#48: Man of Steel - Movie Masters Faora

Since posting about the Man of Steel Superman figure, I've had a chance to watch the movie itself. It had its good points, but there were some questionable choices in the way it was handled. Fortunately for the presence of the DC universe on the big screen, it did well enough that there will be a sequel expanding on the universe. Marvel is way ahead of them with a cohesive cinematic universe, but I am looking forward to seeing what happens. In any case, one of the parts of the movie I liked was Faora. Remember in Superman II, when Zod had Ursa and Non henching for him? Again, he has a badass lady and large mute Kryptonian henching for him, but this time around they are different characters. Nam-Ek's only figure comes in a multipack in a smaller scale, but Faora gets the Movie Masters treatment. Being hip to Mattel's tricks, I assumed that I would never find a Faora in stores, so I kept an eye on her price online. Eventually, I was able to order her for retail price.

Faora is a pretty standard Movie Masters figure, including what I suppose is the new standard of lacking an ab crunch. Her head looks a little too big, but otherwise, it's a cool figure. The giant armor shoulder pads are a softer plastic, so they don't get in the way of her arm movement too much.

Faora's only accessory is the stand depicting the symbol for her family. It kind of looks like an F. If you squint really hard. Okay, it looks more like a 35 to me. Kryptonian fashion is kind of weird. Imagine if we all went around with our family names on the chest of our undershirts. There is a knife attached to her leg, but it's not removable. It's also made of really soft plastic, so even if she had an open hand to hold it with, it probably wouldn't be very good.

"We can't fight here, there's not enough potential property damage!"

#35: Man of Steel - Movie Masters Superman

The new Superman movie, Man of Steel, is opening this weekend. It's directed by Zack Snyder, so it could be a cool action movie, but it could also be kind of dumb. Trailers can be misleading, but I am looking forward to seeing the movie. I figured I would pick up the movie style Superman even before having seen the movie since I already have various Batman Movie Masters figures that it can fit in with. Granted that if the Justice League movie gets made, the Nolan Batman won't be involved, but for my toy collection, it's close enough. Surprisingly, there are no "man in business suit" figures for Man of Steel. That would make an easy Clark Kent figure!

So Movie Masters Superman fits in with the other Movie Masters figures. It's a more realistic looking figure that is slightly smaller than the comic figures from Mattel. It has all the same articulation, save the ab crunch. So Superman can't hunch over or lean back, which I think would help for flight posing. Also, the head only seems to function as a swivel joint, so he can't look up. Although I'd like for the colors of the suit to be brighter, that's an issue with the design from the movie rather than the toy. So overall it looks good, I think the chest emblem is particularly well done. Of the two figures on the peg, I picked the one with lighter five o' clock shadow on the face. Basically it's a cool figure, so I hope the movie turns out well also. Apparently a sequel has already been greenlit, so that is a good sign.

Man of Steel figures don't have a build a prop piece like last year's Dark Knight Rises figures. I'm not sure what they even could have built, the Daily Planet globe maybe, so the loss isn't a big deal. Aside from the Superman logo stand, there are no accessories.

I'm not sure if the figures are scaled up a bit from previous Movie Masters lines or if Henry Cavill is just that much taller than Christian Bale. It's not enough of a difference to make them look out of scale.

Too bad he can't look up!