I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Just-Us League Of Stupid Heroes

From DC Direct comes the Just-Us League Of Stupid Heroes line of action figures. Each figure features Alfred E. Neuman, Mad Magazine's long-time cover boy, as a different DC Universe super hero. How could I pass up a concept that weird?

DC Direct actually came out with many of these figures way back in 2002. I wanted to get them back then but was always stymied by the price tag. $18 was just too rich for my blood. Little did I know that in 2013 all action figures would routinely go for $15 - $20 a pop!

I tried to find the original figures on eBay but they were always even more wildly expensive there, so I gave up and figured I'd just never own them. Fortunately this year DC Direct decided to resurrect the line and I was finally able to pick them up. They recently rerelased all the figures from the 2002 line plus several brand new ones.

Each figure is about six inches high but somehow seem bigger. All are very well-sculpted and feature an amazing amount of detail work and excellent paint jobs. I don't have a single complaint in that area!

First up is Alfred as Superman. The sculpt here looks to be the same as the original figure. The only difference is the paint job. He now has black hair as Superman does and his shoes have been changed to solid red to more closely match Supe's boots.

It's ironic that this parody figure's costume looks more traditional and on-model than the one in the upcoming Man Of Steel movie. I don't care what anyone says, Superman needs his red undies and he looks just plain wrong without them!

Whoops! He's missing the yellow "S" shield on his cape.

I'm generally not a fan of cloth capes on action figures of this size. They usually end up looking exactly like what they are-- a tiny square of material. The cloth's just too small to hang like a real cape would. I much prefer plastic sculpted capes.

The figures all have fairly standard articulation, including neck, shoulder, mid-bicep, wrist, hip and knee joints. For some reason none of them are articulated at the waist.

Unfortunately Superman's hands really only work in the "What, Me Worry?" pose and look kind of silly any other way.

Here's Alfred as Green Arrow. The original figure came with a bow, but this new version doesn't. At least the one I got didn't. Maybe I got a defective package? One would think a character who's whole schtick is being an archer oughta come with a bow, but what do I know?

The paint job here is particularly well done. If you look closely you'll see that the skin inside the eye holes of his mask has been painted black, just like Michael Keaton's eyes in the Batman movies. Now that's attention to detail! 

On a totally unrelated note.... I guess in those movies we're to believe that Bruce Wayne spend a few minutes carefully painting the skin around his eyes black before he put on his bat-cowl? Eh, no reason to hurry, Batman. I'm sure taking the time to paint your face won't give the Joker a head start or result in any innocent civilians' deaths.

This isn't just a straight reissue of the old figure, as there are quite a few differences, mainly in the contents of the quiver and his gloves. Both appear to have been resculpted. No idea why they'd do that, as it's generally an expensive thing to do, but I'm not complaining. Maybe they lost parts of the original molds?

Once again the level of detail here is impressive. His quiver is actually a golf bag and it contains several arrows, a golf club, a wrench, what could possibly be the handle of a whip and or course a fish. You never know when you might have to fire a herring at one of your enemies.

Perhaps the most disturbing of the figures is Alfred E. Neuman as Wonder Woman. This is a brand new figure that wasn't included in the 2002 wave and was sculpted just for this new line.

This isn't a sister or some weird female cousin of Alfred's, this is most definitely him dressed in drag. If you need proof just look closely and you'll see he's got a black wig perched crookedly on his head and some of his reddish brown hair is showing underneath.

Yes folks, this is an action figure of a young boy in drag. Believe it or not, this isn't a first; I can think of one other time this has happened, when TriStar made a Klinger figure for its M*A*S*H toy line in the early 1980s. 

That oughta get the One Million Moms' panties in a bunch! Like they need more to complain about.

Here's a shot of the back of Wonder Woman, showing her red rain boots. I will refrain from commenting on Alfred's gams or his firm, taut buttocks.

Here's a closeup showing the incredible details of the costume. They really went all out with this one. Wonder Woman's bullet-deflecting bracelets are actually cans of Alfred-OOs brand pasta, complete with tiny nutrition info table on the back of the cans! It looks like the nutrition info actually says something, but alas it's too minute for my eyes to read, even with a magnifying glass. Still, to go to that much trouble at all is amazing to me.

