Hey Speed Readers,
For those of you still playing DC Universe Online for the PS3 and PC (or that jumped back on board for the Free to Play Content), the second expansion pack, “Lightning Strikes” is forthcoming and will be focusing on some of our favorite speedsters and adding some new gameplay elements as well.
Comic Book Resources posted a 3-page preview of Flashpoint: Green Arrow Industries, a one-shot due in stores this Wednesday. Of possible interest to Flash fans: These panels, in which Oliver Queen explains how they studied equipment confiscated from super-villains and used it to improve their own weapons technology.
It’s a counterpoint to an idea that comes up occasionally in reference to high-tech villains: Why don’t they just patent their inventions and rake in more money than they could possibly have made on bank heists, without worrying about getting beaten up and thrown in jail? The answer is usually that they do it for the thrill…but then why doesn’t anyone else come up with business uses for the technology?
Chances are these one-panel appearances are all we’ll see of these villains in that particular issue (though we’ve already seen more of the Trickster in Flashpoint: Citizen Cold), but it’s interesting that all three of them are Flash villains: The Trickster, the Folded Man, and the Top.
This post has an “Atomic Top Grenade” value of 3.
As you all should be aware of by now, I’m a die hard Flash collector and I’ve been collecting Flash memorabilia for some time now. This includes action figures, statues, plush toys, hats, t-shirts, shoes etc etc. A few months ago I moved, and as a result a lot of my collection isn’t on display anymore. Furthermore I’d fallen behind on collecting due to various reasons and I had a lot of catching up to do.
In the last couple months I’ve been focused on filling in a lot of the holes that I hadn’t had a chance to fill until now. And with The Flash getting renewed focus in the DC Universe I didn’t want to fall too far behind and miss my chance to acquire a lot of stuff that are being made in very limited quantities.
To that end I present to you part 1 of my Recent Acquisitions. These were all picked up in the last month or so from various sources (including retail, surprisingly) and I’ve made great progress on getting back on track as far as my collection goes. There are quite a few things that are present in my collection that have yet to be showcased online, but it’s called “Recent Acquisitions” for a reason and I’m only trying to show what I’ve gotten in the last month or so. So without further ado, my Recent Acquisitions:
Click for Larger View
From left to right we have:
Batman: Brave and the Bold Action League feat. Batman vs. The Top
Batman: Brave and the Bold Action League feat. Batman vs. Gorilla Grodd
Batman: Brave and the Bold “Gotham City Battle” feat. Batman vs. Gorilla Grodd
Justice League Unlimited Fan Collection Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang I (Since Justice League Unlimited is exclusively sold through Target, I had a huge headache tracking these down. Partly due to that and partly due to my own carelessness. But I will get into that soon.)
C3 Minimates Flash Variant (based on the Timmverse design)
DC Direct’s 1:6 SCALE Golden Age Flash
Justice League Unlimited Fan Collection The Streak (A Mattycollector.com exclusive, now SOLD OUT)
DC Universe’s 3¾ Scale Infinite Heroes Barry Allen (I got the Mattycollector.com exclusive variant a few months back as well. Also SOLD OUT)
DC SuperFriends Stuffed Flash Plush
Not bad at all if I do say so myself. Especially since acquiring these guys took a little more leg work than usual. After my Local Comic Book Shop closed up shop around ’07 or so, I’ve had to use the internet to acquire most of my collectibles. Every once in a while I would run into something at retail but very rarely have I not used an online source to obtain most of my stuff. This time around however was a nice mixed bag.
I picked up the two Brave and the Bold Action League sets along with the Infinite Heroes Barry Allen at Target.
I got the larger Brave and the Bold set at Toysrus.com. This was the very last place I expected to find this. Paid a lot less than people have it for on eBay.
The Streak as mentioned previously was a Mattycollector.com exclusive that was sold along with the majority of the Justice Guild (which I may sell off at a later date).
The Golden Age Flash 1:6 Scale Figure was purchased from Superherotoys.com.
And Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, the C3 Flash minimate variant, and the SuperFriends Plushy were all procured through eBay.
Captain Cold was without a doubt the figure that gave me the most trouble tracking down. When I first heard about the Target Exclusive Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang set being released and available I scoured Targets everywhere to no avail. I finally had to resort to the secondary market (eBay) to pick it up. I lucked out and found a great deal on both overall. They were loose and out of package (I don’t keep my stuff MOC so that isn’t an issue for me) and the prices on both were reasonable. They were both from the same seller so I even saved on shipping. Mission Accomplished right? Not quite. In my efforts to clean and organize my room and collection I had Cold and Boomerang sitting on a shelf, with a large trash bag underneath that I was using to throw out useless clutter. Captain Cold must have fallen into the trash bag or something, because when I went to find it later for my recent acquisitions picture a week ago I could not find it anywhere.
So back to eBay we go. Now it had been several weeks since my initial purchase and prices on Captain Cold had skyrocketed. That is if you could find one (at the time) anyway. Being a Target Exclusive made the action figure set virtually impossible to find at retail so people were jacking up the prices online accordingly. I’m not going to say exactly how much I paid for the second Captain Cold but I will say I was not happy. But thinking about how awesome he is going to look with the rest of the Justice League Unlimited Rogues that I have puts a smile on my face.
And there you have it. Part 1 of my Recent Acquisitions. Part 2 and 3 will be on the way shortly. I plan on writing some reviews on some of these guys in the near future as well. If there is a particular collectible you would like spotlighted please don’t hesitate to let me know. Also with this part out of the way I am now able to free them from their plastic prisons and add them to my display. Look for updated pictures of my collection in the near future. I also have some old collection pics on my facebook. The link to the gallery is HERE
Courtesy of Toynewsi.com (my favorite source for Action Figure news for the last few years) we have some more Flash news from Toy Fair 2010. New additions to the DC Infinite Superheroes 3.75 inch line include Rogue mainstays, Heatwave and The Trickster. The Flash in the middle looks to be Wally West upgraded with the new increased articulation. It definitely looks like the same head sculpt from the first Wally they released a few years back. Not to mention the belt converges in the middle.
And in case you missed them, Mattel also conveniently showcased previously released Brave and the Bold Action Figures, The Top and Gorilla Grodd. Both of which were included in two packs released with a different Batman figure.
Can’t wait until Heatwave, Trickster and the new Wally hit the shelves but I still need to try and track down The Top and Gorilla Grodd somehow. I just wish every version of Grodd wasn’t so darn expensive and “hard to find”. Just a little annoying.
—–UPDATE—–
Matty Collector posted a checklist for all the upcoming Justice League Unlimited action figures being released this year. I scrolled through it quickly and noticed a name that I hadn’t noticed in any of the pics from Toy Fair 2010 posted on the net so far: Weather Wizard! The figure is based on his appearance from the classic Superman: The Animated Series episode “Speed Demons”, which also featured the first appearance of The Flash in a race around the world with Superman.
Since I hadn’t noticed any pics I did a little searching online and came across an Ebay Auction that ended a month ago with a picture of him.
JLU Weather Wizard
I was never too pleased with the design they used for my favorite Rogue on the show but putting that aside it looks pretty solid. I will definitely be picking it up very soon. I just hope that they get cracking on making some more Flash Rogues for DC Universe Classics.
-Devin “The Flash” Johnson
