They released Superman the same day to comic shops -- last Wednesday. Most people will be extremely excited about this modern version of Supes, and while it's very nice, I was much happier to see Bizarro. Why? Well, I've always like the bad guys and secondary characters more, and let's face it - we already have plenty of Superman figures. How many Bizarros do you have?

These figures are selling for $13-$20, depending on your comic shop. Most DC Direct single figures sell for around $13-$15, but some shops are taking advantage of the greater demand of the standard DC characters to raise prices. I have a couple options on-line for you at the end of the review.

If you have any question, comments or figures you'd like to suggest for reviews, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"DC Direct Bizarro"

Bizarro is a rather unique character. He's an alternate universe version of Superman. He lives in a place where everything is backwards...sort of. If you've seen the classic SEINFELD episode involving Bizarro Jerry, Kramer and George, then you know just how difficult the idea of the Bizarro World can be to explain. Considering how much Jerry Seinfeld loves Superman, I'm betting this figure is already on his shelf at home.

Packaging - **1/2

The packaging is standard DC Direct stuff, with decent graphics and text, but nothing exciting. It certainly doesn't leap off the shelf at you, but it is fairly sturdy and looks adequate. I wish they had used their new “resealable” packages for these, but for some reason they opted out.

Sculpting - ***1/2

Bizarro's sculpt is extremely good, although a little too cartoony in some respects. The body sculpt couldn't be better, but it's the same body as the Superman figure (as you might expect). That's a bit of a negative, since Bizarro is usually depicted as somewhat physically abnormal to Supes, and really the only reason I docked the sculpt score.

The head sculpt has excellent detail, and looks great on first glance. After inspecting it for awhile though, it seemed to be a bit too cartoon like, but it's hard to put my finger on exactly what's off. Still, overall he's a great looking figure.

The cape is sculpted in soft plastic, and while some folks might prefer cloth (as I often do), I think this worked extremely well in this scale. It looks great from the front, although I'll mention a small issue in the next category that hurts the rear view.

Paint - ***
The paint application on most of the figure is good, although there are a few nits to pick. The face looks good, but on very close inspection you will see some slop around the teeth. That's not particularly surprising though, considering the extreme amount of detail and small scale of the teeth.

The paint on the hands is a bit thick, but the lines are clean, and all the colors that cover large areas are consistent and even. The backwards “S” on his chest is well done, but oddly enough, the same symbol on his cape is all yellow, with no other color at all. I'm not sure if that's simply a screw up, or poor design, or I've missed something in recent comics, but it hurts the appearance of the cape.

Articulation - ***1/2

I'm pretty impressed with the majority of the articulation on this figure, and it goes to show that you can make an extremely well articulated figure without hurting the appearance at all.

He has neck, ball jointed shoulders, cut biceps, elbows, cut wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles. He can take many poses, and all but one set of the joints are tight and solid. I'm not very fond of the pin joints they've used on the ankles, and as usual with this type, they are the loosest and easiest to break. But the figure is much better articulated than average, even for DC Direct, and I'm glad they took the extra effort. Of course, using the same body for both helped costs I'm sure.

Accessories - **
There are two accessories - the "S" display stand, and his Bizarro rock necklace. The necklace looks great, and is an excellent accessory, but the display stand is both unnecessary (he stands fine on his own) and redundant. It's the same stand that comes with all the characters in the modern Supes line up, including Supergirl. A reversed "S" would have been far more interesting, but obviously they were going for accessory re-use.

Value - **
Considering the body reuse and the stand reuse between the Supes and Bizarro figures, you would have assumed they could have gotten the price down. $15 is way too much to spend on these, even if they are nicely done. McToys can give us as good or better figures for $10 or less, so I'm sure DC Direct could do the same. They can't argue small numbers on these either, since these aren't the obscure kind of characters like Cheetah or Firestorm. If they really made small numbers, they have only themselves, and the comic shops, to blame.

Overall - ***
The only thing hurting this figure is the price. At $15, I simply can't give him more than three stars. Had I been able to pick it up for $10-$12, it would have gotten another half star easily. He's a great looking figure, and I'm happy to have him on the shelf, but the price point is just too high for what you get to get a better score.

Where to Buy -
Your local comic shop should have gotten these in last week. Lots of on-line stores have these available:

- Boise River Collectibles has him (and Supes) available for $16 each.

I'm always looking for leads on new retailers on-line, so if you have suggestions please let me know!