As a character, Oliver Queen has definitely seen more than his share of ups and downs. As an action figure, he has been much more reliably on the up — almost every DC line has included him, and most of the time he stands out as one of the better examples of each line. So it would come as little surprise that the Mezco One:12 Collective Green Arrow would be good. The real question is, how good?
As is the norm for the line, Arrow comes packed in a magnetic fold-over window box, and includes a respectable amount of accessories, stand, posing arm, and One:12 baggie. Y’all know I don’t use the stands or arms for anything, but I should at least mention their inclusion, right?
Out of the box, Green Arrow is a bit of a surprise, actually. In pictures, possibly just as a result of the harness and tunic, he appears rather large. In hand, he is a lot more compact than I had anticipated. While obviously he has a lot of unique sculpted parts for his arms, shin, and so on, if I had to guess, I would say that he might share elements with Daredevil. This is good news, and now I’m hoping that will be true for Flash as well.
Admittedly, I waffled a bit on getting Green Arrow, and I know some folks here did as well. Some of the concerns were for the uniform — people were looking for a more classic iteration, and that makes sense. I never had any qualms with the design, being one of the better things to be inspired by the New 52, but I wasn’t sure how well it would work in person. That particular concern is a non-issue. The stretchy spandex-like body suit adds no bulk to the body, and the tunic is surprisingly form fitting. His web gear/harness add some bulk, but even that stops short of feeling clunky, though it does limit some torso range, as you might expect. The detailing on his shin and arm guards is really well done, with a good worn-in feel to them.
One of the main selling points of this look is the hood. It is very functional; it just needs adjustment to get it to your desired look. There is a wire running down the outside seam, as well across the top, and in combination, you can pretty effectively get the hood to lay on his head naturally. This also helps when he’s not wearing it, and it looks pretty damn good either way.
His head sculpt is really solid, and it is very much classic Oliver Queen. The white eye lenses and the mask really pop, and the texturing helps sell this being a separate piece from the rest of his face. The only letdown here is that there aren’t more to choose from — a more New 52-esque one would match the costume a little better, and as a purely personal preference, I would have liked a masked head without the white lenses. I always dug that look with Arrow, and it would allow him to fit more easily with the movie-style figures.
For accessories Arrow comes with a complement of alternate hands to facilitate his bow grips. Most folks will likely go for the set I used here, with his two-fingered draw, which I think is Mongolian draw, if I remember right. That’s how he’s often depicted. He has some additional options so he can draw with either hand, as well as hold his knife, and the standard fists.
He comes with a selection of arrows, as you’d imagine. Included are the standard broadhead — there’s an individual as well as three combined for some trick-shot action, an explosive tip, grappling hook and a trusty kryptonite arrow. There’s also a bank of “fake” arrows to fill up the quiver. Lastly is his backup fighting knife, which is great looking and fits in a sheath on his back, like Commander Rogers and Punisher’s.
Articulation is pretty consistent with the similar Daredevil body, other than where the tunic limits some range. So the butterfly shoulder joints, bicep cups, double elbows and ball-jointed wrists will get him most of the way into any wielding pose you want. In fact, the only thing keeping him from a convincing draw is the bowstring. Some guys have swapped this out for a weaker string, and that’s probably what I’ll do as well.
The only real downer here is the ankles. Now, Pierre has said this is something they are working on, so I don’t want to beat a dead issue. But Arrow is sadly the least functional of the figures so far, in some part certainly just due to his boot design. There is a little bit of pivot, and I do mean little, and the rest is essentially cut joint.
So is Green Arrow a good figure? Definitely. Other than the ankles, and some personal preferences, he stacks up admirably with figures like the DCUC versions, both I thought were great, and at least for me easily outclasses the Icons one. But the real question here is — Is he as good as DoJ Batman or Punisher? Not quite, for me. Those two set a pretty high bar, and while this is a great figure, I fear he’s a little humbled by his even greater line-mates.
