So, you may be hearing that there is a little movie based on the Green Lantern coming out this June. Yeah, I know that as long as you have not been living under a yellow rock on Qward for the last year or so you have probably been waiting with baited breath about how our favorite jade space cop will be conceived on screen. Up until this past weekend, there has been very little to note in terms of images and footage and since we are now just a couple of months away, that is a bit unusual to say the least. However, WonderCon changed all of that. Holy moly did WonderCon change all of that. DC and Warners have been holding out on us, building suspense and we have all been wondering about the final product of the cinematic GL. Well, the footage that was shown to crowds in San Francisco has blow the lid right off of this whole thing and it has taken many a fan boy nerd overload coping systems with it. Green Lantern is going to be HUGE. Gigantic. Large-type. And very, very green. Duh. Personally, I am finally at that fever pitch after months of “wait and see”. I have waited, and I have seen and now June 17th just cannot get here fast enough.
Now, even the most casual observer to the action figure world knows that comic properties and movies are probably the two most popular outlets for toys. Combine the two and you get a full blown marketing blitz. Now, we have known that Mattel would be going all out with GL movie-related product for a long time now. We have even been getting some teasers like comic-based box sets and a sub-line of DC Universe Classics to whet our appetites, but I don’t think we are completely prepared for what is coming in the next few weeks. We are on the doorstep of the deluge of all things Lantern and on or about the first of next month, action figure aisles are going to green all over. If you have been paying attention to Toy Fair and Matty Collector you know that this is probably Mattel’s biggest comic movie property roll-out to date. Indeed, the GL movie has been Toy Guru’s primary, fulltime gig for past couple of years (and he still has time for our perennial favorites, DCUC, MOTUC, GB, etcetera) and, as we are about to see, he (and his team) has been a very busy boy.
We are going to be hit with toys of all kinds and for all types of GL fans. There have been some crazy role-play toys revealed, a four inch line aimed primarily at kids, moms and the more casual consumer (with some bad ass spring-loaded construct doo-hickies) and, of course, some upscale (literally) action figures for the discerning collector (see: YOU). I have barely been able to keep up with all of the product, but starting now we are going to try to get you all of the information and pictures of toys that you are going to want to check out. At the top of that list is, of course, the Green Lantern Movie Masters line and as you probably know, it is going to be big enough by itself to keep you haunting the retail aisles all year long.
As I am sure you know, Mattel’s Movie Masters designation is used for the detailed, highly articulated collector-based figure lines. It also comes with its own scale (compared to other Mattel lines) and has been applied to everything from Batman to the Ghostbusters. Well, everything Movie Masters related has just been a warm-up for the big green machine as GL is going to be the most expansive (retail) MM offering to date. Already we have singles, deluxe and two-packs to consider, a gigantic Collect and Connect that is being spread over the entire year and reveals of new figures every time you blink. Green Lantern fans, welcome to flavor country.
To kick things off, Mattel has provided us with samples of some soon-to-be-released singles and two packs in what we hope to be an all year roll out of new toys. We are going to start off with a couple of the single figures in GLs Hal Jordan (the star of stars, duh) and Rot Lap Fan and the huge Green Man deluxe figure. Over the next week we will also be looking at a couple of Toys R Us Exclusive two-packs as well as a set of the smaller, four inch figures so come get your green on.
I am going to go out on a short limb and say that the Star Wars movie franchise is going to finally get a run for its money in terms of a cast of (literally) thousands. Did you actually watch the GL WonderCon footage? Great googily moogily there are so many Lanterns. I think I have watched it about 20 times now and I know I have not caught them all yet. I do know that we are going to be getting a ton of them in plastic form though and maybe, just maybe, with the sequels already in the works, Mattel will work to make GL an ever-green property. Seriously, did you EVER think you would get a Rot Lap Fan in a GL movie, let alone in the first wave of GL Movie Masters figures? That is called scope, peeps, and we are just scratching the surface.
