Tag Archives: DC

#4005: Impulse

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

IMPULSE

JLA (HASBRO)

“Bart Allen, the 30th century grandson of The Flash, Barry Allen, inherited his bloodline’s powers but no ability to control his super-speed. After reaching the age of 14 in only two years, he was brought to the 20th century. Having been raised in an artificial environment, Bart is just learning the ways of the real world as he attends Junior High School in Smalltown Alabama.”

While the Golden Age Flash didn’t have a sidekick in the traditional sense (though he did have a trio of comedic “sidekicks” for a little while, much like Plastic Man, Alan Scott, and Wonder Woman did during the same period), Barry Allen got one relatively quickly in the form of Wally West, aka Kid Flash.  Wally remained in the role until Barry’s death in Crisis, at which point Wally got promoted to just “Flash.”  It was almost a decade before Wally would get his own sidekick, a revamp of the Kid Flash idea, Bart Allen, aka Impulse.  Bart wound up rather successful in his own right, eventually taking on both the Kid Flash and Flash monickers.  But Impulse was always his coolest, and it got him the action figures first.  Let’s take a look at one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Impulse was released in the third series of Hasbro’s JLA line in 1999.  Like Superboy, he was also available in the fourth boxed set, released through comic book stores and the like, along with Robin, the other piece of the “Young Justice” trio from the assortment.  This was Bart’s first figure, albeit only by a slight bit, as DC Direct also released one very close behind.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As with the rest of the line, he’s heavy on the re-use.  He gets a new head, but his torso is the frequently re-used retool of Superman’s, and he’s also got the arms from Black Lightning and the legs from the Flash.  The head is sort of an attempt at approximating a few different artist’s looks for Bart into one, along with folding him into the general line aesthetic, and it’s not awful, but it does feel a little small.  The Black Lightning arms are a little long for the body, but the gloves at least match pretty well with Impulse’s design.  The legs have a good running sort of pose to them, but the boots are definitely *not* Bart’s from the comics.  To be fair, they really weren’t Wally’s either, so it’s kind of whatever.  In general, like Superboy, the figure is really bulky for Bart, who was always pretty skinny and appropriately teen (in fact even pre-teen) like in the comics at the time.  This appears to be some sort of imaginary older Bart as Impulse sort of figure.  His color work is decent enough, but the biggest issue is definitely that the orange of the outer portions of his lightning bolts is too close to the red, so the distinction is largely lost.  Also, he’s got no pupils for some reason.  Beyond that, the application is pretty clean, so there’s at least that.  Impulse is packed with a display stand, this time in white.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first exposure to Impulse was an issue of his solo series, which got handed to me as a free give-away at an early Baltimore Comic-Con I attended, more than likely *in* 1999.  I loved the issue, and it got me into the whole series (which I had a subscription to until its cancellation years later).  I developed a particular attachment to the character, and ended up getting this figure, I feel almost confident at the same time as Superboy.  He’s never been a perfect figure, but he’s always been one I very much appreciated.

#4002: Elongated Man

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

ELONGATED MAN

DC MULTIVERSE (McFARLANE TOYS)

