|
If at first you don't succeed, well, just sit around waiting for that exact same opportunity to come around again.
As the villainous Scarecrow, Professor
Jonathan Crane delighted in exploiting fear in others. Having lost his sense of purpose with the death of Batman, he finds a new calling as a member of the Sinestro Corps, where his ability to instill fear in others is rewarded with a yellow ring of power.
After Batman rejected the Yellow Lantern ring, it went to the son of Abin Sur. When Sur was killed, the ring went looking for a new host, and was inches away from Scarecrow's finger when Hal and John finally captured it, preventing it from selecting a new host. Aww, sad! You know he would have been a great member of the Sinestro Corps. However, during the Blackest Night, each of the seven Corps was allowed to deputize someone for just 24 hours, and Jonathan finally got his shot at the big time.
Sinestro Corps Member Scarecrow
was sculpted by Jonathan Matthews, who did a top-notch job, with only one significant flaw (which we'll get to in a minute). Crane is appropriately scrawny, even though he's wearing a thick duster. Scarecrow is one of the only Sinestro Corps members who doesn't have to wear the standard uniform - possibly because he's only a temporary recruit - so instead of a superhero suit, he's got his coat, normal pants and boots, and even the remnants of his Scarecrow costume. He has the typical armbands, and the Sinestro Corps belt, but other than that, it's just paint that pegs him as part of the Corps.
Actually, while we're on the subject, "just paint" is the flaw we mentioned earlier. For whatever reason, Scarecrow's been molded
without a yellow power ring: his hands are covered in burlap gloves with a little bit of straw poking out at the wrists, but there's no ring. Did Matthews sculpt it that way? Is DC Direct planning to reuse the hands on a future Scarecrow? Who knows? They've drawn attention to its absense, however, by half-assedly attempting to paint a ring on. There's a little dot of gold on the back of his right middle finger. There's no band, no detail... just a circle. It blends thoroughly into the brown of his gloves, so it's only visible when the light catches it, at which point it just looks like a mistake.
On the other hand, articulation is good. He has a balljointed neck, balljointed shoulders, hinged elbows, swivels at both the top and bottom of the wristbands, peg hips, swivel thighs (unusual for DCD), hinged knees and balljointed ankles. The neck is sculpted with a slight twist, and the balljoint means you can point his super-creepy face whichever direction you like.
Scarecrow has no surprises when it comes to accessories. He's got a yellow power battery and the usual translucent disc base. We'll point you at the Blue Lantern Flash review for a recap of why the inclusion of the lantern is wrong: the reasons are the same. They could have at least given us the alternate handle Yellow Hal came with, since it's closer to being accurate. Or better yet, some trans yellow crows.
Sinestro Corps Member Scarecrow is a pretty damn cool figure. His apppearance in this outfit was short-lived, but it's still a good design. No matter how many Scarecrow toys you have, none of them look like this - yes, Mattel is doing one, but not for a few more months, and judging by what we've seen so far, he doesn't look as good as this one. Sure he'll have more articulation, but what this figure has is sufficient. It's really only the lack of accessories that bring him down.
-- 05/07/11
|
