Superman Toy Prototype From Man of Steel Movie Toy Line

POTENTIAL MAN OF STEEL SPOILERS. Do not read further, click on the pics or the auction listings if you want to see nothing from the movie.

Saw the blue-bodied one a day or two ago. The all read one is new to me. I have to admit, the sculpting on them actually looks rather good, and the articulation is actually better than I was expecting. The shoulders actually have outward movement for once, he has elbows, and it even looks like that could be a ball jointed head. The t-hips and lack of any other leg articulation is a disappointment, but all-in-all it could be worse. I might actually get one of these 3-3/4" scaled figures. Though I might wait and just get the Movie Master one we're supposed to be getting.

Edit: Looking at the seller's other listings, I love how all of them stat with "DC Universe". Even the Spider-Man prototypes...

What, were you expecting NO articulation or something? Your expectations would have to be pretty low to be pleasantly surprised by these figures.

Now watch them ask about $8-10 for them.

No, given Mattel's track record, I was expecting five swivel joints...at best. The ball jointed head, elbows, and most especially, the double jointed shoulders are what surprised me. I'm pretty sure the articulation is better than anyone was expecting from this line.

You mean Mattel actually gave a 3 3/4 figure elbow joints!?!? Progress.

Mattel swings...AND MISSES. Per usual.

But now its seems NECA is doing some (Gears of War) 1/18th scale.

via Tni news or BBTS
Toy News International - Daily Action Figures Toy News, Reviews and Discussions

Thanks goodness for DC Collectibles (now just get that QC tighten up and I can forget all about Mattle and its offerings for the 1/18th scale)!

That's still not saying much. These things make early Marvel Universe figures look appealing.

Things like this help ease the sting of paying $15+ for DC Universe Classics.

lol superman red and blue

Walmart clearance rack, Winter 2013.

Holy crap. They have elbows!!!

Yeah... For mattel, elbows are exciting. Now if only they had knees and the rest of the modern articulation figures of today should have.

I might pick up only one to start a DC movie Justice league with GL, Bats, and Supes, but otherwise this is just one massive pass unless they do something amazing with the vehicles, enemies, and playsets.

Has there been any word of a 6 inch line? I could see myself possibly getting a "Movie Masters" or whatever they'll call it Zod if he ends up having a snazzy design.

Sorry, but it is. Mattel has consistently been a disappointment, most especially in recent years, so any sign of any kind of advancement, even just the addition of a few points of articulation they normally don't use, is exciting to see.

I forget where and when, but I do remember reading mention of a Man of Steel Movie Masters line.

Advancement? They don't even have knees!

They sacrificed knees for elbows.
All that wayne fortune went into R & D to make the best superman movie line they could. Took their cues from the hit batman dark knight rises line and GL line, and even added 2 points of articulation over some of them!

Just how could that go wrong?


Oh yeah, it's mattel.
How much of a bail out do you think they'll need in a year?

Didn't say they were perfect, or that they had caught up with Hasbro. Better than they used to be IS advancement. If they continue at this pace, by the time we actually get a Justice League movie, who knows, maybe they will have finally caught up to Hasbro...I don't expect them to, but you never know...Though ultimately I'm still hoping they give the licensing back to Hasbro...

The thing is, mattel is working backwards, not forwards.
DCIH increased in articulation before the end. It ends, and everything after in that scale declines in articulation massively.


Mattel won't get better at this scale anytime soon. These cost cutting methods are how they balance stuff like the cloth capes, detailing, and full unique molds and accessories while keeping the cost low at retail.

So I honestly doubt we'll see the return or start of anything near hasbro articulation from mattel anytime soon in the 3.75-4'' range.

True, they went backwards, but this is still a small step in the right direction (keyword there being small). Especially in comparison to the Green Lantern figures they did. Again, I'm not saying these are perfect, or have a lot of articulation, just that they have more articulation than I was expecting them to have...

Is it really SO bad for someone to be even the tiniest bit positive about a Mattel figure?

I'll get positive again when they have knees and elbows. So far this one isn't really an improvement since Dark Knight rises had knees but not elbows. Now all they did was move it from knees to elbows.
GL probably would have had similar if it wasn't for the wide amount of unique mold aliens.

I'll agree there are some positives though. The detail is amazing, and the cloth capes are a nice touch. Just articulation with Mattel has been declining back to 80s standards and other than heavy sarcasm, I personally refuse to praise them until they catch back up to modern day toy articulation.

They've made some great strides with many aspects, if only they could up the articulation on these and they would be perfect. Sadly, that's what is holding mattel back and making them shelfwarm.

On the flip side though, these cuts are what are keeping the figures under 8 bucks at retail. So it is a trade off. I just kind of wish they'd at least pull an amazing spider-man though.

Do however many crappy low artic figs, but at least package one super articulated figure and use that as its selling point. If they did that at least, I'd have no complaints at all.

Wow. What a black hole of suck- not even a plastic cape...that thing looks awful.
The head sculpt looks good though- i'll be sure to buy a cast of it from Onyx or whoever, but I'm not giving mattel a penny.
Once again, we'll see that it's not the consumers taht keep a toy company afloat- as long as TRU and the other big box stores keep ordering this crap, mattel will keep laughing all the way to the bank.- and they will keep getting orders as long as they hold the liscence for these major movies.

You'd think Target and TRU would not order this crao after the bath they took on TDKR and GL, but.....hell, my local TRU still tries to sell dust covered GL 3.75 figs for $5.99!

Jeebus Christ, how bad WERE these things? JLU bad?!?!?

Just barely better. And the only reason they were "better" was because of accessories and arm lift +rotation. Even then, it varied widely on who had it.

So pretty much exactly DCAU JLU/JL articulation. That's what mattel pretty much scaled back their articulation to after DCIH tried to do close to full modern articulation in a new way.