Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Mattel: Man of Steel Movie Masters Superman Quick Review

Mattel Man of Steel Movie Masters Superman

So it's here, I finally got a chance to see the Mattel Man of Steel Movie Masters action figure in person. A friend of mine (Jeffrey Velasquez) got hold of the figure and lent me these photos in order for me to come up with my own review. His review can be viewed here. When I first saw the press photos of the figure, I was totally blown away by the amount of realistic detail that was presented in the press photos. But as for the actual product, I think there's more to be desired. Read the rest of my thoughts below.


The Packaging

The Packaging: It seems that Mattel's direction towards packaging their movie masters action figures is to package it differently from other movie masters figures. Here, the packaging for their Man of Steel movie masters is packaged with an embossed plastic bubble with an S shield mold. The side packaging art on the front reminds me a lot about the way the Green Lantern Movie Masters action figures were packaged. Maybe it's because of the text font used on the Movie Masters text. The back of the packaging gives us a brief bio of the character as well as photos of the other figures included in this wave. The packaging is simple yet very strong in terms of delivering the presentation that this is a Superman based action figure. The figure also comes with an S shield base which served as the Superman figure's backdrop when presented on the packaging.  







Actual Photo of  the Movie Masters Superman
  
The Action Figure: The figure comes with the standard DCUC articulation (ball jointed neck, ball hinged shoulders, swivel biceps, wrists, waist, and thighs, pivot torso, hinged elbows and knees, double pivot hips and ankles) but without the pivot torso. Now this is where my disappointment comes. The figure is not as beautifully detailed as shown on the press photos (see photo below). The figure is actually not that bad if only we were not given those press photos. The figures color hues differs largely from the press photos and Henry Cavill's head sculpt is not as clean and sharp as the press photos. The actual figure sports a more darker hue of blue compared to the press photo. But really even until up to now, we still clearly don't have any idea how blue is Superman's suit in the movie will be. I've always preferred the lighter shade of blue from the early 90's and Christopher Reeve's suit than the darker shade of blue used during the mullet haired Superman and the suit that Dean Cain wore in the Lois And Clark TV Series. So that explains why I prefer the press photo's blue hue than the actual figure's.

Press Photo of the Man of Steel Movie Masters


Intricate details of the figure

Sculpt: But press photos aside, the figure clearly rocks with the amount of detail that the figure possesses. Clearly the arm bands, belts, and even the suit has those intricate details that makes the suit alien looking rather than a spandex clothes. Now if you guys are wondering where the red briefs are, Superman since 2011 has undergone some change (well DC in general did). Gone were the iconic suit and now replaced with a metallic looking armor. But the Man of Steel movie went further by letting Superman don an alien suit that based from the leaked photos might be a suit that came from Krypton. There were photos that featured Jor El (Superman's father) and General Zod (Kryptonian General) donning an almost similar toned suit. So I surmise this body type might be reused for Jor El's arms and the armorless Zod figure.     


Superman and Batman Movie Masters

Scale: Mattel always had this problem with their Movie Masters figure's scale. I had hoped that they would rectify that by putting Superman in scale with their most recent Movie Masters figure, Green Lantern. Green Lantern was not in scale with the Movie Masters Batman figure as it was a bit taller than Batman. Though I don't have photos of a scale comparison with the GL figure (as Jeffrey already sold his Movie Masters GL), but I had it stood side by side with a Movie Masters GL figure in the shop where this was available for pre order and Superman came out a bit taller than the GL figure. I think this Superman figure is much closer to DCUC's size. But I'll update this review once I get my hands on this figure. (More Photos below) 

World's Finest

With Jeffrey's Custom Fortress of Solitude






Henry Cavill/Superman

Final thoughts: Is this worth buying? Of course it still is. Despite my complains, I'll chose to let go of the press photos and focus instead on the actual product. And by doing that, we have a great Superman figure that I think does justice to the movie. I can't wait to own one really. As a huge Superman fan, this is going to be a great addition to my Superman action figure collection. And in case you're wondering why I'm doing this review, Jeffrey asked me to do another review and present my own opinion of the figure. He's also a huge Superman fan and we are going to be displaying this figure along with his custom Tom Welling Superman and my Custom Christopher Reeve Superman in the upcoming Tagcom event this weekend. It's going to be a Toy con like event. Check out the past year's event here. More Man of Steel photos below and a sneak peak of the Superman figures that we will be displaying at Tagcom.














 Tagcom 2013 (poster designed by Leslie Araujo)

My Custom Chris Reeve Superman and Jeffrey's Tom Welling Superman with a Mattel Brandon Routh Superman

UPDATE: Finally bought my own figure of this Movie Masters Superman. I also posted new photos of my actual Man of Steel figure in my Facebook page. Will do a proper review soon. But you can get a sneak peak of the photos on my Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.444376738986708.1073741835.394419360649113&type=1

and also... add me up on Facebook :)

UPDATE 2: New review of the figure is now posted. Head on to the link below for more photos of my Man of Steel Superman.

http://actionfigureplanet.blogspot.com/2013/04/mattel-movie-masters-man-of-steel.html

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