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Superman & Krypto (Imaginext)

July 31, 2013 | By Errex More

What do Superman and Iron Man have in common, other than their last names? Well, both had big budget movies released in the summer of 2013 and none of the toy-license holders could be bothered to produce decent action figures for them in the 3.75 inch scale.

However, that’s not to say that there are not adequate superhero toys on the shelves right now.Case in point, the subject of today’s review, the Imaginext set with Superman and his faithful super-dog Krypto.

Now, these toys are designed for the under-five crowd, but ever since I started buying Hasbro’s Star Wars Galactic Heroes I have been enthralled by the cutesy, super-deformed format, an acquired taste that nowadays extends to the DC licensed Imaginext offerings from Mattel and Hasbro’s Playskool lines.

This is one of the smaller sets in the DC Super Friends line, containing a figure of Superman, his dog Krypto, a space helmet-pincer accessory and a kryptonite crystal outcropping.

Superman follows the standard Imaginext aesthetic with a rather stylized sculpture and not much detail but, surprisingly, instead of just repainting a standard Imaginext body, Supes got a specifically developed mold with muscular arms, a flat space for the chest emblem and a sculpted belt buckle, as well as sculpted boot edges.

The head sculpt is suitably cartoony and has a rather goofy expression that makes me think of ventriloquist dummies. The whole head /neck piece serves as a plug to keep the cloth cape in place, but also means that the articulation is limited to pegged hinge shoulders and swivel hips. Since the legs are molded as a single piece, they can’t move independently from each other but, hey, it is still more that what you get from the typical Galactic Hero.

Krypto is molded in three pieces. The head is similarly plugged in place to secure the cloth cape, but the tail actually rotates, which is pretty much all it needs to do. The dog is also sculpted in the animated style and it has a bemused smirk on it’s face.

The paintjob on both Superman and Krypto is barely above average. Krypto gets off easy, since it is basically a white piece with very minimal paint on it, but Superman has a few coverage issues in the yellow areas on his chest and a few wavy red lines at the boots and neck edges.

The S emblem looks good though, as it has thin black lining separating the red and yellow parts and the paint applications on the head of Superman look really sharp, boosting the overall appearance.
Superman comes with a piece of kryptonite which is basically a shell of translucent green plastic and a space helmet with a long pincer attachment, no doubt meant to allow him to manipulate the ore. The helmet is made from clear plastic and has the collar painted in white, matching the color of the hose connecting it to the pincer piece.

The claw mechanism has a spring in it to maintain pressure and is made from red plastic, with white and suilver deco. I am not really sure if that’s OSHA-approved equipment for safe kryptonite handling, but it seems like a fun accessory that adds a good deal of play value to this set.