Hey so I still have the rings DC gave out to comic shops during the War of Light event, and I use them for the rings from the WoL heroclix set because they are literally the same. Ok, the copyright on the inside is different, but if you're looking that close I have other issues. So my intention is to do the same for the new rings. Does anyone have scans of the cards they'd be willing to post or link me to?

If you're proxying the rings, just print off their EFFECTS from the units section. If you're trying to dupe other players that you have the rings in question, you should know the colors are noticeably different on the newer rings. (Also that's kinda scummy. Just be up front that you're proxying, outside of official events, who cares?)

Maybe he wants a consistent look and feel for his stuff? I really don’t think this is a “gotcha” move so much as it’s “I’ve already got the stuff in a completely viable form and I just want my aesthetics in line.”

As an aside: I was considering how serious to take proxying of the BTU rings via WoL rings, because of (#1) me being a cheapskate frustrated by the distribution model and (#2) wanting to play a "corps" with multiple member from the same part of the visible spectrum...

...but then I realized that rings are unique to a force, so only one member of a given corps (or any team, for that matter) build could start the game with any given ring. It feels weird that the BTU versions of ring-slingers can only make the constructs if they have a ring attached... otherwise it is necessary to invest 10 points and assign them a different colored ring.

So ultimately I'm sighing, both out of relief and frustration that I can't play a Batman & Robin where each of them is wearing a Utility Belt.

Basically this. I don’t play competitively & I’m upfront with the rest of our group, plus our venue requires a print out of all pieces. I don’t expect anyone to raise a fuss, but I want to have my bases covered. I printed out the cards for the newer mandarin rings too since I have all the IIM rings.

Same my group is very casual and we are using the old WOL rings as proxies as well.

The new rings look like they have 2014 copyright dates in them to me, which IIRC is the same as the WoL rings.

Apologies then, the bit in your first post about opponents checking the copyright date made it sound like you were trying to pull a sneaky.