The Green Lantern feature film hype is now in full swing. There are new trailers to be seen, clothes to be worn and lots and LOTS of toys to be collected. This will certainly be DC Comics’ tent pole feature this summer and it looks like Hal Jordan and a bevy of various extra-terestrial GLs of every shape and size will be on the minds of comic fans, movie-goers and kids alike. Mattel is ready. I know Toy Guru has been trying to keep everyone up to speed on all of the Lantern merchandise that is currently hitting the store shelves, but every time I turn around, I see something that I had no idea even existed. But not with the Movie Masters line. I think I have everything up to speed on this execution and we bring to you a look at the latest entrant in the line that will continue throughout 2011 – the one and only space fish, Naut Ke Loi.
If you have seen any of the movie trailers you know that, aside from Ryan Reynolds’ face and abs, everything looks to have at least a touch of CGI to it. It makes sense, a lot of the time looks to be spent in space and when you have a whole corps of alien cops from all reaches of the universe. While keeping true to the “feel” of a lot of the aliens, there are some pretty fantastical designs packed into the movie, and that is saying a lot seeing how it is based off of a comic book.
Case is point is Naut Ke here, in the funny books he has always been a humanoid guy with a fish head, in the movie, he is pretty much all space fish. I can see the step to do this to add diversity to the design, but I think it actually makes him look MORE of Earth than anywhere else, he looks like fish. A fish that flies through space and wears a ring. Yeah, I guess the magic is still there.
From what I have seen so far, Mattel has done a good job in capturing the likenesses of the aliens they have released so far. I have seen production designs of Naut Ke Loi, but I am not sure I have seen him in motion yet. He does make for a peculiar and interesting-looking figure and is not like anything else I really own.
Like I said, the look and design holds very to true to the movie and I think the aliens are going to be the more popular figures in this line. He has several interesting colors to him and I like the iridescent blues and greens used on his body. Very fish-like.
The most interesting part of the the figure though is the articulation. On first glance it looked like he had partial ball shoulders, ball neck and hinge jaw. Upon opening I could see the little holes stamped in his body and arms that are usually telling of bendy figures. Makes sense, I thought, since he is just a fish guy. But upon moving them I realized there were not bendy at all. Rather, the body and arms have an endoskeleton that has places throughout that move and “click” into various positions. I have to say that this scheme is very effective and you can really get Naut Ke posed into a lot of interesting positions with this construction. I really like it and I will need to check with Mattel but I think this may be the same endoskeleton articulation that will be used for the SDCC-exclusive DCUC Swamp Thing. If it is, it works very nicely AND the “skin” is firm and feels tough, not like it will break down over time.
EDIT: I asked Toy Guru about the comparison between Naut ke Loi’s construction and the upcoming SDCC Swamp Thing. Here is what he had to say:
Toy Guru: “It is similar but not as advanced as Swamp Thing. Naut is a set between Clayfacd and Swampy.”
Thanks, sir!
Overall, I think Naut Ke Loi is up there with Green Man as my favorite GL Movie Master released so far, but we have a long way to go. Oh, and he has another “tendril” of Parallax, the same as Hal, Rot and Tomar. He is a very unique and interesting action figure and I will be interested to hear if strikes a chord with the collector base, I think he will. Also, if he is a preview of what we can expect for our DCUC Swamp Thing, I think many fans will be pleased.
*Thanks for reading and thanks to the Corps at Mattel for making this First Look possible.
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