Orion
By Hervé St-Louis
March 16, 2005 - 09:29
 |
Likeness
Although the costume fits Orion's comic book appearance, the lack of bulk really diminishes the quality of this action figure.
Sculpt
The sculpt looks all right, but again, a bulkier figure would have been better. Orion stands in a classic hunched Jack Kirby pose. Longer calves and thicker arms are all that's needed to make the character perfect. Orion has two alternate heads that are great looking. One is his calm and stoic look. It looks like a Roman consul. The other one is the enraged head. A favourite, its mouth is twisted and very much like a Jack Kirby figure.
Paint
The paint job is simple, although there's some bleeding on the figure's shorts and boots. There are no highlights in the hair. The red colour used in the arms is different from the one used all over the figure's body. It's probably due to the base plastic. Painters applied paint over joints and it doesn't look good as it left a layer on top of the base plastic. It's sloppy.
Scale
 |
Orion is about the average height of a Teen Titans action figure because his legs are spread apart and they are bent. Had his calves been longer, he would have looked great next to other Silver Age DCDirect action figures. Don't even put him next to some JLA figures, like Firestorm or the Atom, he will look out of scale. As Orion is supposed to be an imposing character, this action figure fails to show this.
Stability
With or without his sandals, Orion is stable. One of the few DCDirect action figures with sturdy ankle articulations, not even his loose knees pause a problem. Of course, with the harness and the sandals, posing Orion in a standing position is more difficult, but his weight is well distributed, so it is possible.
 |
Articulation
Orion has eleven articulations at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles. The shoulders have highly mobile ball-joints. DCDirect has preposed the elbow articulations so it cannot bend completely. The heads are easily exchangeable, which is good. Wrists' articulations would have been useful when placing the harness' handle within Orion's hands.
Plastic
Good PVC enters Darkseid and Orion's compositions. Darkseid's torso is harder, because DCDirect used a different plastic to encase the battery and light-up mechanism. Both figures' heads are clear plastics with paint. Orion's harness and helmet are in softer PVC with many flexible parts to adapt to the figure's shape.
Props
 |
Orion comes with a removable flying harness. The pegs holding the tubes that connect with the sandals are not long enough. Although DCDirect glued them, the tubes will unplug easily from the harness' frame. The only way to fix this defect is to sand off part of the tube to make them thinner where they connect with the harness' peg. It's not even sure that it will hold tight after. Darkseid has a button on his back right shoulder that makes his eyes light-up. Screws in the figure's back allows for the replacement of the battery.
Packaging
The figures came in a box set with several images of the toys on the box and a bio on the back. The box has a clear window to see the package's contents. It did not have any memorable styling.
Cost
 |
As a two pack, many retailers sold this set for more than the price of one individual DCDirect action figure. It's not clear whether it is DCDirect who priced the figures this way, or retailers who tried to give themselves a kickback.
Availability
This set was not popular and was doomed from the start. When DCDirect announced it, fans criticized Orion's heads. Although fixed, many retailers had already ordered they stock. Therefore, not many sets were ordered in all. Second, complaints about Darkseid's size and Orion's lack of a presence, discourage many fans from purchasing it. Don't expect this set to be available, even if there are severe criticisms. These are popular characters after all.
Darkseid Orion
 |
Related Articles:
Darkseid – Superman/Batman: Return of Supergirl
Darkseid