A to Z Challenge: The Flash

Flash Facts: The Flash has been around for a long time, since the Golden Age of Comics in the 1940s.  But that was Jay Garrick, who was absorbed into the Justice Society of America.  The Barry Allen/Wally West Flash people remember didn't come along until the "Silver Age" reboot of the 1950s.

I have a couple of Flash figures that I got in a two-pack from Target.com.  The 2-pack has a Rebirth comic book version and also a Justice League (original) movie version.  I think I got mine for like $22 and then I was bummed when I saw it in a store for only like half that.  But it's still a good price for two figures.  They come with backgrounds and fake plastic lightning and the movie one has a normal head you can put on:

McFarlane makes some Flash figures but I'm not a huge Flash fan, so I haven't gotten any of those.  The comics and movie ones look pretty much like what I have.  The TV show one they did doesn't look too different either and since it doesn't have a Grant Gustin head, there didn't seem much point to it.

Mattel made a Jay Garrick from the TV show a few years ago:

Mattel also made a Wally West in one of their last series but it's probably too expensive now:

McFarlane has made some Flash figures for the Justice League movie and the animated show.  They also made a couple of Jay Garricks:

The first one is from "Speed Metal" that was a stupid spinoff of Dark Nights: Death Metal.  The second one is a traditional one from how he really would have looked in the 40s.

I also have a crappy Dark Knight Returns 2 version where his costume is black and he looks like he's wearing shorts for some stupid reason.  I saw it a couple of times at Ollie's stores near me and passed but then I saw it at the one in Bay City and figured it was by then my last chance, so fuck it.  He came with a tiny Atom figure and weirdly an old man Bruce Wayne head that I recolored the hair on for a Kingdom Come Superman head:

And here are some other random ones they had on Amazon just to give you an idea of some of the other stuff out there:

They'll have more out for the movie in June.  This is the complete movie set featuring regular Flash, Batfleck, Keaton Batman, Supergirl, Flash wearing a redeco'd Batsuit, and "Dark Flash."  The latter seems like a spoiler for the movie.

 If you really want the Keaton Batman, you can order this whole set for $100 on the McFarlane website.  Then maybe resell the other ones to recoup some of your money. Might end up cheaper than trying to just buy the one figure on eBay or other sites.

So there.  If you were the Flash, you could have sped through this entry in about 0.000001 seconds.

A to Z Challenge: Etrigan, The Demon

 Yesterday's entry I talked about the Doctors I bought from the McFarlane website.  I also bought "the Demon," who is more commonly known as Etrigan, the Demon in DC Comics.  I don't know when exactly Etrigan appeared but he's usually bonded to a guy named Jason Blood, who's lived since the days of King Arthur or some such thing.

He might have had his own comic at one point or another, but usually he shows up in comics like Justice League Dark or Constantine or stuff like that.  He weirdly shows up in episode of Batman the Animated Series back in the mid-90s.

Usually Etrigan's armor is red, but this New 52 variant has silver armor for whatever reason.  The rest of him looks pretty much like normal:

There is one in the classic red suit from a while back:

While he's shown up in animation, I don't think Etrigan has really shown up in live action yet.  Maybe he was in that Constantine show on NBC I never watched?

A to Z Challenge: The DC Doctors Are In!

 Ironically I got both of my "Doctor" figures at the same time:  Dr. Manhattan and Dr. Fate.  I bought them both from the McFarlane website before Christmas in 2021.  The Dr. Manhattan came in a two-pack with Ozymandias and it was on sale for $25 while Dr. Fate was on sale for like $15.  I bought both along with a Spawn figure and the character for the E entry tomorrow.

Anyway, Dr. Manhattan was a character from Watchmen the comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in 1985.  There was also a movie where he was played by Billy Crudup--complete with his penis hanging out.  And there was an HBO Max series where he decided to give up his godlike powers to become some normal black guy.

This version is from Doomsday Clock, Geoff Johns's sequel to Watchmen that brings characters from that into the DC universe.  Or A DC universe anyway.  But really he looks pretty much the same because all he ever wears is a pair of black undies and that's only because they can't sell a figure with his dick hanging out.

Dr. Fate has been around for a while.  He was part of the Justice Society of America.  His helmet at least showed up in the Stargirl TV show and he appears in Young Justice, where Zatanna's father takes up the mantle to save her from the curse of being Dr. Fate.

