Lobo has seen his popularity as an anti-hero usurped by Red Hood and Harley Quinn over the last few decades, but he remains a fun character. Oddly, he still hasn’t had that definitive figure from Mattel or DC Direct/Collectibles. Some have been better than others, but typically scaling issues overcome The Main Man.
McFarlane Toys takes its crack at him with its DC Multiverse line. The protype was promising so let’s see if this is worth paying a massive bounty for or if it needs to sleep with the dolphins.
Packaging: To the delight of MOC collectors, McFarlane Toys hasn’t done any changes to the packaging yet sticking with the black with blue and white accents color scheme and a wide window to check out the figure.
Although being more eco-friendly is the way more companies are going, I appreciate being able to see the full figure — especially since paint jobs can be so inconsistent from figure to figure.
The back of the package is pretty boring with an action shot of Lobo and some cross sell images of other currently available figures.
Likeness: This is the DC Rebirth version of Lobo, which featured a back-to-basics visual style for him after an odd model makeover. In Rebirth, Lobo reluctantly joined Batman’s Justice League of America team. JLA was a short-lived title, but it did have Ivan Reis draw it as it initially got established so it looked great.
Lobo’s head sculpt seems based off Reis’ artwork. The intense expression works for him as he looks full of bad attitude. There’s a lot of personality here and the work on the teeth is really sensational. The choice to go with shoulder-length hair instead of dreads was a smart one.
The McFarlane Toys sculptors packed a ton of detail into the figure. His vest has a surprising amount of texture along with the shredded sleeves and shoulder spikes. Lobo’s skin isn’t smooth and also has some definition to showcase his strength. His glove/wraps are made out of a rubbery material, which is a nice touch.
His shirt also has seen better days with rips throughout the front. Lobo’s star skull belt buckle turned out very well and positioning it at an angle is a nice character touch. Lobo wouldn’t care if his belt was on straight.
The jeans feature heavy texturing and the spiked skull knee and shin armor looks great. His boots have impressive detail (including cracks) with the raised plate by the toes and the spikes on the outside.
Scale: Lobo’s height tends to vary depending on who’s drawing him. It’s not a big deal then that he’s taller than the Action Comics #1000 Superman.
Paint: I haven’t had many problems with paintwork on McFarlane’s DC figures. They’re some of the cleanest figures I collect these days so of course there’s some minor issues with Lobo.
The black around Lobo’s eyes is missing on the left one and there’s just a small portion of the goatee tip missing the black paint as well. That’s not such a problem with black paint at least and the rest is well done especially the teeth.
I wish the holes in Lobo’s shirt weren’t painted the same as the shirt and actually had his skin color to further show off the great sculpt work.
While there’s rarely paint washes to the figures it is added when necessary like the blue in Lobo’s hair. The texturing in the jeans gives the impression of a wash, but they are plain blue.
The back of his vest features a perfectly in character fourth-wall message to his fanboy haters. That’s a nice Lobo touch.
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Articulation: Lobo has the expected articulation from the line meaning he moves pretty well, but not as well to be able to hit some really deep stances and complex poses.
That said, I still was able to have a reasonable amount of fun posing him against the Justice League.
Lobo has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders [with pop up/down point]
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee
- ankle
- toe
Accessories: McFarlane Toys hasn’t exactly gone overboard with accessories with figures. Typically, figures get one or two if it fits the respective character.
For Lobo, that means he gets his huge meat hook and chain. You can wrap the chain around his forearms and he can hold the hook in either hand.
Worth it? McFarlane Toys hasn’t wavered with the $20 price tag, which is impressive considering the various scales and detail provided.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Lobo was executed very well with great sculpting details, a solid paintjob and better than average articulation. This is my favorite 6″to 7″ scale version of the Main Man by far.
Where to get it? I got Lobo from Target, but I assume Wal-Mart and GameStop has them too. You can also go online and grab him from Amazon, Target and Entertainment Earth.