Review - Hot Toys Superman

Hot Toys has made quite a name for itself in the 1/6 collecting
community in the past year. While known previously for it's excellent
military figures, its slow expansion into licensed properties has
skyrocketed it's popularity and reknown.

In a year with many great 1/6 figures and some calling it a golden age
for the scale, Hot Toys was responsible for a great deal of the top tier
figures. The Alien Warrior from Aliens vs Predator, the multitude of
Predators from the same film, its Rambo and Rocky figures - as popular
and acclaimed as those figures are, one particular figure stood from the
pack in terms of desirability. Their depiction of Brandon Routh as the
title character in last Summer's Superman Returns.

A sharp relief from the Mattel-dominated mass market releases in the
US, Hot Toys as well another well known 1/6 company, Medicom, brought to
market several high end 1/6 figures based on the license. It's rare to
have an opportunity to directly compare the releases of one company to
another, but here both companies made the same two figures: Superman in
costume, and a Clark Kent figure. While Medicom's versions has its
supporters, it was clear from the instant that photos hit the internet
that Hot Toys was the winner.

Initially though I had a negative reaction to the posted pictures of
the Hot Toys Superman head sculpt - I believe I compared it to K.D. Lang
at the time. However I was a fan of the prototype of their Clark Kent
figure's sculpt. And when I heard that Clark included an alternate
resculpted Superman head, I was sold, and ordered both figures, with the
intention of swapping the head I didn't like for the alternate Clark
head. Things didn't quite work out that way.

Right from the get-go I realized how wrong I had been about the
headsculpt on the Superman figure. The delicate nature of the sculpt
simply has not translated into accurate photos thus far(though I tried
hard with mine). The paint doesn't help it, it looks excellent in
person but the highlights and nuances tend to exaggerate themselves in
photos. It's an interesting sculpt, from certain angles looking exactly
like Brandon Routh, from others not very much. It has grown on me a
great deal, and now I cannot imagine not using it, even if the decision
had not been made for me(more on that later).

As much as I like the Superman head sculpt, it does not hold a candle
to the Clark Kent head sculpt, which is just flat-out perfect. In
person it IS Brandon Routh. The paint is superior to the previous
Superman figure, in that the fleshtone is more natural and matches the
base body more. It's perhaps one of the best head sculpts on a retail
figure I've ever encountered.

The alternate head included with Clark Kent, another version of
Superman, is a bit of a let down. While the skin tone is warmer and
more even, some of the choices in paint detail were unfortunate. In
particular a dark outline along the eyes, giving something of a mascara
look. The eyebrows are the other notable change, they make the face
more easily recognizable as Routh, but their application is somewhat
subpar. Another questionable change, his hair color here is brown,
instead of black as in the first figure and in the film. It's a subtle
difference but noticeable in person. In addition, the word that this is
a new sculpt is simply not true - I examined the figure and could detect
no sculpting differences, and in fact saw many features that were
precisely the same(hair patterns, etc).

There are other sculpted details aside from the heads, of course, and
the quality extends to those. Superman's symbol on both figures is a
separate sculpted plastic piece, as is the belt on Superman and his red
boots. These details are not glossed over or ignored by Hot Toys, and
the sculpting on them is very nice.

Both figures include two pairs of hands, in the case of Superman, two
newly sculpted: flat palms for flying poses, as well as fists. Clark
comes with the standard two pairs as seen in their generic Generation
Life figures: two gripping, two bendy.

I mentioned earlier in my review that I was unable to swap the
Superman heads of the two figures, and above you can see why. The heads
packaged with Clark have their neck holes located far lower in the head
than other Hot Toys figures, including Superman. I can only guess that
this was to give Clark's heads more clearance above the bulkiness of his
suit, which makes sense. As you can see in the alternate Clark head,
the neck plug hole is a separate piece in his head, and is only glued
into the head, so an enterprising customizer will no doubt be able to
adjust it. However due to the expense of the figure I did not want to
try it. Perhaps in the future.

As you can see in the quality of the boots and Superman logo on the
costume, Hot Toys is well known for the care they put into the outfits
of their figures, and such attention to detail is shown again here. The
blue spandex is richly textured, not overly thin and not at all cheap
feeling. You cannot see the articulation through the tight cloth at
all. The tailoring is fantastic. There is some nice Similarly the cape
is well made, with a very nice lining inside.

Clark's outfit is no slouch either. He is dressed in a finely
tailored three piece suit, white shirt, tie, with the shirt portion of
his Superman costume hidden beneath. He also comes with an excellent
overcoat. Both his suit jacket and his overcoat have lining sewn into
them, and the material is amazing - this feels like a real suit, a very
nice one at that.

Due to the scale the fit is hard to achieve perfectly, so it does look
a little puffy on him. However you can smooth down his profile with
some futzing. One thing I tried that worked is taking off his suit
jacket to put on his overcoat. This frees up his articulation a great
deal, and he looks a lot better in his overcoat. His pockets even work!

One of the main selling points to the figure, and the reason for the
second head, is the Superman costume underneath his outfit. The idea
being to capture the icon pose of Clark ripping open his shirt to
transform into Superman. That's easier said than done. I'm sure with
great patience you can do it as well as Hot Toy's promo pics, but for
me, it was a tough ten minutes getting it all into position. I
ultimately used his bendy hands rather than the grasping ones to get a
better fit. His arms, limited by the suit, don't pose as you might
like, and the hands pop off as soon as I got them close. However it is
a cool thing, and it does come close. Perhaps I just lack the patience.

The 1/6th scale pretty much invented super-articulation and Hot Toys
Generation Life base body is close to the state of the art. Medicom
probably has more points of articulation but they're less adaptable to
other figure lines. I count 38 points of articulation on the Hot Toys
body(quickly: neck swivel at top, ball jointed neck at bottom of neck,
ball shoulders, front back armpit articulation, bicep swivels, double
jointed elbows, ball wrists, ball jointed abs, ball waists, ball jointed
hips, thigh swivels below the hip balls, double knees, calf swivels,
ball joint at the top of the ankle, ball joint at the bottom of the
ankle, hinged toes). Clark only uses 36, the hinged toes being useless
with his shoes, and Superman's boots make the six POA below his calves
useless. Still an impressive count, and the range of movement is
impressive.

Strange what half a year will do. I went from mocking the Superman
Returns figure to considering it one of the very best of last year. The
Clark Kent rivals it for quality, though I have to admit it's a bit less
fun than Supes. Above is Superman posed with Takara's Batman Begins
figure, which I consider the best of the figures made for that movie. I
can't help but wonder know if I'm missing out on the Hot Toys Batman
Begins, and whether I should get that one as well. It's a strong urge.
These figures are rather expensive, but the quality is there - these are
the definitive versions of these characters. I doubt the Clark Kent
will ever be topped. Superman has room for improvement, but I don't see
it happening. If there's a downside to these, it's that there's no Lex
Luthor - I'd love to see them take a shot at that. But in the end these
are the top of the 1/6 form at a time many are calling a golden age in
the scale. And the praise is well deserved.

Review and Images by Mark "bluesparrow" Hopper