You can pry this figure from cold dead hands. Seriously, of all the DC Universe Classics, Series 3 Solomon Grundy continues to be my favorite of the line. This is, for me, the defining figure of everything that the line wanted to be and could be.
Let’s start with Solomon Grundy as a character. Created in 1944, he quickly became a villian of the Allan Scott Green Lantern and later the Justice Society of America. Before this gets all complicated, the version of Grundy I described is the Golden Age version, another version shows up in the Silver Age (’50s – ’70s) as a Superman villian. Then in the ’80s after Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Golden Age Grundy returns as the prominent Grundy. Since then I have no idea what version of Grundy is running around since all the Crises and Flashpoints and and and … What you should take away from this is that the DC Universe Classics is based on the original 1944 version.
I love this figure. Beautifully sculpted, it captures the original character’s look, adds in the Silver Age size and strength, and it captures that mental image that I have of the character. But it is huge! I mean monstrously huge, there is no way this guy is gonna fit in the bathroom of the Legion of Doom’s head quarters. That’s why I love this figure; he’s supposed to be stronger than Superman, more than a match for Green Lantern, and the physical size says all that.
And the details put into the sculpt. Beautiful, the ripped jacket, the veins, clothes wrinkles, and the head sculpt. It’s a beautiful sculpt to look at. Yet with all the detail that is put into the figure, there is still a comic, even cartoony look to it all. It looks like an action figure based on a comic book character and not a comic book character adapted into a realistic work of art. There’s a special magic in this figure.
The articulation is the standard as the rest of the line: ball head, shoulders, the t-croth thigh swivel, hinged elbows, abs, knees, and ankles, swiveled wrists, thighs, waist, biceps. An incredible amount of articulation for a huge figure. The ab joint is slightly hindered by the coat, but you still get a great amount of movement. The only joint that I struggle with is the neck joint. It’s loose and difficult to make Grundy look up; the head wants to hang. Maybe that has to do with his being a “zombie.”
This is a great figure. It was presented to collectors as a Collect and Connect figure in the line, and you either had to buy the whole series or pick up the pieces on eBay. But it is a required figure for any DC collection. This is a character as old as time and has a long history in DC media, so for a collector he’s a must have.
You can pick him as a whole or in pieces here:
