Kilowog

Kilowog. Sounds like Kilowat. 1 million kilowatts in a gigawatt. Make me want to say: "1.21 kilowogs!?!?! 1.21 kilowogs!!! Great Scott!" Now that's some real fun, that is. Kilowog is unique in Series 11 of Mattel's DC Universe toyline for two reasons: 1) he's the Build-A-Figure for the series, meaning to obtain him you'll need to buy six of the seven (or eight) figures in the series who each come with a separate bodypart of his; and 2) as such, he has no cardback of his own and therefore no pre-printed bio I can pillage for this review thus forcing me to rely on my basic knowledge of the character from reading the comics! Leaving the telepathic unity of his native Bolovax Vik, Kilowog went on to become one of the best recruiters and trainers of the Green Lantern Corps. In addition, he is a skilled geneticist and mechanic with extensive knowledge of advanced technologies. Kilowog is famous to all for being the token "big alien" of the core Green Lantern Corps (yes, I know what I did there - thank you), the proverbial Chewbacca to Hal's, Guy's, Kyle's and Ganthet's Luke, Han, Leia [take that Kyle, you Emo! --ed.] and Obi Wan. He is the head or sole trainer (I think it depends on the writer) for all new Green Lanterns that are recruited and thereby is known and endeared to all. He comes from a planet that I believe was destroyed, costing him both wife and family, which fuels his passion for forcibly maintaining Universal peace through the Green Lanterns. He also has a catch phrase which is fun to say: "Ya Poozer!" (or "Ya Poozers!" for instances of the plural). The big guy comes in seven parts across six figures: upper & lower torso, right leg, right arm, head and lower torso, left leg and right leg. Steppenwolf sits this one out, coming with a generic, translucent blue figure stand - an awesome new direction for the DCU character with the 50/50 split run variants because it means we don't end up with an extra random body part we have no use for. With the exception of the hands, upper torso and head, this is the same sculpt as the BAF Brimstone from the Target exclusive Public Enemies series, and that's just fine by me - it's another very solid Four Horsemen sculpt! Being a multi-use body, his uniform, save for the neckline, doesn't have any sculptural detail. It's just painted on, though the lines are very even and crisp and he does have some very nice shadowing to accent the musculature. A subtle but cool touch is that his shoulders, and their balljoint ring centers, are all cast in green. Because of the way the articulation has the bicep and the shoulder come together the general look matches the uniform pretty well and thus, for once we don't get stuck with a character suffering from mis-colored-underarm, like John Stewart. Speaking of which, Kilowog comes with all the standard DCU articulation, just scaled up to 9" tall - and that is just too big. DCU is built around re-use, and I'm all for that on the most part, but the problem here is that there is a very noticeable height difference between Kilowog and the other Green Lanterns, which quickly draws attention. Unlike with most comic characters, artists are able to maintain a fairly consistent height to Kilowog of, I'd guess, about 7½'. He is meant to be about a head and a half taller than the other Corpsmen - not the whopping 3' depicted with this figure! That all said, though, it is the top of his height that is his saving grace - the head is a particularly excellent sculpt that really captures the character better than either previous toy (DC Direct has made one as well as a Minimate, and then there's that terrible one in the JLU line), though it is cast in a rubbery plastic (PVC) rather than the standard harder stuff (ABS). That's probably to allow it to pop on to his neck joint more easily. And a plus to that neck joint: it's a ball at the top and a vertical-pivot joint at the bottom meaning Kilowog has more range of head movement that the average DCU figure these days. Huzzah! This is a great figure, he only suffers from one fault, and frankly that fault is practically a deal-breaker. If this weren't the only Kilowog we'll most likely ever get in the DC Classics style and that he came with a bunch of figures I was going to get anyway, I would honestly pass on him. The sculpt is fantastic, but the height is just too much of a problem for me. I do realize though, as I type this, that the figure is wearing his "silver age Hal" uniform as opposed to the current "modern Hal" uniform or even the "John Stewart" uniform he sported a few years back - so there's always a chance. Though in all likelihood we're just looking at a repaint rather than a re-tool so we'll always be stuck with a Kilowog painfully out of scale. Katma Tui | Shark | Deadman | Cyborg Superman | The Question | John Stewart -- 03/10/10

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