Anyway, so even though I’m not the biggest Prime fan, I want the figure, its part of the collection after all, a figure from the old universe that I so lovingly miss. And the thing is, I would love the figure just fine, despite the turn of events in the comics, if it were a better figure.
On its whole, there are some things to like. The Anti-Monitor armor is a cool idea and it’s translated into 3D well. The torn cape is cool. The new head sculpt is particularly well done. I kinda wanna headswap it with the smiling head from the Legion 3pk. It’s got a lot going for it, but two things keep it from being great.
The first is that all those cool new parts were put on a regular buck. Not a teen buck. Now I’m not sure – maybe that was the right call. Prime got a lot older way too quickly as he absorbed various powers and such, so maybe the buffer adult body is the way to go – but it just doesn’t work with the head. Something is off one way or the other.
The other issue is height. I’m not sure if it’s the new lower legs, the belt, how high the head sits on the neck, some combination or simply all three, but Prime isn’t just the size of a grown-up Superman, he’s bigger than Superman. Now I know that’s not right and it really does take away from the good work done elsewhere on the figure.
Articulation is standard for the line, but the neck movement is better than average. The cape & armor don’t block any joints particularly and that helps keep Prime a fun toy, but I’m not sure what to do with him. The paint work was mostly okay for this figure. I did have a big chip on the neck and some scratches on the left eyebrow, but nothing major. Prime included no accessories or C&C pieces.
Overall, I want to say this figure isn’t a success, but that might be bias talking. I do know he’s too tall and I do think he should’ve used the teenage buck, but there are pros like the great new head sculpt and other new pieces. And I do love his colors – I still want a basic, regular, run of the mill, everday true blue Superman figure and not the really dark blue ones we’ve gotten multiple times over. The head sculpt and colors could almost buy me off, but I’m just havign too much trouble overlooking the drawbacks. Hopefully, Red Robin will be better if I ever pick him up.
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I’m pretty sure I had that DC Comics Presents issue where he first appeared, and Crisis where he and the rest “died”. then Johns turned what could have been a cool character into…an internet troll. Legion of Three Worlds literally ends with him trolling the DC Comics forums in his parents’ basement, demanding food from his mother. sigh….
I think his joining the Sinestro Corps was a good move after Infinite Crisis, but in Countdown (to Final Crisis), he kept getting “power ups”, aging him to full adult, where he briefly switched to the black costume with silver accents, which was a Superman variant in the DCSH line. At this point, he was laughable and the “I’LL KILL YOU DEAD” meme was in full swing.
Not even the Lo3W could save him after that, so it was good that was where his story ended. Or should have. He was revealed as yet another version of perennial Legion foe, the Time Trapper. Then he got drug into Blackest Night mess (which I missed the end of that story, as my dealer didn’t send me that issue). and something involving the last version of Teen Titans, pre-nu52. I had stopped reading that title a year before with Eddie/Red Devil’s death, so I’m clueless here. wiki says that he “might” exist in the nu52, but to say anymore would be spoilery to those still keeping up with the S-titles. hints: time travel, more multi-verses, and his counterpart/[spoiler].
gah.
I do like the look, and I think I have the DCD version around somewhere? I never saw a hint of this wave in the StL area, or even Louisville, last August when I was out there. I’m wondering if these were all bought up by e-tailers? Amazon has him starting $23-25 on up; BBTS $19 (+ship). not sure about ebay, tho. Red Robin is out at BBTS, and starts around $30 on Amazon. don’t even ask about full sets of this “lost” wave!
(I was just checking out prices on last two ML waves earlier and glad you reminded me about them!)
I do think this guy looks too tall, but Mattel has never been one to understand scale. Makes me think that certain parties can’t read rulers properly, which leads to a number of rejoinders. 😉
The hairline also seems to be off? It looks a bit high, then that spot behind the ear either needs filled in or trimmed out to look right. I’m leaning towards trim.
I know I had planned to buy two, to custom one into the SinCorps version, but now…I just can’t muster much enthusiasm for anything DC.
btw, as long as we’re talking Superman toys, I hear the MOS Movie Masters have a street date of May 1? Jor-El and Zod look cool and I may do some head swappage between the three of them to see how they look. Too bad we’re not getting Morpheus White, Lois, or Faora. or even CLARK. :/
(crap, I just ebay’d my last spare Gordon!)
As Prince Bubblegum mentions below, street date for MOS merch is April 28th, *BUT* considering that that’s Sunday and most toy department managers don’t work on Sundays don’t count on finding anything until Monday or later (especially at this time of year when toys aren’t big sellers).