There’s a shortlist of characters that I own every version of in action figure form, and one of the earliest additions to that list is one of my very favorite comic characters (and probably my favorite super hero in general), Ralph Dibney, aka the Elongated Man.  Ralph’s in that interesting spot, where he does have a decent number of figures, but it’s not so many that you can’t keep up with it.  It’s also usually a bit of a stretch (heh) of time between them, so you have this nice little breather period to catch up.  The last break was over a decade long, but we’ve finally gotten to the other side, with not one, but two new Elongated Man figures!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Elongated Man is figure 50 in the Collector Edition sub-line of McFarlane’s DC Multiverse.  He’s part of the six-figure drop that hit in January, which looks to be the last big push for these guys from McFarlane, although we’re still not totally certain.  All of the Collector Edition figures get a standard release and a one-per-case Platinum Edition, and Ralph is no exception.  His classic black and red suit serves as the standard, while his ‘80s lavender and white number is the Platinum.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 35 points of articulation.  Ralph’s starting point is the Blue Beetle/Booster Gold base body, which isn’t a huge shock.  It continues to be a solid base body, with a nice balanced set of proportions, which works well for a variety of characters.  For Ralph in particular, it feels like a good match for his usual build in the comics, and the only sculpted element, the boot cuffs, works fine with his costume design.  Ralph gets a new head sculpt, which is leaning more into the Infantino solo feature appearances than other figures have done, with perhaps a touch of the Alex Ross take, and I’m honestly here for it.  I didn’t know how I felt about it in the prototype shots, but in person, I like the quirkiness behind it, and I think it feels pretty in keeping with Ralph’s usual characterization in the comics.  It’s a sculpt that is definitely more intended for the classic costume than the ‘80s one, but it’s not a terrible fit either way.  Ralph also gets a pair of cuff pieces for his wrists which, in contrast to the head, are very much meant for the Platinum, not the standard.  Thankfully, they’re easily removed from the standard, so there’s no issues there.  The difference between the two figures is one of paint, so let’s talk about that now.  The standard’s got that red and black, accented by gold, in place of the yellow he usually gets.  It works well, and it’s pretty slick looking.  All of the black sections get some blue drybrushing, which gives him a nice illustrative quality. The variant keeps the same general set-up on the gloves and boots, but then gets the adjusted lavender and white.  The paint feels a little fuzzier on this one, but the shades on the colors are a good match for the comics coloring.  Both versions of Elongated Man are packed with six different hands (right fist, left grip, right pointing, left relaxed, and right and left open gesture), Plastic Man’s stretched arms repainted to match the respective figures, a display stand, and a collector card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got in on collecting Elongated Man figures pretty much on the ground floor, and it’s just been a game of keeping up with the latest release since then.  Obviously, as soon as we knew these guys were coming, I knew I was getting them.  Of course, that meant having to make sure I got both versions, and most reliable way of doing that was really just buying a whole case, which is, in fact, what I went and did.  I’m crazy like that.  But really, is buying six Elongated Men all that crazy?  Yes.  Yes it is.  But it was worth it.  I do really, really like both of these.  At the outset of McFarlane’s run with the license, I would have never expected to get an Elongated Man figure from him at all, much less two of them that I really liked, so I’m honestly very happy about this particular turn of events.

#4001: Superboy

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

SUPERBOY

JLA (HASBRO)

“Created to replace Superman, Superboy was genetically engineered by scientists at Project Cadmus to have a close approximation of Kryptonian DNA. His power of tactile-telekenesis gives him super-strength, flight, and grants him a number of unique abilities, such as disassembling an object through touch alone.”

One of the tenets of the change-over from the Superman of the Golden Age to the Superman of the Silver Age was the creation of Superboy, who was Earth-1 Clark Kent’s alter-ego as a teenager.  After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman’s origin was once more re-established, and he was no longer a superhero as a teenager, eliminating Superboy from the timeline.  But, if you don’t want to lose your trademark to such a fancy name, you have to use it, so in the ‘90s they brought the name back, now attached to a separate character, Kon-El, a clone of Superman.  He operated solo for a while, before eventually joining “Young Justice,” a sort of re-imagining of the Teen Titans.  It was during the period that he got his second action figure, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superboy was added to Hasbro’s JLA line in its third series in 1999.  He was also available in the line’s fourth boxed set, alongside Impulse and Robin from the third series, and a pair of exclusive “Hologram” figures of Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.  Like his earlier Man of Steel figure, he’s based on Conner’s original look, though this time around he’s without his usual leather jacket.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Since JLA was all about getting as much mileage as possible out of re-used parts, Superboy is a lot of re-use.  His torso is the modified Superman torso that a lot of the line used as a starting point, and he’s got the legs from Black Lighting (albeit with some serious mold degradation, which removes a lot of the sharpness of the details) and the arms from the Legends of Batman Riddler.  It was rare to see them reach outside of the Total Justice molds, but it happened.  The Riddler arms are designed with a narrower gait to the legs in mind, though, so his hands can’t clear his legs when posing.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is decent enough, though it’s a bit on the large side, in order to off-set the sizing on the body.  The face is a little bit goony, but it fits the later ‘90s take on the character alright.  His paint work carries a lot of the work on selling the character design.  Mostly, it’s not bad, but it’s a little odd to see the straps and belts all just as painted elements, rather than with any sort of dimension to them.  The hair is also quite odd; in the comics, he had the back and sides buzzed, which the original figure more or less just ignored.  This one didn’t sculpt them in, but then they were painted black, and then painted back over with a sort of a grey shade, and then there’s sort of stubble effect.  It’s weird looking.  Superboy was packed with a JLA display stand, in bright red.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had the Man of Steel Superboy, which I really loved, but I was always bummed that you couldn’t take off his jacket, since he did that so often in the comics.  I remember this guy getting shown off, and I remember really wanting him, to the point of printing out a prototype shot and turning it into a paper figure.  I don’t recall exactly when I got him.  More than likely it was from the KB Toys near where my family vacationed, but it was also probably during one of our fall trips, rather than summer.  I remember being excited to find him, but perhaps not quite as enthralled by the final product once I’d opened it.  Superboy without the jacket certainly has novelty, but this figure’s more on the goofy side of things for this line, and the Man of Steel figure’s definitely the stronger offering.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0062: Green Lantern

