Superman Man of Steel Movie Masters Faora and General Zod (Kryptonian Armor) action figure review

With Superman the Man of Steel movie climbing higher on the charts the first series of 6" Movie Masters figures are beginning to disappear from the pegs. Fortunately there's a new wave to restock that contains an older General Zod in Kryptonian Armor and his right hand lady, Faora. How do these figures match up with current and past offerings? Let's take the review train to Krypton!

Sculpting for Zod is pretty impressive. The headsculpt appears to be an older version with a beard this go around but what really sets him apart from the first version is the incredible armor. Its overlapping scales are detailed and tech-looking with just the slightest hint of a 'Aliens' in the design. Zod's black undersuit where it shows through the armor has the same micro-texture as the rest. The helmet Zod comes with looks fearsome, like an organic breather unit and I swear the face took cues from a Storm Trooper if I look close enough. A great tattered cape rounds out Zod's look.

Faora's sculpting is equally as detailed with nice armored sections, tho less of them, and gives her a Medieval look with the shoulderpads and elbow armor. More of her undersuit is showing and there's lots of micro-detail on that. This doesn't appear to be her combat armor as the clips from the film show her with shoulderpads that are the same size. Faora's face sculpt is pleasant to look at with strong features, tho with certain paint apps missing it looks more like the actor without her makeup on. Her cape is more textured than Zod's and looks great draped behind her. Faora has a non-removable blade on her left him as well.

Paint apps for Zod consist of his armor molded in black with silver drybrushing over the edges to give it a worn appearance. His helmet is the same way with the top fading to clear. I would have liked to see more highlights on his lower arms and legs but perhaps that's the way its suppose to look. Faora Has more color to her with lots of bronze highlights and an airbrushed cape as well as Zod. But she's just woken up and forgot to put on her black eye-liner and blue contacts. Without this distinct look there's definitely something missing about her wearing the armor and being Faora.

The articulation for these figures varies with high and low points. Zod has now standard Movie-Master articulation missing ankle rockers and an ab crunch, only having a cut waist now. His armored skirt gets in the way of his leg articulation and only allows him a 20 deg range of motion unless you feel like cutting the straps/plates away that sit in front of his thighs. Zod's shoulder pads are part of his arm so there's no hindrance when raising his arms. He even has separate trigger fingers indicating that he may have been styled to hold a weapon at some point. Faora fares much better in articulation range except that her shoulderpads are part of her torso, tho they are flexible and don't stop her arms from moving up very much.

Accessories are scarce once again here. Zod comes with his neat removable helmet and base, Faora only coming with her base. She has a sculpted knife on his left side but can't wield it. With clenched fists it wouldn't do her much good anyway. You'd think with her knife play being part of her character she'd have something to hold. Some of the other Movie Masters come with things like shackles or a prop-like Kryptonian command key.

So what's the deal with these two galactic fugitives? They're pretty neat armored figures especially Zod with his Vader-esq appearance. A little paint on Faora's face would go a long way and a good customizer can fix her right up. Our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store has them all for preorder (or perhaps in stock by the time you read this) and Amazon is also an easy way of snagging them. They can also be found in stores but keep selling out as the Movie Masters series is the only decent line of Man of Steel figures out there for retail.

Superman Man of Steel Movie Masters Jor-El Action figure review

The new Superman reboot movie simply titled 'Man of Steel' is coming up and the toys are already hitting. Some of the kid-based ones possibly give away spoilers as to the enemies he fights and a possible movie plot. Here we're taking a look at the Movie Masters Jor-El from the collector based line, judging from the addition of  'Adult Collector' printed across the package. He's Superman's biological father that stayed on Krypton and is played by Russel Crowe in the movie.

Sculpting for Jor-El is startlingly detailed given we had a fairly lackluster Green Lantern Movie Masters offerings before this. The armor is an instant stand-out with all sorts of tencho-organic looking features and a textured under suit. You can make out the 'S' on his chest, the Superman family crest as it's explained, with strands of armor 'growing' around it. Russel Crowe's face is instantly recognizable and done with equally excellent detail that's just a step or two below NECA quality. There's also the addition of flexible hoses that run underneath Jor-El's arms to his back.

Paint application is cleanly applied with no slop anywhere. The armor is a
two-toned metallic that has been highlighted with a brass color and really makes the detail pop. The blue under suit has airbrushed shading as does Jor-El's flesh tones of his face and neck. The eyes, beard, and hair are carefully painted with the beard standing out having some nice shading. While there's not that many different shades of color here they work for the knight-armor style of design.

