Review of Hal Jordan, Tomar Re, Rot Lop Fan action figures
Green Lantern Movie Masters

Introduction

The Green Lantern movie figures are finally starting to hit at most retailers, and the larger Movie Masters figures are part of the onslaught. There are a total of twelve in the overall series, but they'll be bleeding them out a bit at a time. It looks like the first three to hit - at least in my area - are Hal Jordan, Tomar Re and Rot Lop Fan.

While these are smaller than their DCUC cousins (these are a true 6" scale, like the earlier Batman Movie Masters), they share a few things in common, including a Collect and Connect figure. It's Parallax, the one behind all the evil in the new film. If you're trying to avoid all spoilers, I'd be careful hanging out in the toy aisles right now - they have a smaller Parallax hanging out on the shelf, which might tell you more about the film than you'd want to know.

These guys are running $17 - $18 a pop, at least at the retailers around here. At that price point, Masters of the Universe Classics are starting to look like a deal.

Packaging - ***
The graphics and colors look great, bringing the movie designs onto the card back. It's not collector friendly of course, but that's to be expected. There are no twisties, but there are a couple rubber bands.

It might seem a bit over sized at first, and you know I prefer when there's as little waste as is reasonable. But that Parallax piece is HUGE, and takes up at least half the bubble.

Sculpting - Rot Lop Fan, Hal Jordan ***1/2; Tomar Re **1/2
The sculpting on all three of these is great, although not quite good enough to take them to the top level.

Hall bears more than a passing resemblance to Ryan Reynolds, but I think the smaller 4" version was actually a bit better. The hair has some reasonably fine detail work, and striations in the costume are sharply defined.

Rottie has well defined wrinkles and creases in his alien skin, and the proportions are great. The sculpt is designed to work properly with the articulation, giving this figure far more posability than I ever expected.

Tomar Re has a great head sculpt and an even better body, with even more detail than GL. Unfortunately, he does NOT stand well on his own...or even at all, without a ton of frustration. This is an example of the sculpt and articulation not working well together, and regular readers know how annoying I find this particular situation.

The proportions are great on Hal and Tomar, and I'm assuming that they are on Rot as well. Until we see the film, it's tough to tell, and the same is true of the scale of the figures to each other. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt though, and assuming they got it right.

Remember, these are a true 6" scale (with Hal coming in right at that size) and not the larger DCUC scale, where the figures fall some place between 6 and 7", depending on the character.

Paint - ***
The paint doesn't quite support the sculpt the way it should, but it's decent for mass market work.

There's a little slop on Hal, particularly around the hair line, but he doesn't suffer from the inconsistent colors (like green) from part to part that the smaller version did. The mask and eyes are quite good, and the transition between colors on the costume looks good as well.

Most of the slop on Tomar is around the head as well, where his skin tone is a bit gloppy. His eyes look great though, with a very evil glare. The costume looks good, with the same smooth transition between colors that we saw on Hal.

The work on Rot is the least sloppy, if you're talking about unintentional slop. The face has plenty of the intentional type, with a wash used to bring out the sculpt details. It isn't working for me though, perhaps because the color doesn't quite jibe. I think a darker, almost black color would have worked better and looked less like dirt.

I do love his eyes though, which have a slightly pearlescent look. It gives the big orbs a bit more life then they'd have otherwise.

Articulation - Rot Lop Fan ***1/2; Hal ***; Tomar Re **1/2
Tomar Re gets hit again in this category, not because of a lack of articulation but because even with all these joints he stands so poorly.

He has a decent ball jointed neck, disc/post ball shoulders, elbows, wrists, and knees, a funky pseudo ab-crunch, and cut biceps. He also has the DCUC style combo thighs, with the swivel and T joints.

And yet, he barely stands. I really prefer the style of articulation on the DCUC figures, but the other two in this wave are much better than Tomar.

