Thanks to Captain Britain for persisting with a campaign very dear to me - I've lobbied for a Reeve Superman figure for many years (and own one of Kris Meadows rare portrait dolls) but now having seen the level of detail HT bestow upon their figures it proves beyond doubt they are the only company who would do it justice.
We are closer now than ever before. Not since the Mego figure range in '78 have we had a line based upon the daddy of all Superhero movies and back then there is evidence to suggest Reeve was indeed prissy about the use of his likeness and refused at first (this was back in the day before real money changed hands for this sort of thing) so limited licensing meant Mego could only use the comic based characters but went ahead and commisioned sculpts of the movie representations anyway -
Although somewhat primative by todays standards, they have nostalgic charm and remain the only 'official' line based on the movie.
Cut to twenty years later and with frustration nobody has seen fit to modernize the line I went to (draws breath) Andgor Toys to have a custom Reeve made. After literally two years of waiting and a battle of wills/emails I recieved this -
Which was passable at best. The headsculpt reminded me of Richard Hatch and the costume was laughable. I believe Andgor listed the head as an expensive custom for years later before mercifully dissapearing.
Still not satisfied, the garage kit released later was a nice piece to accurize -
And another long wait ensued before finally my prayers were answered with this -
The aforementioned Meadows creation.
By far the most significant thing to happen in this campaign only happened this year, however, with the likeness rights finally granted to DC from the Reeve children for the DC Direct statue released next year -
Although a dissapointing start, this is the moment we've been waiting for as now DC/WB can potentially use Reeve visage for any future merchandising with a portion of the proceeds rightly going to the Reeve foundation. Hot Toys NEEDS to make this happen - could you imagine how sharp it would look based on their interpretation of Brando?!?!
My apologies for the long post/history lesson but as I stated - this is the grail for me - we've all got one....