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McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Superman Returns Superman Figure Review
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00:00Superman may have returned, but did a mold return with him?
00:03Here's your look at McFarlane Toys, DC Multiverse, Superman Returns, Superman!
00:20While the son of otherworldly Krypton and planet Earth's small-town Smallville,
00:24the metahuman superhero Superman, a.k.a. Metropolis' daily planet reporter Clark Kent,
00:28must now juggle both Jobs' personas, while under the most severe attack he's ever faced.
00:33If Lex Luthor has his way, Superman will soon see the last of Earth, and Earthlings will rejoice.
00:38When Kal-El went away and came back, he found that people moved on without him.
00:42With the DC Multiverse brand going away, can your shelves move on without this one?
00:47Before we answer that question, let's take maybe the tape measure and see how tall the figure's gonna stand.
00:51This guy's been around for a bit, but I finally had the chance to actually grab this one from
00:55Popeye the Toy Man on the Facebook Marketplace.
01:00If you would certainly like to check out his wares, you can click the link down below that will take
01:03you over to his Facebook selling page.
01:05As for how tall the figure's gonna stand, if I'm looking at this correctly,
01:08the tape measure's telling me that Brandon Routh's Superman stands 7 inches in height,
01:13about 18 centimeters tall.
01:15Bring the Kal-El's in now in chronological order.
01:18First, obviously, we have to mention the 1970s Christopher Reeve's Superman.
01:22Sizing, he's actually the same size as Routh, which, I guess, if you look at the canon of that,
01:26he's supposed to be the same character, so it would make the most sense.
01:30I did mention at the beginning of the review, though, that not only does Superman return,
01:33but may he have also returned with the same mold.
01:35Well, you could probably already see for yourself.
01:37He's using, actually, the same torso, the same arms, and legs as Reeve's Superman,
01:43which, again, I guess could be a fun nod to the fact that he's supposed to be, again, the exact
01:47same character.
01:48Then, from that, of course, we've got Henry Cavill's Superman,
01:50which, I would say, is the superior Superman after Reeve's.
01:53Size-wise, though, again, like, he's about the same size as Routh.
01:56And then we've got the recent Superman from the recent gun movie Superman,
02:00and that, of course, being David Cornswet's Truth, Justice, and all that.
02:04It's about the only thing that really comes with Brandon Routh's Superman.
02:06Sad to say, though, that his Superman only comes in clear with a circular display stand
02:09that has now the DC logo down below.
02:12Of course, from there, walking distance, there's a peg that can plug into either one of Routh's boots.
02:16But the figure does also come included with a trading card.
02:19Hmm, interesting.
02:21Not so much interesting the fact that we've got Flying Brandon Routh's Superman there on the front.
02:25One of my favorite posters, actually, from Superman is the one where he's kind of hovering above the earth,
02:29and you kind of see, like, the kind of the top view of him.
02:32Well, actually, though, I could bring in the packaging just to show you what I'm talking about.
02:36This poster right here I have still currently hanging up in my basement.
02:39Love the look of that.
02:41We don't get that image, though, on the front.
02:42We actually get another one of the posters, though, with Brandon flying around as Superman.
02:46But, you know, what's interesting about this, if you look at the back of the card,
02:50what are you going to tell us, humbled reviewer?
02:52Well, the magic storyteller is going to tell you that, well, yes, the read-up does say Clark Kent.
02:56That's obvious.
02:57It so happens, though, to be the case that they're also using the same read-up as Corn Sweat's Superman
03:03card,
03:04which is really weird because, like, the description and the tone of the movie is very different from one another.
03:09Superman returns to skepticism, like, where the world basically has moved on without him.
03:12But the world doesn't really...
03:14They rejoice the fact that he's come back.
03:16It's not necessarily the fact that they despise the man and they want Lex Luthor to destroy him.
03:22David Corn Sweat, though, if we've seen the movie, we already know that the audience gets rather soured by Superman
03:28and the things that they reveal about his parents.
