SUPERMAN — MAN OF STEEL

ONE:12 COLLECTIVE (MEZCO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0120:  Justice League Unlimited‘s adaptation of “For The Man Who Has Everything” is a rare instance of Alan more actually liking an adaptation of his work, even allowing his name to be credited in the episode.

In a world where I’ve got plenty of options for solid 6-inch figures of Marvel characters, it’s still a little baffling at times how hard it is to find similar quality DC figures in the same scale.  It’s largely locked in on the higher price-point stuff, and even then, you’re dealing with very specific looks.  I love Superman, but I’ve struggled to find a solid Superman figure, honestly at any scale.  I keep trying them out, and I keep being kind of let down.  But…I’m trying again.  With Mezco, even.  It’s an odd day for me, I won’t lie.  Let’s see where it goes.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman – Man of Steel is part of Mezco’s One:12 Collective line, offered as a one-off steel-boxed release last year.  He’s their second classic comics Superman.  The first one was more general purpose, while also being adapted to Mezco’s in-house style (more in line with earlier One:12 offerigns), but this one is a little more specifically based on Superman circa John Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot of the character.  It’s not an exact match, though, for reasons I’ll touch on further down.  The figure stands just under 6 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

Mezco figures tend to get more than one head, and that’s maintained here…and then sort of shifted into overdrive, because the figure gets not one, not two, but seven different heads.  It’s…it’s a lot of heads.  Possibly too many heads.  I mean, I don’t want to seem ungrateful for the options, but, like, wow.  All of them are pretty clearly inspired by Byrne’s version of Clark.  I may have my issues with what Byrne did for the character from a story standpoint, but there’s no denying that his illustrations of Clark are always solid, and a pretty definitive take.  Of course, Byrne’s style is one the more cartoony side, whereas Mezco’s aiming for something more real-world.  The translation works okay…for some of the heads.  In particular, the friendliest of the heads really works, and feels like a proper Superman through and through.  The angrier heads aren’t bad either, albeit sort of out of character.  It’s the in-between ones that I feel just slightly miss the mark, making him look downright crazed; there’s some real uncanny valley stuff going on there.  But, of course, there’s so many heads that even if a bunch of them are iffy, there’s still plenty to work with.

Superman’s base body is a slightly bulked up one, but with slightly more balanced proportions than, say, the earlier Captain Americas.  It still looks a little squat from certain angles, but it’s generally a solid match for Clark’s usual build.  The outfit makes use of a jumpsuit with an attached cape, red briefs, a sculpted belt, and sculpted two-piece boots.  The coloring on the suit is really nice, and I dig the exact shades they’ve gone for.  His chest emblem is one notable deviation from the “Man of Steel” set-up, being a basic classic Superman logo, rather than Byrne’s larger version.  He’s got a matching one in all yellow on the back of the cape, which, it’s worth noting, gets wires for posing.  I’m glad they moved away from the weird armature pieces for the capes.

In addition to all seven heads, Superman still gets a huge selection of extras, including five pairs of hands (fists, gripping, flat, and two different styles of open gesture), two different styles of heat vision attachments, a Starro spore, the Black Mercy, three bullet ricochets (which attach to the torso via magnets), a container of all the different colors of Kryptonite, two punching effects, a Phantom Zone projector, and a display stand.  Despite the “Man of Steel” influences of design, a lot of the accessories included are notable Pre-Crisis elements, which makes for an interesting mix.  It’s a lot of cool stuff, though.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

In my search for a solid Superman in this scale, I’ve largely overlooked Mezco, because I’d kind of moved away from them.  When this one was shown off, I was intrigued, but not enough to jump on it right away.  Then All Time got three of them traded in over a three month span, and I took that as something of a sign.  The middle one was loose, so I got to actually mess with him in hand, and I honestly just couldn’t say no at that point.  He’s got some minor things off, and the sheer number of heads is downright silly, but I generally really, really like this guy, and I’m glad I decided to snag one.

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.