He periodically has his own title; most recently there was a version where some Arab kid got the helmet of Dr. Fate; I think to compete with Ms. Marvel, though it was less successful.

He's also in the Black Adam movie, played by former James Bond & Remington Steele, Pierce Brosnan.  This is the McFarlane figure:

This version also by McFarlane is from the Injustice video game series, but it's pretty much the same as traditional comic book versions:

The video game one I have I think looks a little better.  I like the helmet having eyeholes; it just seems weird when it's completely solid.  And the ornamentation is a bit more--especially nice to have something covering the crotch, lol.

If you get a hangnail or something, you would not really want to call either of these doctors.  I don't think either is actually a medical doctor.  Dr. Manhattan would probably explode your whole hand and Dr. Fate would probably summon a demon or banish your fingernail to some other dimension or whatever.  It would be overkill is what I'm saying.

A to Z Challenge: Cyborg

 Until the New 52 in 2011, Cyborg was pretty much just a member of the Teen Titans.  With the New 52 he "graduated" to the Justice League.  The movie--both cuts--uses pretty much the original New 52 roster except for Green Lantern.  

The upshot being there were DC Multiverse figures of Cyborg for the movie.  Two of them really:  one with a Vic Stone face and one with just a robot face.  Unfortunately the Walmart near me had the robot face one on clearance, probably because it was an exclusive to them and no one wanted it. 

I bought it but then I saw they also had a movie version one on clearance for only $5 or so.  Then appropriately I did a little surgery to transplant the human-ish head of the movie figure onto the body of the other one.  The body of the movie figure I put a movie Barry Allen head on for no real reason except it fit on the peg.

So my Cyborg looks a little weird, but at least he doesn't have a stupid robot face:

McFarlane made a couple of versions for the Snyder Cut too but they're pretty much the same, just bigger and a little better detail.  They haven't made any for his version on the Doom Patrol show or the old Teen Titans comics, but they did make one for the animated Teen Titans.

Boo-yah!

A to Z Challenge: Bats!

Obviously Batman is the most popular character in DC Comics.  Why?  Lots of reasons:  he kicks ass but doesn't have powers, he's a loner, he has that costume, he's got tons of gadgets, he's rich, and other stuff.  So naturally they've made tons of action figures of him in all that time.  I can't show them all and I wouldn't even try.  I'm just focusing on ones I have, because I have a few.  But if you don't take my word for it, here are just the first two pages on Amazon searching for "DC Multiverse Batman" and while there are a few villains in the mix, it's still a lot of Batman--and there were several more pages like this.

The first large-scale Batman I got was back in the late 90s as part of the Legends of the Dark Knight series.  It's an old Walmart exclusive in the traditional blue-and-gray with a bulky Spawn-ish cape that makes it a little hard for him to stand.  He's really got that 90s Kelley Jones styling too with the long ears and all the muscles.

After I read Batman RIP by Grant Morrison in 2012, I really wanted a Batman of Zurr-en-Arrh figure but it didn't exist yet.  A year later they made one and a little after that I got it from eBay or Amazon or somewhere:

McFarlane is remaking the figure both with and without a mask.  The without a mask one seems pretty pointless to me, but whatever.

And then I have a couple Batfleck ones.  The first one I got was a BvS movie one in the duster on clearance at Meijer in Wixom:

And later I got a regular Batfleck DC Multiverse one from an Ollie's or Walmart:

I also have the armored Dark Knight Returns Mattel versions:

And the Superfriends version I got from Ollie's in Farmington:

Later I got the Batman 66 McFarlane version from Target.com:

I also got the Three Jokers version from Target.com because I think they had a sale where you buy 2 toys and get 1 free and there wasn't another toy I wanted that was in stock so I got that:

McFarlane made a bunch for The Batman but I didn't get any of those.  I did get this BendyFig that is about the same size but with a little less detail.  Ironically it's really, really hard to bend him:

I think when Target had another sale I got the McFarlane Rebirth Batman.  There was a Mattel one years earlier but I never got it.  I liked the purple on the inside of the cape.  The figure looks a little weird as unlike some others the legs are a lot thicker.  I joked on Facebook that he really overdid "leg day":

And maybe I have others?

