Zoom is one of those characters, like Black Adam, where the “bad guy” counterpart to the hero is actually much more interesting than the hero himself, though it probably didn’t start out that way. Zoom, if you couldn’t tell by the outfit, is part of the Flash’s rogues gallery, and his design has to be one of the more simple in comics history: it’s simply the Flash’s costume with inverted colors — pretty boring and obvious, right? But the character himself is actually pretty cool, and Mezco has done a nice job of rendering Mr. Hunter Zoloman here in plastic and soft goods form as the One:12 Collective’s ZOOM. Thanks to Entertainment Earth, we can check him out now!
The packaging is standard but eye-catching. The yellow with slight red and black accents really pops, and, as usual, the presentation here is awesome. I hate packaging, but I love what Mezco does with their’s. Zoom’s yellow suit practically explodes out of the clamshell and black plastic backdrop. It’s a classy display, and you almost don’t even need to take the figure out to make it display-worthy. “Almost,” that is. Out he comes.
Now, I’m not necessarily all that big of a Flash fan. But I have a penchant for bad guys, so when Flash was announced with ZOOM being offered as a PX Exclusive, I thought ZOOM would be a good representation of this style character to have on my shelf. And he really looks great. The soft-goods suit fits well and works with his articulation, and his head sculpt faithfully captures the menace that made him what he is — a villain with some anti-hero qualities. The red belt on mine is a little wonky in terms of placement, but I’ll wager a few seconds with the hair dryer will remedy that.
For accessories, ZOOM comes with two extra sets of hands (gripping and slapping), a “tornado” effect that’s essentially another swappable hand option, and red “lightening” effects that emulate the effects he gives off while in motion. He also includes the usual stand and accessory pouch. The tornado is just heavy enough to make it a little bit heavy for his arm to support, so you might need to get the pose just right in order for him to support it. It’s a cool effect and snaps in place easily.
His articulation is what you’d expect from a One:12 figure. He can get into most dynamic poses and the costume complements his articulation nicely. I thought the difference in materials from his costume to his mask would bother me, and, to be honest, it does, but to a much less degree than I thought it would. Up close when the weave of the fabric is plainly visible the difference and inconsistency are much more noticeable, but when displayed on the shelf, the eye is much more forgiving and it doesn’t bother me as much. I think this style figure is better served by a design like, say, Superman where there is no mask that’s designed to be a continual piece of the suit, but it does work better here than I thought it would, so I’m not displeased, but your mileage may vary.
I know I’m probably in the vast minority of owning a ZOOM without having the Flash as his immediate counterpart, but, given their similarities, I just like ZOOM’s design so much more. With Mezco’s expanding DC Universe in the One:12 Collective line, it’s awesome to see villains like ZOOM get the One:12 treatment.
The One:12 Collective Zoom can be had today from Entertainment Earth!
