Toy Review: Mattel - Retro-Action DC Super Heroes: Green Arrow

Christmas 2009 was a little like Christmas 1975 for me as for both years a received a Green Arrow. In 1975 I received both a Mego Green Arrow and Aquaman that Christmas, but in 2009 I once again felt the joy I had 35 years ago.


Above you can see Mego Green Arrow and Aquaman in window boxes. In 1975 Mego still sold them in boxes, aside from Kresge blister cards.


Having originally anticipated being able to order the new Retro-Action Green Arrow on December 15, a release date change had squashed that plan. I had to wait a whole week until December 23 to place the order.


To my surprise when I got home from the office Christmas Eve Day I had a package at my front door. It was my Green Arrow! It was only a day later. I didn't I choose express shipping, but nevertheless, there it was.


Green Arrow was delivered in a white box with the Retro-Action DC Super Hero logo printed on it and identifying it as a Green Arrow figure. The packaging is nice, but the blister card was not as crisp and a little flimsy. Not quite was I would expect from Matty Collector, but the card evened out after a while.


A few differences separate the vintage from the new. The vintage had painted black pupils, as all Mego's did, but the new version has solid white eyes, which gives more of a comic book feel.


The original vintage boxes revealed only the packaged characters on the back, but other figures in the series could be seen on the side panels.


The new blister card is reminiscent to the later issue Mego blister cards with other available characters visible on the back. The backs of these blister cards only show the first wave of available figures. I think it would have been cool to see what Mattel has in mind for the other two waves they plan to release.


The front of the blister card is designed similar to the original Mego cards with characters being shown on the front as well, but are the same characters from the back with the exception of Batman, which gives a sneak peek that the Dark Knight will be included in a future wave. It's fun to guess what the new version of Batman will be like. Removable cowl or painted mask. Oven mitt gloves or actual functional hands. My guess is it will have removable cowl and functional hands.



Overall the figure is great. It's like Mego is still producing these figures after all these years and just made a few production changes. I do wish the character name would have stayed in the form of the characters logo rather than just a standard normal font though.


I am so looking forward to the next wave of figures that comes out around Easter 2010. Since Mego fans like Paul Clarke helped Mattel design the new versions I know they are going to be just as great as Green Arrow. I am already counting the days until the Spring release. How about you?

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