How does this guy look more like Barry Allen than any live-action Barry Allen there's ever been?
So we've had a toy based on a videogame based on a movie based on a toy based on a videogame
and one based on a movie based on an Off-Broadway musical based on another movie based on a sci-fi story based on another sci-fi story, but now we've got a toy based on a toyline based on a cartoon series based on an animated movie based on a movie serial based on a newspaper comic.
This figure is a repaint from NECA's current Defenders of the Earth line, but redone in homage to the Mattel toyline from 1979 (when everybody was casting about, trying to find their own Star Wars). That line was based on the same year's Filmation Flash Gordon animated series - which was originally a single film called Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All, before NBC decided they liked it so much that it should be turned into a full Saturday morning series instead. Cue the movie getting chopped up into individual episodes. And while FG:tGAoA was technically based on the original King Features comic strip, it definitely owes a lot to the serials that ran through the latter half of the 1930s.
If the only way you're familiar with Flash Gordon is the campy 1980 movie, then classic Flash may look a little odd - instead of thick, straight, Karen hair, the Flash of 45 years prior had short, wavy hair that this toy reproduces. There isn't any particular effort to make this toy look like the cartoon(s), but the parallels are present.
While the Defenders of the Earth cartoon
dressed Flash in a red military uniform, the cartoon this toy is ultimately based on stuck closer to the comics, giving him a red top with golden discs around the collarbones, a gold belt with a large yellow pad behind it, and dark blue pants under red trunks. Technically the TV show also gave him blue/black boots, but Mattel's toy had silver, and so NECA's does the same. The figure uses that same basic Djordje Djokovic sculpt we've gotten a lot of, but the discs on the shirt are molded on, not simply something separate glued in place, so that means new molds had to be made. Fairly unique ones, at that! And there's really good shading in the paint, adding depth to the skintight clothes.
There's no real adjustment to the articulation, though: Flash has a barbell-jointed head, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, hinged torso, a swivel waist, balljointed hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, swivel boots, swivel/hinge ankles, and hinged toes. Everything is moving fine right out of the packaging - things may be slightly stiff, but certainly nothing is stuck or broken (which, foreshadowing, is not something I can say about every NECA toy I've gotten recently; but that's a story for a couple weeks from now). The belt was attached slightly crooked, which was fixed by carefully peeling the sides away from the body so they didn't leave too much paint behind.
To really homage the Mattel's old toy, this one only
includes a single accessory: Flash's silver ray gun. There isn't even an energy blast effect to go on it, no matter how much NECA likes doing those now. You do have your choice of either a hand open to hold that gun (though the finger won't fit in the trigger) or a closed fist to punch his enemies instead.
Flash Gordon (and his matching Ming) would probably have been a convention exclusive this year, if heavily attended conventions weren't still off the table. The toys were first solicited and immediately listed for sale on NECA's webstore in August - probably a little late for SDCC, but who knows what supply chain issues have done to companies' intended release schedule? The mass market Flash was not what you'd call memorable or recognizable, matching neither the movie nor the comic, but rather a cartoon most people had forgotten existed. This, though, is the truly iconic version.
-- 12/12/21
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