The Good: Pretty awesome sculpt, Neat features, Great poseability, Awesome balance
The Bad: Low collectible value, Obvious seam on head!
The Basics: The Justice toy line gets a surprising winner with the drastically under-valued Lex Luthor action figure!
Every now and then, I pick up a toy as a peripheral part of my intended collection - usually because I find it on deep clearance at whatever local comic book shop I am scouring at the time. Last year, I briefly returned to my home town and my favorite comic book shop of all (which had moved and grown, I was excited to see!). There, I found the Justice Lex Luthor figure on clearance and picked it up for no particular reason other than that it was cheap.
I am SO glad I did! Lex Luthor is an essential character in Justice (reviewed here!), which remains my favorite graphic novel of all time. Luthor's part in the book it to team with Brainiac to try to take over the world by saving it, with the argument that super heroes have had the chance to save the world and make lasting change for the better, but have refused to. When Luthor realizes that Brainiac has a different agenda, he protects himself using an anti-nanite suit, which is the subject of the DC Direct Justice Lex Luthor figure!
Basics
The Lex Luthor figure is very well-detailed, in both the sculpt and the coloring, though the fact that almost no skin for the character is exposed makes it easy to do right by the character on the coloring front! The Lex Luthor figure is 7" tall and made, primarily, of translucent purple plastic with glitter in it to give him an energized, sparkling effect.
This toy is a decent sculpt, especially for a character that has only had two-dimensional references; the Lex Luthor looks good in all three dimensions. DC Direct included details like the many belts and power nodes for his action-oriented suit. This Lex Luthor has molded-on knee pads and elbow pads and tiny connectors that make it look like the belt is powering all of the nodes. Lex Luthor's face is molded in a neutral, but determined, expression with his eyebrows slightly arched. While the vein on the side of his temple makes sense as a molded detail, the seam that goes over his bald head is an unfortunate distraction that lowers the overall quality of an otherwise awesome figure.
The Lex Luthor's costume is molded entirely in a translucent purple plastic, so you can see through him and see all the joints. The character's boots and gloves are black, as are the tiny cords or tubes that connect the various cylinders on the figure to one another. The only piece of this figure with any coloring depth or realism is the head. The eyes are tiny blue and black orbs that have an impressive level of realism for a figure in this scale. The detailing for Lex Luthor’s lips and eyebrows is very well-rendered. This is one of the best-colored human heads in the DC Direct line!
Perhaps the neatest aspect of the Justice Lex Luthor figure is that the light green power nodes arranged all over his body glow in the dark! Charged by sunlight, this figure lights up in the dark for a little while and looks pretty awesome under a blacklight as well!
Accessories
Lex Luthor, tech-based tycoon that he is, comes only with his stand. The stand is a black and silver square that looks like a piece of flooring. It is 6" by 4.5” and 1/2” tall and it has a pair of peg holes spaced 2” apart. The pegs come with the figure and plug into the base and then into the hole in Lex Luthor's right heel. He is perfectly stable on his base.
Playability
The DC Direct figures were designed more for display than play, but the Lex Luthor is pretty amazing for both. Even in outlandish poses, he has the balance needed to stand up.
The Lex Luthor comes with a decent thirteen points of articulation, which is good enough, even if it doesn't provide fully realistic poseability! The Lex Luthor figure has articulated ankles, knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows, wrists and head! The shoulders are proper ball and socket joints. The head is on a simple swivel joint, so the villain can only look left to right, not up and down! Most of the joints on this figure are only swivel joints, though they are adequate for this figure and posing him in cool ways.
Collectibility
The Lex Luthor figure is part of the DC Direct Justice Series 5 line which was fairly common and few people seemed enthusiastic about. Comprised of villains and third string characters, almost all of the figures in the Series 5 set can be found well below the original release price of $16.99! Despite having a pretty neat feature and cool glitter appearance, this figure has not appreciated in value and can still be found ridiculously cheap!
Overview
The Justice Lex Luthor figure might not be overly popular or valuable, but is remains one of the enduringly coolest figures from one of DC Direct's best toy lines!
For other Justice action figures, please check out my reviews of:
Wave 5 Brainiac
Wave 4 Zatanna
Wave 3 Wonder Woman
Wave 3 The Joker
Wave 3 Poison Ivy figure
Wave 3 Plastic Man
Wave 3 Hal Jordan Green Lantern
Wave 1 Cheetah figure
9/10
For other toy reviews, please check out my Toy Review Index Page!
© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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