03:30That makes more sense, though, for the read-up.
03:33To use the same read-up, though, for Brandon Routh's Superman doesn't make any sense at all.
03:38Because, like, the citizens of Metropolis and, like, really the rest of the world embrace Superman when he finally does
03:45come back.
03:45The only one that really doesn't want him to be back is Lex Luthor.
03:48So why do we have to put something like,
03:50Superman will see the last of Earth and the Earthlings will rejoice?
03:55Tsk.
03:56Anyways, though, let's move the card off to the side now.
03:58Yeah, so, unfortunately, though, Superman comes with no accessories whatsoever.
04:03I was kind of really thinking to myself, like, what could they really have included?
04:06I guess some swappable hands would have been perfect, or maybe, again, like a couple of shards of kryptonite.
04:11How this man is able even just to lift an island of kryptonite when he can't even really be near
04:15the thing,
04:15if he's supposed to be Christopher Reeve's Superman,
04:18that Superman had a necklace of kryptonite that basically incapacitated him from being able to do anything.
04:24In fact, he couldn't even save Lois because he couldn't get to her in time.
04:27And yet, Routh's Superman literally is carrying around an island made of kryptonite.
04:33Eventually, though, he does succumb to it, but it takes a little while for that to happen.
04:37Figure-wise, though, said already, he's obviously just using, really, the Christopher Reeve body.
04:41So just to show you guys the difference, there is obviously some tooling that had to happen.
04:46One of the biggest things being is, obviously, the emblem, though.
04:49While both are raised, they have, of course, updated it now with the 3D-looking logo that Brandon Routh's Superman
04:55would have.
04:56Short of that, though, it is the same body, torso, same arms, same legs, different boots, obviously, different boots.
05:02And technically, also, different torso.
05:04Like, the trunks are obviously different.
05:07Christopher Reeve obviously has a little bit more of the dated belt.
05:10Brandon Routh's belt, though, has to have a Superman logo.
05:13It's funny, though, that even on the bottoms of the soles,
05:16they did the one extra better detail of including also the Superman soles.
05:20It was one of my biggest problems, really, with Brandon Routh's Superman.
05:23I didn't mind him, really, as Superman, but I thought that the suit seemed too manufactured.
05:29I didn't like that it was a high collar, for starters.
05:31I think it really should have been a lot more opened up.
05:33I thought the colors were good.
05:34The emblem wasn't bad.
05:36But I didn't like that he had to have a Superman emblem there on the front for his belt.
05:40And that, most importantly, he had to brand himself on the bottoms of his soles.
05:45Ma Kent making this suit from scratch?
05:48Which, I don't know.
05:49But still, though, it doesn't make any sense, really,
05:50why Superman had to have Superman S's on the bottoms of his boots.
05:54For the face sculpt, though, it's pretty good, though.
05:57I mean, for what we get, and this really being, I guess, the last of the Superman
06:00I really now have to collect in my collection,
06:02I'm glad finally now to say that I have a Brandon Routh Superman.
06:05If I was to critique the figure, which obviously as a reviewer I'm going to be doing,
06:09I feel like his neck is maybe just a little too long.
06:12I mean, when we look at Christopher Reeves,
06:14it doesn't seem like maybe Reeves is as long,
06:16but it could also just be the fact that, too, that his head sculpt is a little bit longer.
06:21Face sculpts, again, like, Ralph did, I think, a pretty good enough job
06:24trying to fill the boots in of Christopher Reeves.
06:27But again, like, he's never going to be as good as the original.
06:30I also didn't really like that in the movie,
06:32I know this is kind of more of the critique on the movie
06:33and not really so much so for the figure,
06:35but like that the cape looked like it was made of leather.
06:38Why does Superman have to have a leather cape?
06:40Luckily, obviously, for the cost of producing this figure,
06:42he's not going to be having a leather cape.
