By now, we know what to expect from the Signature Collection packaging. Starman comes in an attractive and functional window box that also happens to be very collector friendly. The figure comes with his “masked” head on and the Thom Kallor head mounted beside it. The side and back panels have some decent character art. I really dig the artwork on the side panel, but I don’t think the back panel illustration is among the better we’ve seen. Granted, Starman is a little tougher to work with than some of the other characters in the line. You also get the ubiquitous bio blurb connecting him to both the Legion of Superheroes and the Justice Society of America.

Out of the package, and it doesn’t get much simpler than this sculpt. Starman is a straight buck with painted boots and fisted gloves. The cool thing here is the semi-translucent black plastic used with sparkly flecks throughout the body. Matty could have gone another direction on this guy and almost certainly failed, but with the figure in hand, I’ve got to say this is the only way the figure would have worked, and it works brilliantly. If you hold the figure up to the light, you can see the joints inside, which is a little distracting, but in any kind of normal light, the effect is really well done. I especially like the shimmery pearl colored paint used for the boots and gloves. The spare Thom Kallor head is a fantastic sculpt. The hair and beard are perfect as are his high cheekbones. It’s like Mattel understood how little sculpted detail was needed in the figure and went nuts on the spare head. I’m really torn on which head I’m going to use to display the figure, but right now I’m leaning toward the Kallor head.

Starman features standard DCUC articulation. You get a ball jointed head, the arms have ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have universal movement in the hips, hinged knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso swivels at the waist and has the usual ab crunch hinge.

And there you go, folks. Another monthly CIE figure, another great addition to my DCUC collection. As simple as he is, Starman could have been an easy figure to screw up, but clearly Mattel knew exactly the right way to go with him and the end result looks great. I’m also really digging the fact that Mattel went with the more traditional Starman design, rather than the look from the 2005 reboot. I do actually like both, and I wouldn’t be opposed to getting another version down the road, but with how unlikely it seems the CIE sub will be going through next year, I’m just content to have this figure on my shelf.

It’s been another smooth month for my Matty subs, where I was actually charged the correct amount and my figures were shipped out ahead of the Sale Day. That’s three in a row, I believe, so keep it up, Matty, you’re getting better. I’ve got two Club Infinite Earth figures to look at this month, and I decided to start with the oversized quarterly figure: Rocket Red. This guy has been a pretty controversial figure, mainly because of the size and design that Matty decided to go with.This version obviously wasn’t my first choice for the character, I know I’m not alone in that, but we’ll try to get past that and have a look…

Ok, so obviously, I knew going into this one that he was an oversized figure, but holy hell, look at this packaging. Look how massive it is next to one of the regular sized figure boxes. That’s nuts! Otherwise, the box is just a larger version of the same design we got with Jay Garrick and Atrocitus. The window is big and really shows off the figure nicely. The back panel has a big piece of character art and a blurb about the Rocket Reds. I’ve been gushing over the character art on these packages, but this time around I’ll just say it’s nice, not spectacular, and leave it at that. Hey, Matty, you need to be up to date on your DC lore or at least read your own bio. These are dudes in suits… why is he so damn big? As always, the box is collector friendly so you can take him out and play with him and return him to the packaging for display.

Rocket Red is built off the buck used for Atom Smasher, the Build-A-Figure from DC Universe Classics Wave 7. So think about that right now, A Rocket Red as big as Atom Smasher? Yeah, and he’s even bulkier when you consider his armor. The helmet and arms are almost to scale for a regular big-sized dude, but for the legs to work, the guy in the armor would have to be a giant. So to make this guy work in my display, I’m either going to consider him a straight robot or some kind of freak specially engineered to wear the armor. I think I’ll go with the first.

So with the scale issues set aside, I really do dig the look of this guy. The chest armor, shoulder armor and backpack are all cast in one piece of softer plastic and worn over the figure’s torso. The armor has a simple, almost retro-primitive look to it, which really scratches my itch. The cool wrist weapons are permanently attached to the arms with molded, painted straps. The blank-faced Cobra Commander styled helmet really tops everything off nicely. On the down side, I’m not a fan of the veins sculpted into the arms, because it’s at odds with the robot theory that the size of this figure is making me adopt.

The paint is fairly simple here with only two colors used on the whole figure. The base body is red and the armor is silver and most of the pieces are molded in their respective colors. That’s pretty much it! He has a star and “01” stenciled on his chest plate, which looks nice and crisp. There’s a little bit of scuffing to the right wrist weapon, and some abrasions to the faceplate, but overall the colors are fine.

The articulation here is pretty solid and predictable for this size DCUC figure. The head is ball jointed; The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have universal movement in the hips, the knees and ankles are hinged, and there are swivels in the thighs. You also get rockers in the ankles, although they don’t have a lot of range of motion. The torso swivels at the waist and has a workable ab crunch hinge hidden under the chestplate. I’ve seen quite a few complaints about review samples of the figure not holding together well, but I don’t see that problem on my figure. I’ve spent quite a lot of time fiddling about with him and I haven’t had anything pop off him yet.