Besides BatMAN, I have a lot of BatGIRL too.  Barbara Gordon was pretty much the inspiration for Emma Earl, so I've liked her for a while.  I got this two-pack from Amazon that has crippled Barbara and Batgirl from the Arkham Knight video game.  I had to get it twice because the first time Batgirl's leg was broken off (ironic, I guess) so I sent it back to Amazon. (If you're wondering, no the leg does not use the more typical ball joint, so I could not just "pop it back on;" I probably could have glued it on or something, but why should I?  I'm not the one who broke it.)  I found another one for about the same price on eBay that was intact.  It comes with a bunch of accessories for both characters :

Later I got the Batgirl of Burnside version from Amazon.  It's a DC Direct one not a DC Multiverse one.  They made one for that but it didn't look as good and was more expensive. I have a little version of the Batman 66 one that inspired it too:

And then I got the McFarlane Three Jokers version just because I think it looks pretty neat compared to the shitty other ones they made:

When they make a McFarlane version of the Batman 66 version, I will so want to get it.  McFarlane has at least three other Batgirl figures out, but I don't like them.  Two of them have the kind of head where she's wearing only the tiniest mask instead of a cowl, which is just stupid.  Then they made a Burnside one--but it's from DCeased so it's a zombie. [eye roll]

I also have BatWOMAN.  This is the comics version of Kate Kane from Rebirth a few years ago:

And I have the DC Multiverse BatWING from the New 52:

I was stoked when McFarlane came out with a Batman Beyond figure after I finally watched the show on HBO Max.  The figure's wings are a little weird as you attach them to pegs on his arms, which can make it kind of awkward when you're trying to pose him.  But he does have the neat flight stand and some flame things for his feet and the Batarang:

They also made a BatWOMAN Beyond.  For some reason the Unmasked version was a lot easier to find than a masked version.  I really hate McFarlane puts out two versions instead of just putting alternate heads in the box.  It's such a fucking lame way to make money.  Anyway, she has all the accessories of Batman Beyond, but no flight stand, which doesn't make sense:

And to help all of my Bats, I have Alfred, which I got on Mercari when he was a sort of reasonable price a year or so ago:

Whew, that's a lot of Bats in my Belfry!  They've probably made 20 more variants of Batman since I started writing this entry almost a year ago.  

As an Amazon Exclusive McFarlane repackaged 5 figures into a "Bat Family" set:

It's kind of annoying because Batman and Batgirl are just recolored versions of the "Three Jokers" ones I already have; Batgirl seems to have darker hair and the same dumb sideways-looking eyes.  And I already have that Damian Wayne Robin.  So basically I have 3/5 of it.  And as someone pointed out, why does Nightwing have a growling face?  He's not growly like Batman; he was barely growly AS Batman.  But on Amazon a reviewer mentioned you can pop the Nightwing head off and put the Jason Todd head on it and then put the Red Hood helmet on Jason Todd so they both look better.

Also as someone mentioned, why is there no Tim Drake as Robin or Red Robin?  He was Robin longer than Jason Todd but he gets no love.  And they have at least one figure of him coming out they could have repackaged.  It still wouldn't make me buy this but at least it'd be a slightly better value.

The Batman I'd really want most is a Michael Keaton one from the 1989 movie.  I'm surprised McFarlane hadn't done that before the Flash movie.  There is one coming out for that but unless you luck into finding it in person wherever it might be sold, it'll probably cost way over retail price.  

A to Z Challenge: Azrael

Last year I did Marvel Legends figures, which are 6" figures based on Marvel characters from comics, movies, and TV shows.  So naturally the sequel to this should be DC figures.

Predictably DC doesn't have quite the smooth history of Marvel figures.  They've had a few starts and stops and called the line different things.  A couple of years ago they switched from Mattel to McFarlane, ironically owned by the guy who made his mint first with Marvel by drawing Spider-Man and then Image Comics by creating Spawn.  The Mattel figures were usually about 6" like the Marvel ones made by Hasbro, but the McFarlane ones are about 7".

Anyway, I've mentioned before that the Knightfall/Knightsquest/Knightsend story in Batman comics in the early-to-mid 90s was one of my favorites and I especially loved Azrael.  The character was created by Dennis O'Neil and drawn by future Marvel big shot Joel Quesada in a 4-issue miniseries called The Sword of Azrael.

