Movie Masters Man of Steel Supes vs Zod...

Man of Steel vs General Zod

I’ve wanted these Men of Steel figures since way before the movie was even released in the cinemas. Again, ridiculous retail prices deterred me from picking them up through the conventional brick & mortar retail shelves. This phenomenon is no longer strange to us collectors in Malaysia. First, we had to put up with Hasbro Malaysia’s crazy out-of-this-world pricing on their Star Wars products (refer to my previous rant on the Republic Gunship) and those collecting Mattel’s Movie Masters line faced a similar shenanigan when we are forced to cough up RM99.90 (that’s almost 32 American Dollars folks!) of our hard earn pay for them. How is that so Mattel? Why do we have to pay a different/higher price than what those are going for in the States? I’d be happy to pay the USD18-20 price tag slapped for them in the States. Paying another 50% on top of that made me feel like a sucka....as I am already ONE for paying such exorbitant prices for Mattel’s MOTU Classics action figures. Anyway, enough grouses. I found a local seller that’s willing to sell me MOC Supes and the ‘Shackled’ Zod for RM40 (or approximately USD12.50 a piece) and I knew that was my calling to finally get these for my collection. Let’s take a look at ‘em....

First of all, I think that the packaging is such a waste. Even with the figures inside, there’s just so much ‘idle’ space inside the plastic bubble. I wished Mattel had given us some accessories for these figures. The 2nd version of Supes came with the Kryptonian command key, but this 1st version is just so.....bare. Zod came shackled in his.....err...shackles. Both figures came with their respective action figure stand but that’s barely counted as their accessories. They’re more like ‘necessities’ really as I think that EVERY action figures should come with one.
Man of Steel: Superman

Honestly, I feel bad for you guys for paying the full price (USD18-20 or USD32 for us unlucky folks here in Malaysia!) because with virtually no accessories, these guys are just USD15 (tops!) at best in my opinion. No BAF parts this time around ala the Bat-Signal for the TDKR Movie Masters line. At the time of writing this, I can already see that many retail stores are already marking the prices down for these Movie Masters Men of Steel figures with one store even selling the ‘black-suit’ Supes and Faora at just RM30 (or just USD9) each! No sign of the ‘armoured’ Zod anywhere though at those low prices.
You get the customary bio and stuff at the back of the card. Pretty basic stuff really but at least they’re fairly better than the one-liner Marvel Legends bio...LOL.
Man of Steel: General Zod in shackles

Right, as soon as I ripped them into the open, I find that they’re very similar to the Dark Knight figures we’ve seen before in terms of articulations and sculpt-wise. I think both the Superman and Zod figures have decent likeness to Henry Cavill and Michael Shannon respectively. Some collectors grumbled that they look too cartoony etc. but they’re ok in my books.
Let’s take a gander at the mighty (yet ‘shackled’) General Zod!

General Zod

This version of the Kryptonian military general had him in shackles, presumably to emulate that scene prior to Krypton’s unfortunate fate. I noticed that the ‘regular’ version did not only contain the shackle accessory but that Zod didn’t have the scar that Lara El gave him during the Jor El murder scene. So I guess this version is a tad better. Your choice really, but I’m glad I was able to track this one down at a decent price.
General Zod

I love it that shackles looked like it’s an extension of the spine and it does look like something out of this world. I bet nothing on earth actually looked like that so kudos to the props maker over at Zack Snyder’s team. It was however such a pain to remove from the action figure but I finally did it over some time. I didn’t want to remove the head so I slowly eased it off bit by bit.
General Zod

Zod has the backward “C” symbol on his chest (that’s how my son had put it....wrongly written alphabet as Zod’s emblem/crest). It’s nice to see that there are other family crests out there on Krypton although the House of El seemed to be the one that actually made sense i.e. coincides with the Earth Roman alphabets. His black suit has a nice raised texture feel to it similar to what we saw (and presumed it would have felt if we were to touch it) on screen.
General Zod

Articulation wise, these Movie Masters are basically as good as what you’ve seen on the DCUCs and previous TDK ‘Masters figures. I’ve always love the hinged hips. It allows you to better pose them in whatever fighting stance you can think of really.
General Zod

Now let’s take a look at the main man himself....
Superman sports a new revamped suit and it also has that same texture as we’ve seen and felt on Zod’s suit. Some fans didn’t really warm up to this design as it mirrors heavily elements from the new 52 comic-verse. Gone are the undies and that oh-so-bright belt that we’ve seen on the classic Supes. I’m pretty okay with this new design although I don’t follow any of the new 52 stuff. Supes’ current suit looks more realistic and more ‘real world’. To each their own.

Superman Man of Steel

Superman Man of Steel
I also love the flow of his cape even though I would’ve preferred a cloth one like the one that came in that SDCC 2-pack with Zod. But I honestly I feel that Batman needed the cloth cape option more than Supes himself....you know, with him being on top of building, squatting on ledges and stuff like that.
This new suit’s colours remind me a great deal of that ‘evil Superman’ we’ve seen in Richard Lester’s Superman III. Even back when I first saw that Gus Gorman-led film, I’ve always had this secret wish that somehow, someway a Superman could actually have that darker colour scheme instead of the skittle-bright conventional one....and here it is. Ask and thou shall receive!

Superman Man of Steel

Superman Man of Steel

What amazes me most from watching the Men of Steel (MoS) flick was how Cavill really looked like Christopher Reeve from certain angles. That was surely unintentional but it certainly did add to the nostalgia especially for those who yearned for that mythical ‘Superman V/Superman: Reborn’ from Reeve. Although this action figure does not give me the same Reeve-vibe like we saw on film, it does remind me a lot to the actor even much better than Brandon Routh’s plastic form.
Superman Man of Steel

Man of Steel vs General Zod

How about we pit the two against each other now?
So here’s some ACBA shots (what does it mean? Well, go look it up on the net....heheh) for good measures. I wish that I’d be able to get my hands on that armoured Zod soon but in the meantime, here’s ‘armour-less’ Zod (as you’ve seen him during the final battle scene of MoS) going it up against the son of El....

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Man of Steel vs General Zod

THE REBEL’S VERDICT: At USD12 each they’re a steal and worth every single cent paid for them. Even if you can’t find them at reduced prices I’d still recommend you to get them especially if you’re a fan of the movie. Forget about those abysmal 3.75-inchers. These are the MoS figures that deserve to be on your display shelves (until I get my Hot Toys version that is!). Two thumbs up.

Man of Steel vs General Zod

Comments

Combo said…
I took this Superman only because he is fairly in scale with some of my 6-inch figures and the fact that he got some decent articulation. As for General Zod, I like this Movie Masters figure but I would prefer the Armored General Zod version from the same toyline.
deSMOnd said…
nice fighting scene you created..
The Rebel said…
Combollector - yea, I'm gunning for the Armoured Zod to be marked down real soon here at retail...LOL.

Des - Thks bro...