The Prince's Shelf: The Flash Variant Play Arts Kai by Square Enix (FIGURE OVERVIEW)
written by Justin Prince (@prince_justin)
DC Comics meets Square Enix, with The Flash on CW coming to a close in the next couple episodes, I felt it would be the perfect chance to share one of the toys on my shelf. Square Enix has been reimagining characters across all manner of fandom, not just limiting itself to the Keyblade weilding tweens and devilishly good looking psychopaths with flowing silver locks, the Variant Play Arts Kai series give toy fans a new take on our favorite characters.
This entry focusing on the Flash, in place of skin tight spandex the designers at Square Enix reimagines the Flash with angular armor that personally doesn’t look at all like it’d be aerodynamic… I mean it’d be like most of his armor would wear away while he runs at top speeds… eventually making him look like he does in the comics.
some of the ways you can customize the look of your Variant Play Arts Flash
But either way, this Flash looks like he’d be ready to tackle all manner of his rogues gallery. He looks bad ass and while as a DC purist I wouldn’t want to see this version of Flash in any of my fiction, as a figure on my shelf he’s pretty freaking awesome. Much like other figures in the Play Arts Kai line, we get a few additional options when posing our hero, along with an assortment of hands we also get parts of his armor embellished with the signature lightning of the speed force.
Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty, while aesthetically this is an impressive figure, it was a bit hard to switch our body parts like the hands or plugging in the lightning embellished bits. The jagged armor didn’t make it an easy task. It was like a trade-off between switching out his hands or getting stabbed in the palm. While cool, the plastic they used for the clear lightning wasn’t as solid. Having more give makes these elements easy to plug in, but don’t really have any staying power. The lightning you’d plug in behind the Flash never seemed to stay in, almost like you had to pose and position the figure in the stand before plugging it in, even then they seemed to fall out.
The character design is a great mix between staying true to the character’s history while giving the Flash a fresh coat of paint. His costume in the comics hasn’t changed much over the years, so seeing an inspired take on an iconic character is always refreshing.
Overall, it’s a cool figure and sits right at home with all the nerdy things on my desk. I’m usually wary of new takes on my favorite characters, but it’s the Flash and it’s pretty damn cool.
