Speed Force

Toy Fair 2012 got underway on February 12 with a variety of action figure news and photos from Mattel. For Flash fans, the big point of interest is two new figures from the DC Universe Club: Jay Garrick and Mirror Master. The figures are primarily available to subscribers, but people who don’t subscribe to the club can order them at a slightly higher price from Mattel’s site MattyCollector.com. Jay will be available on April 16, and Mirror Master on June 16.

Honestly, these figures look great. The sculpts are wonderful (from Jay’s easy-going smile to Mirror Master’s smirk), and the shiny vacuumized metal on Jay’s helmet is a nice touch. I’ll definitely be picking up Mirror Master, of course.

Another bit of big news is the momentary return of Justice League Unlimited 3-Packs. This series was cancelled a while ago and some figures that had already been announced would seemingly never be released, but will now be available in Autumn 2012 at MattyCollector.com! This includes a set of Batman, Future Superman, and Vandal Savage.

Also shown were some DC Action League 2-Packs, including the Flashpoint set of Flash and Citizen Cold. These were originally shown at San Diego Comic-Con, but haven’t been released yet. And the New 52-design DC Universe Flash figure was also on display again.

DC Direct has not yet shown anything Flash-related, but Toy Fair spans several days and they may not have unveiled all their new products.

Images and information courtesy of Toy News International. See all their photos of Mattel’s DC figures here.

Retailer, Best Buy will be adding a little something extra to the Blu-Ray release of Justice League: Doom; an exclusive miniature Flash figurine. The figurine will be similar to past DC Animated release exclusives and will be the eighth statue released thus far:

Justice League: Doom is the latest direct to video film to be released through DC Animated. Slated for release February 28th, the film adapts the Tower of Babel story line from the “Morrison Era” League and penned by Mark Waid. In the story it is revealed that Batman has devised different methods of incapacitating his allies if they ever were to go rogue. Unfortunately the plans fall into the hands of the bad guys and we get to witness the fall out.

The story was adapted for the screen by the late Dwayne McDuffie and features Michael Rosenbaum, the voice of Wally West on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited and Lex Luthor on Smallville, as Barry Allen this time around.

I personally have to say, great move on DC’s part to include the  Flash figurine. Now I will be picking it up on launch day as opposed to not at all. Who else is picking up the release now that the Flash figurine has been added? Who would have picked it up otherwise? Let us know in the comments below.

Thanks to Phantom Stranger for the tip and pic.

-Devin “Flash” Johnson

Salutations Speed Readers,

Through a flyer being circulated at comic book shops all over the country by DC Direct, we have our first look at what looks like the completed DC Direct New 52 Flash action figure:

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Yesterday afternoon the Skelanimals Facebook page announced that they would be joining forces with DC Comics to bring us Skelanimals based on our favorite DC super heroes. Now you can have your very own Flash Skelanimal:

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Salutations Speed Readers,

Comic Book Resources (CBR) released the first pictures of Wave 2 of the offshoot brand, DC Universe All-Stars to be released later next year in an interview with Associate Marketing Manager for DC Universe, Young Justice and Superman Danielle McLachlan, Mattycollector.com Marketing Manager Scott Neitlich, Batman Associate Marketing Manager Derick Deller and Warner Bros. Marketing Manager John Friberg.

Mattel announced a few months back that as of Wave 20 (featuring White Lantern Flash and Professor Zoom) DC Universe Classics will no longer be sold at retail. DC Universe Classics will instead become Mattel’s DC Universe Club Infinite Earths Subscription program. They will continue to release more varied characters from the rich history of the DC Universe using the subscription while their new retail line, DC Universe All-Stars is Mattel’s attempt to keep familiar characters in the store that parents will be more likely to recognize. Essentially any figure with a ‘Bat’ an ‘S’, or a ‘Lantern’ on it, as opposed to that “funky guy with the bandages” and ‘Captain Freeze’ that mom likely knows nothing about.

Mattel’s new 52 Flash:

Not the largest picture, but we can see most of the details that we need to, including the fact they definitely skimped on the details with these figures as opposed to the DC Direct Prototypes we saw a few months back:

Mattel seems to be going for a less artist specific look than DC Direct which is usually the case. The result of which is the Mattel version looking more like Wally West than the new Barry Allen. I’m also seeing much more detail on the DC Direct version of the figure with the inclusion of the chin strap, modified wings and lightning accents on the torso. Mattel nailed the boots and raised emblem but missed the mark on the mask and wings. Hopefully both of these prototypes will see some changes before their final releases.

What do you guys think of the prototypes so far? Will you be picking up Mattel’s version of the Flash, DC Direct’s or both? Let us know in the comments below and as always thanks for reading,

-Devin “Flash” Johnson

Threadless has a Flash-inspired shirt design up for voting. Score this design: “Faster than E-mail,” to help it get printed on Threadless!

I particularly like the use of the earpiece as the flag.

(Via the Fastest Fan Alive)

It’s been a while since we wrote about TeeFury, but they’ve got another Flash-themed shirt available for one day only.

The design by Wenceslao A Romero is only available until midnight EST, so if you want one, buy it today.

On a related note, while Mimobot has the current license for actual DC Comics-inspired flash drives, they’ve been sticking with the Batman and Green Lantern characters for now. You’d think someone over there would see the inherent appeal of a Flash flash drive.

The story behind this little oddity is actually my husband’s — he bought two small bootleg fans from somebody on Ebay in 2007. He’s a Transformers geek, so he got Optimus Prime and Megatron for kicks. However, the cardboard packaging shows the other available fans, and one is the Flash! Because this is a foreign bootleg it has to have a bit of semi-sensical Engrish, and thus Flash cheerfully chirps “I’M HERO” while Spidey declares “Show Time!”

The obverse touchingly states “This summer is a little bit cooler than last summer because you are with me! I am so happy!” and always makes me smile. Anyway, unfortunately we didn’t buy the Flash one, which I rather regret now; the Optimus and Megatron fans are actually fairly decent quality.

Salutations Speed Readers,

For those that haven’t heard yet there were some pics shown off at New York Comic Con this past weekend of the “New 52″ action figures coming up from DC Direct next year. As expected there were a few pictures shown of the new Flash action figure; TNI and Toy Ark have the goods:

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Salutations Speed Readers,

Just a quick reminder for those anxiously awaiting for the last major Flash-related offering from Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited line. Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash will be on sale tomorrow in a three pack along with Alan Scott (the Golden Age Green Lantern) and the Golden Age Hawkman:

The three pack will officially go on sale at 9 a.m. Pacific (12 noon Eastern) time and will set you back around 20 dollars for all three. Not a bad deal at all, especially considering some prices for JLU at retail. Not to mention you get three all new action figures as opposed to the previous JLU three packs where we were lucky in some cases to get one (I’m looking at you Heatwave pack).

I personally had planned on getting two packs in order to support DC and the JLU line but this will probably be one of my last major Flash purchases for a while and I think I will only be getting one initially. I already purchased a prototype of the Jay Garrick Flash a few months ago and having three of the same figure would be overkill.

You can purchase the set tomorrow by following this link.

In any case happy hunting! I hope everyone gets a chance to grab one!

Thanks for reading,

-Devin Johnson