Note:
This will be kind of a lame review, and not just because I’m
throwing two figures that I haven’t felt particularly compelled to
review for the last seven months together. I have a SHIT TON going on
right now. There’s the Dragon Con thing, the Time Lord Party this past Friday, TONS of Needless Things
Podcasts I’m setting up, and now the dry run of Whose EFF Is It
Anyway? that we’re doing at the Red Light Café on August 5th.
Plus, of course, my normal family and work responsibilities.
I
am not complaining! I love it. But I am busy. So here’s a crappy
review of two figures that you wouldn’t have cared about even if I
had posted this back when they came out.
If you
don’t remember or haven’t read, I liked that movie a lot and
like it even more after repeated viewings. Everything about Kevin
Costner and his role was awful, but I really enjoyed the rest of the
movie.
I also
really like Mattel’s (apparently now-defunct) Movie Masters line.
The sculpts and likenesses tend to be very good and I prefer the more
realistic proportions. Mattel does a pretty decent job working
articulation in, as well. Plus, the Movie Masters range has covered
The Dark Knight,
Man of Steel,
and Green Lantern;
so we have figures from separate movies that are scaled and designed
consistently. And yeah – I said Green
Lantern. The movie was
dogshit, but the Movie Masters were awesome. Except for Parallax.
With the
release of the new DC 4” scale figures it seems like Mattel is done
with the 6” scale Movie Masters. Zod, Michael Keaton as Batman, and
Danny DeVito as Penguin have all hit retail and those would have been
great candidates for the Movie Masters line. I doubt that Mattel will
revisit them in a larger scale. I also can’t believe that Toys R Us
is charging $14.99 for those things. That’s fucking insane. I did
find Batman at Target the other day for ten bucks and came this
close to buying one. But I
just couldn’t justify it after buying the giant Michael Keaton from NECA.
It was
kind of clear that the Movie Masters line was faltering with the Man
of Steel releases. The assortments were odd and there were thousands
of unitard Zod figures warming pegs for quite some time. The lineups
changed, as well. A unitard Zod with handcuffs replaced Ursa and I’m
pretty sure there was at least one other change. The figures also
went on clearance amazingly fast. I was in at least one Toys R Us
that had marked down the Man of Steel figures but was selling the
Green Lantern Movie Masters at full price.
I also
quickly want to mention the lousy kid-oriented Man of Steel toys –
they were lousy.
Okay, so
Zod and Faora were the last figures that I felt like I really needed
from this line. I kind of wish I’d gotten a Jor-El, but I never saw
him on sale. I found these two for five bucks apiece on Amazon last
Christmas and ordered them along with a ton of other Mattel DC
figures that were marked down.
FIRST
GLANCE
The
sculpting on the armor on these guys is fantastic. I love the look of
the Kryptonian armor. It’s very other-worldly and organic while
still looking high-tech.
Zod
looks amazing.
Faora has the fattest head I’ve ever seen on an
action figure that wasn’t from the original Masters of the Universe
line.
Her
head is so fat that it got hired as M.O.D.O.K.’s body double.
Her
head is so fat that Peter Quill tried to park his spaceship in her
ear.
Her
head is so fat that Hector Hammond saw it and was all like, “Damn
you got a fat head”.
PACKAGING
First
of all these are blister cards, so that’s an automatic win. I like
the design of the bubble and how it has the look of Kryptonian tech
and the swoosh of Superman’s cape. It’s eye-catching packaging,
but not so great that it won’t feel like generic Superman stuff a
few years from now.
And - believe it or not - these cardbacks feature full bios!:
LOOKS
Zod’s
head sculpt is very good. It’s funny how imposing this face looks
when Dr. Evil’s voice isn’t coming out of it. The paint is well
done – there’s no blotching or overlapping of areas. Even the
eyes and eyebrows are even.
The
armor is incredible. There are so many layers and textures that I
just sat and turned the figure over in my hands for several minutes.
The lines are all sharp and clean and the various surfaces are
distinctive and have thickness and depth. The articulation is worked
into the armor quite nicely, though that’s somewhat easier when
you’re dealing with more mechanical designs like this one. The
thickness of the armor gives Zod a slightly squatter appearance than
he had in the movie. I wonder if the toy designers just felt the need
to make the proportions as believable as they could or something.