Jor-El's articulation is standard Mattel style except he's lacking an ab-crunch or tilt-ankles. Every joint has decent range of motion save for raising his arms straight up as the hoses restrict how far they can move. That means no flying poses for Jor-El here. Decent ball jointed neck movement and nearly 90-deg  hips mean you can get him into some interesting poses nonetheless. I would like to someday see tilt ankles return to mattel's offerings especially now that Hasbro has perfected them with their Marvel Legends line. His shoulderpads are permanently attached to his shoulder balls but really don't get in the way of articulation all that much but strike the collar before moving all the way up.

Accessories have always been the bane of Movie Masters figures either
giving us useless ones (Batman crime evidence/mini-masks) simply nothing (lack of any MM Green Lantern constructs) or impossibly hard to complete BAFs (TDKR Bat-Signal-good-luck-building-it parts). Here we only get a stand cast in a steel color with a yellow S painted upon it. The stand is textured but lacking any sculpt to the S which is simply painted on making it look sort of cheap. Jor-El stands just fine without it and the peg is slightly larger than the foot hole meaning you'll really need to twist it on.

So what's the verdict on Superman's Papa here? He's in interesting figure both in appearance and possible customizer fodder. I'm sure people have been wanting a Russel Crowe at some point and this is the first 6" version we've received. However the $16.99 and up price point is going to be a big turn off especially since there's no BAF part or decent accessory. Jor-El is scaled a little under 6" making him work with some figures but look shorter than most DCU/Marvel Legends. He does scale well next to the Batman and Green Lantern Movie Masters which were shorter than 6" to begin with so that may not be a deal-breaker for everyone. You can find the Man of Steel Movie Masters series at your normal mass-market retailers like Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us.

He Man Classics Granamyr Dragon action figure review

Granamyr the Great Magic Wielding Dragon appeared in the He-Man cartoons and for some reason sticks out in my mind fairly well among all the other characters. He appeared in just 4 episodes but was the one opponent He Man couldn't defeat by strength alone. Mattel decided it was time to give this giant dragon a giant action figure treatment and here he is.

The box is done in classic MotU packaging, a white outer box and the inner art-covered box inside. Granamyr comes unembarrassed and in a neat plastic tray. Less than 2 minutes and you'll have him put together, immediately noticing how huge he is standing (or rather sitting) and 23" tall. The sculpting for him is excellent with detail in all the scales, leathery wings, toothy facial features, and black claws. The belly plates are nicked and dinged from battles long since past and the viking-esq helmet looks the part as well.His wings happen to be re-uses from Draego Man from the line.

Articulation for this big fellow is pretty decent considering he's mainly pvc Roto-Cast plastic. His ball jointed neck works great, and everything else on him is ball-jointed save for the shoulders, hips, and tail. The lack of ball shoulders means he can't really reach out to the side, odd that joint was left out considering arm movement is the main feature given his sitting position. While his upper body seems to have an ab crunch it's just the connection spot and doesn't move. Still there's rather decent range of movement with everything and you can even stand him up. As light as he is Gran's legs can support his own weight, if only looking a little funny doing so.

Paint applications are very clean and consist of primary plastic colors with airbrushing for highlights and shadows. The lighter purple on his belly could have used a wash but looks decent regardless all one shade.His helmet is a nice metallic color and the fade to the horns looks rather nice. All those tiny teeth are sharply painted and the bright yellow eyes set inside the dark sockets gives Gran some terrifying features.

Granamyr doesn't come with any accessories and unfortunately his helmet isn't removable. Had it been, he would have made an excellent generic 'boss dragon' for kids to pit their heroes up against. There's some assembly instructions but that's it. I kind of wish he came with a treasure pile or some of the gold armor/weapons he guards.

So what'd the verdict on this massive fellow? Well he was $80 to begin with on the MattyCollector site but has long since been sold out. That means secondary market is your only choice. Before you check ebay head over to our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store has him in stock but you can bet he won't last long. If you're in the mood for a giant centerpiece to your Masters of the Universe collection you don't get much bigger than this, well unless you're ordering their gigantic Castle Grayskull.

Batman Arkham City Batsuit figure Review

The line of 6" DC Universe figures is ever expanding and we now have figures from the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Toys R Us has an exclusive grey and blue Batman with the black mask that pays homage to the classic Batman design. This appears to be one of the modded costumes you can wear in the game as well. He doesn't come with any accessories, but his hands are fists so he wouldn't be able to hold them either.

Sculpting is pretty decent. There's a nice carbon-fiber texture all over his main body, the armored boots/gloves are nicely done, and the belt is pretty spiffy looking too. The face/cowl looks stern and the cape hangs well. The packaging does a nice job of displaying the figure and is part of the Batman legacy line that's out. No Build-a-figure pieces here unfortunately as it only has 3 or so figure in it per wave.

