I don't own the Legion 12-pack from Mattel. At the time I thought it was expensive ($15 a figure plus shipping!) and since the Legion wasn't a favorite of mine, I decided to pass. Since I stopped buying current comics almost two years ago it's allowed me to go back and read some stuff I may've missed or not given a fair shake to. I did read the Legion sparingly in the mid-80's but left comics for a couple years and once I came back they were hardly recognizable, and all the reboots made them less attractive. But I've gone back and checked out some of their major storylines, and since I was looking for a theme, I decided I'd start focusing on building my Legion alongside one of my New Year's Resolutions of attaining the 12-pack this year.

So first up, Jan Arrah, aka Element Lad. One of the nice things about the Legion is you don't have to read too much to know what powers each member has. Apparently after another millennia they've eliminated all subterfuge: you have a power, that's your name. So of course Element Lad can transmute elements. Colossal Boy can get big. Shrinking Violet...well, you get the picture. Pretty simple. While naming characters apparently gets easier in a 1000 years, they are still slaves our current fashions. I guess after 1000 years the man-perm came back into fashion so Jan rocks a perm that would make John Oates jealous.

Another nice thing about the Legion is their costumes are pretty simple for customs, which is why I never understood why Mattel never made more of them. The Legion 12-pack sold out twice, you would've thought making more of them by just repainting bucks and slapping a new head on a figure would've been right up their alley. But I guess if a second set sold real well they wouldn't be able to blame the fans for not buying their stuff. Who needs more Legionaires when we have to make Cyclotron, the single most useless figure in all of toydom. Amirite?

But I digress. So a DCUC Black Lightning body, a Obsidian, er, Todd Rice left hand, a head from a Marvel Legends Chris Evans Cap, and the sweet sweet perm that came with the DC Direct Infinite Crisis Alexander Luthor helped make my dreams come true, Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh (see what I did there? No? Go check out some Hall & Oates then). I guess when Shvaughn Erin made her big reveal in the 90's Jan was left singing, "She's Gone"?

And some pink, because if you're going to rock the 80's man-perm than why not go all out with some pink?

And so one Legion member is down, so many more to go. Long live the Legion!

Thanks for looking!