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

GREEN LANTERN

DC SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

It’s Friday!  We made it to Friday, you guys!  High five!  Good for us!  Let’s celebrate with another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum.  I know, it’s such a special occasion.  Sticking to the usual, it *is* a Toy Biz figure, but in a break from the norms, it’s not Marvel, but DC.  Let’s take another look at Green Lantern!

The now defunct toy company Toybiz is a name that is most commonly associated with making Marvel toys. This isn’t surprising, of course. They ended up bailing Marvel out of bankruptcy in the mid-90s, leading to them becoming a part of Marvel proper and thereby passing the name onto Marvel’s in-house toy making branch. However, their first major property was not Marvel. No, it was actually Marvel’s main competition, DC. See, when Super Powers ended, DC was looking to move the DC license elsewhere. They turned to a small upstart company by the name of Toybiz, who launched a line simply titled DC Superheroes. The line was pretty much the same scale as Kenner’s Super Powers, mostly because it was pretty much just a slightly lower budget version of Super Powers. The sculpts were just slightly tweaked and made out of inferior plastic. Needless to say, DC wasn’t thrilled by this offering, and after just two series, the rights reverted back to Kenner. Today, I’ll be taking a look at that line’s version of Green Lantern!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s DC Super Heroes line. The figure is just shy of 5 inches tall and he features 7 points of articulation. The second series is a little different from the first in that they actually featured new sculpts, rather than just retooled SP ones. So, for better or for worse, GL got a brand new sculpt, wholly unique from his SP counterpart. I suppose it’s not fair to compare the work of Kenner at their prime to that of Toybiz in their infancy, but the sculpt of the TB Green Lantern is not up to the quality of his predecessor. The sculpt is wide and oddly proportioned. He’s got these bent arms, which are honestly impressive, because I’m surprised he could bend arms that thick. The torso is huge and ill defined, and the legs lack any real detail. The head looks not unlike a papier-mâché head sculpted over a balloon, which is not a compliment. To top it all off, the joints are horrendously obvious, to the point where you have to question if they did that on purpose. I suppose if I were really trying to find something nice to say, I’d say he bears a passing resemblance to the Filmation version of the character, which isn’t a terrible thing. The paint is…well it’s there. It’s mostly cleanly applied, but other than that, there’s not much to be said of it. The figure is incredibly shiny, which really plays up the whole obvious toy angle. The figure came with an array to let him squirt water from his ring or something. I don’t know, I bought mine loose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is another from the haul I picked up during the summer from the super cool Yesterday’s Fun. As an avid Green Lantern collector, it’s a figure I’d been looking to pick up for some time now, I’d just never gotten around to it. They had one for a reasonable price, so I went for it. Now I’m reminded of why I put off buying it. It’s not a terrible figure, it’s just overwhelmingly mediocre. It feels like one of those incredibly obvious toys they’d use on a TV show to more easily convey that it’s a toy. I just don’t quite know what they were thinking with this one, especially since it followed up figures that re-used the far superior Super Powers sculpts. 

This review came from way back in my first year, from right at the tail end of it, in fact.  While not the kindest review I’ve ever written, I can’t say I find it all that inaccurate.  I do think the Filmation angle’s grown more on me over the years, which has made my appreciation of the figure a bit greater.  In my original review, I was lacking all of the figure’s accessories, which I’ve subsequently replaced.  He has the apparatus for squirting water, as mentioned in the original review, as well as a power battery and a wearable prop ring.  The water squirting bit is very gimmicky, but fun, I suppose, and the other extras are actually pretty nice.