Wonder Woman's magic lasso is a yellow extension cord and the gold trim on her, er I mean his uniform is police crime tape. If you look closely at his chest, and shame on you for doing so, you'll see he's stuffed his costume full of kleenex. Just like your prom date! And one side is larger than the other! Again, Just like your prom date!

Here's Alfred as Green Lantern, one of my favorite superheroes. Once again this figure appears to be identical to the original one except for the paint job. This time his hair is the proper dark brown color of Hal Jordan (instead of reddish brown) and they've used a metallic green paint on his jumper.

Like the Green Arrow figure they painted the area around the eye holes of his mask black, which again is a nice bit of detail. His power ring is actually sculpted into the Green Lantern symbol too. I've seen many Green Lantern figures that just had a blob of paint on their hand where the ring should be. He also comes with what appears to be a Coleman-type camping lantern to use to recharge his power ring.

He even has Green Lantern symbols on the his Chuck Taylors!

It's a nice looking figure with one big exception-- that giant scrawny turkey neck. I don't know what went wrong here, but his neck is about a quarter inch longer than it oughta be. He shouldn't have any neck showing at all; I think it would look a lot better if his head just rested on the turtleneck collar.

Turkey neck or not, he's still got tons of little details, including the string that holds his mask on which is mashing down his hair! Cool!

Next up is Alfred as the Flash. As near as I can tell this figure is unchanged from the original.

Again there's tons of detail on display here. The texture of his head is different from the rest of his outfit, as he's wearing a wool ski mask! He's also sporting oven mitts on his hands and wearing yellow rain goulashes. The goulashes are even painted with a glossy paint (rather than the matte paint used on the rest of the figure) to simulate rubber!

The bulk of his suit is a pair of red long johns, complete with butt flap in the back.

Last up is Alfred as Aquaman. This is another brand new figure that wasn't available the first time around.

He's got a load of detail as well, including a nose clamp to keep him from sputtering and drowning underwater, inflatable water wings on each arm, a seafood restaurant bib complete with lobster printed on it, and an inflatable duckie inner tube.

He also carries a pitchfork to use as his majestic Atlantean trident. So Aquaman gets a trident but Green Arrow doesn't get a bow? Odd.

That little box by his feet is a can of sardines, which is sure to get lost in the carpet five minutes from now.

He's also got a large crab attached to his leg that's pinching the hell out of his ass.

All in all a fun wave of toys based on a cool concept. I highly recommend them if you're a fan of Mad Magazine or DC Comics, or if you're one of those types who likes to have ironic crap sitting around your apartment.

There's also a Batman, Robin and a Joker figure available, but I didn't yet have them at the time of my little photoshoot. I'll be covering them soon.

It Came From The Cineplex: Pain And Gain

Pain & Gain is a new action comedy directed by Michael Bay. Yep, that Michael Bay. Michael "Dear Lord, He's Making Another Transformers Movie" Bay. As the poster says, it's based on the true story of the Sun Gym Gang. 

As with all so-called "true stories," this one takes quite a few liberties with what actually happened. From what I've read though most of the changes made were to minor details. The basic gist of the plot-- the kidnapping and murders-- is pretty close to the actual events.

The biggest change involves the Sun Gym Gang itself. In the film the Gang is made up of just three members. In reality it consisted of six to eight people. I'm assuming they whittled down the number for time and to give the three main stars more screen time.

Most of the changes seem designed to make the Gang appear more sympathetic to the audience, a move which generated some controversy from the families of the victims. I think that's a legitimate complaint. These people committed acts of kidnapping, murder and dismemberment-- there's nothing sympathetic about them.

Judge Alex Ferrer, star of the court television show Judge Alex, ruled on the Sun Gym Gang case. Strange bedfellows indeed!

The Plot:
In 1994, Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) is an ex-con working in a Miami gym who yearns for more, as all Entitled Americans do. While acting as personal trainer to local millionaire Victor Kershaw, he hatches an elaborate scheme. He and a couple of accomplices-- known as the Sun Gym Gang-- will kidnap Kershaw and torture him until he signs his home and all his assets over to them. The plan works and they actually acquire Kershaw's wealth. The Gang kills Kershaw but he secretly survives and contacts a private investigator who ends up blowing the lid on their ill-planned scheme.

Pros:
• At a mere $26 million this is probably the smallest budgeted film of Michael Bay's entire career. In fact it hardly seems like a Bay movie at all. His films tend to be much louder and explody.

