As happened during the Halloween Party, I drifted away from doing my “Toy Stories” photoblogs during the Christmas Party. And this time, I’ve got a lot of new figures to cover. This is, I must say, something I love doing, and as it seems to be a feature that gets a lot of attention, I assume you like it too. Let’s look at some of the DC Universe Infinite Heroes I’ve picked up since I last talked toys with you guys.
Batman and Two-Face
This first pair, like earlier ones, isn’t technically an Infinite Heroes set, it’s part of the DC Hero Zone: The Dark Knight. When I heard that they were releasing the Dark Knight toys in two waves, I assumed that the reason for this was so that they could hold back on Two-Face figures until after the film was already out and not spoil the reveal. As usual, I was correct. The Harvey Dent figure in this two-pack looks great — and considering the 3.75-inch scale, it’s not a bad likeness of Aaron Echardt. As all of these figures were released in two-packs, this makes the third Batman figure I’ve gotten to get the three different villains (the others being the Joker and Scarecrow), which is exactly two more Batmen than I actually need, but hey, how else are you gonna get a Two-Face?
For the Infinite Heroes, let’s look at a Toys R Us exclusive six-pack, Defense of Oa:
Guy Gardner, “Energized” Hal Jordan & John Stewart
This Green Lantern themed six-pack comes with three heroes and three villains. Guy Gardner, unfortunately, is a duplicate of one of the single figures I already had. (What, we couldn’t get a Kyle Rayner? Or a Kilowog? Or even a Tomar-Re?) The “energy” version of Hal Jordan is a neat-looking figure, and that at least means it won’t be a duplicate of the inevitable single Hal figure that’s sure to come out sooner or later. Finally, there’s a really sharp looking John Stewart. I’m well on my way to constructing my own 3.75-inch Green Lantern Corps.
A Qwardian Weaponer with two Manhunters
The villains in the pack are kinda generic: no Sinestro, no Sinestro Corps members, but instead one Qwardian Weaponer — one of the millions of footsoldiers from the Anti-Matter Universe — and two “battle damaged” Manhunters, the robots created to protect the universe before they went bad, prompting the Guardians to create the Green Lantern Corps in the first place. The Qwardian is also available in a single pack, which I intend to pass on now, and there’s also a single Manhunter, but one that’s not “damaged.”
Let’s move on to the single figures:
Batwoman
Batwoman is a nice-looking figure, although (like all the female Infinite Heroes toys) her legs are totally incapable of standing the figure up on their own, so she comes with a clear plastic base. You can kinda see it at the bottom of the picture if you look hard enough. I’m glad they came out with this toy, though — she’s becoming a more significant member of the Batman family.
Hush
Speaking of Batman, I found one of his nastiest enemies — Hush — when I was in Pittsburgh with Erin. For some reason, this was a hard photo — the camera wouldn’t focus on the figure. Maybe it’s the bandages or something, it could have confused the camera. I dunno. Still, cool figure for a cool villain. Although I do think the trench coat is borrowed from the Commissioner Gordon figure.
The Question
The Question is next, and I find it interesting that they went with the original incarnation of the character, Vic Sage, instead of the current Renee Montoya. As far as I know, this is the only Infinite Hero figure of a character currently dead. I wonder if they’ve got plans for Renee later down the line.
Black Hand
Getting ready to cause a little chaos next summer in Blackest Night, here’s one of Green Lantern’s old enemies, Black Hand. Not much else to say about him — most of the Infinite Heroes toys come from the same basic body sculpts, with accessories (capes, gloves, masks, etc.) added as necessary. Without the cape, this is as good an example of that as you can get.
Black Adam
Speaking of villains with “Black” in their name, here’s the anti-Captain Marvel, Black Adam. He’s really one of the most interesting characters in DC Comics these days (thank you, Geoff Johns), so I’m glad to see him showing up in this set.
Wildcat
Ted Grant, a.k.a. Wildcat, is one of the grand old men of the DC Universe. He’s a classic World War II hero whose powers have kept him viable to this day. I love the character, and I hope his inclusion means we’ll see more of the classic heroes — specifically Alan Scott and Jay Garrick, the original Green Lantern and Flash, respectively.
The Atom
From one of the oldest DCU heroes to one of the youngest, this is Ryan Choi, the third Atom. Ryan is a character who I think many fans rejected without giving him a chance just because he wasn’t Ray Palmer (the previous Atom), which to me just ain’t fair. He starred in a really good series that ended before its time. I hope we see him find a home, and soon.
Well, that was going to be it, until I was out shopping earlier and found something I had to grab. To the aunts and grandmother who gave me money for Christmas, here’s what your dollars bought:
DC Universe Infinite Heroes: Battle For Metropolis
The Infinite Heroes Battle For Metropolis eight-pack. This set is another Toys R Us exclusive, and it’s another set that uses duplicate villain henchman to fill up the case, but that’s not really why I got it anyway.
Lex Luthor and his Rockettes… um… that is, “Luthor Troopers.”
Lex Luthor, the big mama-jama in the middle there, comes with four of his “Luthor Troopers.” He’s given them all armor, which is nice of him, but you’ll notice he saved the big toys for himself. You see those two big shoulder-mounted rockets? Yep, they actually shoot. The set also has three different heroes with it:
Captain Marvel, Superman and Captain Atom
Captain Marvel, Superman, and Captain Atom all have a home here. Captain Marvel (labelled as “Shazam!” for trademark reasons) is sadly identical to the single-pack figure I already have, not unlike the Guy Gardner. Captain Atom is a nice new figure, but I wonder… why him? Neither he nor Marvel have ever lived in Metropolis. Why not have some natives fighting for their city? Booster Gold? Gangbuster? Guardian? Rose and Thorn? So many figures they could have chosen from.
Like I said, Captain Marvel is a duplicate, but Superman…
Kingdom Come Superman & Classic Superman
The Superman battling for Metropolis is actually the version of the character from the awesome Kingdom Come series and currently appearing in Justice Society of America. And since he’s from an alternate Earth, I can officially count these figures as two different characters, rather than just different versions of the same character (as Hal Jordan and “Energized” Hal Jordan would be). Sweet. This is the kind of duplicate character I like.
So looking over the packages of the figures that have been released so far, here’s what I still appear to be missing:
- The Gotham City Patrol six-pack, which includes Batman, Killer Croc, Catwoman, Hush (at least this one has an alternate head, unlike the duplicate Guy Gardner and Qwardian Weaponer), and two Gotham City SWAT team members. I already have the two that came with Commissioner Gordon, but I guess you can never have too many of those.
- Single-packed, undamaged Manhunter figure
- Power Girl
- Star Sapphire
There are also single figures of Batman and the Qwardian Weaponer, but as those appear to be identical to the ones in the multi-figure packs, I can pass on ’em.
Hope you enjoyed this little look at the figures I’ve been accumulating, gang!
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