I
do wish the cape was removable. It’s a nice translucent plastic
with a very cool smoky paint deco, but it’s stiff, hard plastic
that doesn’t flex for posing.
Faora
– as I mentioned above – has a big, fat head. She’s having a
big head day. But it does match the rest of the figure in an odd way.
Mattel has taken a gorgeous actress and given her these weird, wide
proportions. She looks like Mary Lou Retton on steroids and if you
don’t get that reference SHUT UP I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT.
I’m old.
It’s
hard to judge how good the likeness is when it’s so distorted. It’s
like if you painted somebody’s face on the side of a bucket. Part
of the issue – aside from her GIANT HEAD – is that this figure
has no neck whatsoever. This is just so bad.
Faora’s
armor is lighter than Zod’s which is weird because the thickness
distortion effect from his seems to be doubled here. She basically
has the Kryptonian unitard with a few plates of armor attached. The
unitard has a consistent mesh texture. It’s all one color with no
paint.
The armor has tons of detail and layers accented by the
asymmetry of the design. HER THIGHS SEEM HUGE. I am not saying that’s
good or bad. They just do.
Her
cape is similar to Zod’s, but more swishy. Also, my figure’s was
placed in the packaging wrong and is all askew. I need to take a hair
dryer to it and fix that. The plastic is nice and thing so it
shouldn’t take more than a few seconds.
ACCESSORIES
Faora
comes with that most lame of action figure accessories – a stand.
It is made very slightly less lame by the fact that it has her family
crest on it. But she has no breathing mask, no dagger, no guns –
nothing.
Zod
at least comes with his breathing mask, and it’s great. It fits
perfectly on his head and looks awesome on the figure. I’m actually
not sure how I want to display him because the likeness is great but
the breathing mask is badass. It’s not totally translucent like it
was in the movie, but the top is and it just looks rad.
Oh,
Zod also comes with a stand. Whoop-de-doo.
FUN
As
bulky and armored as these figures are, they actually pose nicely.
Obviously they’re a bit restrained by the cut of the armor, but the
joints all move very well and have close to the range you would
expect from a figure in this style. They actually move better than
the Bale Batmans I have.
The
biggest obstacle to a wide variety of cool poses are the figures’
capes. They do look cool, but if they had been designed to be
removable that would have been great. Heck, I might even have liked
soft goods if Mattel could have been trusted to do that right
(definitely they can’t be). As things stand I wasn’t even
compelled to go into the other room and get Superman to stage a
fight.
As
far as fun factor goes these aren’t bad figures at all, but they
could be a little better. I hate when you have to play around a
limitation.
OVERALL
Zod
is great. Aside from the cape he is an awesome figure. His knees
could bend a little deeper and he could stand to be less bulky, but
I’m definitely happy with him. He looks great on the shelf with the
rest of the Movie Masters.
Zod-
4 out of 5
Faora
is detailed and executed well as far as paint goes. But her head is
just embarrassing and her proportions are too weird. If I do put her
on the shelf, it’ll be in the back. Way in the back.
Faora-
2 out of 5
If
you want to buy these for cheap – as well as the other Man of Steel
Movie Masters – do it! And help out a great website (this one)!
I don't get all the Man Of Steel hate... Love the figures I have Zod and Supes. There was a cool Supes in a black costume that I never grabbed because it wasn't on sale.
ReplyDeleteI know, man. I dig the movie. I'll probably spring for that SDCC Superman versus Zod box set when it gets super cheap.
DeleteI get why people don't like it, but I really enjoyed it. I always wanted to see what would happen when a couple of Kryptonians duked it out, and I figured it would ensue in mass destruction.
DeleteI do hope the sequel at least acknowledges all the loss of life that had to occur in that final battle, and that Superman learns how to avoid collateral damage. I can forgive him this first outing because he only knew how to fly for what, 2 or 3 days before having to defend the planet?
Thanks for the figure reviews, PT. I am tempted to get that Zod, just as a generic future soldier looking guy.