• Both Mark Wahalberg and The Rock have come a long way as actors. They both put in pretty decent performances here.

Cons:
•The film has a very uneven tone. Is it an action movie? A crime drama? A black comedy? Is it supposed to be satirical? All of the above? Or none of those? 

Darned if I know. Just when I thought I had it figured out the tone would shift, often radically.

• I'm getting a bit tired of movies that start at the end and then rewind. You know, the kind where you hear the main character in voiceover narrating what's happening, and then they say, "Wait a minute. Let's start at the beginning" and then the story flashes back to months or years earlier.

I've seen it over and over and over again the past seven or eight years, most often in British gangster films. It's past time to retire this cliche.

• There's a credit at the end of the film stating that the names of the victims have been changed to protect their privacy and that of their families. I don't get the big deal-- the article and book on which the film is based uses the victims' real names. Anyone could uncover them with about fifteen seconds worth of Googling. For example, Victor Kershaw's real name is Mark Schiller. The real names are a matter of public record, so why the film aliases?

An uneven film that's too light to be a crime drama and not funny enough to be a black comedy or satire. I give it a C+.

THIS Is Why Al-Qaeda Hates America: Burger King Hands-Free Whopper

You know how when you watch the news and see a story about al-Qaeda and they're always out in the streets chanting, "Death to America?" Did you ever wonder, "Gosh, what's their problem? Why do they hate us so much?"

It's because of things like this.

Introducing the Burger King Hands-Free Whopper Holder. For those times when you're starving for a juicy flame-broiled burger but just don't have the strength to raise your hands and exert the minute pressure it takes to hold onto a burger.

As near as I can tell the Hands Free Whopper Holder is a real thing, but is only available in Puerto Rico right now as a fun little bonus for the top members of their Loyalty Card Program. But you just know it'll be hitting the States soon, shortly after virtually immobile Burger King customers here see it and start mooing and bleating for one of their own.

Is it too late to sign up for that Mars mission?

It Came From The Cineplex: The Hangover Part III

"It All Ends?" Dear lord, we can only hope... 

I'm not gonna waste a lot of bandwidth on this film because I'm not a fan of the series, didn't particularly want to see it and once I did I didn't much care for it.

I saw the original The Hangover when it premiered in back in 2009, but unlike 99% of the population I didn't think it was the greatest achievement in comedy filmmaking that our civilization has ever produced. I scored it a B, which seems pretty high now that I look back, calling it mediocre at best with surprisingly few laughs and that it was saved only by the presence of Zach Galifianakis. 

That pretty much sums up my feelings for Part III. Except for the B part.

Most audiences agreed that The Hangover Part II was little more than a carbon copy of the original, with only a change of location (from Vegas to Thailand) to differentiate it. I didn't even bother to see it so I can neither confirm nor deny this. The Hangover Part III definitely tries to break the formula though, veering drunkenly into action thriller territory rather than comedy.

I have to wonder if writer/director Todd Phillips heard the criticisms about Part II and deliberately tried to do something different this time? If so I'll give him credit for trying, even if his efforts burst into flame on the runway without ever becoming airborne.

The dearth of comedy was the biggest problem I had with the film. I thought the funniest part in the whole movie was when Galifianakis' Alan character knocks over a display of musical instruments on his way out of a pawn shop. Even then it didn't generate a guffaw; I just kind of breathed out of my nose a little harder than normal.

Probably the funniest thing about The Hangover Part III isn't even in the actual film-- it's the poster, which is a swipe from homage to Harry Potter And The Blatant Cash Grab Part 2. They even used the same "It All Ends" slogan! Folks, when your ferkakta poster is funnier than your actual comedy film, you've got troubles.

It's also pretty darn similar to this one as well. Galifianakis seems to like participating in staring contests on his posters.

The Plot:
The Wolf Pack gets together for one last mission, but not for the usual wedding. This time the guy that no one cares about who sits out all these movies is being held hostage by a drug dealer (played by John Goodman). The dealer wants the Pack to bring Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong) and the gold bars he stole back to him or the guy no one cares about dies. The Pack tracks Mr. Chow to... duhn duhn DUHN! Las Vegas, the city where it all started.

That's the entire plot, folks!

Pros:
• God bless Melissa McCarthy. She's the best thing in the entire film. Things pick up considerably during her few all-too-brief scenes with Galifianakis (who also seems to perk up when he's interacting with her).

