Got together with my family this past Sunday for some early birthday celebration, and my parents surprised me with this really cool Batman: The Brave & The Bold Rocket Blast Firestorm! If you are new to this blog, you may not know that I'm a HUGE fan of the animated show these 5" Mattel action figures are based on, and have kept an entire shelf dedicated to them for over a year.
A lot of action figure fans are annoyed by the hexagonal slots at the joints to accomadate the "Snap & Attack" play feature on these, but they are made for kids- made for play! I love they're chunky styling, and hope they continue with the "Stealth Strike" banner they've been rebranded under!
The folks at Mattel did a great job adapting Firestorm's character to the buck of these toys, his uniform details sculpted into the body, bringing just enough detail to make an artful but simple rendering. This appears to be the current Nuclear Man, Jason Rusch, his serious visage capped with a translucent orange flame. He looks great- had a ball taking pictures of this one! :D
Firestorm has the standard articulation for this line of figures: a cut/swivel joint at the neck, waist & shoulders, hinged elbows, and T-hips. Simple, but tough enough for real play, and more articulated than the 5-point Star Wars figures we grew up with.
Firestorm's rocket blast accessory is the exact same as the one included with Total Armor Stealth Blast Rocket Batman, but molded in gold plastic. The press of a button fires the projectile at the end. The jets can be removed and popped into the hexagonal slots on any of the action figures in this line of toys.
The strange face capping the end of this accessory is a reference to the Metal Men characters, this one representing Gold, who could utilize whatever traits of their namesake metal necessary to accomplish a task or do battle. I actually have regular figures of both Gold & Iron from this series I'll have to show you some day. In fact, I have several more of these figures yet to be photographed!
Firestorm has a complicated history, even for DC's convoluted continuity! Debuting in March of 1978, he is unique among all other superheroes: he is not merely one being with superpowers/super-abilities/super gadgets (as most superheroes are, such as Superman and Batman), nor is he one being when human and another distinct being in "super" mode (a la Captain Marvel or Etrigan). Firestorm instead is two normal human beings when non-powered, who then combine in "super" mode to form Firestorm. (Wikipedia) A crazy but interesting idea, the cast of alter egos having changed four times since the character's inception.
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And now it's time for one of my favorite things here at the Super-DuperToyBox: BIGTOY/littletoy! Brave & the Bold Firestorm with DCUC Firestorm and Action League Firestorm...
More Later-Make It FUN!
I am a huge Firestorm fan too. I was there at his creation. The collected first issues from the late 80s are great reads. I love his look - under the right artist or designer you get a very dynamic figure.
ReplyDeleteFirestorm is a fan favorite/cult hero i think in large to both his unique appearance and origin plus in the fact he was featured on a Saturday morning cartoon. Great figure of a great character Super-D. : )
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