DC Multiverse Firestorm review – McFarlane Collector Edition

Firestorm was prominently featured in the Super Powers cartoon so naturally he made an impression on me long before I got hooked into the comics. For DC, that coincided with Crisis on Infinite Earths where Firestorm was a key player for the first half of the series.

I think writers struggle to write him as a he’s got a major power set and few easy weaknesses. The last time he was written exceptionally well was (shocker) when Geoff Johns wrote him in Doomsday Clock.

My satellite era Justice League wouldn’t be complete without Firestorm and I was excited when McFarlane Toys announced that they would be using his appearance in Crisis as the model for the figure. It’s impossible to go wrong when using George Perez art as the reference. Let’s see if Firestorm lights it up or if he transmutes into a pumpkin after I open him.

Packaging:  With the Collector Edition line, McFarlane Toys started mixing up the packaging…slightly. The white accents are swapped for silver and the window is just a bit wider.

The branding for Firestorm states this is his look from Crisis on Infinite Earths, which naturally means the card and rear package art features his look from the New 52 series.

In fairness, the chase version featured Firestorm in his New 52 look though it’s bizarre to go with the artwork from the chase instead of the standard figure.

Likeness: Firestorm is another character with an awesome costume design. Between the Big 2, I’ll take the DC costume designs over the Marvel Comics every time.

McFarlane Toys can be frustrating at times because they will deliver tremendous sculpts with all the essential details. Then other times they’ll ignore a better base body and use one with sculpted elements that make no sense for another character.

Firestorm is pretty close to being arguably the best version. A few things hold him back. The first is his flame. It’s too short and tame. Fire is a wild, unrestrained element. This sculpt, while done well, needed to be a bit wider with more of a taller plume. The best example is the DC Icons Firestorm, which has a perfect flame.

Additionally, Firestorm didn’t have eyebrows just wider, dark outlines around his eyes. They’re too narrow though I wonder if a little repaint could fix it.

I was really impressed with the angled strips across his chest. They’re asymmetrical and actually sculpted instead of just done via paint. The rest of his outfit details including his belt and the seams on his tights and pattern of his boots are comic accurate as well. They’re not skintight, but I do wish his poofy sleeves flared out wider.

Firestorm has some blasts around his hands, but instead of the normal nuclear blasts it’s just fiery flame effects.

Scale: Firestorm’s scale is kinda all over the place. At times, he’s portrayed as noticeably shorter than Superman. In other cases, he’s around the same height. I’ll give McFarlane a pass here since he’s right around the same height as the other Satellite era JLA figures although this draws more attention to the fact that we need a taller, thicker Superman.

Paint:  Red, white and yellow are a paint combination nightmare in terms of getting them to play with each other nicely without any bleeding. It wasn’t shocking that there were some paint issues here. The shade of yellow used is terrific though the red is too bright. It could stand being a darker more scarlet shade.

There is far more slop than the normal figure. It’s mostly around the belt with badge spilling onto the white and the red circle missing some paint. And of course, the issues with his eyes.

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Articulation: The Nuclear Man sports the standard 22 points of articulation. He’s a character that’s normally taking a flying attacking approach. It’s key with him to get excellent range for flying poses.

He’s got great poseability and can hit all the expected poses you’d want for him.

Firestorm has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• butterfly shoulders
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee
• ankle
• toe

Accessories: McFarlane Toys tends to pack more into the Collector Edition figures.

There are a few missing accessories here. Clearly the biggest is the absent nuclear blast effects. That’s just a given with any Firestorm figure and very weird that they’re missing. The other is a bit less obvious, but how cool would it have been to get a disembodied Professor Stein head?

He’s got three sets of swappable hands — a fingers outstretched set, flat palms and fists. There’s also another right hand with flame balls for a more aggressive action pose. On the plus side, you can use the DC Classics Firestorm’s effect pieces around his wrist for some nuclear transformation action.

Also, there’s the Collector Edition card holder. This is probably my least favorite accessory as it’s just a worthless addition even if it does look nice. Given the chance, I’d much rather have the flight stand with any flying figures.

Finally, he’s got the black stand, which is always helpful for posing figures.

Worth it? For a brief moment, Amazon had this wave of Collector Edition figures on sale for $20. The $30 price for the CE figures is overkill since the stand doesn’t add that much to the figure. Right now he’s going for $27, which still feels about $5 too much.

Rating:  8.5 out of 10

There’s enough problems that Firestorm probably shouldn’t rate this high, but there’s something just really fun about him that ultimately won me over. Would I still be on board for a more subdued candy red, wider flame portrait with no eyebrows? Sure, but this is a solid Firestorm until then.

Where to get it?  I’ve seen Firestorm a few times at GameStop, but I grabbed mine from Amazon.

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