So last weekend Chicago’s biggest comic book convention, C2E2 was held. Which just so happens to be the the first leg on the Mattycollector.com Collector Appreciation Tour 2011. This is the first place they would be selling the Heatwave, Flash and Mirror Master set, amongst other JLU goodies. Now normally I would be sitting back looking at the trickle of toy news online and thinking about how much the figures are going to cost me on evilBay the next day. This time however I had an ace in the hole; a reader of Speed Force who frequently posts comments under the name Fastest, Mark Maslauskas. Mark was going to the convention and was kind enough to offer to pick up a set for me. Can you believe it? Absolutely awesome.

Now sometime after the announcement of JLU Heatwave being at the con and Mark’s offer, DC announced through their official blog, The Source that C2E2 would be one of the only places to pick up an exclusive White Lantern Flash action figure, limited to only 1000 pieces. Hearing about the exclusive figure and seeing a chance to possibly kill two birds with one stone I asked Mark if he wouldn’t mind picking that up for me also. He told me it wasn’t an issue and that he would grab both.

The weekend arrives and Mark grabs the JLU pack the first day, no problem. Now the White Lantern Flash set wouldn’t prove to be so easily acquired and they sold out all three days of the con before Mark could get to the front of the line.

Now as much smack as I talk about eBay I will say that it isn’t eBay’s fault that scalpers use it as a tool for evil. It is just a product of the system. I have gotten tons of great deals on eBay and found a number of items that I would never have come across because of it. At the end of the day though it is still a vehicle for toy scalpers and it has been out of hand for some time. However, in this case I didn’t get burned that bad. After receiving the news about the White Lantern Flash from Mark, I hit eBay and ended up finding one for 43 dollars including the shipping. Not as bad of a rip as it could be, although the figure does retail for half that price. But when you factor in the convenience fee and the fact that this person did the leg work and that there are only a 1000 pieces of this figure it doesn’t seem like that much really.

Enough talk though:

 

White Lantern The Flash

During Blackest Night, the Fastest Man Alive was touched by The Entity and, along with Green Lantern Hal Jordan and others, defeated the being Nekron, who sought to end all life.

 

Heatwave, The Flash, Mirror Master

Heatwave and Mirror Master are infamous members of The Flash’s Rogues Gallery and Lex Luthor’s Legion of Doom. They also have the distinction of appearing in a Lightspeed Energy Bar commercial where they fought side-by-side in a battle with The Flash.

 

The set also includes JLU Barry Allen and Mirror Master. I already have both of the figures but I actually don’t mind having the extras. The JLU Barry Allen is a great figure and might even make a great prize one day, and it is never a bad idea to have more than one figure of the Mirror Master.

 

Heatwave’s gun is actually molded onto the figure, making it non-removable and absolutely perfect. At first I was a bit nonplussed by it but thinking about how difficult and annoying it is to get the few accessories that they do include with figures to fit properly in their hands this makes total sense. I wish they would have gotten this brilliant idea before they released Captain Cold though. I guess Heatwave wins out in the end after all.

 

Heatwave is one of a select few (but growing) Rogues that has more than one action figure. Last year Heatwave was released in the now cancelled toy line, DC Universe Infinite Heroes. It was released in a three pack along with The Trickster and Wally West.  This set was previously covered in my Recent Acquisitions from last August.

As you can see the Infinite Heroes version of Heatwave also has a molded on weapon. In side by side comparison I actually dig the Infinite Heroes Heatwave more by a slight margin. They both have fantastic sculpts and yes the JLU Heatwave has some great details and is show accurate, but man if the IH version doesn’t look more menacing. I don’t think this is the exact version of Mick that we have seen in the comics but that is the version that I would want to see in a animated adaptation or modified slightly for the big screen.

 

JLU Heatwave definitely gets props for the backpack. Solid design with again, nice details.

 

The assembled Justice League Unlimited Rogues. While we may never end up with a Trickster, I can’t be ungrateful. It is unbelievable that we finally have five members of the Rogues (plus Grodd, and Zoom).

Now for White Lantern Flash:

I had a tough time getting the lighting right, so I apologize if the pics look a little off.

 

Definitely takes the cake as the craziest version of The Flash that I have on my shelf at the moment. The white makes it stand out like no Flash figure ever before, even more so than the Blue Lantern Flash. Which as I’ve mentioned before, this is obviously a repaint of.

 

A closer look. I’ve also mentioned before just how perfect this Flash sculpt is. I wouldn’t mind seeing a couple more Flash figures released using this body sculpt and simply changing the head and ring hand. I would still pay for it. *Crossing fingers for new Wally costume using this sculpt*

A side by side look at the Flash Lanterns. I like the black and blue color combo of the Blue Lantern uniform but the White Lantern costume is cheating and drawing me in with the Wally-like belt and the dynamic lightning designs on the forearms. While I’m more likely to get a modified Blue Lantern costume made, I would have no problem rocking a white and silver costume either.

Alright that’s all I have for you guys today. Did anyone else get a chance to pick up the JLU Heatwave and White Lantern Flash action figures? If not yet, do you plan to in the future?

A big thank you again to Mark for the JLU set.

Thanks for reading,

-Devin “Flash” Johnson

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