Guy Gardner

May 13, 2011 | By More


For all intents and purposes, Mattel’s mishandling of the DC Universe license has pretty much left the Infinite Heroes 3.75 inch line in limbo, and that is a shame, because their figure designs were heading in the right track when the plug was pulled.

One of the last wave figures in the line, sold under the 75 Years of Super Powers packaging, is this partially translucent version of mop-top Green Lantern Guy Gardner.

A regular-colored version of Gardner was released in the very first waves of figures a couple of years ago, using the rather mediocre first generation body mold, but this time around the Guy sports the second-generation body design with better articulation.

Like Hasbro, Mattel resort to using a basic mold to portray different characters, varying only the paint jobs and throwing in a few character specific parts to further personalize each figure. In the case of Guy Gardner, the only unique pieces used in his construction are the head and the bulky green vest.

The head sculpture is difficult to appraise because it is cast in a semi-opaque green material that makes it really hard to make out the sculpted detail. The characteristic mop-top hair is present and easy to spot, but I can only assume that the face mold is the exact same they used for the normal-colored Guy Gardner, which was an acceptable approximation to some of his comic book appearances.

The rubber vest piece is also cast in a translucent green material and is glued shut onto the torso. It doesn’t seem to have a lot more detail sculpted on, other than some perfunctory folds and the trim at the neckline.

The basic body sculpt is good, but nothing spectacular. Each piece is sculpted completely smooth, with no textures or costume wrinkles whatsoever, but the sculpted muscle groups are well defined and the overall proportions seem correct at a glance.

The only complaint I have is that the right forearm appears to have a rather unnatural curvature to it, a trait only enhanced by the joint placed right in middle of the piece.

And speaking of articulations, all of the joints in this Guy Gardner figure have a good range of motion and feel quite sturdy, for a total of fourteen points of articulation at:

• Swivel neck.

• Peg & hinge shoulders.

• Peg & hinge elbows.

• Swivel forearms.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

• Peg & hinge knees.

• Peg & hinge ankles.

 

Since Guy was cast in pretty much the colors he needed to be, the paint applications were kept to a minimum, constrained to the solid white lines running alongside his legs, the belt area, the trim on the vest and the gloves. The lower legs were cast in translucent green, but the upper-calf portions were painted solid black to match the upper thigh.

Fine detail paint applications on this figure are limited to the Green Lantern crest painted onto the front of the vest in green and white with black lining, and oddly enough, the black eye and eyebrow details, which kind of gives Guy a cartoon-like appearance.

The only extra item packaged with this figure was a plastic button with a printed image taken from the cover of a Justice League International issue. The button is OK, I guess, but a real accessory to use with the figure would have been much more appreciated.

As a one off, I actually like this figure, even though it is rather light on detail. The size fits comfortably with the bulk of my collection and knowing Mattel distribution, it will probably be the only Green Lantern related item I will see on stores this year. I got this figure for about a third of the listed price at a Mattel Outlet store in Mexico City, which I feel was a rather good deal for such a neat novelty figure.

Errex Score: 78/100

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Category: Featured, Other Film, Toy Reviews

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

Comments (1)

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  1. fishmilkshake says:

    Nifty figure. Me like.