April 18th 2018 marks the 80th anniversary of the Action Comics debut of the Man of Steel, Superman! DC Comics is releasing the 1000th issue to tie-in with that date. With that commemoration in mind, I thought I might take a look back at some classic Superman figures.
Super Powers Collection– Superman was my first DC Comics action figure, which would eventually lead to just about every other DC character joining my collection in one form or another. Kenner’s toyline came at just the right time in 1984, as Super Friends was still on the air, Superman the Movie was about 6 years old at that point, but Superman III had come out just the year before and Supergirl, despite not getting a figure in the line was keeping the family name alive in 84. The now iconic toy line did a wonderful job with the Superman figure, using his traditional light blue, red and yellow color combinations and when you squeezed his legs together, his arms would perform a power punch action. I fondly remember spending many an hour playing with the Man of Steel. Since he was part of the first series of figures, a vintage Super Powers Superman probably doesn’t go for as much money as certain later characters do, but it is a decent representation of that era’s look and aesthetic and he is an icon. Superman related characters released in this classic line include Lex Luthor and Brainiac, with several New Gods also represented such as Darkseid and Orion.
DC Super Heroes– 1989’s Batman movie saw the DC license switch hands between Kenner and a young upstart company called Toy Biz. Toy Biz acquired some of the old Kenner tooling and created their own line of DC figures. The figure of Superman most closely resembled the older Super Powers figure though the power action was gone. This time, Toy Biz used magnets in the toy to simulate Superman being weakened by Kryptonite. Superman had magnets in his chest as well as in a kid-sized Kryptonite ring that you would use to knock him over. The other Super-character in the line was the infamous Lex Luthor which would bop itself in the head.
Justice League Unlimited– After a stint back at Kenner, which would turn into Hasbro, Superman’s animated persona would end up at Mattel with the rest of his DC compatriots. Kenner had a fairly decent animated line to tie-in with the animated series, but Justice League which would then become Justice League Unlimited made a ton of Super-characters. Superman himself is based on the barrel-chested look seen in the Bruce Timm series. Several versions of Superman made it into this line including Red and Blue Superman, a possessed by Black Mercy Superman, even some evil/alternate or future versions of Superman Characters never made before from his rogue’s gallery like Silver Banshee, Live Wire, Toyman and more appeared- making this probably the most cohesive and comprehensive DC toyline there has been to date.
DC Universe Classics/DC Multiverse– Mattel’s 6″ toyline has gone through some changes during the years, first starting out as DC Super Heroes and eventually evolving into DC Multiverse. As with the JLU line, several versions of Superman have been made available. There has been classic Superman, the electric Blue and Red Supermen, a Super Powers inspired Superman, Dark Knight Returns Superman, plus characters like Supergirl, Metallo, Brainiac, Luthor, Mxyzptlk and countless more. Henry Cavill’s version of the character has also made it into the line as well as the recent Rebirth version of Superman, which we will have a very limited amount of back in stock this week- but probably not for long.
On a final note- Funko POP has created a brand new Smallville line based on the WB series which features two versions of Clark, Luthor, Lois Lane and Green Arrow. These should be in store hopefully sometime this week.
That’s all for me folks- see you next week!
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