eBay Clearance Sale Continues!

I've been clearing out inventory from the Super-DuperToyBox pretty much continuously since January! Click the eBay Clearance Sale badge at the top of the right sidebar of this blog to bid on some great DC Universe Classics and more! Hurry- dozens of items have sold on their first auction due to my low pricing! Follow the Super-DuperToyBox Instagram to see live updates on a few of the items as they are going up for auction:

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Total Heroes Sinestro & Green Lantern

I'll admit that I wasn't blown away by these new Total Heroes action figures by Mattel, but I liked the Superman I reviewed recently well enough, and I rarely pass on a Sinestro action figure, especially in his black & yellow Corps uniform. I've seen there will be a Total Heroes Batman Beyond as well, a character I feel the same about collecting. And I couldn't pass on a Green Lantern to go with him while I was there on the premises with both in hand, so here we are   :D

As I said before, these are not DCUC-grade action figure, but have their own appeal. Styled less realistically than Mattel's late DC Universe Classics line, in more of a chunky, "animated" version with less articulation, Mattel was able to hit a price point more attractive to big box retail. Similar to the recent Batman Power Attack figures, the Total Heroes have a few additional points of articulation at only a dollar more. The waist still swivels, and there are additional swivels in the elbows and wrists, as well as hinge-swivel shoulders and hips for lateral range and hinged knees and ankles. Pretty simple, but serviceable.

The Lanterns didn't come with a power battery, but constructs instead, both in the form of hand weapons cast in translucent plastic matching the colors of their respective spectrum. The figures grip the accessories securely- they're appropriately exaggerated and goofy...

Total Heroes Sinestro & Green Lantern with DC Universe Classics Wave 3 Sinestro and 2010 Wal-Mart Exclusive GL 5-pack "90's Hal" Green Lantern...

Total Heroes Sinestro & Green Lantern with 4" Justice League Unlimited Sinestro and Green Lantern, another highly stylized line of action figures from Mattel...

Total Heroes Sinestro & Green Lantern with 2" DC Action League Sinestro and Green Lantern...

And finally, Total Heroes Sinestro & Green Lantern with 8" Retro Action Sinestro & Green Lantern, another Mattel Action figure line that was modeled after my favorite childhood Mego dolls...

Mattel stuck to the same buck on all these Total Heroes action figures, and while it would be nice to see a different body, particularly a female, I'm doubtful it will be produced. The previous 5" Justice League got a Wonder Woman packed with 6 others in a Target exclusive, there wasn't a single carded release. Where's the love, Mattel? And one final gripe is that Green Lantern was shown with metallic green paint in promotional images, which didn't materialize onto the final product. That withstanding, the applications are pretty clean on these, and at ten bucks I didn't feel bad picking some up- they're fun! 

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Hey, Mr. Postman!

Gosh I sure love gettin' toys in the mail  :D  My postman is actually slender blonde beauty with sunny personality, but since I work 9 to 5 with the new job, I never see her anymore. Bummer. Well, at least she brought me these last week...

I told myself I wasn't gonna buy these from MattyCollector, and I didn't the first time around. When they recently re-released them all together, the bulk shipping was easier to swallow. Some of the first toys posted on the Super-DuperToyBox when I started 21 months ago were these Retro-Action DC Superheroes, which are so much like my childhood Mego World's Greatest Superheroes.

The Green Lantern franchise hot after Geoff Johns' Blackest Night saga, just before the Green Lantern motion picture premiere last summer, Mattel was all things Green Lantern so we got these. I've waited a long time! I have Hal Jordan and the classic Sinestro already, making a good portion of my Retro-Action collection GL Corps... What can I say? I'm a big Green Lantern fan! I love that Mattel gave John Stewart an Afro and Guy Gardner the bowl cut. I've read a couple Kyle Rayner books recently, too, along with the first six GL New Guardian issues released with DCs New 52 relaunch- I'm a big fan of Tyler Kirkham's pencilling! I love how these are packed old-school, no twisty ties, a simple backing card- just like when I was a kid!

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New 52: Green Lantern #9, Secret of the Indigo Tribe!

Continuing with my last post on Green Lantern #8, which saw Sinestro captured and converted by the Indigo Tribe, issue #9 backtracks to show the process. Sinestro's mind flashes back to meeting his love, sister of his former mentor, Ari Sur, her disapproval of his tyranny over Korugar, and the dire consequences that befell all involved.

Taking Hal down, Sinestro expresses remorse for all he has done to him in the past. "Now I know you've been brainwashed. Which surprisingly bothers me,"  Hal answers before breaking free, escaping from the mob of Indigo Lanterns who want to teleport him back home. "I'm not leaving without Sinestro."

