ANTI-KRYPTONITE SUIT SUPERMAN

SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (KENNER)

Though he may be nigh-invulnerable, Superman is not without his weaknesses. Of particular note is Kryptonite, the irradiated remains of his home planet Krypton, first introduced in the Superman radio show so that Clark’s actor could be absent for a few episodes. It’s become its own thing, with all sorts of different types that do all sorts of different things. But basic green Kryptonite just makes the guy real weak. Not so great when you’ve got people to save, so, with a little bit of outside help, Clark devised a way to protect himself: the Anti-Kryptonite Suit!  The suit’s been around in some form for quite some time in the comics, but also got some pretty notable usage in Superman: The Animated Series, which also netted the concept its first proper action figure, which I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Anti-Kryptonite Superman follows in the footsteps of Fortress of Solitude Superman, being part of the intended third series of Kenner’s Superman: The Animated Series, which, despite being shown off in 1997, was not released in the United States until 2001, and as effectively as a KB Toys exclusive at that.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  This line had an interesting relationship with its source material, in that they didn’t pay *that* much attention to it.  A lot of the Superman variants were just made up entirely, so they sort of just did their best to stay on brand, while doing a new design.  In the case of this guy, he *isn’t* made up, but they kind of approached him as if he was.  Some of the more basic design elements of the animated Anti-Kryptonite suit are still present, albeit dressed up a little bit to fit the style of the toys, but it’s all filtered through a desire to tie him back into the classic Superman color scheme, as well as a general move more to the toyetic side of things.  It occupies a weird space because it’s honestly not a bad look on its own…but it’s not the source material.  The sculpt is pretty decent; he got the second best of the Superman heads for the line, and there’s some pretty nifty smaller detailing going into the suit design.  The paint work marks a notable departure for the figure; rather than using the show colors, he’s instead using the standard Superman scheme.  Admittedly, this is an area where you can really see Kenner’s reasoning, since it’s harder to sell kids on the largely grey coloring of the cartoon design.  At least the color work isn’t anything stupidly garrish or anything like that.  Anti-Kryptonite got his removable helmet, as well as a whole big articulated crane thing that goes over his shoulders, and could “capture” the piece of Kryptonite he also included.  Again, it’s a departure from the show design, but it’s also a rather fun gimmick for a toy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was really fixated on the Anti-Kryptonite for a good chunk of my childhood.  I think I had gotten Metallo from this same line not too long before this set finally started to hit, and I had this whole internal team-up arc for him, and you can’t very well have Superman team up with Metallo if he’s not properly protected from Metallo’s Kryptonite heart, right?  Right.  I recall I got this one during one of my family’s fall weekend trips to the beach, back when there was still a KB at the outlets nearby, and I was pretty excited about it.  And then I also got a duplicate one in slightly better condition from All Time back in the spring, so now I’ve got two of them, I guess.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.