SUPERMAN — FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (KENNER)

“Upon retreating to the distant Fortress of Solitude, Superman wears the traditional costume of his home planet Krypton, rejuvenating his immense powers and developing prototype peace-keeping weapons from centuries-old Kryptonian crystal technology.”

When it comes to the DC Animated Universe, Batman: The Animated Series gets a lot of love.  Deserved love, mind you; it earned its place in history.  However, for my money, the unsung hero of the DCAU is BTAS‘s follow-up, Superman: The Animated Series, which takes the success of Batman, and builds on it, creating the groundwork for the wider DCAU that would eventually spawn Justice League Unlimited, and would craft a wider appreciation for the DC universe as a whole.  It’s genuinely my favorite entry in the franchise, and holds up as one of my favorite takes on the Man of Steel.  One area where I think it really blows away every other iteration of the Superman mythos is its depiction of pre-destruction Krypton.  While the toyline missed most of it, they did at the very least throw us a bone with “Fortress of Solitude” Superman, who I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Fortress of Solitude Superman was released in what was intended to be the third series of Kenner’s Superman: The Animated Series toyline.  They were shown off in 1997 and received an international release in 1998, but they wouldn’t make their way to the states until 2001, when they started showing up at KB Toys, with exactly no fanfare.  Hey, better late than never, right?  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Fortress of Solitude Superman was a largely all-new sculpt when he was released.  He’s based on Clark in traditional Kryptonian attire, as he’s briefly seen in “The Main Man Part 1.”  The look has been modified a bit, which was a pretty expected move for this line.  The biggest change is the addition of a S-logo on the front of the tabard; the look otherwise has no clear branding, I guess, and branding was definitely very big here.  In keeping with other figures from the line, he also gets extra detailing on areas that were simpler on the show, in this case the squares on his arms and legs, which now are properly raised, with further design elements added.  It’s not accurate, but it’s admittedly pretty cool.  There were a few different Superman head sculpts that ran through the line, with a range of show accuracy.  This particular assortment lands somewhere in the middle; not as bad as the first series, but not as close as the fourth.  It’s just a touch too tall and narrow for proper accuracy, but it’s not terrible.  The color work on this guy is interesting, because it *could* be a lot more basic than it is, and be more accurate.  Instead, they go a different angle.  Where his body suit should just be stark black, it’s instead semi-translucent, with metallic flecks, giving him a cool star field looking pattern.  Also, the tabard is removable, and while there’s no reason to have any detailing underneath, he’s got another Superman emblem.  Really pushing that branding, huh?  Superman is packed with a “Turbo-Spin Crystal Cannon.”  Whatever that may be.  It’s big and hard for him to hold, but, you know, there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back in the day, I spent a lot of my time on Raving Toy Maniac, which had a whole bunch of figure archives run by Toy Otter.  One of those was for the Superman: The Animated Series line, which is how I knew about this figure three years before he made it to the states.  I had a printed out picture of the prototype that I’d turned into a paper figure and everything.  Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found him at KB Toys in 2001.  I don’t have a ton of memories about him, but I do recall him being the only action figure I managed to smuggle with me on the one and only camping trip I did during my very short Cub Scouts career.  My original went missing somewhere over the years, but I was able to get a complete replacement thanks to a handy trade-in that came into All Time back in the spring.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.