GREEN LANTERN WEEK: TRU Exclusive Movie Masters 2-Packs
Heroes of the Corps in easy to collect duos...
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After the Guardians of the Universe two-pack (read the review HERE) and Green Man (read it HERE), today we’ll move on to more exclusives in the collector’s main line of Green Lantern Movie Masters. With single packs and two-packs throughout big box stores and Mattycollector.com, these 6 inch scale figures will bring to life the heroes and villains of the blockbuster film. Several figures will be repackaged in different releases, meaning you’ll have some decisions to make when it comes to buying your Green Lanterns. One of the easiest ways to get multiple GLs will be in the Toys"R"Us two-packs, of which we’ll be looking at a pair today: Hal Jordan & Abin Sur and Hal Jordan & Tomar-Re!
If you’ve been paying attention at all, you’ll know that Hal Jordan (played by actor Ryan Reynolds) is the main character in Green Lantern, and indeed he’s been around in the comics since 1959. And so, it should come as no surprise that he shows up most often in each of the film’s toy lines. The baseline Hal Jordan Green Lantern figure with full uniform will appear at least three times in the initial Movie Masters launch: one on a single card with a part of the Collect and Connect villain Parallax, and twice in these Toys R Us packs. Some of the other two-pack figures will be re-releases, while others will be exclusives or redecos. The initial two Toys R Us sets both see Jordan paired up with a famous Green Lantern, his predecessor Abin Sur and mentor Tomar-Re.
I already talked a bit about the Green Lantern Movie Masters packaging in the Green Man review. While the single-packed figures will come with the traditional bubble and card and the larger figures in unique lantern-esque boxes, these two-packs have their own distinctive shape. Roughly square and flat, the Toys R Us exclusives feature the same movie logo and swirling green and black Green Lantern energy background. The figures are clearly visible in a huge front window panel, as well as through the sides. The front of each box is very clean, with only the film logo, “Movie Masters,” character names, and TRU logo.
Likewise, the back of the box is almost understated in its simplicity. There’s a thin strip along the top with a description of the Movie Masters line and the film’s logo again. Beneath that is an image of both included figures with a brief biography of the characters on the right-hand side. It’s refreshing to see a toy package that doesn’t include a lot of upsells for other figures, and these do look really nice. Mint in box collectors will be able to enjoy these along with those of us who open our toys!
The Green Lantern Corps is extremely diverse, with members coming from thousands of different alien species. Gathered in these TRU sets are three humanoids from neighboring Sectors 2813 and 2814. All are fairly close to their comic book origins, with regular human Hal Jordan, bald and purple-skinned Abin Sur, and ichthyic Tomar-Re. The latter, from planet Xudar, sees the biggest changes with a more “natural” head shape, elongated limbs, reverse-articulated legs, and three-toed feet. Meanwhile, it you did a head-swap on Abin you’d never know he wasn’t human. Of course, they all wear Green Lantern uniforms, and it’s noteworthy that for the film they went with the tradition in the comic book that not every GL looks the same. In the comics (and theoretically the movie), each Lantern can customize his or her uniform, resulting in thousands of different appearances. Another cool aspect of the film uniforms is how they incorporate the physique of their wearers. More on that to come.
As the main collector line, the Movie Masters feature a strong balance of good sculpts, paint, and articulation. While they may all be green, each Green Lantern has a unique look and that starts with the sculpt. Hal’s uniform is like a suit of muscle composed of energy, with thick cords mixed with close-knit textures. This is nothing like previous comic-inspired figures with their flat, skin tight uniforms; practically every inch of Hal’s film uniform is sculpted with some manner of pattern or texture. Of particular note are his raised chest symbol with solid detailing, the Green Lantern ring on his clenched right hand (all of the figures have open left hands, probably so that they can hold the power battery accessories that come with some of the single-carded releases), and his feet; it’s a small thing, but I think it’s pretty cool how the energy of the uniform covers the feet but leaves the impression of bones and tendons visible.
The figure has a good head sculpt that looks enough like Reynolds to get the job done. Abin Sur’s uniform has a more differentiated look with alternating segments of textured energy and smooth surfaces. On his torso you can see two different sculpted textures, and the addition of the flat white bands really bring out the differences. He’s also got the raised chest symbol that’s even cleaner than Hal’s, plus similarly detailed feet.
Abin Sur’s unique head sculpt is kind of scary with a bit of a skull look to it around the sunken eyes and smooth pate. The facial expression is stern, and the pointed ears further add to his alienness.
Last, but certainly not least is Tomar-Re. While other toy versions of this GL have re-used Hal bodies with new heads, this one gives us Tomar in a whole new style. Instead of a standard humanoid body, Tomar’s is very tall and thin with a granular skin texture reminiscent of scales. He also has four-fingered hands and very detailed “chicken” feet that jut forward with three claws. He has the most unique head, with a rounded top, large fin, elongated ears, and a prominent beak-like mouth.
Like Green Man before them, this trio of Green Lanterns shares the film’s color palette of bright metallic green and dark green with splashes of white and whatever passes for individual skin tone. The specific patterns, though, vary from one figure to the next. Hal is the most straightforward and geometrical with metallic “boots,” “gloves,” and an X-shape on his torso. The borders of the different colors are well defined, and there are some subtle painted details like his bright knee pads. Abin Sur’s uniform has a more complex pattern to it with bands of metallic and matte green across his chest and arms, and darker green on his upper legs that extends up his back. His “boots” utilize both colors in an interesting way, and he’s the only one with white bands – on his wrists and a collar-like decoration that touches his chest symbol and becomes a “V” shape on his back. Tomar-Re’s uniform is similar to Hal’s, though his colors blend more smoothly and there’s a dark green swath across his chest and stripes over his shoulders. Each figure’s chest symbol is bright metallic green on a white background, and the Green Lantern rings are painted in dark green on their right hands. They all have good paint jobs on their heads from Abin’s overall purple pierced by his large eyes to Tomar’s mottled yellow with dark brown eyes and beak. Finally there’s Hal, the only one of these three to wear a mask; it’s very detailed with layers of green and black around his green eyes.
With the different uniforms and body styles of the Green Lantern figures, so too come different articulation schemes. For the most part they have ball-jointed necks, ball-jointed shoulders, biceps, ball-jointed elbows, wrists, some midsection articulation, forward and side-jointed hips, ball-jointed knees, and ball-jointed ankles. Hal has a waist joint while the others have ball-jointed torsos, and while Jordan’s wrists simply rotate Abin and Tomar have ball-jointed wrists. They all rank highly in the poseability department, and you can get them in some classic GL stances. As noted above, they all have open left hands even though they don’t come with any accessories to hold. One specific pose from the comics this allows them to do is the “off-hand holding the ring hand” stance, and they can all do it well. Finally, each two-pack comes with a clear green display stand for each figure.
As good quality, fun figures that tie into the movie, these are a no-brainer for Green Lantern fans and anyone who enjoys the film. You’ll just have to decide if you want to go with single-packed figures or get the value out of these two-packs. Green Lantern toys will start hitting shelves on May 1st, so keep your eyes out for them. Before you know it you’ll be seeing green!
Review and Photos by Scott Rubin
Review Sample Courtesy of Mattel
