It’s pretty amazing to think that, with the inclusion of the Public Enemies wave and the two Green Lantern waves, we’re approaching 20 series in the DC Classics line after just three short years of being in production. While the line seems to be faltering slightly due to odd character choices, spotty distribution of new waves and increasing costs (I’ve heard some places hitting $20.99 per figure!), Mattel continues to pop out some pretty good figures. Wave 2 of the Green Lantern Classics includes Sodam Yat, Skallox/Nite-Lik, Naut Kei Loi/Medphyll, Star Sapphire Carol Ferris, G’Hu (from the GL movie) and the first set of mini-characters, B’Dg, Dex-Starr and Despotellis. Each figure contains a piece to build the large Stel Collect & Connect figure, which is one of the coolest C&Cs to date.

Here are some details and images for each of the figures in this series.

B’Dg, Dex-Starr, Despotellis

I love the concept of packing several small characters into one set. Packing a chipmunk, a blood-vomiting house cat and a virus all together? Even better. Even though they’re tiny (roughly 2 1/2″ tall) there’s a lot of value to adding three characters to your collection for the price of one. B’Dg, the Green Lantern chipmunk, is one of the must-haves for the GL Corp. Dex-Star is the domestic feline turned Red Lantern and includes a piece of translucent blood-vomit material that can mount into his open mouth. I’ve had a little trouble getting the blood to stay there, but when it does it’s a cool feature (aside from the fact that it’s more pink than red). Each of these has six points of articulation, including the tail. Despotellis, the yellow virus, is more of a throw-in than anything, coming in nearly an inch smaller than the other two and featuring no articulation.

G’Hu

I’m glad to see Mattel bringing back the Independence Day line. While it looks like something that could come out of the sci-fi disaster movie, G’Hu is the first official release from this summer’s Green Lantern movie. G’Hu wins the award for Most Out Of Place Figure in the DC Classics Line and was much better suited for the GL Movie Masters. He steps in at nearly 7″ tall , and while he has a lot of articulation, it’s not the ball-hinge that we see in most DCUC figures. His elbows, wrists, hips and knees all feature swivel movement, which prohibits the figure from posing is ways many DC Classics can. He features the shiny color scheme that has come to be associated with the GL movie outfits.

Medphyll / Naut Kei Loi

Mattel made a smart move when they started including alternate heads and hands for certain characters in the GL Classics line. Those of us that want both characters generally have no problem buying two different figures, but for those that only want one it helps keep that $14.99 plus tax in our wallets. Medphyll (the tree creature) and Naut Kei Loi (the aquatic Corps member) is nothing more than a simple head swap, and doesn’t include interchangeable hands. The body is the standard Green Lantern buck with 23 points of articulation, but with two-toed feet. Both of the head sculpts are really well detailed, and I love the paint application on Naut Kei Loi, but once the latter’s head comes off it doesn’t want to pop back on. Thus far that character has stood with his head resting on his shoulders rather than popped into place.

Nite-Like / Skallox

This is another one advertised as a dual figure, but with Nite-Lik and Skallox it’s just not that simple. Nite-Lik, a Red Lantern created by the Four Horsemen Studios, comes with a very ornate tentacle sticking out of the back of his head and wrapping around his body. Underneath that is a chest plate with the Red Lantern logo. This is all fine and dandy until you take the pieces off and replace it with Skallox’s head. The Red Lantern symbol is not present on the Nite-Lik body, so Skallox ends up looking incomplete. The short of it – with these two figures, if you want Skallox to display, you’ll want to buy the Skallox figure rather than just Nite-Like. And as cool as these two Red Lanterns are, you gotta have them both on board. In addition to the swap out heads, the blue hands of Nite-Like can be swapped for the fisted hands of Skallox. These figures also contain the standard GL buck.

Sodam Yat

Sodam Yat, also referred to as Ion, earns the honor of being the most surprisingly cool figure in the bunch. When you look at the wave and see not much more than a sea of green, a human-like figure in a green outfit doesn’t draw a lot of attention. But upon further inspection, I’m really digging this figure. First and foremost, Mattel finally got the construct accessory right! Rather than a snap on piece that’s too bulky and risks paint damage to the white gloves the GL Corps wears, Mattel included an alternate hand with the construct built right in. It really looks great, and I could see this expanding to include constructs that snap into a peg in the hand. Sodam Yat’s paint scheme is top-notch, with a super crisp logo and nice cut lines around the uniform. The buzz cut to his hair was executed perfectly, including both the sculpt and paint aspects of it. Again, standard GL buck for the body with 23 points of articulation.

Star Sapphire Carol Ferris

It’s about bloody time! Star Sapphire has been one of my most wanted DC Classics since day one, and I’m glad she finally got the treatment in this wave. While she’s got a great face sculpt and a new mode of torso articulation, she does have a couple of flaws. The big one for me is the Sapphire logo on her belt. I place a high value on getting symbols and logos right, and my figure has a half-assed silver star on her costume. Another readily noticeable issue is the mismatch between her headpiece and outfit. The color of the tiara is a darker purple and would be much better suited to match the outfit. Another thing that drew my attention was her earrings, which look more like droopy earlobes than jewelry. But they’re pretty well hidden and many would consider that a nit-pick on my part. As I mentioned before, she has a new mode of articulation on her torso, ditching the hinge and going with a swivel feature. The point of articulation is far more hidden now, and while it now allows for rotating movement it has taken away forward and backward movement. From a display standpoint, however, it looks quite a bit better than the hinged torso.

Stel (Collect & Connect)

After 18 Collect & Connect figures, and some greats such as Kilowog, Ultra-Humanite and Chemo, it’s hard to think that I might come up with a new favorite. If anyone is going to take that honor, however, it is Stel. Once again, the sea of green made it hard to want to pay attention to Stel, but once I got him completely connected and got a chance to mess with him, I was impressed. He measures an impressive 9 1/4″ tall and features as much as articulation as a standard figure (23 points). He’s coated with an eye-catching metallic green paint job, with light green highlights to go along with his silver and black mechanics. A lot of detail was given to the mechanical aspects of his body – wires, divots, ribs, etc. To put it simply, Stel is as impressive of a C&C as we’re going to get and makes this entire wave worth every penny.