Truth be told, the
preview pix made me have second thoughts about picking this piece up.
Packaging
As it's always the case with
DC Direct figures, you never know how's the packaging gonna turn out.
Front cover: A sketch of
Brandon Routh flying at you. Which looks rather close to the package / box art that Mattel are using. Same artist perhaps?
Box Sides: Nice angle shot of the figure, DC Direct should've used this as the promo image.
Back: Here he is again, the actual product flying at you.
It's nice how shadows can make his face look less pudgy.
Interior: As with
previous 13" offerings, the box flap is held in place by a velcro strip. I'd be great if
DC Direct could use magnets instead of velcro, ala
Sideshow.
Do note if you come across a piece with a slightly wonky S-shield, don't worry, you can actually adjust it as you please. Focus more on the paint job on the face. I've come across some with painted chipped off the nose. A definite no-no for a figure at a US$59.99 price point.
Figure
Likeness: I don't think they did a really good job nailing down Routh's likeness. It's just not quite there. From some angles, he even looks cross-eyed.
Costume
When compared to the previous
13" Superman figure, this figure's costume seems to be made up of sturdier material. The
other figure's costume had a nice, smooth feel but was over-stretchable. Playing with it too much tended to get the costume out of shape.
From the
preview pix, I was thrilled to learn that the cape was detachable. Could this mean that I could use
Clark Kent's outfit on this figure? More on that later.
I was abit apprehensive that the cape's length wouldn't be at least past the figure's calves, which was my main grouse about the previous figure.
Also, the
preview pix had been known to lie.
Thank goodness the cape turned out to be of a decent length, not ankle scraping but decent.
All hopes of using
Clark Kent's clothes were dashed when I found out I wasn't getting getting a repeat of cloth boots with zippers.
The boots are made up of some rubbery material which look a hassle to remove and hell to replace, so I'd advice against trying.
Sculpt and Articulation
It's the same
13" body with 28 points of articulation.
I do like the proportion of this body sculpt, exagerrated lats, thunder thighs and all, but note that
Mattel's 14" offering boasts 7 more points of articulation at a much lower price point.
Also, Brandon Routh doesn't quite have comic book proportions, so movie accuracy goes out of the window here.
Here's how he measures up against DC Direct 13" Clark Kent...
And the other Mattel offerings.
L - R: 14" Hyperposeable Superman Returns, 13" DC Direct Superman Returns, 5" Clark to Superman figure, 12" Ken Superman Returns.
This figure didn't wow me as much as the
first Superman offering did, and the lack of a movie Clark Kent outfit played a huge part in that.
However, if you missed the first Superman and would like a decently articulated Superman Returns figure with cloth costume, you might want to give this a shot.
Superman fanboys... ah we'll buy this anyway.
At the time of posting, TNI sponsors
Amazing Toyz has this in stock for $46.99.
