When he's not busy recruiting new Legion members, this guy is out there luring Sun-Eaters with his solar heat in order to save the universe! He fends off Servants of Darkness with his Nova Blast! The last of the figures that could potentially serve as fill-ins for your Matty Legion figures, comes Dirk Morgna a.k.a. Sun Boy!
Sculpt:
While most DC Universe Classics are around 6.5 inches and fit within the 1/12 collector scale, typically adult-sized DC Direct (and now DC Collectibles) figures fall into more of a 7 inch scale. Having said that, Sun Boy is more of a teenage-sized figure and comes in exactly at 6 inches. Although the Mattel practice of buck re-use doesn't always come into play in these lines, you can see that Sun Boy shares some parts with the DC Direct DC Direct Ferro Lad, Ultra Boy, and Star Boy. Like those figures Sun Boy has a closed fist on his right hand, but instead borrows an open palm from Mon-El for his left hand. The head sculpt is a really great original piece and despite the somewhat forced smile, the eyes are not so wide and large to make you suspend your disbelief. His red hair has a lot of dedicated waves, parts and flips that enhance the head sculpt. Other than the toothy smile, I think this head sculpt is pretty good. He also has original shoulder pads which are made of hard plastic and cannot be warped. The collar is probably the same piece as the one used by the DC Direct Invisible Kid. The belt buckle on the waist looks to be original to the line as well.
Articulation:
DC Direct figures are better known for their sculpts than articulation. There are 11-points of articulation that I count on Sun Boy.The head is on a swivel joint and can move 360 degrees. It cannot tilt, nor move up or down. Arms can only rotate at the shoulder, up or down, in a circular fashion in 360 degrees. Arms cannot move out to the sides, but there is a 90 degree elbow cut, so the arm can go from being straight to a 90 degree angle. The closed fist and open palm can also rotate in a in 360 degree circular fashion. There is a "T-Crotch" which allows for only forward movement of the legs at a 90 degree angle. If needed, Sun Boy could be seated. Finally the knees also articulate from straight to a 90 degree angle.
The paint job has some interesting choices. It holds up to the normal standard of DC Direct items, to my eyes there is no discernible bleed between the reds and yellows. Though the reds on the gloved hands appear to have a gloss, while the reds on the legs, chest, shoulder pads and collar are more of a flat red color. The yellow on the belt and boots is a slightly different banana hue with more gloss, while the arms, "T-Crotch" and sun emblem are more of a lemon yellow hue. The lemon yellow is not as strong a color and the arms and buttocks in the rear look like multiple coats were layered or caked on. There are slight chips or imperfections from the lemon yellow on the rear, but this is not an issue
from the front view.
Overall:
I wasn't thinking this at the time, but I suppose technically we've got another dead guy review here. Though with the multiple versions of the character (Threeboot, 5 Years Later, New 52), maybe I don't see those as consequential to Legion history as Ferro Lad and Invisible Kid. I guess I sort of wiped the whole eaten-by-little-aliens-after-crash-landing-the-ship story out of my mind. Oh well.
The shoulder pads look kind of weird to me and maybe they should have gone all gloss or no gloss, but still a pretty nice figure. His eyes are better than Mon-El's, but the smile is still lacking verisimilitude for me. This would have been something nice to see on the Mattel DCUC buck, but it's nice to at least have this DC Direct interpretation if nothing else.
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