At the end of 2010, freshly back into reading comics and just a few months into authoring this blog, I read Blackest Night and got into Green Lantern like never before. I had soon collected several of the DC Direct Blackest Night figures, keeping them on card until liquidating them in 2018 as I downsized my collection. While I don't necessarily regret this, I did surprise myself when purchasing the Blackest Night Hal Jordan figure loose on eBay recently. The carded sample picture above is the Hal Jordan I sold off in 2018, one of the Blackest Night figures I most wanted to open, and am really happy to have found a loose, affordable sample in great condition.
Blackest Night: Green Lantern and Blackest Night (DC Comics, 2009-2010)
The sculpts on these DC Direct Blackest Night figures were extraordinary, and Hal was no exception. DC Direct rebranded as DC Collectibles just over a year after producing these figures and the subsequent Brightest Day Series figures, eventually adding more points of articulation in attempt to compete with other lines of figures in a rapidly expanding market. It's true that I'm nostalgic for this era of figures because I was just getting into collecting as an adult, there's little doubt that the hobby was climbing in popularity while the quality of figures was improving dramatically. The quality lantern accessories and bases included with the Blackest Night figures made them truly special!
I've said many times on this blog during my years collecting DC Direct figures, that what they lacked in articulation was more than made up for in aesthetic. I was also a huge DC Universe Classics fan at the time, but I do love the uninterrupted torso sculpt on Hal. The knees and elbows on this figure don't even achieve a 45 degree bend, but he does have swivels at his wrists, above the biceps and at his boot tops.
Below, Blackest Night Hal Jordan with my DC Collectibles New 52 Justice League Hal Jordan and Simon Baz. Not much had changed yet in regard to articulation with these two figures, who in fact have a little less without boot top swivels- gone are the figure bases we got with DC Direct just a year or two before.
Below, Hal Jordan with DC Direct Green Lanterns Soranik Natu, Sinestro, and Guy Gardner. These Series 5 Green Lantern figures dropped about a year after Blackest Night Hal, and sport a metallic green that just blew me away at the time. Everyone was into Green Lantern then, the books and figures coming out with fanfare not seen before, culminating with the oft bemoaned Green Lantern film. While the movie was kind of a letdown, I did continue to read Green Lantern into DC's New 52 relaunch, thrilled by Sinestro's reinstatement into the Green Lantern Corps! Visit Joe Acevedo's DC Direct Archive online to see all the figures from 1999 to 2012!
More Later- Make It FUN!
No comments:
Post a Comment