McFarlane Toy’s DC Multiverse Polka-Dot Man was molded in ecru despite his suit in The Suicide Squad clearly being white. The toy also comes with a card pointing out they didn’t paint the dots right. (In ye olden days, Todd would’ve given it immaculate paint at the expense of useful articulation.) So I did the only sane thing & repainted it. See if you can spot all the differences.
“Taste the rainbow … OF DEATH!”
So this custom was basically just a repaint. That means there’s a higher ratio of photos to text than usual. (This may contain movie SPOILERS.) I had to repaint his face to make it look less like Patrick Fischler & more like David Dastmalchian. (It’s a common mistake.) I made his eyebrows thicker & added light stubble. Shading around the eyes makes Krill look more depressed.
He’s dying to save the world!
It was difficult finding reference photos of the PDM costume from all angles. The Iron Studios statue also appears to have the dots wrong. So I took the most liberties with his back. Some of the dots look to be sculpted in the wrong position, but I didn’t go full perfectionist changing them. I did add dots to his shoulder just because having such big real estate be dot-free bugged me. His elbow & knee pins would’ve been good places to add more dots, but I didn’t want him looking too symmetrical.
Tiddlywinks intensify!
This is most likely wrong.
He’s a Skittles Pox super-speader.
I’m glad Abner Krill came with removable goggles instead of them being molded on. Unlike Bloodsport & Peacemaker, he escaped having an alternate head retailer exclusive variant. (Why no portrait poxed by pathos pustules?) Since he doesn’t fire dots out of a gun, he also avoided DC’s new ban on firearms & projectiles. The dot effects piece is cool but only came in Wonder Bread primary colors. I had to add the complementary dots. (He can launch purple dots but doesn’t appear to have any on his outfit, unless I couldn’t tell from bad lighting.) Is PDM’s right hand removable to swap the open for closed gauntlet? I don’t feel like accidentally breaking him to find out, so he’ll always be half powered up to me. His pectoral hinges don’t have enough range to activate the gauntlet easily. I would’ve preferred another open gauntlet & dot stream.
For a dude who sees the world through rose-tinted goggles, Krill is a buzzkill.
Polka-Dot Man has one of the best costume translations from page to screen. You can instantly tell who it’s supposed to be. Kudos to Judianna Makovsky for making it & another suit for Bubblegum. By switching from tights to painter’s coveralls, he even looks pretty snazzy. First they came for Superman’s trunks, then Mr. Polka Dot’s! He sort of resembles a circus human cannonball. Red aviator goggles are always in style. I’m surprised the comics didn’t think of this obvious redesign first. Does a movie toy increase the odds of getting a comic book style action figure of one of Batman’s most underrated enemies? (There is officially no comics character too obscure to be adapted, especially in a James Gunn joint.)
“The goggles! They do nothing!”
Due to his ubiquity as a character actor, it was crucial to get a David Dastmalchian figure. He may be a bit big & overdressed to mingle with most other toylines though. Perhaps he’s out of scale with Marvel Legends because he fooled around with Pym Particles? (His lower legs look spindly, as if if they were designed for a 6″ figure & not scaled up.) At least there’s now a base for Dune fanatics to turn into Piter DeVries. (The new one is the more faithful adaptation, but I still prefer the David Lynch version.)
“I already called dibs on being Flash’s nemesis from the future! You have to pick an additional gimmick. How are you with marionettes or close-up magic?“
“Polka-dots! My only weakness!”
Starro The Conqueror made him go splat before he could even utter “Dot’s all, folks!,” so bring Dastmalchian back as Krill’s identical twin brothers. One could be Condiment King! Since James Gunn snubbed Condiment King for being a joke character, casting Dastmalchian as Rainbow Raider is an even better idea. Hell yeah, he can be Kite-Man too! I’d also take a prequel about Abner trying to be a superhero, accidentally melting people with dots, & getting busted by Batman’s stunt double. As goofy as John Cena is, I’d be more excited about that solo spinoff show.
Press F to pay respects to this absolute legend.
~
Where are Ratcatcher 2’s action figures? Did Daniela Melchior not sign off on likeness rights? She was by far the most beloved character in the movie. Todd McFarlane should just slot her (& Cheetah) into one of the DC Multiverse waves without a BAF since they’re eclectic. (He finally got the Birds Of Prey Harley Quinn out … minus any of her quasi-teammates.) If he insists on being a bastard, he could do mask on /mask off variants instead of including both heads. Obviously I want Weasel as well, but Ratcatcher II is more of a requirement.
His refusal to make a standard Wonder Woman is also baffling. He’s already made movie & several altverse versions of her, so it’s not like a normal one would cut into those sales by now. Plus he can do multiple mainline WW from various eras just like he does Superman & Batman. If Todd is mostly going to do assortments of four, at least one character per wave ought to be a woman. Two if the the first is a variant of Harley, WW, or Batgirl.
The Walmart exclusive “Gold Label” King Shark was available online for a while, but I still managed to dither long enough for it to sell out. I wasn’t sure I wanted it at $40, but I definitely didn’t want to pay aftermarket prices. I was kind of hoping to find one in person. It appears Walmart got them back in stock but are now charging $60. Starro the Christmas Conqueror was an $800 one-off?
I don’t even watch the Oscars anymore & I’m livid about Titane being snubbed! It didn’t even make the makeup shortlist? The Suicide Squad & The Green Knight were also snubbed for VFX. The prosthetics by Legacy Effects were outstanding too! Are the Academy voters from Htrae? How can we live in a world where the adequate Suicide Squad is an Oscar winner yet the exemplary The Suicide Squad won’t even be an Oscar nominee?
“What me worry?’
~
Betty White dying on New Year’s eve mere weeks before her hundredth birth was a terrible yet cynically fitting closeout to 2021. Now she’ll never find out if LEGO bricks disintegrate when touched by a centenarian. Welcome to 2022! We’ve now entered the Soylent Green era! I am once again asking that nobody publishes year-end retrospectives or listicles until after the calendar year is officially over. If you try to get your nostalgia out of the way prematurely, they’re riddled with omissions that don’t get picked up in the following year’s December pieces. Will anyone listen in 2022?
My least read post of last year was my ode to upgraded Evil-Lyn. (I let an opportunity for a punctual New Year’s Evil-Lyn pun slip right through my grasp!) Since that was only published last week, it’s kind of unfair to call it that. Otherwise my worst performing post was about TMNT. An X-Men blog only did slightly better. What was with all the mutiephobia? My review of the final part of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was my most read blog, though it had the advantage of being the first published in 2021. Readership continued to plummet worse than even 2020, so please remember to share my links around if you pity me.
Matt The Catania 
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