#3997: Superman – Power Flight

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

SUPERMAN — POWER FLIGHT

MAN OF STEEL (TOY BIZ)

When is the standard version of a character not the standard version of a character?  When it’s the ‘90s!  Or at least that’s the case when it comes to Superman, who spent a decent chunk of the decade moving between rather off-brand designs.  Following his death and return, he kept the same general suit as before, but one of the apparent side effects of coming back from the dead was getting a sick mullet, so that’s what he had going on (at least until he went all electric blue for a bit).  DC made a big splash of keeping this updated look as his evergreen appearance for a while, so it served as his primary look for his first proper toyline under Kenner, Man of Steel.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Power Flight Superman was the second of the two Superman variants in Series 1 of Man of Steel.  He served as the line’s basic Superman, and was the heaviest packed figure in both standard assortments of the line.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Due to his action feature, his articulation is kind of wonky.  He doesn’t get any side-to-side movement on the neck, instead having the slightest, tiniest, almost imperceptible up and down motion.  The shoulders are also tied into the whole thing, so there’s a mechanism that moves them in tandem.  You can pose the separately, but it’s a little more work.  His sculpt was totally unique to him (he was, notably, one of the few Supermen in the line not to use the “standard” head sculpt introduced on Laser Superman), and it’s fine.  It feels very skinny, and very stiff.  The head doesn’t feel as true to the character as Laser Superman; there’s something about it that just feels kind of pinched.  Otherwise, things are pretty basic, and the details generally work well.  The cape is removable, and is a softer rubber piece, which plugs into the back.  His color work is generally very basic.  It does what you’d expect.  The torso is prone to some discoloring over time, but it’s not as bad as some figures I’ve encountered.  He’s packed with a weird sort of chain thing, which clips over his wrists.  It’s meant to be used to capture bad guys, but it’s awkward at best, and his very narrow stance makes it a struggle to get him to use it at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In 1995, while I was busy giving away and replacing Batman figures, and my dad was rediscovering Iron Man, my mom, not one to be left out, got her own action figure of Superman, a character who had been her favorite since the first Christopher Reeve Superman.  She’d never had a figure of him, and this was the only standard one available at the time, so he fit the bill.  And then *someone* borrowed said figure, and lost his cape, so a replacement was purchased for my mom, and the now capeless figure became mine (alongside the Laser Superman specifically purchased for me alongside the replacement).  Over the years, the cape turned back up, so, hey that worked out okay.  He’s not a great figure, but he’s what we had, and that was good for me.

#3993: Laser Superman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

LASER SUPERMAN

MAN OF STEEL (KENNER)

In the ‘90s, most of Kenner’s success with the DC license was through movie and TV tie-ins, which were predominately Batman based.  Through the decade, they did try to maintain some form of comics presence as well, and in the middle of the decade, they launched a pair of lines, Legends of Batman and Man of Steel, meant to focus on DC’s top two heroes (but not their third top hero, Wonder Woman, whose licensing was…more complicated).  Legends of Batman was a Batman line, so it did well.  Man of Steel was not a Batman line, so it didn’t do as well, but it still gave us two full assortments of Superman-related figures.  The whole thing rolled out of the “Return of Superman” storyline that had just wrapped in the comics, granting the main character a few refreshed looks.  While the line leaned more into wonky variants (though was less rife with them than Legends of Batman), there was a solid comics basis as well.  So, let’s look at a comics-based Superman variant, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Laser Superman is one of the two Superman variants present in Man of Steel Series 1.  He’s the less standard of the two, drawing his look from Superman’s all-black “regeneration suit” from when he came back from the dead.  It doesn’t make it past the end of the “Return” story, but it’s a signature look, and nice and distinct from his standard design.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He gets the basic 5-POA that Kenner was pretty much locked into at this point.  It does well enough, though the legs don’t get much range, and he’s not very sure on his feet, so he has a tendency to fall down unless you lean him back.  His sculpt was all-new, and honestly not too bad.  The head is a good take on the rather dated mullet-sporting Superman look, and would be re-used by a couple of other variants as the line continued.  The body’s unique to this figure, and shows some of Kenner’s tendency to go for pre-posing, though it’s mostly limited to his arms.  His paint work is basic, mostly just black and silver, which is accurate to the design as seen in the comics.  It’s somewhat prone to wear, as you can somewhat see from my copy, but it’s generally still pretty good.  If you’re wondering why he was called “Laser Superman,” the accessories can help you out on that front.  He includes a big, honking, missile launcher, and two missiles, done in a translucent red to look like “lasers.”  Superman was without his powers for most of his time in this suit, so he carried large guns from time to time.  While this isn’t *quite* what they looked like, it’s close enough to sell it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was my first Superman, in sort of reversal of how things went with my first (and second) Batman.  My mom had Power Flight Superman (the more standard of the two) because she’s a big Superman fan.  *Someone* (who was certainly not me) lost his cape, so a replacement needed to be bought, and while we were out buying said replacement, I got to pick out my own Superman, and I settled on this one, in an effort to be different.  He’s obviously not as bright and colorful, but he’s nevertheless a fun variant on the character, and I do certainly still dig him.

