Green Lantern Mattel 2011

Patrolling the universe and protecting  planets from near doom are the intergalactic police code named The Green Lanterns! Aided by a mystical Power Ring they can form any construct that can be imagined to help defeat anything that threatens to disrupt the balance of the universe. There have been many Green Lanterns over the years and so there many different iterations of the iconic DC character for filmmakers to draw inspiration, though in the end it was the most well known Lantern Hal Jordan that was the focus for this interpretation. Staring Ryan Reynolds (who is no stranger to comic book movies having appeared in Marvels X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Blade Trinity previously) this time in the title role  as Hal Jordan AKA The Green Lantern who is tasked with being personal protector to Earth as a member of the Green lantern Corps, which is all fun and games until the evil Fear entity Parallax turns up with death and destruction on its mind! Though A far from perfect Movie Green Lantern still has plenty of charm and special effects fuelled action to keep from being a total fail!


Like the previous DC comics property, The Dark Knight, The Green Lantern had been supplied with a great selection of action figures by Toy Giant Mattel and here we will look at a selection of figures from the basic 3.75/4 inch line:

HAL JORDAN (Masked): Bad boy pilot Hal reluctantly takes on the responsibility as earths representative in the Green Lantern Corps after he is chosen by a mysterious Alien Ring, the owner of which was a former Green Lantern member who is killed after a daring escape from the evil parallax when he makes an emergency crash landing on earth!   


 Green Lantern Hal Jordan is given quite a few variants in this line, being he is the main character and all this version being the "hero" best captures the look of the character as he appears in the promotional material and action sequences in the movie. I will say however I think the mask-less version of this figure has a slightly better likeness of Ryan Reynolds. All of the figures in the series  have the same articulation virtually but all have unique sculpts which are more apparent on closer inspection

KILOWOG: When rookie Hal Jordan shows up wearing the lantern corps ring its up to Kilowog to prepare Jordan for the trials he now faces as a member of these galactic protectors despite initially taking a disliking to Jordan for being a "smelly" human he is eventually won over when Jordan proves himself when facing off against Parallax!   

As the largest figure of the set it is probably no surprise this is the most impressive looking which has lots of interesting detailing and a very good likeness of the creature as he appears in the movie!

ABIN SUR: Having lost his life feeing from the dreaded parallax the much revered Green Lantern commands his ring to seek out a suitable successor (Hal Jordan) before his corpse is discovered and experimented on by Scientist Hector Hammond who in the process becomes infected by some of Parallax's DNA which had been hidden in Abin's wounds!

Despite only briefly appearing on screen in order to pass on the power ring to Hal Jordan Abin Sur is still  an important part of Lantern dynasty and is represented here in figure form very well, with the make up design applied on actor Tamuera Morrison being very nice reproduced

SINESTRO: Though he would eventually go on to be a deadly nemesis to Hal Jordan and the Green Lanterns Sinestro is first presented as the Leader of Lantern Corps devising a "yellow ring of fear" in order to defeat parallax before using it himself to gain more power!

Another great looking figure in this collection with some nice webbing type detailing on the costume and another pretty accurate looking face sculpt this time of actor Mark Strong in red makeup complete with scar and sporting a David Nivven style moustache!








Green Lantern may have been unfavourably received by critics and audiences but at least it was supplied a decent toy line by Mattel with many different characters to collect and decent accessories and if the 3.75inch scale figures aren't to your liking then you could always check out the superior 6 inch movie masters line instead!


figures available in the series:


Hal Jordan
-Battle Axe
-Hyper Hammer
-Test Pilot
-Colossal Cannon
-Solar Saw
-Abin Sur
-Kilowog
-G'hu
-Green Man
-Galius Zed
-Ismot Kol
-Hannu
-Krona
-Stel
-Voz
-Tomar-Re
-Sinestro
-Max charge Kilowog


Battle Shifters:
Hal Jordan
-Blade attack
-Battle fist
-Galactic Gator
-Solar Serpent
-Scorpion assault Tomar-Re 


Supercharged:
-Hal Jordan
-Kilowog
-Sinestro
-Abin Sur
-Voz


Galactic scale:
-Hal Jordan


Vehicles/Play sets:
-Battle Breakdowns Construct copter (with Hal Jordan)
-The final showdown Hal Jordan (exclusive) Vs. Parallax
-Kilowog's Moto-Jet