That's about all I've got.

Cons:
• For a so-called comedy there are very few actual laughs. Vast chunks of screen time drag by without a single discernible joke or amusing situation. 

• What does director Todd Philips have against animals? In this film he (fake) kills a giraffe (by decapitation yet!), two guard dogs and at least one chicken during the film. Jesus, I'm no PETA member but even I think that's a bit excessive. Worst of all I'm pretty sure these animal deaths were all intended to be funny.

• This film contains some of the worst special effects and prosthetic makeup I've seen outside of a SyFy Channel feature. As the movie opens,  Alan hauls a giraffe down the highway in a sequence that features some truly abysmal green screen shots. Seriously, it's like 1970s era effects.

Then in a post credits scene, Stu (Ed Helms) wakes up after yet another wild party to find he's now the proud owner of a pair of breast implants. The quality of the breast prosthetics is shockingly bad, just slightly better than those rubber chests you can buy at one of those Halloween stores that pop up every October. 

• I could have happily lived out the rest of my life without ever seeing Ken Jeong's shockingly tiny penis. I hope for his sake that was some kind of foam latex prosthetic!

Not funny enough to be a comedy and not exciting enough to be an action thriller, The Hangover Part III is an unqualified mess that I'm sure will end up grossing $300 million anyway. I give it a C. 

I've Got A Slightly Less Bad Feeling About This: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Last week I posted a characteristically cranky entry about the appearance of the Rhino in the upcoming sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Even Spider-Manier. Specifically I was unhappy that instead of looking like a man in a rhinoceros get-up he was apparently going to look like a chubby Russian gangster wearing a track suit.

Happily it looks like I spoke too soon.

The latest set photos reveal that actor Paul Giamatti, who's playing the Rhino, will at some point in the film be wearing some sort of oversized battle armor. Armor that I'm hopeful will at least marginally resemble a rhinoceros.

I'm assuming that the armor will not actually look like this, since it only covers the top half of his body and appears to be carved out of styrofoam. I'm betting the actual armor will be all CGI and this getup is just a placeholder. The yellow and black motion tracking circles would tend to confirm that assumption. Well, that and the fact that it appears he's being wheeled around the set by several technicians.

He still doesn't look like the comic book version of the Rhino...

But it's quite a few steps up from this.

And this.

For the record my attitude toward this film has gone from "There's No Way In Hell I'll Pay To See It And I Hope A Chasm Opens In The Earth And Swallows Up All Existing Copies" to "Somewhat Cautiously Optimistic."

Reuben Pointelsberg

Reuben's a valued member of Anal Probe Task Force #487 on his world, but his wife complained he was murder on their pillowcases.

Note that Reuben's wearing the traditional metallic silver jumpsuit with triangular collar, which is standard issue on his planet.

Reuben was drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original pen & ink sketch of Rueben. His head was much smaller and differently shaped here, and I decided I didn't much like it.

Here's the tighter digital sketch I did of him. Getting closer here to the final illustration.

Oh Asylum, You've Done It Again!

Here's the poster for the latest epic from The Asylum studio. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about it seems familiar somehow...

The Asylum is the world leader in the production of "Mockbusters"-- fast and cheaply made straight-to-DVD knockoffs, usually based on the trailers of upcoming big budget films. They're released a few days before their namesakes in the hope they'll be bought by confused and befuddled consumers who think they're getting the real thing. 

Their business model must be working, as they've been around since 1997. Somebody out there must be buying these things. The budgets for their opuses (opi?) are reportedly "well under a million dollars and they claim they've never lost money on a picture.

I wonder what it must be like working at The Asylum? I imagine it's probably something like this:

Asylum Director: OK, let's start the production meeting. Jenkins, what's coming to the theaters in the next six months?

Jenkins: Well, there's Iron Man 3. And the new Star Trek movie. 

Director: Feh, the public's too familiar with those properties. We need something they haven't seen before.

Jenkins: Heh. This is Hollywood, Chief! The land of remakes and reboots. There's nothing out there they haven't seen before.

Director: Leave the jokes to me, Jenkins. What else you got?

Jenkins: Well... there is an upcoming picture called Pacific Rim.

Director: Woah, sounds kinky. What's it about?

Jenkins: It appears to be a slick-looking big budget Godzilla movie. Guys in big robot suits fighting giant kaiju.

