Hot Toys Jor-El review

Sorry I missed my mid-week update - my kids had a swiw/dive meet on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a band concert that evening, which resulted in my spending 5 hours at their school. It was more fun than it might sound, but it meant no time for the site.

I figured I'd make up for it tonight with not one but TWO reviews, both of new Hot Toys figures. First up is the Man of Steel Jor-El, which sports an amazing portrait...and a heck of a price tag, considering what you're getting.

I'm following that up with a look at their first Power Pose figure, the Iron Man MK XLII from Iron Man 3. We'll also be discussing the Power Pose series on the next Hot Toys Cast, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this new line.

You can find my reviews at the usual:

https://www.mwctoys.com

Thanks for reading, and have a terrific weekend!

Michael
MWC

Nice review as usual my only nit would be how you say the base he comes with is I the same as the one HT is selling. Though there is a picture provided, I'd like to suggest that it would've been more accurate to describe the base he come a with differently compared to the dynamic stand HT is selling since the only similarities are the post and the clamp where as the base itself is entirely specific to this figure and the other figures in this line

Always enjoy your reviews, been reading your site since around 2005, but i just needed to discuss one little thing

Jor El vs. Tom Baker vs. 1/4 Batman

Jor El you gave 3 Stars
Baker got 3.5
and 1/4 TDKRises Batman got 4 stars

Just seems like 1/4 Batman should be way ahead of Baker which to me Baker is not nearly on the level of HTs plus its also $279 USD directly from Big Chief. $60 more than Jor-El.

I think the Baker is nice, just not HTs level. And Jor-El has to get major points for being one of the most life-like figures made to date. Afterall, most people seem to care about the likeness the most or atleast likenesses get the most attention. JorEl vs Baker likeness, i just don't see it being very close. I mean it looks like Baker, but doesnt not come close to that life-like quality of Jor-El, which i think is just a work of art. Baker just doesn't have that level of detail. And his bug-eyed look has always bothered me, even though Baker has those kind of eyes, I just think they exaggerated it too much.

But i totally understand you thought Jor-El didn't come with enough for the price, which is fine. $220 is nothing to sneeze at. But I look at back in the day when a figure was $150, none had that life-like quality of today Jor-El's. Also custom stuff really took off back then and people were/still are buying custom heads for their figures when they didn't like HTs headsculpts and some custom HS are pretty expensive. You could easily pay over $100 for HS, and sometimes a lot more, like an Adam Joker. Plus you need to get them painted. which could be an added expense, and very very rare custom painting is better than HTs. So a lot of people wound up spending several hundred dollars more to get their figures what they thought was more accurate.

But now HTs is delivering really accurate and life-like sculpts. So I think that is worth the added price say $50-100. Clothing wise, no one is going to make anything better than HTs especially say JorEl, that robe is an extremely detailed robe with detailed armor. So the price alone for that, imagine that custom made by someone??? man, would could a fortune.

I know everyone has their own opinions, likes & dislikes, I just think people don't consider what figure design and the whole package was back when figures were $100-150 to what they are now. Plus obtaining licenses you know have gone way up as well, so that factors into it big-time. Productions costs are just more than they were in 2005 and they will continue to go up. Just cant expect figures to cost the same now as they were then.

So back to your review, personally I think 1/4 Batman is one of the best things ever done in any scale by any company. Thats why I personally can't see 1/4 Batman being only .5 stars better than BC Tom Baker. Thats just me. Others will certainly think differently. Just my own personal opinion

Hopefully my note here comes off in a respectful way. I just wanted have an nice discussion, not trying to be mean or angry about anything. Just giving you some observation what another long-time collector thinks.

I generally don't spend time explaining myself in threads on my reviews - I already did that in the review. We can also spend all day going back and forth on details - like production numbers, which are far higher with a company like Hot Toys vs a company like Big Chief - but it gets us no where. I would like to point out one thing, however.

Jor-El scored four stars in both sculpt and paint, ahead of Dr. Who. There's more to the Overall than just likeness, and that's why I created this format for reviews. Your overall is different from mine because you weigh the areas differently, not because we greatly disagree on the quality of the likeness.

MC, thought this was balanced and straight forward as always, which is getting rarer around these parts. Thanks for the review.

Yup no need to explain anything just an observation as I was comparing those 3 reviews. Like I said I've read your reviews for many years, and I always enjoy them.

We all just have our own way of grading, likes and dislikes.

Hey Micheal, you know you're about to run out of stars on value with Hot Toys right?

Great reading and although I've busted your chops about your stubborn value scores, it really works here. DX Sparrow blows this thing away at just what, 20 bucks more? You know it's worth more than 1 extra star in that category though!



Great reading as always Mike!

Again, love the photography! Great review!