Thursday, February 25, 2016

Out of the Box: Justice League Dark John Constantine (DC Collectibles)

Being unboxed today is the action figure counterpart to the John Constantine statue that I opened a couple of weeks ago.  As mentioned in that post, I do own the old DC Direct figure, but as he's in storage back in Canada I won't be able to compare the two directly.  That said, I can confirm that this new figure has much more detailed sculpting and much more impressive articulation.

As far as I can tell, this wasn't a terribly popular release: I first noticed this guy at my local comic book shop about a year ago with an asking price of $25USD, and he seems to have languished there ever since.  Every now and then I'd consider picking him up, but having been disappointed in the quality of DC's figures before I held off, until I noticed an online sale that had him listed for a 66% discount.  Even then I waited a week before clicking the buy button - but in the end I gave in and this review is the result!



The box.
The back of the box, showing off more figures
from the same release series.
The inner packaging.
Freed from the packaging, the figure is primarily hard vinyl, with a softer vinyl for the tie and trenchcoat (which allows them to be bent). The figure has nine points of articulation (knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, head), which would normally be fairly unimpressive, but the knees and elbows can both rotate and pivot which allows for an impressive range of mobility.
Out of the box: he has a very pale complexion.
Showing off his articulation by doing the splits.
An attempt at a running pose.
Enjoying the outdoors.
Overall I'm fairly pleased with the figure. The overall quality and detailing is much better than I'd feared, so I think it's time for me to stop painting all of DC's new releases with the old DC Direct brush.  That said, I'm not a huge fan of the face sculpt here: it's well-detailed, it just strikes me as being a little too angular in a way that's just a little ugly. But maybe that's just me?

And to close things out, I also made a video unboxing for this guy:


Thanks for looking! If you have any of the DC Collectibles figures, what do you think of them?

11 comments:

  1. Okay wow, that is one detailed figure. I don't usually collect DC figures but who is the girl in the blue on the back of that box?

    I do like his posing ability, it's quite extensive for one of these figures. Is he a similar size to the Doctor Who figures?

    I remember, a long time ago now, places used to sell figures but they were sold all grey and collectors could paint them themselves. Do places still do that? Were they called garage kits? I've been wanting to try painting one of those types of figures but haven't been able to find any.

    There's probably going to be a bunch more figures coming out with that new Superman vs Batman movie. Have they done a Wonder Woman figure yet? Is that DC or Marvel? I always get the two confused.

    Thanks for the review!

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    1. The girl in blue is Stargirl. And Wonder Woman is DC - she's in the new Superman vs Batman movie, so I think we should have a flood of merchandise for her pretty soon!

      These figures are slightly taller (about 2.5cm) than the Doctor Who ones - very similar materials used though, so even with the height difference they feel almost like family. ;)

      I've seen model stores that sell paint-it-yourself figures so they're still around, but you're right, it's been ages since that's been mainstream. I wonder why that went out of fashion?

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  2. Nice review, jSarie! He looks really good! I love his articulation and the movement they created in his coat is fantastic.

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    Replies
    1. The coat is great isn't it? That's my favourite part too. :)

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  3. Hi jSarie, I'm organizing a small doll group for a cause.. Would you be kind enough to email me at ateliernishasha at gmail dot com? I would love you to be in that group. Please let me know.. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Sounds fun, I'll send you an email tonight! :)

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  4. He's very detailed and I like the articulation too. I'm not into figures like this but I do like seeing them. I think my hubbie might have some of these because they look familiar!
    x

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    1. The line does seem to have a family resemblance, so if this one looks familiar I bet you do have some of them around! :)

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  5. I like this head much better than the other one. This one looks like he's directly from the pages of a comic. He doesn't have quite the flow of the other figure but I prefer his coloring.

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    Replies
    1. It's a subtle difference, but it's true he's distinctly different, isn't he?

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