Director: What the hell's a kaiju? Sounds like my Uncle Morty!

Jenkins: Kaiju means "strange beast." They're giant monsters.

Director: So why didn't you say so? Giant robots fighting giant monsters, eh? I like it. It's got everything we need-- people in robot suits and giant monsters! Giant everything. The bigger the better! Let's get rolling on this. I want a completed script by this Friday and we start filming on Monday. We'll wrap up filming four weeks from today!

Jenkins (rising from chair): Yes sir!

Director: Hold it, hold it! Not so fast! We forgot the title. We need a title... let's see.... Pacific Rim. Hmm.... Pacific., Pacific... hmm....

Jenkins: How about... Atlantic Rim?

Director: That's it! Jenkins, you're a genius! Now let's knock off for lunch!

I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Hot Toys Christopher Reeve Superman 12" Figure

In honor of Superman's 75th anniversary (and before the upcoming new film potentially ruins Superman for everyone) I present the Hot Toys Superman 1/6 scale action figure!

As regular readers of my blog know, a while back the bank in which I worked failed, thrusting me (and everyone else who worked there) into the cold cruel world of unemployment. I was very, very fortunate to find a new (and better) job just a couple of months later. To celebrate my good fortune I decided to splurge and buy my first ever Hot Toys action figure. Hey, get yer mind outta the gutter! Contrary to their somewhat provocative name, Hot Toys is a Japanese company that specializes in very cool, very detailed and very expensive high-end 1/6 scale action figures (Oy, a lot of backstory this is for the purchase of a toy!).

But which figure to get? That was easy! I chose the Hot Toys Christopher Reeve Superman figure.

Superman: The Movie has always been one of my all time favorite films. It my opinion it's a darn near perfect example of what a superhero movie should be and Christopher Reeve is absolutely perfect as both Superman and Clark Kent.
 

Superman arrived at my home on a cold and wintry February day. I heard the UPS man drive off and I opened the front door and almost tripped over a huge box on the stoop. Luckily for me my UPS man actually placed the box on the porch and didn't toss it from the curb.

So how big was the box? Much bigger than I expected. That's the box above with a DVD laying on it for scale. Yeah, it's a Doctor Who DVD. Yeah, I'm a big nerd. What of it?

Inside the huge box was... yet another huge box. This one was just slightly smaller than the first one. I guess they were trying to make sure nothing got damaged, but it was starting to remind me of my dad's favorite Xmas trick: wrapping a pair of earrings for my mom in an enormous box filled with a series of thirty progressively smaller ones inside. A timeless classic!

 

Now we're getting somewhere! Inside the second box was the actual action figure box (Ach, Again he goes on with the stupid boxes!).

As you can see it's not your standard box. It's shaped like the "S" shield on Superman's chest. There's also a blue strip or sash stretched across the front, letting me know the figure's been sanitized for my protection.

Hot Toys prides themselves on their quality packaging and it's obvious they put a lot of thought and planning into this box (Oy, yet again about the boxes!). A lot of collectors consider the packaging to be just as important as the figure itself. I am not one of them. 

I freely admit I am not a fan of this box. In fact I downright hate it. I get what they were trying to do, but it fails miserably. The stinkin' box can't even stand up on its own! You have to prop it upright with the two separate blue cardboard triangular pieces. Who thought that was a good idea?

Plus I wonder how much this complicated and elaborate packaging added to the final cost? As a graphic designer I can tell you with confidence that a custom-shaped box like this ain't cheap. I'm sure it had to drive the price up a quite a bit. I'd have been much happier with a plain cardboard box that doesn't need chocks to prop it up and a lower price point.

Lifting off the top of the S-shaped box reveals yet another lid beneath it, Matryoshka style. This one is dedicated to the memory of Christopher Reeve, which I will admit is a nice touch (Tell me he's not still kibitzing about the boxes?).

According to the underside of this second lid, a portion of each sale of this figure will go to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation for stem cell research, which is a nice thing for Hot Toys to do.

 

Finally! After all that unpacking, at last I get to see my Superman figure. It's displayed nicely in the tray, as are the many and various accessories. 

You can't see it here but underneath this upper tray is a lower one containing a small display stand and an "in flight" Fortress Of Solitude diorama which I'll get to later.

At last I popped the figure from its plastic prison and got to see it in all its glory. Now this is the Superman we all know and love (Finally he talks about his toy he bought!).