BTW, Faora and an armored Zod are both in wave 2. First post on the page- http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25059&start=150
cool. thanks Jim!
and hey, now that we’re TOTALLY OFF TOPIC, has everyone seen the Walmart Man of Steel movie ticket tie-ins? you can buy advance tickets through some special offer via WM that will allow you to go to your store’s associated theatre. Not Necessarily LOCAL/NEAREST theatre!
for me: Union = Union Great 8;
Sullivan = Sullivan 6; Eureka = Wildwood 10 (closest, ~10m away?);
Washington = O’Fallon #. yeahbuhwha????
There is Cinema 1 Plus across the way from WM (1/3 mile?) and has been there for thirty years, yet I can only hope this is some glitch so people don’t have to drive 30+ miles to MO’Fallon to watch a freaking movie. Union G8 is about 10m away from Wash store and even Wildwood and Sullivan, among others are closer than MO’Fallon! LOL
LOVED the Hal Jordan joke! Johns really did wipe out anything that he didn’t like about Hal’s past after GL: Rebirth. Instead of the gray-haired, headstrong Hal that I loved when I first discovered comics as a kid, Johns basically reintroduced the vanilla Silver Age Hal, and threw away decades of character development. I stopped reading GL after being bored by Sinestro War, so I’ve always wondered, did Johns even ever reference Hal’s time as the Spectre? Sorry for my rant too, lol! Like Noisy said, this is an action figure site, not a comics site. I’m glad I never saw this figure at retail. As a Superman completist, I feel positive that I would have felt obligated to snag this figure solely due to his tenuous connection to Supes, even though I dislike the character and am not impressed by the figure.
Oh yeah, hey Brainlock, keep checking your local Wal-Marts. I’ve found the MoS Movie Masters! Tuesday night I was bored so I scoped out my four local Wal-Marts. They all happened to be putting out stock, but they left the MoS stuff on the pallets, as they had bright orange labels that said “do not display until April 28th”. Unfortunately, the first three WMs only had the awful small figures, and not the Movie Masters. However, I spotted a case of MMs at the fourth WM, grabbed it off the pallet, and tore into it. If memory serves, there were five Superman figures,but there were definitely only 2 Zods, and only one Jor-El per case. I snagged the best looking Zod, and of course, Jor-El. I was short on cash, and I know Supes will be clogging pegs until April 28, 2014, so I passed on him for now. They’re absolutely average figures, but like I mentioned in my previous post, I’m a Superman completist, so I was glad to find them.
April 28? someone posted a pic on AFI FB page that said May 1?
I only have two WM and a Target here in my immediate vicinity, but I’m running up to the “L”CS for FCBD to meet a friend there and say goodbye to my former dealer who leaves state in June, so I’ll make a few stops looking for them on the way up.
Never saw in Ohio, except the local toyshow and they were $25-35 there and thought that was too much. That was Red Robin and nu52 no wants. No sign of Prime. If had a Prime would use him to just pund on the nu52. Don’t forget RF is partly responsible for the nu52 mess.
Only know of the spectre time frame in GL Rebirth and thats it.
What’s wrong with ranting about comics? Particularly aggressively horrible ones…
Never saw hide nor hair of that batch of figures round here. Red Robin would’ve been nice.
I think Spectre references basically go away in the Green Lantern series after Rebirth (and to be honest, probably for the better – it wasn’t important for his character). Geoff Johns wrote Day of Judgement where Hal became the Spectre, so I have serious doubts as to how anti Hal-Spectre he is.
It bugged me how tall the Superboy Prime figure was, so I didn’t pick him up when I saw him. It doesn’t take much to convince me not to buy a figure these days.
I read most of the Hal-Spectre series and…yeah. I think JM DeMatteis wrote it?
one of Hal’s bros gets killed, only the niece survives and she’s a Golden Child or some nonsense. It felt like a rehash of Daniel in Sandman, only less sensical.
Come to think of it, Hal’s bro is back alive, if that’s the one I remember post-Secret Origin arc?
so..yeah, just pretend he’s up to Spectre-y shenanigans between DoJ and Rebirth and you won’t have missed a thing.
I actually liked the story when he goes nuts in the paradise and works his way out with Luthor. He basically goes through the same thing we all went through with this New 52 stuff. Think about it, he was living his life, watching his favorite heroes do their thing and save the world and then things kept changing and getting worse and so he went crazy haha. I especially loved the ending of that story with Luthor and Joker though.
I’m just endlessly fascinated with DC’s multiple universes, alternate versions of characters, and the odd ways they interact, right from the get-go when the JLA first met the Earth-2 JSA. They way Donna Troy is aware of the multiverse. The way the Earth-2 Superman came back and didn’t like the way this new ‘one universe’ was going. It’s a big convoluted mess, sure, but I just love it. That’s why the effort to once again collapse it all into one big New 52 is always gonna be disappointing to me, but it’s also why I kinda love this oddball character.
But the toy? Yeah, it’s too big. I passed.