Happy Early Father's Day to meeee......

Here in Australia Father's Day is the first Sunday in September. Plays havoc with my chances of remembering Father's Day for my US-based Dad. Every year I forget and then have to endure the ensuing guilt-trip. (My mother has a Masters Degree in guilt trips). On the plus side, with my birthday in October, having Father's Day at the start of September starts a nice four-month present buying run. I buy all the presents in our family, including mine, seeing as The Wife wouldn't know where to begin with my little hobby!

I've already got two of my Father's Day presents for this year - the JLA Cover to Cover Flash Statue and JLA Wave 1.

I am very new to the statue world, but the JLA Cover to Cover Series is something I can see working for me. The Flash statue, shown here with Green Lantern, is a great addition to the line. I really like that these are packed in nice boxes that aren't too huge which means that you've got room to hold on to the box in case you ever need to repack the statue.

These figures a very nicely done, not too huge but you still like you have a full statue, not a mini-bust. His running pose is well captured but the statue is very well-balanced. I hadn't planned on picking this up, but I'm very happy with the purchase!

Then today I picked up my set of the JLA Wave One figures, which IMHO range from outstanding to pretty disappointing. Red Arrow is really excellent. His hair colour has been fixed from the solicited blonde to the correct red - hooray! Roy's arrows are actually loose, which is a really nice touch, but they're quite pointy, so watch them around any little people!

Something else I'd be watching around the young is the enormous busoooms Vixen is sporting. Talk about somebody losing an eye! Despite these she is a great figure. An excellent headsculpt, really nice job with her hair, etc.

It's nice to have a MA Black Canary to replace the Turnerised version from a couple years ago, and while this one is a huge improvement I'm not wild on her stance or her slightly vacant stare. Apart from the eyes it's another great headsculpt. The fishnets are real, bit it's a shame they can't find a way to do this without the hideous large seams at the back of the legs.

I hadn't planned on keeping the Superman, but he actually looks much better than the solicits, in fact he makes quite a passable MA Supes, so he's a keeper for this version of the JLA.

The big disappointment here is Black Lightning. As if getting a MA version without having the classic isn't bad enough, this is not a great figure. It's quite different from the solicits, and while the body seems and improvement (less Turnerised and without the weird pointy finger) the headsculpt is just yuck, especially the replacement of the solicited clear goggles with opaque yellow globes that give him a somewhat bumblebee appearance. Not happy.

The packaging of this wave is quite nice. Much better than the JSA packs which looked like they were thrown together at the last moment.

Not sure what Father's Day present #3 is going to be: (one from The Wife and one from each offspring - almost makes a third tempting but then I think of the nappies.....) but I'll let you know when I work it out.

Makes being a Dad all worthwhile.......... :0)