Category Archives: Collectibles

Blue Lantern Flash HeroClix

HeroClix is working on a Blackest Night starter set featuring the heroes and villains deputized in Blackest Night #6, and has been releasing photos and descriptions over at the WizKids Games blog. Today’s entry isn’t up yet…but ICv2 has the Blue Lantern Barry Allen figure.

I think this is the clearest depiction I’ve seen of Barry Allen’s Blue Lantern costume. The BN:Flash #3 cover comes close, but parts of the design are still obscured by lightning.

Click over to ICv2 for the description, card and dial.

HeroClix Flash Duo

Check this out!

WizK!ds has posted a “News Flash”…about a certain Scarlet Speedster. Or rather, a certain pair of Scarlet Speedsters.

Yes, the upcoming The Brave and The Bold expansion for DC HeroClix will include a Two Flashes figure featuring the team of Barry Allen and Wally West!

The link has a full write-up of the figure’s powers, a side view, and scans of the card and dial.

I’m guessing this piece has been in the works for a while now, since it looks like they have Wally’s previous costume. It’s hard to tell in the photos they’ve posted, but it looks like both masks have open eyes.

Thanks to @LegionOmnicom for the link!

Incredible Black Flash Custom Figure


Black Flash, originally uploaded by JD Hancock.

I found this incredible custom action figure of the Black Flash on Flickr. Photographer JD Hancock describes it like this:

This custom action figure stands about five inches high and was created by my wife many years ago based on the artwork of Pop Mhan. She modified an existing figure (the Tarantula), wrapped it like a mummy, and then painted and decorated it. My contribution was its teeth, made out of tiny bits of white paper clips.

Super Powers 25th: The Flash!

Super Powers 25th Anniversary!

25 years ago, Kenner launched a line of DC super-hero action figures under the name Super Powers. Today, Crisis on Earth-Blog unites fourteen sites in celebrating this landmark toy line. In particular, check out Crimson Lightning’s week-long coverage, starting with a review of the Flash mini-comic. (โ€œMini-comic,โ€ you ask? Read on!)

Super Powers Flash FigureThe Super Powers figures were 6″ toys with a twist — sometimes literally. They really were action figures. Each figure would perform an action if manipulated, usually by squeezing the arms or legs. Squeeze Superman’s legs and he’d throw a punch. Hawkman’s wings would flap. Robin would do a karate chop, and Wonder Woman would lift her bracelets to block bullets. If you squeezed Red Tornado’s arms, his lower body would spin.

Naturally, if you squeezed the Flash’s arms, he would run.

Mini-Comics

Each figure starred in his (or her) own miniature 16-page comic book, around 4 inches high. To keep things readable they typically had only one or two panels per page. Villains and other heroes were pulled from the rest of the toy line, along with a couple of playsets and vehicles.

The Flash (Barry Allen) appeared in four of the mini-comics.

Continue reading

Gaslight Flash

There’s a whole community of artists who create custom action figures, often by taking a commercially-produced figure and modifying it through sculpture and paint. Sometimes they’ll simply convert it into a character who doesn’t have an official figure yet, but the really interesting ones are those that go off on a tangent and create something new, like this set of Victorian-style Justice Leaguers by Sillof, inspired by the now-classic Gotham by Gaslight.

Setting it in the 1880s puts it a little earlier than JLA: Age of Wonder (which had its own Flash), and while it’s still too early for aviation, the artist “went for the pilot look” with the Flash, as you can see here:

On a not entirely unrelated note, I’ve been re-reading Girl Genius from the beginning. The comic’s authors, Phil and Kaja Foglio, describe it as a “gaslamp fantasy,” or as most people would call it, steampunk.

(This post is brought to you by Google Alerts, bespredell, and the letter G. Image used by permission.)

Flash Rings

DC has been handing out plastic Flash rings at conventions this year. Sadly, I managed to miss the relevant panel at San Diego (IIRC it was the Geoff Johns panel, and it conflicted with Robert J. Sawyer), and I never managed to hit the DC booth at the times they were giving them out either.

Johanna Draper Carlson of Comics Worth Reading was kind enough to send me an extra that she picked up at Baltimore Comic Con.

As you can see, it’s just plain yellow plastic, but it’s sculpted. Try as I might, though, no matter how many times I hit that button on the side, it didn’t open up to release a costume. ๐Ÿ˜€

Actually, I do have a Flash ring with a miniature costume somewhere in storage. DC Direct released a replica Flash ring with a stand. It’s held open slightly so that you can see the costume inside. Rather than hunting through storage, I searched online and ganked the first photo I found, from Planet Krypton.