In search of the Indigo Tribe's central power battery, Hal encounters Natromo, original keeper of the Indigo light from the planet Nok. It's here that the strange aboriginal man reveals the secret of the Indigo Tribe to Hal Jordan, revealing that Abin Sur helped create the power rings, converting the universe's worst sadists and murderers, including Indigo-1, who had killed Abin's own daughter! "So Abin Sur thought this was a way to redeem people?" Hal asked. "Oh no. No, the tribe would be an army at the ready for Abin Sur, " Natromo went on, "But the true reason behind the forging of these rings had nothing to do with the redemption of his enemies..." Natromo went on to say that Abin Sur had seen the coming of the Blackest Night, and following this would come the end of the Green Lantern Corps, destroyed by an evil within... "Abin Sur called them THE GUARDIANS OF THE UNIVERSE." Whoa!!

The Indigo Tribe were merely a test- Abin Sur had planned to change the invincible Guardians with the rings before their madness overtook them. When Hal reveals to Natromo that Abin Sur is dead, he shuts down the main power battery in despair. By this time the Indigo Tribe has caught up with Hal Jordan, Sinestro wrestling him to the ground, just as the central power goes down...

... though Sinestro regains his former state of mind, Hal realizes that without the the central power battery, so have the former psychopaths that make up the Indigo Tribe, such as the likes of Black Hand...!

This has been a great book- far better than the New 52 Justice League in my opinion, which I liked for Jim Lee's art, but didn't go too far plotwise in the first six issues. DC has received a ton of criticism for the New 52 titles, and Geoff Johns catches flak for overexposure, but Green Lantern has been interesting artistically and narratively. And again: I love Doug Mahnke's obsessively tight artwork, particularly when he draws Sinestro!

In the back of this issue DC touts their second wave of the New 52, including an Earth 2 parallel universe book which I may have to try on. They go on to tease about Alan Scott taking the Green Lantern mantle in this alternate reality, which makes me think "So what? Was he not Green Lantern in another reality before Final Crisis?" ...or just the predocessor to Hal Jordan's Green Lantern? Hard to tell nowadays with DC's ever evolving continuity  :D  But hey, I don't really care. As long as the story is interesting and the art is good, continuity is of no concern to me. Seriously. I'm a fan of character reimaginings AND action figure variants!  :D  

Below are a couple of the Earth 2 character designs- I'm particularly fond of the Superman, but I liked Jim Lee's Justice League costume designs, so...

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New 52: Green Lantern #8

Continued from my post on Green Lantern issue #7, the mysterious Indigo tribe has captured Sinestro, with Hal Jordan in hot pursuit, their intent to make right the Guardians mistake of reinstating him into the Green Lantern Corps. As Indigo-1 initiates the conversion of Sinestro, the willful Lantern lashes out in defiance, crushing an Indigo tribesman's head into the prison bars, "YOU DARE VIOLATE ME?! I am not like the rest of your prisoners. I AM SINESTRO!"

But  Indigo-1 strikes Sinestro down with a flash of her ring, promising "Not for much longer." This book gets better all the time, Doug Mahnke's masterful art adding the graphic, emotional punch as Geoff John's ever intriguing story dramatically unfurls...

Meanwhile, the incarcerated Hal Jordan listens to Black Hand's brainwashed tale of how the Indigo tribe allowed him to feel empathy for the first time in his life, their ability to cycle throught the emotional spectrum in complete acquiescence to compassion for all other beings. As Black Hand channels through the Green Lantern's power of will, Jordan seizes the moment, powering his ring through the rehabilitated villain's head and smashing free of his prison cell.

Limited in his power due to the ring's charge from a simulated energy, Hal is injured in the melee, but manages to conjure a motorcycle construct and speed away in search of Sinestro and answers to the fallen Lantern's machinations.

The plot thickens when Hal discovers a giant statue of his predesessor Abin Sur in the middle of the Indigo Tribe's hundred million square mile facility! "How is Abin Sur connected to the indigo Tribe", a puzzled Hal asks before Indigo-1 appears with the Tribe, "Abin Sur is our savior, our creator. He saved us all. Beginning with Abin Sur's greatest enemy."

The last page shows a converted Sinestro chained at the neck, wielding a tribal staff, surrounded by his new family...!  Man, is this book getting interesting!

Also of interest: I've spotted this advertisement for the forthcoming New 52 Graphic Novels release schedule. This is great news to me, the graphic novel format being my preferred method of reading a story arc- the whole story in one book as opposed to several issues of a comic spread out over several months. I'll be able to catch some of the inaugural New 52 stories I hated to miss...

In conclusion, I'd like to share this beautiful two page advertisement of the new DC Direct Justice League action figures- Cool! I'm annoyed that we are being made to wait until January of 2013 to get Superman, the one I want most, but he does look great! As you've probably heard by now, DC Direct is relaunching the company as DC Collectibles, and will expand its online store to offer its entire product line for sale on the web, in addition to the line’s primary availability in comic book retail locations. For those fans who prefer to purchase a product in-store, the website will also provide information on the closest retail location that carries a particular DC Collectibles product. (source: ComicBookResources.Com)

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