#3989: Superman & Krypto

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

SUPERMAN & KRYPTO — 2025 MOVIE

MOVIE MASTERPIECE SERIES (HASBRO)

Last year definitely had some good movies, but none stood out to me as much as Superman, far and away my favorite movie of the year.  Heck, I liked it enough to see it six times in the theatre and as a parent of two, I frequently don’t get to see movies I like *once* in the theatre.  In the dumpster fire that was 2025, Superman was a movie that really connected with me, and gave me some hope that maybe, just maybe, being a good person was still a worthwhile thing.  David Corenswet’s performance as the title character is, to my eyes, a defining performance, and I’ve been snagging a bunch of toy coverage of him as its come along.  Since it’s kind of one of my favorite movies now, it’s also the sort of movie I feel comfortable dropping actual, serious money on the merch for, which, more specifically, means I’m dropping Hot Toys level money, you know, on a Hot Toys figure.  And hey, now I’ll have two Hot Toys reviews that are punk rock!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman is figure MMS812 Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series. Numerically, he’s wedged between the Revenge of the Sith Darth Vader and First Steps Thing.  He started hitting domestically right in the last couple of weeks of 2025, which is a pretty nice turnaround relative to the movie’s release.  This is the first, and thus far only, offering from Superman by Hot Toys.  Officially, it’s billed as a Superman and Krypto set, but it’s very definitely a Superman figure that includes Krypto as an accessory, so I’ll be reviewing it as such.  The figure stands just under 13 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

Unlike most of the more recent Hot Toys figures on which I’ve focused, Superman only gets a single head sculpt, rather than multiples, though that’s largely because he doesn’t have a masked look like the others.  Instead, this one just focuses on his main Superman look.  It does have moving eyes, much like Spider-Punk’s unmasked head.  They’re not PERS (the parallel rolling system), so you have to actually match them up manually, which can take some finessing.  Thankfully, they’re also not prone to popping out of the sockets the same way as Punk’s, which I’m certainly a fan of.  The actual head sculpt is generally pretty solid.  I’m not sure it’s quite a spot-on Corenswet.  I think the eyes are a touch large (a frequent symptom of the moving eye feature on these), and his jaw feels a little too small relative to the rest of his features.  That said, it’s still a very lifelike sculpt, and there’s a lot of Corenswet’s likeness visible in the final product.  This marks the first of the figures I’ve looked at from this movie that I think gets his hair right, rather than plastering it down to his sides more than it was in the movie, so I do certainly appreciate that.  I also like the expression, which isn’t too dour or serious, and is thusly in keeping with Corenswet’s portrayal of Clark.  The paint work is up to HT’s usual standards of lifelike nature.  Nothing surprising, but still very good.

