McFarlane Toys announced a new selection of 7" DC Multiverse figures this week, and their selection includes a familiar face, albeit one in an unfamiliar costume.

That's Waverider, but probably not the one most DC Comics readers remember. By which I mean that is not Matthew Ryder, the protagonist of the 1991 Armageddon 2001 event.

As devout Booster boosters can tell from the costume, that's actually Michael Jon "Booster Gold" Carter. Or one of them, anyway.

Here, I'll let the mcfarlane.com promotional text explain:

During the Convergence event, an aged Booster Gold (Michael Jon Carter) from an alternate Earth became the new Waverider when he was fed into the timestream by Earth-0's Booster Gold. This Waverider took on a career in the Multiverse, initially helping Telos and various Super Heroes convince Brainiac to realign the Multiverse. Waverider's ability to surf the timestream enables him to discover secrets hidden in the past and also gain knowledge of future events.

This is kind of a deep cut, even for McFarlane Toys. Booster-rider has only ever appeared in 2 comics: Convergence Booster Gold #2 and Convergence #8 both released on the same day in 2015. And the costume on that figure appears in only the first of those two comics!

I'm no fan of the ridiculously overworked "New 52" era design of Waverider II with its unnecessary armored leggings gold-plated abs, traffic-sign shoulder arrows, and call-back to NuBooster's hideously medieval gauntlets, but it looks positively svelte compared to the bulky McFarlane figure, which I can only assume is re-purposing re-colored pieces from previous steroid-abusing figures into an approximation of the comic book Waverider II costume. The economics of toy production is a bitch!

But if you (rightly) believe that any Booster Gold figure is a good figure, you can already pre-order your own for $19.99 at Target.com.

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First things first: the "BLUE BEETLE & BOOSTER GOLD 2-PACK" teased by McFarlane Toys last weekend on Twitter is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com, EntertainmentEarth.com, BigBadToyStore.com, and McfarlaneToysStore.com.

Personally, I've authorized my Local Comic Shop to get me the figures whenever they can, so consider supporting your Local Toy Shop as an alternative (or in addition) to those websites.

Judging by the emails I've been getting, there was a lot of pent-up demand for more Blue and Gold action figures, which is good. Pre-order demand is necessary to see these figures to market. The last time DC solicited a Booster Gold/Blue Beetle figures in 2017, they canceled them citing lack of retailer interest. Let's not let that happen again.

For those of you who need to know a little more information about this toy before you buy it, McFarlane.com has the deets (and plenty of pictures):

Product Features:

• Incredibly detailed 7" scale figure based off the DC Multiverse
• Designed with Ultra Articulation with up to 22 moving parts for full range of posing and play
• Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are featured in their looks from the comic Blue Beetle & Booster Gold: Blue and Gold
• Blue Beetle and Booster Gold include a grapple launcher, a blast, a cellphone, a drone, and mechanical themed base
• Included collectible art cards with figure artwork on the front, and character biography on the back
• Collect all McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Figures

Uh, I'm not sure that I'd call "Collect all McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Figures" a "feature," but I suppose that's not really aimed at me. I gather from their other marketing, that whoever is writing McFarlane's ad copy doesn't actually read DC comic books, at least Booster Gold and Blue Beetle comics. That doesn't really bother me, as they are a toy company not a comics publisher, and they are pretty good at what they do.

You do you, McFarlane Toys; I'll just get my wallet out.

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Several people have just brought this to my attention, and I don't see much reason to wait until Monday:

twitter.com/mcfarlanetoys/status/1550934047966302210

I'll be keeping my eye out for that pre-order opportunity.

UPDATE 2022-07-27: Pre-order links are now available on McFarlane.com. I'll post more about this on Friday.

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