Action Figure Reviews

Toys of Steel Review - Mattel: "Injustice: Gods Among Us" Superman

Injustice Superman Action Figure By Jasper Lloyd Tan

I'll be doing this quick review in place of the past chronological order of the Superman figures that I reviewed because I'm so excited to be able to own this figure. Press photos of this figure didn't do this figure justice, I actually decided to skip this one but when I finally saw it in person, I was so amazed by it that I had to buy one. Anyway, on to the review.

Let's have a little backgrounder first for the uninitiated. Injustice: Gods Among Us is actually a video game that was developed and created by the creators of the hit arcade fighting game Mortal Kombat. They first experienced success with a DC Comics based franchise via their Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe fighting game and eventually followed it up with this new fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us. The game's story revolves around Superman's mission to start a new world order after the death of Lois and their unborn child. Superman was tricked by Joker (utilizing Scarecrow's fear toxin laced with Kryptonite particles) into believing that he was trying to save Lois from Doomsday, but instead found out that it was Lois who he was fighting all along. Joker also rigged Lois' heart, attaching a trigger that would send a missile to Metropolis upon Lois death (when her heart stopped beating). These events (the death of Lois and the destruction of Metropolis) would send Superman to rethink his existence on Earth. From being a reporter (as Clark Kent) and taking a reactionary (as Superman) approach towards crime and evil, he decides to take a more pro-active role against crime and evil. Superman emerged from this tragedy to establish his own utopia, a world without crime and evil under his regime. The U.S. government enlists Batman's help and an epic war between Superman and his meta human allies against Batman's allies begins. There is actually an ongoing digitally released comic book to support this game's story. I'm following the developments of the story as I am curious about the fate of this Superman. I think stories like this are not new, as this was already explored before (more on that below). But without much further ado, on to the action figure.

Injustice Superman Action Figure The Action Figures:

The Superman figure's press photos didn't actually look that good. But I'm thankful that I was able to find this in person because I really like this figure very much. Though let me caution you that this figure is not that perfect. But there are many reasons why Superman collectors would love this figure, and the first of those many reasons is that this figure features a new set of articulations. Mattel has been utilizing the articulations of their DCSH toy line for many years now and DCSH/DCUC collectors have always loved that articulation but I'm actually happy to know that Mattel has experimented on this toy line. There are articulation features here that they took from the Green Lantern Movie Masters toy line and some new ones. This figure sports a whopping 26 points of articulation, which is two more than your standard DCUC action figure. The figure features a ball jointed head that could actually be tilted up and down (way better than the DCUC's almost non existent up and down head movement), ball hinged shoulders, swivel waist, ball hinged elbows, ball hinged wrists, double pivot hips, swivel thighs, hinged knees, swivel boots, and pivot ankles. While the figure features more articulations (most notably on the elbows, wrists and boots), sadly the swivel biceps and hinged torso did not make it to this figure. And that is my only complaint because without the swivel biceps, the articulations on the arms would be limited. It can't even do the Superman pose (Superman's wrists/hands on his hips). Another down side of this figure is that it is not in scale with DCUC and is more in scale with the Green Lantern Movie Masters (see photo below). I actually thought that this figure would be larger and would stand around 7 inches when I first saw it in press photos, but I was wrong. The scale is just a minor qualm for me though, as it's not a deal breaker.

Injustice Superman Action Figure
From Left to Right: Movie Masters Green Lantern, Injustice Superman, and DCUC style DC Unlimited New 52 Superman

The paint apps of the figure looks good, if not great, with the S shield having a strong red border, making it look large. The highly detailed sculpts and lines on the costume also makes this Superman un-Mattel like and more DC Direct/DC Collectibles like (that being this body is not a reuse of a previous body mold and might have been produced exclusively for this figure alone). If that is Mattel's new direction, then I guess they could really give DC Collectibles a run for their money. More photos below.

But overall, this is still a great figure

Injustice Superman Action Figure Batman:

Batman guests stars in this review because I got him for my brother. Though I'm not that much of a Batman fan, this Batman figure looks awesome because of his metallic armor. Of course when fighting Superman, Batman should be wearing something like this in place of his kevlar/spandex suit. The figure is sculpted nicely with awesome attention to detail given to its armor. The paint apps has some hits and misses, but is nevertheless forgivable. I guess Mattel is not used to painting figures with this much detail. This Batman figure shares the same articulation with Superman except that it sports a swivel torso instead of a swivel waist. And just like Superman, the lack of the swivel biceps makes Batman's fighting poses limited. I also hated the fact that this figure can't do a sitting pose as you can't actually bend the hips forward to do a sitting position (same goes for Superman). There's actually a variant colored one of this figure which sports a metallic violet colored armor. Personally, it looks better compared to this one because it made the figure look darker and more menacing. But I eventually picked this one over the other because the blue and metallic colors blends nicely with each other and is more faithful to the game's Batman colors. I'm not quite sure if there are more Injustice figures that Mattel has planned, but DC Collectibles is maximizing these versions of their heroes in action figure form by coming up with more Injustice figures but in 4 inch form.

Injustice Superman Action Figure Injustice Superman Action Figure Injustice Superman Action Figure Injustice Superman Action Figure
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