Since the figure is packaged as Low, I’ll start from there. The body is fairly generic and relies on paint apps for the Sinestro Corps costume. The only real exception to that are the sculpted bracers on his wrists and the silver belt. The paint apps are, however, pretty sharp except for a bit of slop around the shoulders. The bright yellow looks great contrasted against the black, which is probably why I always loved the Sinestro Corps uniforms. Low is a worm-like parasite, so I’m not sure it’s accurate to refer to his head. It’s just a big tube with a mouth full of teeth. Fun fact! He reproduces by laying thousands of eggs in you! He does have blue clawed hands along with his sculpted yellow power ring.

Pop off Low’s head and hands and replace them with Maash’s and you’ve got a whole new figure… well sort of. That operation of popping the parts off really makes me nervous, though, as the post for the neck is really thin and I was pretty sure I snapped the pegs off of the hands, even though I didn’t. I’ve only swapped the parts out once, and I don’t plan on doing it again until I get a second figure and can get the situated permenantly. All that aside, Maash is pretty damn creepy as his head is made up of three conjoined twins with three faces stacked on top of each other. He’s like a totem pole turned flesh.

The articulation here is strictly old school DCUC, with none of the new double hinges. The arms have ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps, hinged elbows and swivels in the wrists. The legs have universal movement at the hips, hinged knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso swivels at the waist and features an ab crunch hinge. Both heads will turn to some degree, but not as much as with the more human figures.

Mash and Low come with one of the pieces to build the Collect & Connect Arkillo figure. You don’t need to hunt down each packaged variant as they all come with the same piece.

I’ll always welcome another member of the Sinestro Corps into my collection, so it’s no surprise that I really love both Maash and Low. I’ve heard some grumbling among collectors over Mattel’s methods here, but I think it was a pretty cool idea. And, yeah, I will eventually be picking up a second one so that I can display them both at the same time and don’t have to worry about snapping off any of those posts while swapping out the parts.

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Black Hand’s appearance in the DCUC lineup and now that he’s here I am not disappointed. As someone who’s murdered his entire family in cold blood and made his costume by sewing together body bags, he’s a pretty hardcore figure for Mattel’s standards. There’s a lot to love here, it’s hard to know where to begin. So, let’s start with the fact that Mattel could have been content with just using a generic DCUC body and painting on all of the costume details, as they often do. But not here. No sir. Not only does Black Hand have his emblem sculpted onto his chest, he also has unique sculpting on his leg straps, his arm bracer and the studs on his left wrist. In fact, even the borders of his costume between the black and the blue have sculpted seams. As near as I can tell, everything on this figure is unique to the character. His right hand is exposed, which is the one you don’t want him touching you with, and the black ring is prominantly sculpted as well. The head sculpt is wonderfully detailed and has a really cool, grim expression. The paint apps on my figure are absolutely perfect and the brilliant metallic silver really looks amazing against the darker black and blue of the costume.

Black Hand has the updated DCUC articulation, which includes a ball jointed neck; arms with ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, DOUBLE jointed hinges in the elbows and swivels in the wrists. His legs feature universal movement at the hips, DOUBLE hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs and hinged ankles. His torso swivels at the waist and features the ab crunch hinge.

Next up is the Manhunter robot, which is another really excellent figure, and one that I’ve been waiting to hit the DCUC lineup for a while now. This guy relies a lot more on paint apps for his overall appearance, but there’s still a good deal of original sculpting here. Both his boots and his forearms are original as is his cowl and head. The head is dome shaped with a cool angry expression sculpted on the silver painted face, which I really dig a lot. The figure is mostly red with blue painted striping and blue boots and bracers, with a little green thrown in for good measure. The colors really work to make this figure pop. Purely from an issue of style, I’m conflicted on whether the Manhunter should have been bulkier, and possibly a little taller. He sports a relatively lean body, and part of me wishes he was a little more powerful and hulking. And yet, I love the way the figure looks so much, I’m not sure I would want to see anything changed.

Manhunter’s articulation differs from Black Hand in a few areas. His head, which is technically ball jointed, is mostly limited to turning from side to side because of the shape and the cowl. His arms only have single hinges in his elbows, although his legs do have the new double hinges.

Both figures come with parts to build the Collect & Connect figure Arkillo. The Manhunter also comes with a green lantern accessory.

Black Hand and the Manhunter both fill important holes in my DCUC collection, and they’re much appreciated even if taken out of the context of the upcoming movie. The Manhunter probably should have been released a while ago, and even Black Hand would have been welcome last year at the height of the Blackest Night furor. But with figures this good, I’m not about to quibble about when they were released, I’m just thrilled to have them.