Rocket Red cost me $30 plus shipping, which is no little sum for a single action figure, and that price was because I’m a Club Infinite Earth subber. If you bought him off the Matty Collector site, you paid a ridiculous $45 plus shipping, and that’s just insane. No doubt, he’s a big, solid and satisfyingly large figure, but the sculpting and paint apps don’t hold up to the $55 you’d have to pay to get him a la carte. Now, don’t get me wrong, as a stand-alone piece, I really do like this figure, and I’ll even find some justification to shoehorn it into my DCUC display, but there was absolutely no reason for Matty to have given the Reds the super-sized treatment to this extent. Besides making the figure cost way more than it should have, the scale will be too much of a stumbling block for a lot of fans to accept this figure into their collections. Amazingly enough, by the time you read this, Red will have long since sold out, so in the end, I guess Matty was justified. It’ll be interesting to see what he goes for on the secondary market.

Metron comes in a standard Matty Collector white mailer box. Inside you get a satisfyingly large window box with the snazzy “DC Universe Signature Collection” printed across the top and “Signature” in shiny foil lettering. One side panel features artwork of the character and the back panel features a larger piece of character art and a little bio. As with the Jay Garrick figure, Matty has gone above and beyond with the artwork here. It’s colorful, vibrant, and absolutely fantastic.

The Metron figure is packaged standing beside the Mobius chair and with the chair’s base mounted separately behind the tray. Here’s where my only issues with the packaging come into play. If I were a MISB collector, I would definitely have preferred Metron to be sitting in his chair. I’m an opener, so I’m not going to nitpick about that. On the other hand, while the package is totally collector friendly, the chair is designed so that once you snap it together, you risk damaging it if you’re going to try to pull it apart. Of course, you have to pull it apart to return the figure to the package, and that’s my only complaint. I really want to save this package, but knowing I can never return the chair inside, it seems pointless to do so. In the end, I’ll probably just wind up clipping off the back panel, because I just can’t bring myself to throw out that gorgeous character art.

Metron is one of those DC Universe figures that gets by with very little original sculpting and mainly some original paintwork to make up his costume. The head sculpt is the only thing that’s really new here and I’m actually delighted to see how much of it is sculpted and not just paintwork. The face is excellent, with a bold, piercing gaze. I expected the piping on his brow and helmet to just be paint, but all the detail work on his hood is fully sculpted. The hands appear to be new sculpts, but someone may correct me on this point. They’re configured so that they can rest convincingly on the control panels arms of the chair, but when out of the chair they look as if they are about to unleash some form of cosmic power.

The cosmic deco on his chest is tampo’ed on with crisp precision. The bulk of the figure is cast in a nice, deep blue plastic and the lighter portions on his pelvis, hands, and chest are painted on as is his belt. There’s a little bit of smudge on the left side of my Metron’s belt as a reminder that while this may be an exclusive figure in a subscription collector line, Matty is still sticking to the regular mass market standards of quality control. It’s easily fixed with a little black pen work, but nonetheless a little disappointing.

Metron features standard DCUC levels of articulation. You get a ball jointed head; The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. His legs feature universal movement at the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. He can also rotate at the waist and has the standard DCUC ab crunch hinge in his torso.

The Mobius chair, as mentioned, comes in two separate pieces. The base snaps onto the rest of the chair and it does it more or less permanently. It’s a sturdy piece, but the plastic is light enough that I wouldn’t risk disconnecting the base once it’s attached. At the very least it feels like it would produce some nasty stress marks.

As a display piece, the chair looks fantastic. It’s perfectly sized and fits the figure very nicely. The back disc spins and Mattel put a lot of love into the sculpt, giving it a lot of fine detail even under the base and behind the seat where it isn’t going to be readily noticed when on display. The chair is cast in green plastic with metallic gold paint to fill in the deco. Most importantly, Metron looks outstanding seated in it.

No doubt in my mind, Metron is a very cool figure, especially for a subscription exclusive. Granted, you’re mileage may vary. DC Universe Classics was always a line that tested the true limits of fans and collectors with some really obscure characters, and while I certainly wouldn’t call Metron obscure, he’s probably not on the forefront of a lot of want lists. I’ve already labeled myself a New Gods whore, as some of the first DC comics that I read as a kid on a regular basis were Mister Miracle and Orion, so this set is targeted squarely at me. It’s true that Matty didn’t go above and beyond with the figure itself. Metron is a typical DCUC figure through and through, but when you bundle him with the chair he makes for a nice exclusive piece. Either way, he’s definitely going to be a showpiece in my DCUC collection.