PENGUIN
DC: SUPER POWERS
Alright, I’m going back to my list of figures I already own for reviews. This time it presented me with a figure from my modestly-sized DC: Super Powers collection. For those of you unfamiliar with Super Powers, it was the first really intensive DC Comics toyline, and still is considered to be the best by a fair number of people. I missed it in its initial run, but got into it because it was the only source of a Hal Jordan Green Lantern, Barry Allen Flash, or even a Wonder Woman when I was growing up. I’m not reviewing any of those today, though. Nope, I’m reviewing the Penguin.
In the entirety of my 2500 piece action figure collection, I own THREE Penguin figures, on yet somehow I’ve looked at two of the three before looking at a single version of characters of which I own dozens of figures. I don’t even like the Penguin!
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Penguin was released in the first wave of Super Powers figures. He’s based on the classic Penguin look, before he was tweaked to more resemble the Danny Devito version of the character. The figure stands a bit over 4 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. The sculpt is pretty good, with all of Penguin’s features carefully laid out. He’s a simplistic figure, but the figure still has some decent folds and such, just everything is very smooth in texture. The paint on the figure isn’t anything astounding, but it looks pretty good for the time, and everything is clean and within the lines. There’s pretty much no bleed-over or anything. Each figure in the Super Powers line features some sort of action feature, usually activated by squeezing the arms or legs. In Penguin’s case, when the legs are squeezed, his right arm lunges upward, which is dubbed his “Power Action Umbrella Arm.” Penguin included a two piece umbrella, of which I only own the top piece.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
This is a pretty cool figure, I guess, even if I’m not the biggest fan of the character. He’s certainly not the greatest that the line had to offer, and I doubt any one would bring him up as one of the reasons the line is well remembered, but it’s a decent entry in the line. Not the best, not the worst.
I actually ended up with two of this figure, believe it or not. I swear I don’t like the Penguin! Anyway, I got the first one for like $3 at my local Comicon, I think, but he was missing the coat tails and umbrella, and just had an “okay” paint job. A few years later, I found a pretty decent Super Powers Batmobile for $40 and it included Batman, Robin, Joker, and Penguin. I bought the lot solely for the Batmobile, but the Penguin included part of the umbrella and had the coat tails piece, plus he had a better paint job to boot. Unfortunately, the figures stank to high heavens of cigarette smoke, so Penguin had to be quarantined in a bag of cat litter for 24 hours. In case you were wondering, cat litter absorbs the smell of smoke, I don’t just willy-nilly place action figures into bags of it!
