McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse The Flash Jay Garrick review
I was a huge fan of DC’s All-Star Squadron and loved reading the World War II exploits of the Justice Society and their other superhero peers. That love for the JSA characters endured through their deaths in Zero Hour through their revival in David Goyer and Geoff Johns’ JSA series.
The Flash Jay Garrick was one of my favorites and his inclusion into the post-Crisis world as the patriarch of The Flash family only raised his profile for me. McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse has slowly started to expand beyond the absolutely newest look for the characters and starting to make legacy characters like Jay Garrick.
Let’s see if this corrupted Superman is good enough to be at the forefront of my Crime Syndicate display or needs to be relegated to the back.
Packaging: McFarlane is in no rush to switch up the packaging whatsoever. He has zero plans to switch from its original packaging of a mostly black box with white and blue accents. At least the back of the package features an Alex Ross portrait of Jay.
Another thing on my wish list? Putting the bio on the package instead of in the included trading card.
Likeness: This isn’t the classic, classic look for Jay although what Vintage Flash’s outfit looks like really varies at this point anyway. This figure is mostly based off of Jay’s return to the current DC continuity in The Flash #750.
The only noticeable difference is there’s no buttoned-up collar. The fingerless gloves, yellow belt instead of black with a buckle and non-pixie style boots are the biggest departures. Fortunately, this isn’t a radical departure from Jay’s traditional look compared to the Speed Metal figure MT released previously.
Impressively, MT didn’t just reuse that head sculpt instead going for one with a more serene expression as if he’s perfectly at peace moving at super speeds. It fits Jay’s personality well.
The iconic winged helmet looks good and is positioned in a cool manner in that it could keep his identity secret when he’s moving quickly. Jay’s lightning bolt is sculpted, which was a nice extra step since I assumed that was just going to be painted on.
Scale: Jay isn’t a giant and he’s right about the same height as the original Flash figure. I’m curious how he’ll scale with the upcoming Flashpoint Barry Allen Flash figure.
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Paint: No issues with paint on this despite that pesky prominent yellow. McFarlane’s paint crew made sure to apply enough coverage of yellow to prevent the red bleeding through, which is normally the hardest to pull off.
Overall, Jay’s figure sports a very bright Golden Age primary color scheme with lighter shades of red, blue and yellow than the “norm.” That’s a nice way to distinguish Jay from both the Wally and Barry attires with a candy apple and darker scarlet.
Articulation: The most important for any Flash figure is that they can hit dynamic running poses, deep stances and charging punches. That’s not a problem with Jay and he also has pretty good range in his knees and elbows.
And Jay is one of those characters where articulated toes are actually useful in posing.
The one thing you’ll want to be careful of with the lightning tips on the helmet and boots. They’re made of a harder plastic, and one fell off after I removed Jay from the package. It superglued it back on with no problem but be careful when posing him to avoid pushing against the lightning bolts.
Jay Garrick The Flash has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders [with pop up/down point]
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee
- ankle
- toe
Accessories: Typically, McFarlane Toys doesn’t flood the figures with accessories.
Jay Garrick comes ahead of the norm for the line with swappable flat palm “running” hands.
Additionally, he’s got the lightning speed effects that attach to his arms and legs. They’re cast in a translucent yellow this time and stay on with no problem whatsoever.
Finally, he’s got the always welcome small black stand to aid in running stances.
Worth it? McFarlane Toys has started the inevitable price increase to $22.99 an uptick from their $19.99 previous standard. Thanks to a (ahem) flash sale at Best Buy, I got him for $11.58 after the $5 reward bonus. That put Jay at a hard to beat price.
Rating: 10 out of 10
From the paint to the original sculpt details and smooth articulation this is a winning figure of a Golden Age standout making for an exceptional entry in the DC Multiverse line. Now bring on the rest of the JSA.
Where to get it? I got Jay at Best Buy, but I’ve also seen him at Target. You can also grab him from Amazon.
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