06:44What they've given him, though, instead,
06:46it's a darker cape, but at least it's made of fabric.
06:49There is no wire, though, seamed into the sides,
06:52so there's no way to manipulate the cape and move it around to the way that you want it.
06:56They've done this with some of the Supermans,
06:58and other ones they haven't.
07:00So I don't know why, like, Ralph's Superman
07:01didn't actually get an afforded wire sewn into his seam,
07:05but still, at least he gets a fabric cape.
07:06It's not using a plastic cape.
07:08Again, the colors look good for him.
07:09I think the head sculpt is really fine for him.
07:11I think it's very unlikely, though,
07:13we're ever going to get a Kevin Spacey Lex Luthor figure.
07:16No, that's not going to happen.
07:18But at least, though, at the very least,
07:19we get ourselves a Brandon Ralph.
07:20Again, I think the colors are pretty close to the movie.
07:22He's got more of really a darker blue
07:24and less really a vibrant primary red.
07:27All the colors, more of the red and the blue and the gold,
07:29are actually more, like, dark.
07:31Dark burgundy, kind of a dark gold color.
07:34It works really well.
07:35I think it's also one of those suits, too,
07:36that kind of started this trend where, like,
07:38if you look at the suit up close,
07:39it would have all these tiny little Superman emblems.
07:42Why are we doing this nonsense?
07:43Could we not just have a smooth suit?
07:45Why do we feel the need as costume designers
07:48to showcase, yeah, okay, this is what I was able to do,
07:51but it doesn't always seem to feel...
07:53It doesn't need to be that case all the time around.
07:56Like, even, like, in the Star Trek movies, for example,
07:58the recent J.J. Abrams Superman, or Star Treks,
08:01have to have these tiny little Starfleet insignias
08:04all over their suits.
08:05Can we not just simplify things just a little bit more?
08:08So, I like the head sculpt.
08:09I think the head sculpt's going to look good.
08:10I mean, the neck, yeah, it seems like it probably could be a little too long.
08:13The emblem is a lifted touch.
08:15I like that also, too.
08:16And while I don't really love the look of some of the design choices
08:19that they went with for the suit,
08:20I think, like, the figure looks pretty good.
08:23It doesn't have some of the details, though, in his body,
08:25and I feel like it necessarily doesn't need to have some additional texturing.
08:29It's a smooth suit, and that's good enough for me.
08:31He lacks, unfortunately, again, any sort of additional accessories,
08:35like swappable hands would have been ideal,
08:37with really only giving him closed fists like this.
08:39I mean, it's fine and good to be punching Luthor,
08:41but, like, I think, like, flight hands would have been good, too.
08:44I mean, if you were to, like, look at that and you look at Reeves,
08:47Reeves' coloring his skin is just a little bit darker,
08:49so while we have gotten relaxed in flight hands for Christopher Reeves' Superman,
08:53I don't really feel like you'd be able to use it, though, with Rouse,
08:56just because the coloring on him would be a little bit lighter.
08:59For Brandon Rouse' Superman, though, his head does...
09:02Well, first of all, it returns to the idea of having the same posability.
09:05Had to get that in there.
09:07The head's going to be, though, on a ball joint.
09:08It allows the head to rotate all the way around.
09:10It can look up.
09:11Not too up, up and away, but the head can also look down.
09:14Not really that much, either.
09:15Head can also rock back and forth.
09:17The figure does have an upper torso ball joint,
09:19a lower abdomen ball joint.
09:21Arms rotate all the way around.
09:23I know we always seem to follow the same format.
09:25What else are they going to do?
09:26Well, he also hinges the arms out.
09:27I know we're going to cover that.
09:29He also is going to have a swivel in his bicep.
09:31Double hinge on the elbow.
09:33The double hinge doesn't always really work,
09:35because, again, he's got a really large bicep.
09:37You have to kind of bend the arm this way,
09:39and then bend it again this way,
09:41but even then, he can't quite make use of a full bend in his elbow.
