McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Black Lightning review
Black Lightning was due for a classic comic book figure from McFarlane Toys’ DC Multiverse line. The featured villain in The Batman got some renewed mainstream attention, marking the perfect opportunity for an old school villain. That’s more of what I want to see from McFarlane Toys.
And it’s weird that this is the first legitimate villain from the Legion of Doom from McFarlane Toys. Hopefully not the last one.
Let’s see if The Riddler has all the right answers or proves McF Toys clueless in making a quality figure.
Packaging: McFarlane Toys doesn’t believe in exciting packaging. It’s the same old, same old — open window showing off the figure with the blue and white accents and comic book artwork on the back.
This is labeled Black Lightning from Final Crisis. The weird thing is the cover art shows the bald version of BL, but in Final Crisis: Submit, he actually has hair like the figure.
Likeness: Let’s start with the positives. Black Lightning has a fantastic head sculpt. It is really well done with a nice stoic intensity while neutral enough to convey various expressions. The sculpted domino mask looks terrific.
I remain dumbfounded by McFarlane’s part choice philosophy. He’ll create an all-new body for all the needed sculpted elements a costume needs, but then repurpose it when a character would be better represented on a blank body with less unique details.
Black Lightning reuses the Speeding Bullets Batman with new gloves and boots. Ironically, these boots would work for more figures than the Blue Beetle boot cuff versions that get tacked on to too many figures.
The SBB mold has sculpted paneling along the sides of the arms and legs. Additionally, there’s a sculpted utility belt in place. With a slew of blank bodies like The Riddler it’s weird that this mold gets the call.
At least with the belt, McFarlane had an appropriate lightning bolt sculpted on top. Still, this was baffling for no reason.
He does have some cool default hands with translucent lightning, which makes a lot of sense for the character. Less (ahem) shocking was the lack of translucent lens for his mask. His eyes should be visible in this attire, but McFarlane has been steadfast in not going with see-through lenses for characters that should have them.
Scale: Black Lightning is typically portrayed as a guy with average height, so his figure matches up pretty well with the existing heavy hitter figures. He stands at 6’1″ and shouldn’t be eye to eye with the 6’2″ Batman.
He’s not since he’s using a buck too big for him. He’s taller than the Detective Comics #1000 Batman, John Stewart Green Lantern and Superman. Sigh.
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Paint: McFarlane’s DC figures tend to have solid paintwork. Black Lightning could have had more problems than some with the sky blue and gold against the darker midnight blue, but the lightning lining was impressively sharp.
I like the pop of the gold belt as it has a very nice golden sheen.
Articulation: Black Lightning has your normal McFarlane DC Multiverse articulation scheme is solid enough to handle any reasonable poses you’d need to hit for him.
His shoulders are a little tighter than some of the other McF figures I’ve got, which is a side effect of this mold.
Black Lightning has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders [with pop up/down point]
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee
- ankle
- toe
Accessories: McFarlane Toys stays all over the place in terms of accessories for the DC Multiverse line. Black Lightning comes up on the shorter end.
He’s got an open left hand and a right fist for non-powered-up poses.
And he’s got the trademark black stand. It’s simple, but very effective in helping the figures hit more dynamic poses with a stable foundation.
A great option here would have been the bald head sculpt as shown on the packaging. There’s no need to make that a separate figure and would have allowed for some variety in how you displayed him.
Worth it? McFarlane Toys stays around the $20 to $22 price range. I’d feel better about that price if the figures were consistent with appropriate part choices.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Black Lightning is let down by some weird reuse despite being a great-looking figure from a basic shelf presence perspective.
Where to get it? While he’s a Wal-Mart exclusive, I got Black Lightning from Amazon.
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