08.02
Wave 8, the final wave of DC Minimates was, for better or worse, as diverse and eclectic as many of the previous waves. We at MMC apologise for having taken so long to have gotten these reviews to you, as these figures are a couple of years old now, but no one could have predicted the Minimate deluge of the last few years. Last up is a pair of characters from the pages of DC’s Green Lantern, a title which has seen a huge surge of interest recently thanks to the epic Blackest Night crossover. Of course these Minimates were issued a good couple of years before that story saw the (brightest) light of day.
Packaging
Standard DCD Minimate blister pack featuring a yellow card with a curved blisters. Both figures can be viewed through a window created by a cardboard insert, which this wave is themed by a Minimate-style Sinestro.
The back of the pack follows the same format as previous waves with large pictures of the figures from each two-pack.
The Figures
Salaak
So, when is a Minimate not a Minimate? We’ve had this question before with the DC Minimates, specifically in the last wave with Clayface and Gorilla Grodd. But at least under all the additional pieces there was a basic Minimate body. This, is not a basic Minimate body. The obvious difference is the head. I’m not sure what alien race Salaak belongs to (According to Wikipedia, he’s from the planet Slyggia – Ed) but it’s an ugly one. There’s no way that a regular Minimate head could capture Salaak’s likeness, so DCD in their infinite wisdom appear to have commissioned a brand new piece.
Then as if tooling a brand new head piece that could only ever probably be used on one figure ever wasn’t bad enough, they went and commissioned a one-off chest piece too. Salaak has four arms, so the regular Minimate chest piece has been replaced with an extended piece with four arm posts. There’s yet another piece unique to this figure in the chest sleeve that sits over the block, an extended piece with huge flared shoulders that narrow down into a segmented abdomen. Don’t get me wrong. Salaak looks great, but it’s not really a Minimate, and probably broke the bank on tooling. Could this possibly be the final straw that saw DC Minimates consigned to the history books?
On the positive side the way the head sits on the neck post means it has extremely good movement leading to a variety of expression being available. Decoration is very good on the figure though the white piping is a bit thin around the chest area (just below the lantern symbol) but this is only apparent upon close inspection. Salaak wears his power ring on his upper right hand and as with Sinestro the ring is depicted as a lantern symbol rather than the simple green dot that was given to Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Also worthy of note is that Salaak’s hands and feet come from Nightcrawler. At least they got used again!
Salaak is accessorised with a green lantern battery.
In Conclusion: Another unnecessary inclusion to the pantheon of DC Minimates.
MMC Score – 7 out of 10 (for likeness and build) -1,000,000,000 for not being a proper Minimate.
Sinestro
Arch enemy to the Green Lantern Hal Jordan and indeed the entire Green Lantern Corps (a kind of intergalactic super police force) Sinestro was once one of the most respected Green Lanterns of all but was revealed to be a bit of a so & so by the then rookie GL Hal Jordan. Sinestro was expelled from the Green Lantern Corps but returned to face them time and again armed with his yellow power-ring.
For some reason DC Direct gave Sinestro a really big head, I’m fairly certain that the character has an accentuated high forehead rather than a long head, but I’m prepared to forgive as it was his signature look for a number of years. There’s a nice 30’s moustache-twiddling kind of villain expression on the face of this Minimate, helped no end by that pencil ‘tache the character sports. I’m also pleased to see his pointy ears have been remembered. All in all this is a good rendition of the character.
I’m not so sure about the costume. It’s a look the character had for a long time but I’d have rather seen him in his black and yellow Sinestro Corps garb as it’s far more eye-catching. Decoration is fairly crisp on the chest block but badly applied at the shoulders , wrists and hips. There are also a couple of paint errors on the boots. These errors are unforgivable when it’s simply blue on black. There is some musculature on the chest block but it’s matte black against glossy black so is only noticeable to the closest of observation.
Thankfully the yellow power ring on Sinestro’s hand is well applied, and like Salaak it’s worth noting that unlike Hal Jordan and John Stewart the ring is an actual lantern rather than a dot. For some reason my Minimate has his ring on his left hand rather than his right. I’m not sure if this is correct? But it’s hardly the most time-consuming job to correct.
Sinestro is accessorised with a yellow lantern battery.
In Conclusion: A welcome addition to the ranks of DC Minimates but a more up-to-date costume would have been the icing on the cake.
MMC Score – 6 out of 10
Some Final Thoughts
This is the final DC Minimates review that I’ve written. It was a great line that should have been better supported by DC Direct. It certainly couldn’t have been any better supported by the fans and if these were re-instated tomorrow they’d sell like the proverbial hotcakes.
I mourn the missed opportunities that existed in the eight waves that we got. No Black Canary, no Huntress, no Kyle Rayner. No Scarecrow, no Two-Face, no update for the Tim Drake Robin. No Beast Boy or Wonder Girl to complete the Teen Titans. And then there are the repeated “DC Big Three”. We got three Supermen, three Wonder Women, three Batmen, which means that out of the 64 DCD ‘mates an entire wave could have been made out the same three characters! Then the own goals: Ma Hunkel? Really? Salaak? Really? Sinestro in his classic look when he could have been produced in his far more striking Sinestro Corps uniform.
Still, what’s done is done. We should be grateful for what we had. DC Minimates were a successful line and they raised the bar when it came to sculpting and accessories and forced DST to put more effort into the Marvel Minimates.
Review and pictures by Rad Kerrigan
[starratingmulti id=”1″]
[starratingmulti id=”2″]
