McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Superman of Earth-3 (Ultraman) review – Collect to Build Starro

The Crime Syndicate is one of the great DC villain groups. They’re an evil Justice League, how could that not be amazing? It’s taken McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse line a minute to knock out the team. Largely because McFarlane still hasn’t completed a comic Justice League yet. In good time I guess?

Superman of Earth-3, who I’ll just refer to as Ultraman, kicks off the wave that has the added bonus of also including a Collect to Build Starro. We’ve got several versions of Superman, but this will likely be the one and done version of Ultraman.

Let’s see if this corrupted Superman is good enough to be at the forefront of my Crime Syndicate display or needs to be relegated to the back.

Packaging: McFarlane has zero plans to switch from its original packaging of is still a mostly black box with white and blue accents. Weirdly the package art doesn’t feature Ultraman and just has a big picture of the assembled Starro.

This takes the line’s minimal package setup to an extreme. I still wish they’d put a bio on the package instead of just randomly having it on the website.

Earth-3 is a world where power and brute force outmatch the justice and compassion seen in many other Earths across the DC Multiverse. Ultraman of Earth-3, born Kal-Il on the planet Krypton, shares many similarities with Earth-0’s Superman. He’s also the Last Son of Krypton and was sent in an escape pod to Earth where he grew up in Smallville with his adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent. But the similarities end there.

Using their son for their own gain, the Kents then manipulated Kal-Il and didn’t allow him to leave the farm, until one day when he finally discovered the truth of who he is and where he came from. He then broke free and left Smallville for good. Years later, he’s now taken the name Ultraman and rules over Metropolis, dominating the sprawling city as a tyrant. And with the emergence of other powerful beings like himself, he’s formed the Crime Syndicate, a group of morally corrupt, power-hungry Super-Villains set on reforming the world to their liking. They are in every way the antithesis of the Justice League.

Likeness: Ultraman is nice and brawny. I think he’s using the Superman Rebirth mold with a new inverted sculpted S-shield, belt pieces and head sculpt.

 

That’s consistent with the reference material based on the latest Crime Syndicate series. And it’s a big enough body that Ultraman doesn’t look scrawny.

The head sculpt is decent though it seems a bit too serene for Ultraman, who would have been fine with an angrier head sculpt.

Scale: I’m of the mindset that Ultraman needs to be the tallest member of the Crime Syndicate, but scale can be problematic with this line unfortunately.

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Paint:  I don’t typically have any issues with McFarlane Toys’ paint work.

The logo came out clean and the silver stud belt had no problems either.

My lone gripe with Ultraman would be the decision to give him fully red eyes so he’s locked in a permanent flashing heat vision expression. That was a weird choice and it’s kinda prompting me to consider an angrier Superman head as an alternate.

Articulation: The Multiverse articulation scheme is pretty solid for Superman style powerhouses, so I had no concerns about his movement.

He’s able to hit some nice brawling poses and looks good in action shots.

DC McFarlane Ultraman has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders [with pop up/down point]
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee
• ankle
• toe

Accessories: Ultraman doesn’t have obvious accessories although in this case an alternate head would definitely be my choice. But we know McFarlane Toys considers additional heads as variants so that wasn’t gonna happen.

He does come with a Collect to Build Starro part. That piece looks massive with a crazy amount of detail with the suction cup elements and teeth in the center. Ultraman also has a smaller Starro to attach to his face.

Worth it? McFarlane Toys hasn’t wavered with the $20 price tag and for CTB figures, the price jumps up to a still reasonable $25. I was able to get him on a McFarlane Toy Store sale for $20, which made him a no-brainer.

Rating: 9 out of 10

I wish Ultraman were just a bit taller and had an alternative, angrier head sculpt. Otherwise, this was another strong addition to the Crime Syndicate collection.

Where to get it?  Ultraman is now sold out on McFarlane’s site, but you can still get him on Amazon for just under $25.

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