Review of Green Lantern Movie Ring - Key Chain Prop Replica

Introduction

We all know how the Hal Jordan era oath goes:

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship Evil's might beware my power - Green Lantern's light!"

Of course, there are many funky variations on this theme, perhaps the weirdest being Rot Lop Fan's, but even well read non-nerds recognize the Jordan version.

The Lantern's ring is considered the most powerful weapon in the universe - it can do anything that its wearer can imagine, which makes its only real weakness (and perhaps true strength) the person wearing it.

For fans of prop replicas, there is only one critical item for this year's Green Lantern film - the ring. There are going to be several versions from different companies, but the first to hit stores is the cheaper key chain ring. This guy is a Toys R Us exclusive, available now, and it runs $10.

Packaging - ***
The ring comes inside a bag, held in place by a plastic tray. There's nothing too fancy about the package, but it gets the job done.

One oddity is that there's a white sticker on the back covering the choking hazard warning, but there's a black sticker on the front added to point it out. I get that they might have decided after the packages were printed to add the warning to the front...but why remove it from the back? Weird.

Sculpting - ***1/2
At first glance in the package, this ring seems pretty basic. It takes a second and third look to appreciate the quality of the sculpt.

The package heralds that the ring is die cast metal, and it is. There is a facing or cap however that is plastic, done in a slightly translucent color.

The two unique materials are less obvious in person than they are in photos, and the facing blends in with the die cast ring pretty well.

The facing has a textured, almost hewn stone look on the outer ring. The center reminds me of an old camera lens, and the rest of the facing is relatively smooth.

The metal ring has a terrific random texture, and it's quite heavy. My hands are small, but it fits my middle finger perfectly - which is the finger it should be worn on. I heard somewhere that it was a size 11, but I can't verify that. I can say that for someone with larger hands, it should still fit their ring finger.

Paint - ***
There's not a ton of actual paint, but the cast colors look good.

The metal ring itself looks to be a very dark green with a black wash to bring out the texturing of the sculpt. The plastic face is a slightly lighter translucent green, but the clear plastic doesn't allow for a lot of light to pass through in normal situations.

Light Feature - Bupkis
Nope, none here. At first I thought "Hey, it's just a $10 ring, that's too cheap for a light up feature...", but then I realized that in the next aisle over I could buy a die cast Lightning McQueen that lights up AND talks for the same ten bucks.

Value - **
I wasn't too put off by the price at first, since it's pretty rare to get any sort of prop replica, key chain or not, for ten bucks. Then I started thinking about the light up feature, or more importantly, the lack thereof, and I had to drop my otherwise average score here by another half star.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing.

Overall - ***
If you're looking for an extremely high quality exacting light up replica of the movie ring, this isn't it. Then again, it's not suppose to be - it's a reasonably priced version that's probably close enough for most folks. I do wish it was capable of lighting up, but even without that feature it's an acceptable replica of the movie version, and and you can show off your Lantern nerdiness without being set back a car payment.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***
Value - **
Overall - ***

Where to Buy 
This is a Toys R Us exclusive right now.

Related Links -
I've been hitting up the Green Lantern products lately:

- earlier this week I looked at the comic based 12" figure from Mattel, also a Toys R Us exclusive.

- last week, I checked out the first wave of Movie Masters.

- prior to that, I looked at a few of the 4" scale figures.

- 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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