Hal has the same articulation with the exception of the chest - he has only a cut waist - and the ankles, where he also has the post/disc ball joint. Unlike Tomar though, he stands great, and even has a bit of a natural flow to his stance. I do wish he had some form of cut thigh, and the lack of any ability to turn decreases the number of poses he can manage, but overall the articulation works fairly well.

The big surprise, at least for me, was how great the articulation worked for Rot Lop Fan. He has no neck joint, which is usually a killer for me, but the thick neck and torso design really doesn't allow for it. He does have the same type of ball joints at the neck, elbows, knees and wrists, and better yet, has them at the hips too.

He also has cut biceps and cut thighs, and all these joints work extremely well together, allowing him to take all kinds of great poses. It's rare that a figure of this style - bulky, thick, large - can take more than one or two poses, but they've managed to design the articulation in such a way as to allow for the maximum playability.

Accessories - ***
I'm grading these assuming you're interested in Parallax - if you're not, these are a big goose egg in this category, with the exception of Hal.

He also comes with a lantern, which he can hold with a bit of effort in his left hand. It looks good, and I'm assuming the slightly unique design is based on the film.

Rot and Re have just the Parallax piece, and Hal has one too. They're huge pieces though - long tentacle-like legs.  All three are identical in sculpt, with only minor variations in paint.

Unlike most DCUC series where 6 or maybe 7 figures tops are necessary to create the Collect and Connect figure, you'll have to buy a whopping 11 - yes, 11! - figures to build the evil enemy. I know there are 12 in the series, but there's a second Hal that is not required to complete the big guy. Considering the $18 price point, Parallax is going to be mighty expensive by the time you're done.

Fun Factor - Rot Lop Fan, Hal Jordan ***1/2; Tomar Re **1/2
Tomar isn't as much fun as the other two due to his inability to stand, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the rest of the Movie Masters series will be more like Rot, less like Re.

Value - *1/2
$18? Easily the worst aspect of these figures is the hard hitting price point. You'll have to lay out almost $200 (not including shipping and tax) to complete Parallax. Holy crap! And if you're not putting him together, you're getting just a basic figure with few or no additional accessories. If these figures sell poorly, the price point will be the driving reason.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing - all of these figures are solid and capable of handling normal play and posing with little chance of breakage.

Overall - Rot Lop Fan, Hal ***1/2; Tomar Re **1/2
These fit in with the G'hu figure from the earlier Green Lantern DCUC wave, which was another movie themed character. I included a shot of all four together so you can see that scale and style matches up.

These will fit in nicely scale-wise with the prior Batman Movie Masters too, but keep in mind that they are too small to go with your other DCUC figures.

The jury is still out on Parallax - whether or not this weird Thing meets a jellyfish version is going to be a stud or a dud remains to be seen. I suspect that most people will be rather cool towards it at least until they see how bad ass - or not - he is on screen.

I'm always disappointed when I get a well articulated figure that can't even stand up. That's Tomar, and that's why he took a harder hit.

But the real killer here is the price point, and I bet very few collectors will actually complete the big CnC figure. To pick up all 11 may require a second mortgage, and toy collecting is supposed to be affordable. For the cost of the whole series and the CnC, you can buy a high end Premium Format statue - that's not my definition of affordable.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***
Articulation - Rot Lop Fan ***1/2; Hal ***; Tomar Re **1/2
Accessories - ***
Fun Factor - Rot Lop Fan, Hal Jordan ***1/2; Tomar Re **1/2
Value - *1/2
Overall - Rot Lop Fan, Hal Jordan ***1/2; Tomar Re **1/2

Where to Buy 
These have started to hit retailers, particularly Toys R Us.

Related Links -
Other Green Lantern movie reviews include:

- I just looked at a few of the 4" scale figures last week.

- GL has his own series of figures in the popular DCUC line up, and I reviewed wave 2 (part 1 and part 2) as well as wave 1 (part 1 and part 2).

- my personal favorite Green Lantern figure is the 13" DC Direct version.

- Green Lantern figures have also been mixed into various DC Universe Classics waves, including wave 14, wave 11, and more.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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