once they disappear off the shelves. And if you’re old enough to remember the Super Powers toys from the 80s, these are definetly an upgrade, in terms of…well everything.
