If you have any photos not shown here and would like to contribute to this post, please send them my way at jablonskyexpress@yahoo.com
All of the photos seen on this page, and the video, can be downloaded in their max resolution from my gDrive HERE. This way, you won't have to do a "right click / save as..." on the individual photos, and can just get everything in one place. None of the photos here were taken by me, nor do I hold copyright over any of them. If they are yours and you'd like them removed, please let me know and I will do so immediately.
Every Photo here is the highest possible resolution photo I could find on the web. I used google reverse image search on everything to find either the original image, or the highest quality image that didn't appear to be upsized or upscaled.
If you have any photos of this suit not shown on this post, please send them my way as I would love to include them.
I'm also going to give each photo a descriptive name, so that I can reference individual photos during any discussions on the topic. All Images are clickable for the max res version of the pic. Those can then be downloaded for further inspection or markup.
First, the picture that started it all.
I think this is a great picture because it captures the overall proportions of the sculpt, while also showing that it is entirely blue. It is not bilaterally symmetrical. The right side has some differences from the left side. It seems the tops of the boots are not symmetrical either, though they are similar. The abdominal, crotch and hips clearly have some differences between the right and the left side, and there is a large curve running across the torso that is not symmetrical. Very interesting design choices!
Next up is a great closeup of the chest, which seems to be a very "Straight On" photo. This shows some really good detail on the S emblem, which is almost certainly a separate piece from the foam chest, which sits in a cavity. Most interestingly, you can see in this photo that there is a subtle texture that covers the chest. It looks like a repeating square, quilted looking pattern. I believe this pattern covers the entire suit, though possibly not the boots. I cannot say for certain with my photos, but I'm certain it's on the chest, arms and legs.
Here is a pulled back shot that looks similar to the above, but reveals more details of the torso. This seems to be a very good straight-on shot, as compared to the first photo in the work shop which is at a bit of an angle. This reveals a lot of the anatomy of the torso at the macro level, but the smaller details are lost due to the resolution. This picture, and many like it, were taken from an event held at Warner Brothers to reveal this suit to the world. THis event was captured in an episode of the web series "DC Daily" which I have posted a link to at the bottom of this post.
A collage of cropped, clear shots of the suit from the video. The video was actually surprisingly lean on good photos of the suit, and tended to focus more on the reactions of the hosts rather than show off the details of the suit.
Another collage of screen grabs.
Three photos from twitter of party guests with the suit.
This next photo gives some great insight into the details of the boots, legs and thighs. You can also see, if you zoom in, the quilted texture is present on the legs. Its not super prominent, but there's enough detail to convince me that it's there.
Lets do a little deep dive on the Twitter 2 pic. First, if we take a closer look at the hips, we can see the quilted pattern over on the top of the left leg.
Zooming in on the boots, you can see they are not symmetrical. In fact, I would even say the oval shape at the tip of the toes is a different size on the left and right boot. The right foot looks to be wider than the left. Also note the shapes at the top of the boot appear different on each leg.
Here is a lightened version of the boots, which really helps to illustrate the different shapes around the calves, and the carved line in the right boot on the shin, which is not present on the other boot.
I find the hard, deep line between the left leg and the torso in this pic interesting. Perhaps this indicates separate pieces in the castings? That's good choice for a natural parting line.
Looking ahead to the screen used auction photos, it seems to me that the upper torso show in the auction photos has different parting lines than we see in this full suit. I'll need to take a closer look, but that's my first impression.
A wide shot of the suit with the hosts, and the thumbnail from the DC Daily video. These are not terribly useful, but are shown to provde some off angle views of the suit.
I have another dozen screen grabs from the video, but will save them for the end of this post, as they are largely redundant.
Next up, and perhaps some of the most valuable, informative and detailed pictures of the torso of the suit come from an auction on screenused.com. These photos are high res, very detailed, and offer great insights into the construction of the torso, and how the suit may have all fit together.
These photos also clearly show what they had in mind for the cape insertion, though the cape seems to have decayed and does not survive.
You can clearly see the quilting pattern on the torso, and how it switches direction depending on the anatomy. If you zoom in on the forearms, you can see what looks like an outline for where the forearm components would mate up with the arm below the bicep.
some VERY odd things going on with the back of the torso, especially up towards the traps. It looks like there's some kind of arched shelf going across the back. Perhaps this was designed to make the cape flow and hang a certain way? Or maybe just to add to the alien looking anatomy of the entire suit? Unknown, but this is the best and only shot I have of the back of the suit. Outside of this picture, and a couple sneaks you get of the upper back in the DC Daily video, this part is very mysterious.
This shot is a bit of an oddball. It looks to be of the same torso that is shown in the ScreenUsed.com auction, but obviously the background is different. I am uncertain if this was a photo for the auction that was not edited, or a photo taken before or after the auction. I think this is a photo of the torso lying on the ground, which was rotated 90 degrees clockwise to make it appear standing upright.
The auction photos provide the most detail of the entire suit, and reveal a lot of details. The DC Daily pictures provide good reference for the legs and boots, though nothing for the back of the legs. The back of the legs, butt and forearms remain a mystery, but the maquettes for the suit provide some clues. I have two different sets of photos of the maquette, which is not nearly as detailed as the final sculpt. I believe the maquette was done as a general guide or inspiration for the final sculpt, as there are a lot of features of the maquette that were obviously transferred over the full sized sculpt, but then it it also missing a lot too.
I think the correct interpretation here is to use the maquette as a guide to fill in the blanks on the forearms and other missing pieces.
The following three photos come from another screenused.com auction.
Notice how the forearms have a pointed tip that come up over the elbows, a seam running down the inside of the forearm, and a rounded tip that extends past the wrist onto the back of the hand. There seems no other noteworthy details to the forearms other than this and the raised edge around it.
The strange looking Shelf of Arch seen on the back side of the "Screen Used 3" photo is not sculpted into the maquette.
A series of photos of what I believe to be the same maquette under different lighting conditions. Not a lot revealed here, but I include in the name of exhaustiveness.
A couple more maquette shots, though I believe this is a different maquette. This looks to my eye to be the one seen on Peter Guebers desk from the documentary "The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened" by the late, great Jon Schnepp.
Here is a link to the episode of DC Daily that the suit appears in. About half the video is the hosts talking and reacting, with only thirty seconds of the actual suit. This is not terribly informative, but it shows the suit in-situ, which I think is interesting. It's available in 1080p.
Lastly, the remaining screen grabs from the above linked youtube video. For the most part, not terribly useful, but I include them here for completeness.
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