Corenswet’s Superman costume was the topic of a lot of discussion prior to the film’s release, with mixed opinions about how well it translated the classic look.  I’ve been happy they kept the red trunks since the beginning, and I’ve warmed up to the other elements over time, notably the collar, which was my biggest point of contention when it was first shown off.  I think it’s a look that benefits from being seen in motion, but also getting to see it in-hand helps it too.  The figure’s suit is largely one piece, much like the movie.  The trunks and belt are separate, but not designed for removal, and the same is true of the cape.  There’s a pair of plastic boots/feet as well, which sell the whole thing.  The suit is well tailored to the figure, and fits more or less like it does in the movie.  The texturing seems a touch exaggerated from what we see on-screen, but not to the point of distraction.  The slightly rubberized nature of the suit does mean you’ll want to be careful about leaving it in deep poses; I’ve have him in a flying pose with one knee bent since opening him, and noticed a bit of stretching when I returned him to a neutral pose.  Nothing that will ruin the figure, but worth noting.  The cape has wiring running through it, so you can do a bit of posing, to the extent that gravity lets you, of course.  I quite like the sculpted “S” on the back of the cape, as it gives it a nice pop.  The boots are perhaps my favorite piece of the suit, as they’re a flexible enough material that he can still use his ankle joints, which is a rarity on other figures at this scale.  I’m also quite a fan of the coloring on the suit, which is more in line with the film’s final coloring than the other merchandise has been.

The underlying body is designed for a mix of posing and build.  It’s a good match for Corenswet’s build in the role, which helps the head sculpt in selling the likeness.  It’s decently posable, and the costume sits nicely on it, making it a good fit for all the things in needs to do.

Superman is packed with the Krypto mentioned in the title, as well as 10 hands and a display stand. 

 Krypto is mentioned as part of the figure set here, and, well, that’s honestly kind of a misnomer.  I get the appeal of pushing Krypto, what with him being a rather popular part of the movie and all, but what we get here isn’t a proper figure at all, just more of a figurine that accompanies the main figure.  Apart from wiring in his cloth cape to match Clark’s, Krypto isn’t posable, just in the one flying pose.  He gets a flight stand of his own to hold him up, which is good, since it’s not like he can really stand on his own.  His sculpt is a fine match for the the model in the movie, but does feel rather soft on detailing for a Hot Toys offering.  The paint is likewise a bit thick and basic for the most part.

Superman himself gets hands in relaxed, fist, gripping, flat, and open gesture poses, which work the way all Hot Toys hands do.  They give him a nice selection of variety, but I’m also not going to be swapping them like crazy, as they take a bit of doing.  The display stand is a rather elaborate, somewhat modular piece, patterned on part of the Fortress of Solitude.  It’s impressive, and I like the options for how to use it.  There’s two ways to attach him to it, with the standard “cradle” attachment piece, as well as an arm with a magnetic attachment to aid in flying poses.  I wish the magnetic arm had a joint on it for some more variety in angles, but I definitely like the magnetic set-up for use with the flying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Superman was my favorite comic book movie since Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is a pretty big deal for me, because I *really* like The Winter Soldier (and also saw it six times int he theatre).  Unfortunately, I stopped my main stretch of Hot Toys collecting just before the Winter Soldier figures got released, so I never got Cap from that movie, which I always regretted.  I wasn’t planning to do that again, so I made sure to get myself down for this guy fairly quickly.  I was primarily in this for the Superman, with Krypto more as an accessory, and that’s good, because that’s how the final product worked out.  I definitely feel like the “set” angle is a marketing move more than a proper approach from the beginning.  That said, the Clark figure is pretty darn fantastic, and a really great representation of the character for the shelf.  He poses well, looks very nice on display, and with the big stand set-up, he makes for quite a centerpiece.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3985: Tyr

