We are just a few months away from the one year anniversary of Mattel’s announcement at San Diego Comic Con 2011 that heralded the end of DC Universe Classics and the launch of the DC Universe “Club Infinite Earths’ subscription program.  Most fans bought into the sub in July of last year and are anxious to see the reward for their faith in the sub on their shelves.  With the subscription the name of the line has changed from “DC Universe Classics” to “DC Universe Signature Collection” so we went from DCSH to DCUC to DCSC.  Another  change is that the figures now come boxed instead of carded, which may disappoint MOC collectors.   The boxes feature a new painting of each character on one side panel and the back.   The bio information on the back has changed a bit from the DCUC cards. Gone is the list of powers and first appearances and now there is just a regular bio.

We received samples of the first three DCSC figures this week.  We just looked at Metron and the Golden Age Flash now we will turn our attention to Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lanterns.

Atrocitus seems to have been a figure already in the works before Mattel had to switch gears and start the sub.  That’s not to say he is an unwanted character with the fans, he’s still needed as the head of the red lanterns, otherwise you have poor Skallox, Night-Lik and Dex-Star wandering aimlessly around your shelves.  There was a lot of discussion from fans asking him to be a larger size and to have an open hand so that he can hold his lantern.  Mattel was able to make some adjustments to his size by using some of the parts from the ‘Public Enemies’ bucks, but then that made them unable to use the, already sculpted for Green Lantern Classics, red lantern boots.  So the boots are achieved just through paint.  They were not able to sculpt a new open hand, or use an existing open hand because Atrocitus has unique sculpted hands.

Atrocitus does come with his red lantern and it is accurately sculpted to match the comic art with the top thing missing and the correct handle.  His chest logo is larger than the other red lanterns we’ve gotten so far, but he shares the same belt as the other red lanterns.

Let’s take a closer look at Atrocitus with lots of pictures -

Recently Mattel announced that the sub was bumped back a month and the first figure will now ship in May, instead of April. Atrocitus will ship first in July to subscribers.  There will also be some quantity available for “day of” sales on the 15th of May at a higher price point.

This sample was provided by Mattel