Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Imaginext DC Super Friends Hall of Doom RULES

There are some days you wish you had kids as an excuse to head to Toys R Us and buy some of the stuff that's REAAAAALLY for lil kids...and some days, you say fuck it, because you love toys and you're a grown ass adult that can now do whatever the hell you want. Go buy a whole cake for a friend's birthday and the two of you attempt to eat it? DONE IT. Wear no pants for 3 days straight? DONE IT. As adults, the world is ours...and so are all the toys. Mattel is one company that knows the toy business, and their Fisher Price Imaginext offerings KILL IT at every turn, often surpassing their "adult" collector offerings in fun and awesome. It always makes collector's sad when they no longer see playsets in the retail isles, but 5 isles over, playsets still rule. The question is, is this yet another instance where we just admit we give no fucks, or can these kidified playsets coexist with our adult playthings? Let's find out...

Enter the Hall of Doom—if you dare!

It’s the headquarters of the Legion of Doom, occupied by the evil Lex Luthor! Kids can turn Lex Luthor on the disk at the entrance to raise and lower the elevator. Turning Lex Luthor on the top disk transforms the entire Hall of Doom—the “eyes” open and light up, the hidden cannon is revealed and the cage drops ALL AT ONCE! The adventure continues on the back with all sorts of interesting sculpted details that help kids add to the story about Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom spying on their foes!

Features
Turn Lex Luthor on disk at base to raise and lower elevator!
Turn Lex Luthor on top disk for awesome transformation: “eyes” open and light up, platform spins to reveal hidden launcher and cage drops!
Snake “slithers” down the pole!
Fold-down computer screens show the Batcave and Hall of Justice
Requires 2 AAA batteries












 





Yes, yes..action features. Very nice. We won't need them. Essentially, as a grown ass man who rarely makes pew pew noises with his toys (rarely), i'm looking for a set piece for photography and a backdrop for my legion of little plastic DC Comics people. For this to work, scale is essential. The first line that comes to mind is one of the biggest collections among my plastic hordes; Justice League Unlimited! The tiny love children of Bruce Timm have been begging for more playsets and vehicles to supplement the massive collections cartoon lovers like me have amassed. Alas, there is little "official" product to work with, and scrawny legs plus tiny feets equals a boring, lined up army of super folks and baddies that topple if you look at them the wrong way. That's where awesome set pieces like this come into play. The Imaginext Hall of Doom will certainly never be counted as an "in scale" playset, so at the very least, we hope the features are detailed enough to work as set dressing...a striking, menacing, iconic piece of our Super Friends loving childhood leering behind a set of figures we've compiled with care. In that respect, it totally works. Just...don't go trying to have Legion of Doom meetings inside. The illusion begins and ends a few steps from the elevator.




For current Mattel DC Collectors, there may still be hope here. Sine Mattel has shifted their collector focus to 3.75 inch, the smaller scaled playset is once again king. While the newest figure offerings are video game and movie based, proving to be a little too realistic for the simple lines and unpainted features of the Hall of Doom, the impressive Infinite Heroes collection of comic book characters may work better. The scale is definitely an improvement, but i'm not sure the style matches up.


 Shoosh. I couldn't find my 3.75 inch Lex Luthor. Don't be racist against Black Adam. 

Here's a look at that scale difference. I'd never really looked at the difference in size between the Justice League and Infinite Heroes figures. They are so different, you'll find little cause to stand them next to each other.



So just how small do we have to go to get to an acceptable scale for the Imaginext Hall of Doom and still maintain a cartoony feel that works? How about....this tiny?




 Coming in at a teeny tiny itty bitty 2 inches tall, and no doubt a close cousin of the older, chunkier, larger DC Super Friends line of figures, this mini Legion is perfect for taking up residence in a kidified, but still menacing head anchored to a bit of plastic swamp.

If you haven't guessed, my Hall of Doom is going to be fulfilling its destiny as backdrop to my army of Justice League Unlimited, Batman and Superman Animated style figures...and there shall be no end of OOO's and Ahhh's across the land....and perhaps just a couple of pew pew pews.


Since I've yet to see this toy actually sitting on a shelf in a store, your best bet is online at places like Amazon. Click HERE to order. Spend 5 more bucks and shipping is free!

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