The short, fat, Zod you can keep in your pocket

Following the success of the 1978 film renewal of "Superman", Mego re-released its pocket super hero range in straight-leg format, including the black clad nemesis, General Zod.  Terence Stamp had built an impressive career playing various oddballs ("The Collector") and heroes ("Blue", "Charge of the Light Brigade"), and so his sci-fi turn into Superman's other arch enemy (somewhat lesser known to Lex Luthor) was an inspired piece of casting for an actor not normally associated with the genre.

The construction of these pocket super heroes varies, with the traditional superheroes given a fit, lean look (e.g. Superman, Spidey) where others like General Zod look a little out of shape.  The Mego Zod interpretation always looks to me to have a permanently bewildered look in the face, and a posture that suggests he's less than comfortable in the sci-fi attire; essentially just some overweight, balding, bearded, middle-aged extra whose been called in because he bares a likeness to Terence Stamp.  Unfortunately Terence wasn't available for the sculpting, he was off filming "Superman II" (1980) back-to-back.  But despite his rather dumbfounded appearance, he's a solid construction of albeit limited articulation, and an ideal figure for the demands of robust child's play.

It's always amusing to see Zod stand next to Superman, where the disproportions are really emphasised, much like the real-life 6'4" Christopher Reeve, buffed by PT Dave Prowse, towering over the relatively slight frame of Terence Stamp at 5'10" or thereabouts.  Zod looks even more diminutive and athletically inferior when the two meet mano a mano in the playground (or even just on the printer in the study, deep-seeded rivalries can escalate at anytime, anywhere, especially when you're standing beside one another day-in, day-out in the display cabinet).  It's really not until you retrieve the figures from your toy box thirty years later that you start to wonder what goes with what, and couldn't imagine the two emanating from the same manufacturer, let alone the same line, such are their apparent differences.

But back to the fat Zod, he wears a full man-beard and that in itself is rare among action figures (Hans Reinhardt, General Madine, Frostbite, Outback, Obi-Wan, Little John, a few others), he has glossy, hard-wearing paint, joints that stay taut and to my knowledge, is the only figurisation (I made that word up) of legendary actor Terence Stamp that presently exists.  Ostensibly, you're not a real man unless he's in your collection, but equally, at just $10-20 loose, collector grade, there's also no reason why he shouldn't be flanking your Mego pocket Superman, just to remind him that Lex Luthor isn't the only threat in the display cabinet.

General Zod | 1979 | Mego | Pocket Super Heroes