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

TYR

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

Last year, I reviewed 25 Super Powers figures here on the site, which is a crazy metric for a line that was three decades dead and only had 35 total figures when I started the site.  McFarlane running a revival certainly helped bump those stats.  The main point I’m getting at here is that the rarity of a Super Powers review wasn’t really a thing last year.  Unfortunately, we’re going back to more standard operating on such things this year.  But, let’s at least start off on a good note, with a proper vintage figure review!  Today, we’re looking at that true classic of a DC character, Tyr. ….What, you don’t know Tyr?  I can’t believe you don’t know Tyr!  He’s only….wait, hang on, sorry, let me check the wiki…oh, darn, there’s no wiki.  Right.  So, like, the before times.  Tyr, despite indications to the contrary, was *not* a Kenner original creation like so many others in the final year of Super Powers, but rather a fairly minor Legion of Super Heroes villain.  He’d resurfaced not terribly long before his toy, but again as a minor player, making his inclusion odd to say the least, especially given that the Legion themselves wouldn’t get any sort of action figure coverage for another decade and a half.  But hey, that’s Kenner.  And this is Tyr.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tyr was released in the third and final series of Kenner’s Super Powers line in 1986.  As with many of the characters contained within, this was Tyr’s first figure, and would also remain his only figure until DC Universe Classics released him as an expressed homage to Super Powers in 2010.  The figure stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall (not counting his mohawk) and he has 6 points of articulation.  Tyr’s articulation scheme is the same as all of the line’s standard figures, which is good and sensible.  He had a unique sculpt, which remained so, thanks largely to the end of the line.  He was based on Dave Cockrum’s design for the character from the comics, and honestly it’s a design that meshes pretty darn well with the established aesthetics of the later run Super Powers figures, which only further added to him feeling like a Kenner original character.  The sculpt is, honestly, not the strongest work from this line.  While the proportions and general build are okay, he feels oddly devoid of smaller details, and generally just very basic and kind of geometric. The head’s certainly the best part, with a lot more texturing, notably on the hair, as well as a little more definition in his face.  The body, on the other hand, is weaker.  His posing is very stiff and flat, and it’s not helped by the rather boxy nature of the right arm, which also feels like it sits too low?  I don’t know.  Said right arm is also home to the figure’s action feature.  Squeezing his legs raises the arm and shoots the missile portion.  It’s a basic feature, but more nuanced in how it works, since it doesn’t use any exposed buttons of levers.  Honestly, this part’s actually really cool, so props to Kenner on that.  His color work is pretty much point for point what he looks like in the comics.  It does what is needs to.  There’s a bit of bleed over on some of the smaller line-work, but it generally looks good.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I, like many other people, only know of Tyr’s existence because of this toy.  And that’s pretty crazy, because my dad’s a pretty huge Legion fan who absolutely owned Tyr’s earliest appearances when I was growing up.  I remember seeing him in the line-up on the Super Powers Archive, and, well, I can’t say he ever impressed me terribly.  He was one of those far away figures I don’t know if I ever really saw myself owning.  And then, suddenly, he was one of the last three I didn’t have.  And, now, here he is.  My dad got him for me for Christmas, as has become the tradition, and he got here a little late (as has also become a tradition, I guess), so he was officially my first figure of the new year.  He’s, like, fine.  That’s really it.  Fine.  Like, it’s cool to own him, and he’s the first Legion toy, so I guess that’s neat.  And, admittedly, the missile firing bit is fun.  So I’ll give them that.  But the actual figure is sort of just fine.  Still, I’m glad to own him, and he’s cool on the shelf.  And now I just need two more, with the caveat that my visual line-up is complete, because I do have stand-ins for Cyborg and Mr. Freeze.

#3981: Superman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

SUPERMAN

SUPERMAN (SPIN MASTER)

Okay, I kicked off a new year of writing reviews yesterday with a look at something old, but how about something new?  Yeah, let’s do that!  And, in a time honored tradition for my January reviews, I’m jumping into the post-Christmas season with some items I got over the holiday.  My favorite movie from last year was Superman, and that’s something that was no secret to my friends and family.  I’ve been steadily acquiring a lot of versions of David Corenswet in the title role, in all manner of styles.  Today, I move away from the collector stylings, and lean heavier into proper toy coverage.  Let’s have a look at this here Superman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman is part of Spin Master’s overarching Superman tie-in product line from 2025.  This one is from the largest of the scales they offered, the 12-inch line, which featured Supes and the three members of the Justice Gang, who appear to have all been sold as singles and in one boxed set together.  This one is the single, but the figures are the same.  The figure stands 12 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  Compared to other lines of this scale and style, the articulation scheme here is actually quite nice.  Hasbro always goes really basic on the Titan Heroes range, but Clark gets knees and elbows, and wrists.  Honestly, the only thing I really think could make a difference is a waist, and even so, he does fine without it, given the price range.  Superman’s sculpt is unique, and it’s pretty decent at that.  The likeness on the head is really strong, looking even more like Corenswet than the McFarlane figure did.  The detailing on the hair is a little on the softer side, but the face is pretty crisp.  The body sculpt is likewise a little soft, but there’s some impressive texture work on the suit.  His cape is a cloth piece, in a similar fashion to their smaller scale figures, but mounted in a better way at the shoulders.  It’s a decent enough fabric, hangs okay, and he’s even got his “S” insignia printed on the back.  Superman’s color work, much like the McFarlane figure, is a little darker than in the final film, which looks to be a concept thing, more than anything.  The paint work is alright.  The eyes and eyebrows are printed, which adds a lifelike quality to the figure.  The more general application is a bit on the sloppy side, with a fair bit of bleed over in several different spots.  None of it’s terrible, and you won’t really notice it with a quick glance.  Superman is without any accessories, which isn’t much of a surprise for this type of figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This Superman was a Christmas gift given to me by my daughter Aubrey.  She’s a huge Superman fan herself, and she’s watched the movie with me a great many times at home since its release.  Her mom took her out, and this was the item she ultimately arrived at, which isn’t too shocking, I suppose.  Obviously, it’s not the sort of figure I’d buy for myself, but that doesn’t make him bad at all.  In fact, I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the quality of Spin Master’s offerings relative to their pricing.  Yes, he’s a “cheap” figure, but he’s better than you might expect, and just a neat basic Superman figure.

