MattyCollector's started putting the last few remaining JLU three-packs up in their store!  Y'know, the ones that were gonna be at retail, but Young Justice toys kind of swooped in and took their spot on the pegs, and also nobody was buying JLU anyway, and then nobody bought Young Justice either.  And so you're gonna be paying online exclusive markup for them, but I find that preferable to the alternative of NOT GETTING VANDAL SAVAGE OH MY GOD GIVE HIM TO ME.

The first set released was Batman/Mongul/Wonder Woman.  Obviously, you're buying this one for Mongul.  At least he's a 100% new sculpt to make up for the repeat WW/Batman guys.  (Again, these were supposed to be at retail, which is why those two are in there.)  The JLU new sculpts are always fantastic, and Mongul is no exception.  These toys really shine when they're sharp and individualized rather than being a decades-old Superman body with a new head.  And so Mongul's great.  And sufficiently huge.

I can't say all that much about Mongul himself.  He was in a really boring episode about a gladiator pit planet, and I tend to skip over that one a lot when I watch through my JLU DVDs.  No, Mongul got lucky by being written into Alan Moore's "For the Man Who Has Everything," which everyone loves and was then made into an episode of the JLU cartoon.  And I feel a little off by saying that, yeah, that episode is why Mongul is awesome, when really it could have been anygoddamnedbody in his role in that story and nothing would have changed.  Well, any of the 30 different outer space dictator dudes the Justice League fights, anyway.  Jervis Tetch (aka the Mad Hatter) pulled off a similar scheme in "Perchance to Dream," but I doubt he could have held off Wonder Woman.

I'm just saying, there's not a lot to Mongul.  He's the guy you go to when Darkseid and Despero are busy.

UPDATE: Decided to watch rewatch Mongul's episodes, and I hadn't noticed before that he had a character model tweak, probably because "War World" parts 1 and 2 put me to sleep.  When he shows up again in "For the Man Who Has Everything," he's a darker purple, some of his silver has been changed to black, and his hat is now purple.  He's also drawn a whole lot better, but that may have just been the animation studio.  Anyway, the toy is of his appearance from the Good Episode.  Surprise!

Somehow, I got through the first round of Batman LEGOs, the Star Wars LEGOs, and (nearly) all of the Indiana Jones LEGOs.  No problem.  But now there's a new round of Batman LEGO also featuring some other DC heroes and villains and so now there's a goddamn Lex Luthor mech set.  I am only so strong.  And more than LEGO Batman, more than LEGO  Han Solo, what my heart really wanted was a LEGO Lex Luthor.

And he's even specifically businessman Lex Luthor.  CEO industrialist Lex Luthor.  Black-tie suit and all.  And he's piloting a huge-ass robot brimming with Kryptonite and weaponry designed solely to crush Superman.

How did LEGO know this is exactly what I wanted?