Man Of Steel 2013 Mattel

Is there any superhero more iconic and recognisable than Superman? More original and influential? Sure there are many  beloved comic book heroes but Superman truly is the Granddaddy of them all and as such any movie featuring one of the most recognisable characters in pop culture history will be thoroughly scrutinized and if deemed a failure will be cast out (Like General Zod and his cohorts) and banished to the phantom Zone where all atrocious Comic Book "inspired" movies dwell! Luckily Man Of Steel manages to escape such a fate despite some minor misjudgements and tonal issues. The premise of MOS is similar to that of Batman Begins (The latter's Director Christopher Nolan serving as producer) in that MOS is essentially a reboot retelling Supes history from the destruction of his birth planet of Krypton to his bringing up in small Ville by the Kent's right through to his meeting Lois Lane and his final showdown with the vengeful General Zod which features perhaps the movies most controversial moment! Its all thing we have experienced before in arguably better Superman movies but MOS at least ups the ante in terms of spectacle and whets the whistle for up coming instalments!    


Mattel once more provided the action figures and various other toys and games for DC's latest big screen adaptation with somewhat mixed results. Along with the usual Movie Masters line of "highly detailed and super articulated adult collector" figures were the more basic and smaller regular line of figures that whist nicely detailed and well made are seriously lacking in variety and imagination. Here we will explore two of the figures from the series; the main antagonist and the title hero in detail:  

SUPERMAN: The mighty alien from the ill fated planet Krypton arrives on earth as a child and vows to use his abilities to help those in need while moonlighting as Newspaper reporter Clark Kent when not in his red and blue spandex flying around metropolis and wooing Lois Lane! .  

There were many variants of superman available in the line, some just straight forward repaints of the "Hero" figure seen here. Each figure has the same head sculpt and fabric cape with limited articulation and basic paint applications. still this is a very nice looking toy and perfectly captures the character as seen in the movie

Man Of Steel may have portrayed Superman as a touch more serious and brooding very little has changed in the way of his iconic appearance with actor henry Cavill looking as though he stepped out of any one of superman's classic comic book issues onto the big screen and this figure does a relatively decent job of capturing the actors likeness but does an even better one on the texture and design f the costume.

The solitary accessory supplied with superman is this motorcycle which come sin two halves to appear as though it has been ripped in two to be used as a weapon against Zod! It is all cast in one lump of sliver plastic and has no articulation and doesn't even seem to be in scale with the figure itself but is still quite nicely detailed and looks pretty good when placed in Superman's hands

GENERAL ZOD: Militaristic rebel leader Zod is sentenced to "300 cycles of somatic reconditioning" in the Phantom Zone after failing in battle with Kryptonian scientist  Jor-El only to resurface 33 earth years later to exact revenge of Jor-El's son who after escaping the destruction of his home planet as an infant has taken on the role of protector to the people of earth as Superman!

Almost the entire range of figures in the series feature either General Zod or Superman himself, with Zod only getting two variants in this scale. This version is based on Zods early appearance in the film when he squares up to superman's father (Russell Crowe) Zod is attired in futuristic looking armour which is very nicely sculpted though is all cast in black with no additional paint apps to help bring out the details

Again a fairly decent job had been done in capturing the likeness of the performer, in this case actor Michael Shannon, but with only basic paint applications on his hair and eyes/eye brows he face  lacks realism

Again there is only one accessory to speak of though it comes in two parts which when placed together forms a larger weapon that is difficult for the figure to hold so is best utilized as two single weapons. Once more these are cast in a single colour with no detailing at all but are still very nicely sculpted and look great in the figures possession!




As with the Dark Knight trilogy Man Of Steel is a slightly more sober take on a larger than life comic book hero and some may find that refreshing others will the change in tone a disappointment, similarly the Mattel toy line is lacking in fun with only basic articulation and unimaginative accessories (where there are any) still the movie designs translate well into figure form and when placed with the Green Lantern and Dark Knight figures make for a nice little set.


figures available:


Basic Series:
Superman
-Auto Assault
-Concrete Crusher
-Split Cycle
-Krypton Combat
-Tread Attack
-Strike Shield
-Wrecking Ball


General Zod
-Demolition Claw
-Shadow Assault


Figures without Accessories:
General Zod
-Black


Superman
-Red/Blue (Hero)
-Red/Blue
-Silver


Electronic:
-Mega Punch Superman


Flight speeders:
-Superman (various)
-Zod
-multipack
-Strike Ship
-Sky Slam Launcher


Power Action Deluxe:
Superman
-Wheel Wrecker
-Bank Breaker


General Zod
-Duel Destruction


Quick Shots:
Superman
-Attack Armour
-Flight Strike
-Ultrahero
-Krypton Clash
-Fire Fighter


General Zod
-Flyin' Fury


-Cruiser Smash Battle Pack
-Tank Buster Battle Pack
-Battle For Metropolis Play Set