#3978: Superman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

SUPERMAN

JLA (HASBRO)

“Though genetically an alien conceived on the planet Krypton, Superman is an American by birth, born in a Kansas cornfield. Through his deeds, Superman has become earth’s preeminent super hero. Time and again, he has proven himself a true hero, capable of whatever bravery and self-sacrifice is necessary to right a wrong or save a life. The guiding force behind the Justice League and the example of metahumans across the globe, Superman’s existence has changed the world forever.”

It shouldn’t seem odd to read a Superman bio, but this one’s notable for directly referencing the ship actually “birthing” Clark on Earth, which was introduced during John Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot.  Like a great many things introduced during that reboot, it’s the sort of thing that got quietly dropped, but it was still the official cannon when this figure was released.  Even a regular, normal, classic Superman still gets a little bit of weirdness in the ‘90s, huh?  Well, let’s jump into another JLA review!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman was released in the second series of Hasbro’s JLA line, which, if I’m recalling correctly, is the first one actually branded from Hasbro, rather than Kenner.  He was also in the line’s third boxed set.  This was the fourth Superman in the line, making him the most numerous character in the line at that point (Batman would catch up with him by the end of it).  It’s also the first “normal” comic Superman, in, like, a decade, since Man of Steel and Total Justice were both while he was still sporting the mullet, and JLA launched while he was still in the midst of the the Blue/Red storyline.  It was a big deal, for sure.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like the last three Supermen from this line, this figure was re-using the body of his Total Justice counterpart.  Unlike the last three, however, he also re-uses that figure’s cape.  His head is…well, it’s hard to tell if its new here, or elsewhere.  It was used both here and on the battle-damaged version of the character released alongside Metallo in a Hasbro Toy Shop-exclusive two-pack under the DC Super Heroes banner, in rather close proximity.  It would also be used on the armored Superman from this line’s last assortment.  In all three cases, it replaced a mulleted Superman head.  It’s not a bad sculpt, but ultimately feels a little bit off model for Superman as he was typically depicted at the time.  The shaping of the face seems a bit more rounded, and the hair lacks the typical s-curl, favoring a more general swoop in the front.  I remember it was used by a number of customizers at the time as an Elongated Man head, and I can very definitely see that.  Superman’s color work is pretty basic, modern era classic Superman coloring stuff.  The blue is on the darker side, which isn’t my preferred, but is accurate to how he was depicted at the time.  The paint on all of the JLA figures felt really prone to damage, but Superman was especially so.  The paint tends to chip, and the flesh tones are almost gummy, to the point that his cape is actually fused at the neck on my figure.  Superman included a JLA display stand in blue, same as Martian Manhunter from the same assortment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was a big deal back in the day, because it really had been forever since we’d gotten a short-haired comic Superman, and it was certainly never in this style.  I recall him not being especially easy to find for this very reason.  I ended up getting him, probably in ’99 or ’00, from the Balticon dealer’s room, which typically had *nothing* in the way of toys, but that particular year had Superman and a Toy Biz Robin on a dealer’s table, both of which came home with me.  I liked this one a lot, and he got a lot of playtime, which only contributed to the wear and tear to his paint (which I’ve since done a little bit of restoring to).  In retrospect, that head doesn’t feel very Superman-y, but I was just so happy to have a classic Superman at all, that it didn’t bug me all that much.