Special Review > Emerald Energy Accessories (Spy Monkey Creations)

The other day I reviewed the Blade of the Demon King from Spy Monkey Creations, purveyors of fine custom weapons to the action figure community since 2009. While their efforts have focused on accessories best suited to Masters of the Universe Classics, with today’s set they make their move into Mattel’s other mega-popular line, DC Universe Classics.

2010 is looking to be the year of Green Lantern in DCUC, and judging from the popularity of the Blackest Night storyline, that suits fans just fine. But one of the most frequent requests I’ve seen from DCUC fans is for Green Lantern constructs–energy blasts, shields, and weapons.

Customizers have come up with lots of ways to make their own, but for those of us without the skill or artistic ability to create them, Spy Monkey Creations will soon be offering three excellent, production-quality constructs to aid your Green Lantern Corps in protecting the galaxy from space zomb–I mean, Black Lanterns. Once again, Spy Monkey Creations has very kindly sent me some review samples of their upcoming Emerald Energy accessories.

The Emerald Energy accessories will cost $6 each and can be order from the Spy Monkey Creations E-Store on March 1st.

First off, please note: the accessories aren’t quite as pale neon-green as they look in these photos. That’s partly my camera and lighting. They’re a bit richer shade of green.

Design & Sculpt: SMC has created three “Emerald Energy” constructs: a shield, a Spiral Beam, and a Flat Beam.

The Spiral Beam has the most detailed sculpt, beginning with the “burst” of energy around the fist and then extending forward in a twisting spiral toward the target. It looks great, and definitely conveys a sense of crackling energy.

The Flat Beam is, well, flat, and features striations along the surface to represent the pulsing energy. The “burst” of both beams is designed to fit perfectly on a DCUC figure’s closed fist, and even have small pegs on the inside to slip into the divots of the fist. You can also get them to fit on open hands, but they won’t hold as tightly.

The shield also features some great textures to represent rippling energy effects. It has a small clip on the back that fits on any regular DCUC figure’s wrist. The clip is attached with a bit of glue, and there was some slight white residue around the area where the clip was glued on the back, but it’s not visible from the front of the shield.

Plastic & Paint: These accessories are molded in translucent green plastic. The plastic used is quite solid and durable, not brittle, and should hold up nicely to repeated use. These are high-quality items that would look perfectly at home if packaged with a DCUC figure.

Quality Control: Aside from the bit of white residue from the gluing of the shield, I had no QC issues.

Overall: Yes, these are pricey at $6 apiece–Spy Monkey Creations might want to consider offering a discount on large orders, because I can foresee some collectors wanting a lot of these but balking at the price.

But setting the price aside, these are excellent accessories for your DCUC figures (and any other 6″ figure who might want to blast some green energy). Given the frequent fan requests for Green Lantern constructs, I suspect these items may prove quite popular. And if they do well enough, we may even see some more classic GL constructs–perhaps a giant green boxing glove? For SMC, just like Green Lantern, the only limitation is their imagination.

[raven 4]