So as soon as I heard an honest-to-god authenticated screen-used costume was going to be on display on a custom mannequin of Christopher Reeve with a finished lifecast of his face by Stuart Freeborn for the production, well...
Myself and Super-fan Chris King made our way down there last week with the intention of examining every nuance of the costume (having made several attempts at replicating it) and its safe to say we were staggered by just how intracate the real costume is.
The display is located in the "Heroes and villains" hall. It is a huge regal buliding and as its early days only the Super costume and two pieces from the Batman films occupy this hall.
Entrance;
The full display;
Close on the lifecast - This was damnright eerie;
The sign;
Close on the symbol;
As a result of a lot of research, Chris was also able to narrow this particular costume down to the scene in which it was used - The alley change from Superman II. Look closely at the symbol (as they all had quirks) and compare for yourself...
As it was a quiet weekday we had two uninterrupted hours with the display and were encouraged by freindly staff to take as many pictures as we wanted. It was truly a magical experience as the original trailer for STM (plus other movies of the time) were running on a big screen in the room also.
"Something wrong with the elevator...?"
There were many other original exhibits in the Movieum (such as the Judge Dredd costume and bike, an Alien, Hellraiser and Star Wars displays) But we kept coming back to the best. After we eventually tore ourselves away from the Movieum to have lunch in Planet Hollywood, another Super-Suprise revealed itself...
In the shape of an original Derek Meddings flying miniature!!!
While only about 15cm long, the detail in this model for its time was amazing - from the colour matched paint to the fabric cape and hand-drawn cape symbol, its a beautiful relic of handcrafted effects of old.
While on a roll, after dinner we decided to head to Madame Tussauds - this was the only dissapointing revelation of the trip as the waxwork from years ago was wearing an original costume also. It has been replaced with an inferior one but the display is still there;
No sign of Routh so a good testimony to Reeve's lasting legacy...
All in all, a Super day and gratifying to see there are nice things to see in the country the movies were made.