I am still processing all of the details on just what is coming and when in this line, but, like its DCUC comic counterpart, the GL Movie Masters line will employ the Collect and Connect strategy for the single carded figures. The figures will roll out in small waves throughout the year (this first one is made up of three figures, the Hal and Rot Lap featured here, as well as Geoffrey Rush-voice Tomar-Re) with steady reveals and when all is said and done, you will have 14(!) C&C pieces to construct (construct, get it?) your very own Parallax figure. It’s a good thing there will be so many Lanterns in the movie, you are going to need all of them to build this (possible movie climax) figure. I like this release strategy as it gives collectors a chance to catch their breath between waves and keeps the interest high throughout the year. Hopefully we will be right here to help keep you up to snuff on just what is coming and when.
Expect to see a lot of Hal Jordan. I mean, he is the star of the film and when that is coupled by the fact that Robo man crush Ryan Reynolds is playing him onscreen, everyone is going to know Hal after this summer. So, it is no surprise that he is the first figure to be featured in the Movie Master line. For the figures themselves, I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking, but here are a few distinct points about the line itself.
Mattel did not shoehorn these figures into a pre-set scheme of style or articulation. Since there is so much visual variety to the movie designs, I think that is a good thing. Instead of the green spandex, the movie uniforms and more organic and they look almost like exo-musculature. The figures carry this in that they all have a lot more texture to them than we are normally accustomed to seeing in a figure line.
The articulation is also not completely standardized in this line and several types of joints are utilized. When you have characters are physically diverse as Hal, Rot and Tomar in the first wave alone, you know there is going to be some variety. Thus articulation has been distributed on a very case by case basis. For example, some figures like Hal have the hip hinge scheme, while Rot Lap Fan has ball joints. Hal lacks torso articulation (probably a Reynolds contract stipulation since I imagine he doesn’t want anyone messing with his abs) while Green Man has the floating ribcage joint. Articulation and sculpt reuse reliability is simply not possible for most of this line as the very diverse character design prohibits it. So, articulation is distributed on a character appropriate level and a variety of styles (from the aforementioned hip hinge to “Mattel-bows”) are employed. This is something a bit out of the ordinary for a lot of toy lines these days, but for the GL Movie Masters, it simply had to be done.
The scope and variety in this line is going to be massive, plain and simple. Green Man is by far my favorite out of these three figures and he completely, and appropriately, dwarfs Hal. So much so in fact that he requires a completely different packaging scheme just go get him in release (I am sure Kilowog will follow suit). Also, judging by the C&C pieces (a couple of “tentacles” that appear to be identical, I think Tomar will have the some as well) revealed so far, Parallax is going to make everyone seem bite-sized. The card back does state that it will take 11 figures released throughout the year to complete the gruesome entity. So while future figures like Sinestro are going to be more like Hal in their form and stature, the recently-revealed Hector Hammond will be adding yet another element of scale to the line. Really, that means that at the end of the day, when you have collected all of the Movie Masters figures, your GL shelf will be as diverse as the Corps itself with size and character design, but cohesive thanks to a consistent style.
So, prepare yourself for the Green that is about to come. As you can see, just by featuring these three figures first, the strange and diverse world of GL is going to be played out in plastic all year long. Green Man is most certainly my favorite of the these three figures and I really cannot wait (but I probably will have to until after SDCC or at the very least post-movie release) to see all of the Parallax C&C. I am finally convinced that this movie is going to be huge and Mattel’s supporting product library will be right there with it. We will be along for the ride and will hopefully be providing periodic helpings of Lantern as move through the year. Don’t worry though, this first dip is not done yet, stay tuned this week for even more Green Lantern movie goodies. Thanks for stopping by!
*By this point I am pretty sure Toy Guru has been made a member of the Honor Guard due to his devotion to the Corps, so we thank him for letting us bask in the Green Glory.
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