Show and Tell > DC Direct Cyborg Superman by Fengschwing

When I decided to do Show and Tell, I immediately decided on the figure I’m going to review.

Subsequently I thought that it wasn’t interesting enough to write some kind of article about–the standard of the other articles was really good. I started to hunt through my collection for ever more obscure collectibles, but at the end of the day, if the house goes up in flames, I’m grabbing my DC Direct Cyborg Superman.

I first saw this figure in an ad in the back of a DC comic, just before its first release in 2003. At the time I wasn’t much of a toy collector, I had read the trades collecting the whole Death of Superman saga and the Cyborg Superman was by far and away my favorite of the ‘replacements.’

Of course, I knew he wouldn’t be the real deal, but I loved his look so much. As a kid, I was forever drawing my own stories in which superheroes were being killed and replaced or horribly maimed and made ‘bionic.’ Ol’ Hank Henshaw looked cool. I wanted that figure.

Naturally, I forgot all about him.

A few years later, I had started collecting action figures and Superman figures in particular. I looked up the DC figure on eBay and he was every bit as good as I remembered him. He was also a few quid off £100, even with a decent exchange rate. Finding this sort of thing in the UK was nigh-on impossible; I had to face up to the fact I would probably never own one, much to my dismay.

Eventually Mattel got the license to produce Superman and Batman figures and the DC Super Heroes line arrived. After a few releases, a new version of Hank arrived. His articulation was much better, even if his sculpt wasn’t quite as good. But again, I failed to strike while the iron was hot–I plumped for the black and silver version of Superman instead and the price of Mattel Hank skyrocketed. Yet again, I let him get away.

My collection grew. I managed to bag the Teen Titans Conner Kent, the Kenner Superman Blue, all the other ‘Reign of the Supermen’ figures, and the JLA Umasked Clark Kent, but DCD Hank kept on eluding me.

Last year, after a tax return and a bit of luck on eBay, I finally bagged my holy grail item. The figure was well worth the wait.

The articulation is much better than the current standard that DCD has now; hinged ankles and knees, an upper thigh twist, T-crotch, ball jointed shoulders and neck (which provides a great range of movement without being strange looking), hinge elbows and an odd swivel and hinge wrists, well at least for the ‘biological’ arm, the prosthetic wrist has a peg. There are also biceps swivels too. Can you imagine a DC Direct with that much articulation? Seems crazy now, doesn’t it?

The only thing missing is a waist, but to honest, it’s not an area of articulation I’ve missed on this figure. Perhaps the Mattel version can create more poses, but it suffers from the same ‘wide legged’ stance that plagues all the early Mattel Supermen, besides the DCD sculpting and paint is superb.

So there you go, my particular holy grail figure.

I’ve shown and told, now it’s your turn: which plastic version of the Man of Steel is the best, or have we yet to see that figure..?