The Good: Generally good sculpt, Good articulation, Great balance, Neat accessories
The Bad: Facial sculpt is a bit off, Inhibited articulation, Minor paint issue (paint comes off!)
The Basics: The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow share Heat Wave as a character and the first major collectible based upon him is all right!
Arguably one of the characters who has grown most between The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow is Heat Wave. It is interesting that, in creating collectibles for The Flash, Heat Wave is being merchandised before most of the Team Flash heroes. Perhaps because Heat Wave is on both The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow, that is why DC Collectibles produced a figure of Mick Rory from The Flash before making figures of Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Harrison Wells or Dr. Snow (or any of their alter egos!).
DC Collectibles did a decent job with the Heat Wave figure. While cheating the character's eyes by giving Heat Wave goggles, DC Collectibles made an action figure that strongly resembles the costume and character from The Flash.
Basics
The Heat Wave figure is a decent sculpt of the television character and DC Collectibles blends the hard plastic elements of most of the figure with a soft, rubbery coat to enhance the figure and increase its playability. The Mick Rory as Heat Wave figure looks generally like Dominic Purcell, especially in the nose, but the face is just a little too angular to be accurate to the television representation of Heat Wave. The first, and probably definitive, action figure version of Dominic Purcell as Heat Wave (we can still hope there will be a figure of Dominic Purcell as Chronos!) is 7" tall. Heat Wave figure is available from DC Collectibles and the figure may be found online or at most comic book shops that ordered figures from The Flash.
On the sculpt front, this version of Heat Wave looks very much like the CW show version of Mick Rory and Heat Wave. This is Dominic Purcell's version of Heat Wave and despite the coloring of the hair - which is a bit more brown than Purcell's hair in The Flash - and the more elongated head, it is an excellent rendition of the character. It helps that for The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow, Heat Wave does not wear any sort of ridiculous outfit, like the one in the comic book, but rather a thief's gear. This version of Heat Wave features Mick Rory with the goggles down, wearing a Central City Fire Department outfit. The pants that Heat Wave is wearing have rivets, seams and pockets to make them look more realistic than most action figures. The coat has a collar, a clasp near the top and is made of a rubbery plastic.
Heat Wave's hair is fairly dark brown and it is tough to pull off the buzz cut thinned, dark hair that Purcell has in The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow. Heat Wave's costume is simple and looks pretty weathered, which is very accurate and cool. Oddly, while the pockets appear subtly covered in soot, the character's shoes are remarkably clean! As for the skin tones for the head and neck, DC Collectibles managed a subtle amount of pink shading to add realism. Rory's ears look more detailed on the coloring front than his cheeks, but the thin pink lips of Heat Wave look decently rendered.
Accessories
Heat Wave, as rendered for the television incarnation, comes with only three (or five, it's relative) accessories. The figure lacks a stand upon which to put the figure, Heat Wave instead comes with two alternate pairs of hands and Heat Wave's flame gun. This version of Mick Rory allows one to pull out the hands it comes with and put in open hands or hands in fists. There are two pairs of open hands that are able to hold the flame gun; the fists obviously cannot hold the flame gun.
The flame gun is 2" long and 3/4" wide and looks exactly like the prop carried by Heat Wave in both shows. The flame gun is colored in black, orange, and gunmetal and looks very clean compared to the figure's outfit. It fits in four of the six hands that Heat Wave comes with (the other two are fists) and looks surprisingly good there. There is a holster on Heat Wave's right thigh that holds the gun perfectly!
Playability
The DC Collectibles figures were designed more for display than play and this is an impressive figure. Heat Wave has very good balance, especially when he is flatfooted. Moved out of a pure flatfooted position, Heat Wave remains surprisingly stable. That makes Heat Wave poseable in action poses, especially holding his flame gun.
Heat Wave comes with sixteen points of articulation, which is exceptional, though DC Collectibles figure have long been known for making figures with great articulation that also look good. Heat Wave has joints at the ankles, upper and lower knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist and head. The shoulders, elbows, ankles and wrists are proper ball and socket joints, while the knees are hinge joints. The elbows, ankles and wrists are all inhibited by the costume detailing so they have surprisingly limited movement in comparison to the joint structure. The head is on a ball joint, which allows Heat Wave to look in virtually any direction! Unfortunately, when joints - especially the knees - are bent, the elements below are colored much more simply than the proper costume. As a result, using the articulation reveals the hinges in fairly unflattering ways.
Collectibility
Heat Wave is part of the DC Collectibles The Flash Series 2 line which was fairly common, though it was usually only distributed through comic book shops and specialty stores like FYE. Heat Wave is the third villain in the The Flash line, but DC Collectibles is continuing the quality and style of their Arrow figures with Heat Wave. So, fans of the CW's DC Television Universe can easily collect across the series's and have their figures match for quality. Given how popular villains are and that Heat Wave is on two DC Television Universe shows, this is one of the more probable figures from DC Collectibles to appreciate in value, despite its somewhat problematic sculpt and coloring elements.
Overview
Heat Wave is a worthy addition to anyone who collects DC Comics-based toys. DC Collectibles did a decent job with a subject that would be exceptionally difficult to pull off by most companies with the Heat Wave action figure!
For other figures from The Flash, please check out my reviews of:
Captain Cold The Flash action figure
Blackest Night Black Lantern Black Flash action figure
Flashpoint Zoom action figure
6.5/10
For other toy reviews, please check out my Toy Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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