“Gone, gone the form of man, rise the demon Etrigan!”
I think that if you told old Jason Blood that he would be featured in the very first assortment of a brand new action figure line that kicked off the foray into the entire DC Universe, even he would have said you are crazy. I mean, am I really so fortunate to be treated to not one, but TWO Jack Kirby DC creations in one action figure assortment? At the time, it just seemed like a really cool deal to be getting Etrigan and Orion at the same time, but looking back on it, it was pretty amazing considering what had never been done for the DC Universe in terms of action figures to that point.
Etrigan’s inclusion in DCUC Series 1, more than any other figure, was very telling that the Four Horsemen and Mattel had quite an ambitious plan with their approach to the Classics. We were going to be taken on a tour of the entire Universe right from the get-go and being able to mark off a character like The Demon so quickly made that statement in bold fashion. He also helped set the stage for a grand tradition of getting a ton of Jack Kirby characters in a line from a universe he is not (mostly) known for.
Vital Statistics
Figure: The Demon, Etrigan
Company: Mattel
Design: Four Horsemen Studios
Order: DC Universe Classics Series 1, Figure 4
Release: 2007 (December)
Collect & Connect Piece: LEFT ARM of Rex Mason (Metamorpho)
Accessories: N/A
Scale: 1:12
MSRP: $9.99
Variant: N/A
Articulation
- Ball-Joint Head
- Neck Peg
- Ball-Joint Shoulder (x2)
- Biceps Swivel (x2)
- Elbow Hinge (x2)
- Wrist Twist (x2)
- Abdominal Hinge
- Waist Twist
- Hip Hinge (x2)
- Hip Cut (x2)
- Thigh Swivel (x2)
- Knee Hinge (x2)
- Ankle Hinge (x2)
TOTAL: 22 Points of Articulation
Background Information
While the inclusion of Etrigan in the first series of DCUC was a bit of a surprise on one level, it also made sense from another. See, it is likely that, during the time before Classics, Etrigan was on Mattel’s list of characters they could produce due to his association with Batman. So he, like a few of the others in the first assortment, was likely ready to roll because he would have seen daylight in the DC Superheroes line had the rights to the full DCU not been granted. That is a bit of speculation on my part, but man, I would love to sit down with the 4H and Toy Guru for about a fortnight and hash out all of the history of this seminal line.
Another thing that made this figure a bit odd is its overall uniqueness, and I am not talking about the character. See, Etrigan is a very stout character with broad shoulders and a wide torso; the figure reflects that perfectly and it contains a lot of unique parts to create the look. Therein lies the rub, though, and I find it very odd that nothing from this figure, not even the torso was ever used again in DCUC, a line built on the concept of reuse. I am not saying that his parts could be used for a ton of characters, but no one ever got that upper body again, even when the opportunity to do so was ripe for the picking. Again, that is a question I would love to ask the powers that be at some point in the future.
After Words
Hail to the King, baby! King Kirby, that is. While most of this first assortment of DCUC pulled directly from the old Super Powers line (at least with character selection), Etrigan went and broke the mold and was the statement that Classics was going to be so much more than that. Even as one of the earliest figures in the line, Etrigan still stands as having one of the best likenesses from page to plastic and all of the unique tooling was essential to accomplish this, and it paid off in spades. I think this figure was a bit forgotten in all of the hype of the start of DCUC, but going back and doing an Archive entry like this really puts things in perspective and I while I have always really liked the figure, I have a new-found respect for how good it actually is.
We are now more than halfway through our look at this first assortment of DCUC, I bet you can guess who will be up next week…
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