The New 52 is winding down and the time of ReBirth is upon us. Now, that doesn’t mean an end to New 52 figures around these parts, because I’ve got tons of them still to get through. Quite the contrary, if anything it’s going to light a fire under me to get through more of them and more quickly. Today’s figure has been sitting in the corner waiting to be opened since late last year… it’s Swamp Thing!

When they say Deluxe, they ain’t kidding around. This is a pretty damn big box. To qualify that, it isn’t as big as the Deluxe Darkseid, nor is the figure itself even much taller than the DC Universe Classics version of Swamp Thing. Still, it’s a big box and it needs to be to hold such an imposing figure. I don’t have a lot to say about the package itself. It’s really just a big window box that let’s the figure inside do the talking. The back panel advertises the Super Heroes Vs Super-Villains boxed set, which I’ll get around to Featuring eventually. The packaging is collector friendly, so long as you’re patient getting him out. Getting those wings out through the slit in the tray was a project in and of itself.

Wait, wings? Yeah, it’s pretty obvious that this isn’t your daddy’s Swamp Thing, particularly if your daddy happens to be Alan Moore. Now I’ll confess, while I’ve stuck it out to the end with quite a few New 52 books, Swamp Thing wasn’t one of them. On the other hand, I am a big fan of character re-imaginings and I think this is a pretty cool design by itself, just not necessarily one that I was interested in seeing in my ongoing Swamp Thing book. At some point, I may still pick up the collected edition and give it another whirl. Anyway, the look they were going for here was part Warrior, part Avenging Angel and if nothing else, I think it makes for a striking action figure and measuring in at about 9 1/2-inches tall and with a 15-inch wingspan, this guy would be hard to miss on any display shelf.

The sculpting here is excellent and it’s only broken up by those rather jarring ball joints in the hips. Otherwise, there’s hardly any space on the figure that isn’t covered in texture, mostly bark and patches of moss. He also has that adorable little pink flower sprouting on the back of his right leg. The wings are a work of art in themselves with the main body of the wings textured to look like moss and the “feathers” bark. Granted, the figure doesn’t have that same gee-whiz feel of the rubber skinned DCUC figure, but it’s still an absolutely striking piece. All that sculpting is backed up by a pretty solid paint job of mingling greens and browns and varying shades and intensities.

The portrait is also fantastic. I can definitely see some Classic Swamp Thing in there, and he almost has a bark helmet integrated into his face. The antlers are cool, as they remind me of the sort of ornaments that could sometimes be seen on knights’ helmets. He also has some rather vicious looking barbs protruding from the top of his head. And the eyes… those deep set eyes are painted with a metallic red that is rather haunting.

The articulation here is pretty good. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with swivels at the top of the legs. The knees are double hinged and the feet themselves are on rotating hinges below the ankle, which allows to adjust for stability. There is no articulation in the torso, the neck is ball jointed, and the wings swivel where they peg in and each have a hinge. It’s worth noting that the left elbow on my figure is fused due to being painted over and while I may give him a little heat treatment eventually, for now I’ve opted to leave it that way.

Swamp Thing actually comes with two accessories, his sword and shield. These are designed to appear as if they grew out of him and attach to his arms via tabs. When not in use, there are bark pieces with twigs coming off of them to tab into the holes and hide them.

This is an amazing figure. In fact, I’d dare say it’s a work of art. While DC Collectibles doesn’t churn out figures in the quantity of a Hasbro or a Mattel, I’d still consider their product to be mass market, and you just don’t see this kind of craftsmanship in these kinds of figures very often. The sculpt and coloring are just off the charts. That makes it kind of sad that this guy didn’t sell well. With an MSRP of $50, I can’t say he isn’t worth it and yet he’s still hanging around many online retailers at pretty deeply discounted prices. I’d like to credit that to a lot of people butt hurt over the new design, rather than the appeal of the workmanship here. No, he isn’t going to replace my Classic Swamp Thing from Mattel, but he is going to look damn nice on the shelf… or at least he will when I can find the space to accommodate that wingspan.