Lobo

One last time! Into the Eden that was Czarnia was born a serpent - Lobo, a twisted psychopath who has carved for himself a well-deserved rep as the galaxy's meanest and most efficient bounty hunter! If you're on the wrong end of Lobo's uncanny tracking abilities, you're already dead - you just don't know it yet! When he was originally introduced, Lobo was basically... nothing. He was just an outer space bounty hunter with no particular personality. He wasn't even Boba Fett, he was Dengar! It wasn't until creator Keith Giffen had him show up for a short arc in Justice League International and that anyone began to care about him, and even then it took until his first limited series took him into full-blown, over-the-top, 2000 AD-style parody that he really became the sensation he eventually was. Mattel has offered a Lobo figure before, but it had several flaws: for one, it was an SDCC exclusive, limiting how many fans could ever get it; for another, it was made from a Build-A-Figure body, so it was about two inches taller than it should have been, limiting the usefulness in a line of 6" figures. Now they're making him as a BAF of his own, in DC Multiverse Series 7. He's made from 11 pieces, or maybe eight pieces and three accessories, or maybe somewhere in between. Depends on how you count. Once you get the pieces assembled, Lobo stands about 7" tall - still bigger than a 6'4" character should be in a 6" scale, but not so big he looks out of place. "Intimidating" big, not "wrong" big. At last, you don't have to try to integrate the DC Direct version into your Mattel collection, or pretend that the Main Man got his hands on some kind of gigantification serum. Never underestimate the importance of integrating a collection, lest you end up like McFarlane Toys, selling figures that are the wrong scale to go with anything else. Lobo is wearing his classic costume: a leather vest, blue jeans, and knee-high boots. Space biker! Hey, it's better than the purple and orange unitard he had in his first appearance. The sculpt is awesome, with plenty of small details to appreciate all over, like the teeth on his vest's zippers, the studded metal plates across the knuckles on his fingerless gloves, or the straps that hold his metal shinguards onto his legs. They've even sculpted the treads on his soles! The vest is soft PVC, so you can slide it off if you want him bare-chested, and the Iron Cross necklace he wears is a separate piece, as well. Have him be totally topless, if that's your thing! The BAF comes with your choice of two heads: the first is his classic look, with the stringy hair falling in his face and making him look rather like AJ Styles, it must be said, while the second head shows him wearing a pair of goggles on his forehead. That one seems to be based on his appearance in the weekly 52 series, but at that point, he'd traded his biker gear in and was dressing more like Jack Sparrow. It's not a major thing, since the goggles still work well enough as part of this ensemble - it's not like they tried to give us a head representing the New 52 "Twilight" Lobo or anything (remember him?). Both heads have the black markings around his red eyes, but they forget what a lot of merch seems to forget: that his "mustache" is also a marking on the skin, while his beard is just a beard; the two of them should not be painted the same tone. Speaking of paint, Lobo's skin is a bluish gray, rather than pure white. It's closer to the way he's typically colored in the comics, and is close enough that you can tell what they were going for. Still, we wouldn't have hated it if he were just a touch paler than he is. Good shading on the muscles, though, and his leg armor is nicely weathered. Shame they didn't include the big "Bite Me, Fanboy" patch on the back of his vest. However, they did include a thin line of pink paint in between his teeth, suggesting the interior of his mouth. It's still wild to think about how much Mattel upped their articulation game right as the license was about to expire. Even if nothing else had changed, the fact there's a hinge in the neck and not just a balljoint means he can look up and down better than anyone in the DCU Classics era. Like those figures, he has swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, a hinged chest, and a swivel waist, but the swivel/hinge wrists are an upgrade. His hips fit into a pelvis that's covered by a PVC shell, so it doesn't get in the way when you move them. The joints in the legs are pretty much the same as Mattel's been doing for years - he's not limber enough to require double-hinged knees or anything. The extra swivel in the ankle is a fine addition, though. If you're not counting the necklace and vest, then Lobo's only accessory is his hook and chain. That's a real metal chain, about 25" long, with a weighted plumb on one end and a dark grey plastic hook on the other. Both his hands are open so he can hold it. Considering this is the tail-end of the line and Mattel doesn't seem to worry about budgets any more, we're sad they didn't dig out the old Dawg molds to go with him. Maybe it would have been too large? Back in the day, the reason we couldn't get a real lobo figure was that he was considered too "mature" for what Mattel execs were still treating as a kids' line. Guess when the end was in sight, they realized there was no point in holding onto delusions anymore, and dropped the Main Man right into one of the final series. That's a good thing. He's the right size, he's highly articulated, he has a great sculpt and paint... this is without question the best Lobo figure ever released. Kid Flash | Batman Beyond | Kingdom Come Superman | Kyle Rayner -- 06/10/20

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