09:45Again, the hands rotate.
09:46You can hinge them back and forth a little bit.
09:48Legs split out.
09:49The lower trunks are softer plastic.
09:51He also has ratcheted joints at the tops of his thighs.
09:54You can move him forward and back.
09:55A little bit of a swivel.
09:56A little bit of a swivel there to the top of his thigh.
09:59Double hinge on his knee,
10:00which I noticed on my figure is very tight,
10:02and that's not a bad thing.
10:04Again, he's got these silly-looking Superman boots.
10:07I guess, really, if we follow this,
10:09Fortress of Solitude, really, I guess,
10:11was the one that kind of gifted Superman his suit in the 70s film.
10:14I guess, maybe, again, he goes back to the Fortress of Solitude
10:16and just asks, you know, the holographic image of Jor-El,
10:20can you give me an upgrade?
10:21And maybe they just, I don't know.
10:22I'm creating canon I know really isn't there in the first place.
10:25I didn't like his boots.
10:26Didn't like his boots.
10:28Ankle pivot up and down.
10:29Ankle rocker, of course.
10:30He also does have the bend in his toe.
10:32Weird, again, looking Superman boots,
10:34but that's the way it looks in the movie.
10:36At least they replicated that.
10:38I mean, like, it's not a touch of detail
10:40that really McFarlane Toys and his team necessarily needed to do.
10:42They could have very well just flattened off the bombs of the boots,
10:46but that they actually went in there,
10:47as stupid as this looks,
10:49to give them all the Superman emblems,
10:50at least they actually did that.
10:52If Superman is walking around in the dirt,
10:54trying to, you know, walk away and hide from people,
10:57anybody, I mean, this would be like as bad as Batman
10:59with, like, the Batmobile tires leaving emblems.
11:03Superman, if he ever goes walking somewhere,
11:05anyone could just really follow the footprints,
11:08like if he's walking in snow,
11:09follow the Superman footprints
11:11leading to the Fortress of Solitude.
11:13Still, though, he's using the same body
11:15as the Christopher Reeve Superman,
11:16which, again, I don't think necessarily is a bad thing.
11:18I mean, like, you could really look at the details
11:21and say, okay, well,
11:22they left off the tiny little super emblems.
11:25Where are they?
11:26They're not on his chest.
11:27I think, first of all,
11:27if you put that all over his body,
11:29it would make the body way too textured,
11:31and I think that would take a lot away.
11:33Of course, we can also bring in Henry Cavill's Superman.
11:35Superman, we can bring back in Corn Sweat's Superman.
11:39The only thing, again, I just don't think makes much sense
11:41is that they chose to use the same read-up
11:43as Corn Sweat's Superman on the back of the card.
11:46The read-up makes fine sense for the gun Superman,
11:48but then to use that same read-up over here,
11:51why would anybody, Earthling-wise,
11:53I mean, Superman has now come back
11:54from his extended hiatus,
11:56would anybody now be wishing that the guy be dead?
11:59I mean, when he was in the hospital,
12:01I'm not actually giving anything away
12:02for a movie that's been that old.
12:03When he's in the hospital on death's bed,
12:06people are all thinking he's going to die.
12:08They're already starting to publish,
12:09like they think the Daily Planet
12:11is starting to make a newspaper,
12:12like Superman is dead.
12:13People are going to be mourning the loss of Superman,
12:16and yet, though, the trading card on the back
12:17seems to say otherwise.
12:19Stripped pretty down to the bare basics,
12:21Brandon Routh's Superman really doesn't come
12:23with much in the way of accessories.
12:24If you wanted sure to count a trading card
12:26and a display stand as things could be accessories,
12:29well, really, every DC multiverse figure
12:31has had things like that.
12:33That, for Brandon Routh not to come in clue
12:35with at the very least some swappable hands,
12:37maybe a shard of kryptonite,
12:38I feel like the character maybe deserved more.
