BRAINIAC

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Brainiac The Living Computer is a brilliant computer mind and evil genius whose schemes are capable of destroying whole civilizations with an insane fear and hatred of Superman and of the being he calls the ‘Master Programmer.'”

The first year of Kenner’s Super Powers was full of the DC Universe’s heaviest hitters, facing off against a handful of villains, of course.  The villains roster was a 50/50 split between Batman and Superman’s rogues galleries.  I’ve already looked at the first of the Superman rogues included, Lex Luthor, and today I’m following up with the second of those, Brainiac.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Brainiac is part of the first year of Super Powers, as one of the four villains included in the debut line-up.  In a move right on par with the Luthor figure, rather than being based on Brainiac’s classic jumpsuited green-skinned humanoid design, this figure was based on his updated appearance from Action Comics #544, which had debuted the year before this figure’s release.  It was still very new and current, and, admittedly, it’s probably a better toy design, so that’s a plus.  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Brainiac was a little bit less articulated than most of the figures in the line, since he dropped the knee joints.  This was, presumably, due to the way the vac metalizing process works, and a desire to have less joints to potentially lead to damaging the finish.  Brainiac’s sculpt is a rather impressive piece of work.  There’s a lot of room for smaller detail work in the more robotic design, and Kenner took advantage of it.  Even with the slightly softer detailing caused by the finish, he’s still got quite an intricate appearance.  It makes for a very visually interesting sculpt, which is a lot of fun.  Brainiac’s color work largely relies on the chrome finish, which has a slightly bluish hue to it.  It’s a lot of fun.  He’s also got detailing on his eyes, and some additional accenting on the shoulders, which mixes things up nicely.  It’s all topped off with that clear dome on the head.  Brainiac didn’t get any accessories, but he did get an action feature.  Squeezing his arms activates his “Power Action Computer Kick,” which swings his right leg upward.  It can make him a little unstable at times, but with the right placement on the hip, he’s still okay.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After I got back into collecting Super Powers as an adult, I had a small fund of money that I put aside in order to work my way through the rest of the collection.  Luthor was my first purchase after getting back in, and a few months later, I followed up with Brainiac.  He’s a pretty solid figure.  Not classic Brainiac, of course, but still very fun.  A very good, fun robot figure.  And who doesn’t love that?