The costume is very well made and fits the figure perfectly. I'm not a fabric expert but I think it's spandex. Whatever it is it's very flexible and doesn't interfere with the articulation. It's pretty much a perfect 1/6 scale representation of the Superman costume from the film.

I don't understand why the recent Superman movies feel compelled to change his iconic costume. There's nothing wrong with this one. No one pointed and laughed when they saw this suit in the cinema. It's a perfect three dimensional representation of Superman; probably the best comic to film translation of a costume that I've ever seen. It's perfect in every way. It definitely wasn't broke, so I don't know why they keep trying to fix it. Changing it seems almost sacrilegious somehow, like altering the flag.

The classic suit is for damn sure better than this thing from the upcoming Man Of Steel movie. What's with the dingy colors and the scaly, reptilian texture? It's full of unnecessary little flourishes as well, like the cuffs, the piping on the thighs and worst of all the art deco wings that point right at Superman's bountiful package (as if we needed help to see it).

Worst of all, where the hell is his red underwear? He looks frustratingly incomplete without them. You can argue for days whether it makes sense for a superhero to wear their drawers on the outside of their suit or not, but all I know is that it just plain looks wrong without them. It looks like Superman got dressed in a hurry and forgot to put them on.

The figure is fully articulated and can be easily placed in many natural looking poses. The joints are fairly tight, so he'll stay in whatever pose he's placed. 

Superman contemplating his place in the universe.Or perhaps he's thanking the Kryptonian god Rao that he remembered to put on his underwear.

Superman comes with three pairs of hands: two normal relaxed hands for everyday posing, two clenched fist hands for punching and two flattened "karate chop" hands for flying poses (Oy, now he starts on the hands forever!). The hands pop off easily and can be quickly swapped out. Also present there in the tray were two extra wrist pegs. I'm not sure if they included those in case you lose one or because they're prone to breakage. Hopefully the former.

One nice feature: there's a thin little wire sewn into the bottom hem of his cape. This allows you to bend the cape into various shapes to simulate it billowing in the wind.

One thing I've always wondered about Superman's costume: why is his S-shield red and yellow on his chest, but all yellow on his cape? Is it because they thought the shield wouldn't show up as well on a red background? Just for fun I did a little Photoshop experiment to see what the red & yellow S-shield would look like on the red cape. Personally I don't think it looks that bad (Sounds like someone has Aspergers, maybe?).

The all-yellow shield is definitely be easier to color, so maybe they did it to save time. Or maybe it was just a coloring mistake that stuck.

The best  part about the figure is the head sculpt. There is absolutely no doubt that you're looking at Christopher Reeve. The detail is amazing. His skin has tiny imperfections and blemishes and his eyes actually look as if they're moist (Oy vey iz mir! You want I should leave you alone with your doll?). If I didn't know better I'd swear this was a photo of the actual Christopher Reeve.

Many times these sculpts tend to look like the actor from one angle only, but this one looks just like Reeve from either side.
 

You can even alter his expression a bit by a subtle tilt of the head.
 

Superman comes with a stand to keep your expensive figure from toppling off your shelf to its death on the floor far below. That patented Hot Toys "crotch holder" stand looks darned uncomfortable though.
 

The figure also comes with an elaborate and icy looking Fortress Of Solitude base/diorama from the beginning of the movie. The base was harder to assemble than you'd think (each of the pieces will only fit into the base one way, and it's not readily apparent what that way is).
 

Once assembled you can either place Superman directly on the base or use the clear acrylic rod to display him in a flying pose (those flying hands finally came in handy).

I'm still in awe of this head sculpt. I can't quit looking at it (Oy, now definitely I'm leaving you two alone!).

You can get some really interesting effects from the sculpt just by playing around with the lighting a little.

With a little help from Photoshop you can even simulate Superman's heat vision. 

So how much did this figure set me back? I'm not tellin.' It was pricey, and that's all I'm gonna say. I'm not being coy, it's just that people already look at me funny when they find out I collect action figures, so I can only imagine the looks I'd get if I went around announcing how much I paid for this one (Oy, very perceptive, this one is). 

Would I ever buy another Hot Toys figure? I'd like to, but barring winning the lottery, which I don't play because I believe I have the same chance of winning whether I buy a ticket or not, I probably won't get another. I'm definitely glad I bought this one though.