12:40Not everybody really likes Superman Returns.
12:43I could take it or leave it.
12:44There's aspects about the movie that I like,
12:46like, for example,
12:47Brandon Routh I thought was good for the part.
12:49I mean, we obviously can't bring back Christopher Reeve,
12:52so I thought Brandon Routh did a serviceable enough job
12:54as a stand-in for Supes.
12:56The outfit was okay.
12:57I think there were aspects of things to it
12:59I didn't really like.
13:00It looked too Hollywood-made,
13:03the way that everything had to be so exact.
13:05I also didn't like the Superman curl that he had,
13:08which I, as far as I know,
13:09was actually a separate hairpiece.
13:11It wasn't part of his hair.
13:12It was something that they added afterwards.
13:15Also having a leather cape
13:16wasn't something that really worked all that well,
13:18but some of the stunts that they did in the movie,
13:20him lifting like the island of kryptonite
13:22was a cool thing to see,
13:23even though realistically it wasn't practical
13:25for Superman to be carrying around kryptonite
13:27that close to him.
13:28And also the save that he has
13:30and the baseball diamond
13:31with the big giant astronaut
13:33or the big giant space shuttle.
13:35That was a pretty cool thing too.
13:37But other than that though,
13:38I find like with Superman Returns,
13:40it's a very forgettable movie.
13:41There's one thing, in fact,
13:42I only really remember about the Superman movie
13:44and that really being,
13:45I hated the fact that they had to have the kid.
13:48I'm not going to give too much away
13:49for those that haven't yet seen Superman Returns.
13:51I think by now, spoilers,
13:53everybody has seen the movie,
13:55but having a kid introduced in the movie
13:58and then dot, dot, dot,
13:59you know what that leads to,
14:00I thought it was a bad idea on Singer's part.
14:03Now, of course, Singer has had much more problems
14:05outside of Superman Returns.
14:06The very least though,
14:07that we have a Superman Returns,
14:09Brandon Ruff at least is saying something.
14:11Will we though we get a Kevin Spacey?
14:13Probably not.
14:14I don't think that's ever going to really happen.
14:16At least though,
14:16before the line exhausted itself
14:18and McFarlane did lose the DC property,
14:21we at least could say
14:22that we have now had
14:23all the theatrical Supermans
14:25all released in plastic figures.
14:28I don't know if Mattel's ever going to be
14:29doing stuff like that.
14:30So this is one thing I think
14:31that McFarlane has done well
14:33for the time that he's had this property.
14:35He's released movie tie-in figures.
14:37Again, I don't know if Mattel's really going to be
14:39doing as much when it comes to their DC figures.
14:41I think we're going to probably get more comic characters
14:43and a whole lot less things
14:44that are tied to movies.
14:46Time will again only tell,
14:47I mean, it's pretty early to say something like that.
14:50But I think though, at least,
14:51at the very least,
14:52I'm glad that at least we got
14:53a Brandon Routh Superman
14:53to go with the other three.
14:55Now again, I did get this
14:56on the Facebook Marketplace.
14:58Brandon Routh Superman Returns Superman
14:59has been around for bits.
15:01I finally though had the chance
15:02to pick this one up
15:02and I'm glad that I did.
15:04What do you guys think of this figure?
15:05Let me know down below
15:05in the comment section
15:06what you guys also think
15:08of Superman Returns.
15:09Good movie?
15:10Bad movie?
15:11What do you guys think of Brandon Routh
15:12playing the role of Superman?
15:13Good or bad?
15:14Let me know.
15:15If you guys did, like I said,
15:16want to stick around for more,
15:17make sure you hit the subscribe.
15:19Make sure, of course,
15:19you turn on the bell.
15:20But come back.
15:21We're going to have some more content
15:22coming your way for the rest of this week.
15:23As always, thanks for watching.
15:25See you guys next time.
15:27Bye.
15:30Bye.
15:32Bye.
15:33Bye.
15:35Bye.