Now, articulation..this is where the figure disappoints. The range of motion is exactly what you see in the pictures. Because of the design neither his elbows, hips, or knees, can achieve a 90 deg angle. He has all the points of artic that a regular DCU has but they simply don't work. No ankle rockers and no decent movement forward/back means you can't really pose him walking that well either. You'll have to carve a lot of plastic out of the joints to fix this, if you want to go the customizing route.

Paint is a mixed bag. I'm not thrilled on how bright everything is but that's the classic look for you. Its applied neatly for the most part and there's a light wash over his body that brings out the suit detail along with his belt. The blue doesn't have any sort of wash which is a shame because there's a lot of cool armor detail that can be brought out here.

The verdict? Unless you have some customizing skill and want to carve the excess plastic from every joint (which I did, and it works) he's kinda a statue. The design is cool and there's a black and grey version which you may prefer. Our sponsors BBTS carries all the Batman legacy figures at great prices and Past Generation Toys has some of the Legacy as well.

DC Universe Wave 19 Magog action figure review

If you've read the Kingdom Come graphic novel (and you better have) then you know who Magog is even if you haven't caught his appearances in the regular comics. Cabl...I mean Magog stands 6" tall like the rest of the DCU and has a brand new sculpt for every part of his body. I particularly like the sculpt of the organic golden sections growing out of his skin, pants, and boots. His waist gun is sculpted on to his belt and can't be removed unfortunately.

Magog's paint apps are what you expect for DCU with a light shading on his flesh tones and a wash of dark brown on his belt and pouches. His boots could have benefited from a wash but like the rest of him are solid colors. The gold is nice and neat, shiny and smooth. His ram horns are shiny gold and look pretty nifty. You can even see the tiny scars on Cab...Magog's right eye and his mouth-line is painted in, uncommon for a DCU.

Articulation for Ca...Ok let's get this out of the way. Magog is DC's visual version of Marvel's Cable. Pouches, shoulderpad, kneepads, webgear-pants, metal left arm/body section, and a right eye with a star-scar. I simply can't unsee that. But anyway articulation is what you'd expect for a DCU with a better tilt neck joint. His shoulderpad fringes are flexible to allows his arms plenty of room. Mattel got rid of the rocker foot joints and that's all he's missing.

Overall Magog is another fine addition to your DC Universe collection and comes with a hard plastic staff and a chunk of the S.T.R.I.P.E. build a figure robot. You have to collect all 6 figures to make STRIPE but that's where you'll pause. because each figure will run you $18. While I want a giant red white and blue robot I'm torn between the characters I'm not interested in and the $100+ it will cost to end up with them. Though the golden age Sandman is in the set. I'd get him too. Magog the Cable clone, he's waiting at a Walmart/Target/Toys R Us near you.

DC Universe Owlman: Crime Syndicate of Amerika action figure review

Sitting on the shelves at your local Walmart is a very large 5-pack of figures exclusive to the retail chain. It's the DC Universe 'Crime Syndicate of Amerika'. Yes, they spelled America different. There's 4 other figures in it but all you'll really want is Owlman who is not the same as the Owlman from the Watchamn but rather the older brother of a deceased Bruce Wayne from a parallel universe. Wat? Don't worry about it.

Thomas Wayne aka Owlman is really spiffy looking. He's basically dark blue with black airbrushing in the muscles with gunmetal armor and silver highlights. This makes for an incredibly sleek looking character that reminds me of the 90's superheroes that were all Shadowhawk-ish. Or maybe that was just Shadowhawk. Either way Owlman looks as good as the prototypes we saw at the SDCC which is rarely the case.

He's the only figure in the set to come with an accessory too, a little owlrang I suppose. It's made of flexible rubber just like his cape so it kinda warps in his hand. Speaking of the cape it hangs beautifully from his shoulders and drapes over his arms in any position you put him in. The sculpting for his helmet is great as are the bands around his arms and legs. Even his belt is neat looking with an owl-faced buckle. Deadpool would be jealous.

Owlman's articulation is the basic DCU style seeing as they used a basic body with two exceptions. One, his head can actually pivot up and down on what appears to be a new neck joint, unlike the old ones that were solidly affixed in the neck. The other is that he's lacking ankle rockers. All the figures are. This limits the wide-legged stance you can put him in unless you steal an older figure's feet and swap them on.

So what's the catch? As I mentioned earlier he's part of a 5-pack set that's a Walmart exclusive only...and one that will run you $75! That's $15 a figure with only one accessory and no build-a-figure parts. For some that's just too steep. You can try and find him on eBay (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) now