Azrael is an assassin from the Order of St. Dumas, a renegade "saint" that sort of like the Knights Templar has a bunch of money and stuff.  The identity of Azrael is passed from generation-to-generation.  Jean-Paul Valley was the latest incarnation when his father dies and leaves him the armor.

This is what the original Azrael suit looks like.  I got this figure off eBay years ago and it's kind of weird in that you can't really move the head so he's always looking at his feet:

In Knightfall, Bruce Wayne is crippled and Azrael takes over as Batman.  This first Legends of Batman figure I got in the 90s along with Viking Batman.  It represents the costume Jean-Paul creates to fight Bane in issue #500.  This pic is off eBay.  What's more retro:  the figure or the $5.99 KMart price tag?:

In 2013 I saw on Amazon they were coming out with a new, larger figure of AzBats.  This represents the next stage of the suit's evolution in the Knightsquest/Knightsend comics.  It has Batarang launchers, flame throwers(!), and an armored look.  It's just fucking cool, but it's really top-heavy so it can be a bitch to stand.

In 2020 or so author/artist Sean Murphy wrote a series called Curse of the White Knight and incorporated Azrael into the plot.  I bought the figure based on that:

It mostly looks like the original, but with a few ornamental changes.  The figure has kind of skinny legs but otherwise is pretty awesome.  The head is much better than the old one.

In sort of Hasbro fashion, they made a variant of that figure that's supposed to look more like the Michael Lane "Suit of Sorrows" version in the late 2000s:

There's also an AzBats version I got from Mercari for pretty cheap:

And then they made this silver variant...to make more money, I guess.

I just about wet myself when my brother told me McFarlane was coming out with a big version of that Legends of Batman version.  I was instantly like Wayne in the first Wayne's World when he plays a guitar and says, "Oh yes, it will be mine."  (And then says the same thing about Tia Carrere.)  The blue might be a little too light but otherwise it does look pretty sweet. 

There was kind of a hassle to buy mine.  The figure was supposed to be exclusive to Walmart.  Problem:  Walmart didn't list it on its website!  Except there was one weird page that I found by taking a link from someone's page but I couldn't find it when I searched.  It wouldn't let you buy or preorder the figure and McFarlane's site helpfully said, "Coming Soon."  Meanwhile, dozens of these were turning up on eBay and Mercari.  WTF?  How were people getting these on the secondary market when I couldn't even find it on the primary market yet?  It was very fishy.

Fishier when I finally saw one on Mercari for a reasonable price (only like 2/3 over retail with shipping and tax versus 2-3 times over retail a lot of them were going for) and the figure came in the factory packaging.  So my paranoid thinking is that either people were buying or stealing them from Walmart warehouses or McFarlane warehouses or whatever intermediaries they use.  Because if you just bought this off a shelf, it wouldn't come in the brown box it was packed in when it shipped from the factory.  Or to be less paranoid, some Walmarts might have put them up on a shelf still in the brown boxes and people were climbing up to snag them.  (When I went to my local Walmart I did make sure to check up top as best I could in case there were any hidden away.)  These are the kind of annoying distribution problems toys have, especially since Bain Capital put the toy store industry out of business. 

Just for the hell of it, back in like 2013 I got this weird AzBats figure off eBay in a set with a regular Superman, regular Batman, and Superman Red from when he was briefly an energy being.  I swear they used a Black Panther head for the figure and the armor was black-and-gold, not blue or red like AzBats in the comics.  I had some red paint lying around from my Scarlet Knight figure, so I repainted him red, sort of like the final version of AzBats in the comics:

That recolored version of the blue one above was in a two-pack with a regular Bruce Wayne Batman.  I never bought it because I already had the blue one, so it seemed pointless.  And now of course it's really expensive.

Anyway, I have a ton of Azrael stuff.  I should get a Michael Lane version, but I don't think there's been one for a while so it'd probably be expensive.

And it shouldn't be surprising that Azrael was an influence on the Scarlet Knight.  The basic color scheme, the glowing sword, and the identity being handed down from one generation to another (albeit not via familial relations) all became part of the Scarlet Knight mythos.  So even if a lot of people just think of  him as a relic of one Batman story 30 years ago, he's had a lot of influence on me at least.

There you go, so challenging!