Fans of the original The Flash TV series rejoice: thanks to the Arrowverse’s “Elseworlds” event on The CW, GameStop now has a limited-edition statue based on the likeness of the Earth-90 Flash. That, if you didn’t get to see the crossover when it aired late last year, was the Earth that got its name from the 1990 TV series on which John Wesley Shipp played The Flash. Shipp reprised the role in “Elseworlds,” coming to warn the heroes of the Arrowverse about a coming crisis — one which was then teased at the end of the event as next year’s crossover: an adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The statue measures just over 8″, and is apparently a GameStop exclusive, from Icon Heroes and Diamond Comics Distributors. The statue is limited to 1,000 pieces and priced at $79.99. This is not the first time Shipp’s Flash has been captured on merchandise, but certainly the popularity of the revived show, which debuted in 2014 and stars Grant Gustin in the title role, has made it possible. In early 2018, Shipp’s Flash was released as a figure in Mattel’s DC Universe line of figures. An earlier toy hardly counted as a show tie-in and made no effort to resemble Shipp, as it was just a repackaging of an existing Toy Biz DC Superheroes figure mold.
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“I tell people it took me 28 years to get a hundredth episode, and it only took Grant a little over four years, so I guess we all know who the fastest man alive is,” Shipp joked earlier today during a recent interview with ComicBook.com. “It still astounds me that one season of a show that we did 28 years ago still has this much resonance with the genre fans,” Shipp said. “I’m glad nobody told me 28 years ago. I might not have been able to go on. But from this side of having done it, watching everybody’s reaction, it makes my heart very full.”
Shipp said during that same interview that that after more than 20 years as the face of The Flash to many casual fans, he was eager to see what the next guy would do with it — and he has praised Gustin and the show’s writers and producers from the start. He has, then, become one of the show’s biggest advocates in geek circles, since he was out there doing the convention circuit while the younger cast were still shooting their first few episodes.
[Start Gallery Call-to-Action Key=7752]”I’ll tell you, that is partly a gift of [the producers], in that they brought me back in a paternal role,” Shipp said. “I don’t think that it would have had the same resonance for me if I had come back as Jay Garrick. I’m not entirely certain, although I probably would have, done that right off. Jumping into another superhero suit on set with a bunch of 20-somethings, at my age all these years later, gave me pause. But there was something about hooking into Grant’s psychology from the very first episode. He knew that I was The Flash, and I knew, or had a guess at what his insecurities and hopes and dreams going forward might be. I was invited back and it caused me to invest in his success. I was always, from the minute it was announced, invested in his success because 24 years representing The Flash is a long time. But it caused me to invest in a very personal way, and I couldn’t be more delighted.”
The Flash airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
h/t: Batman News
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