DAREDEVIL

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0046: Daredevil’s first action figure was in Mattel’s Secret Wars line, despite the character’s absence from the comic event the series was tying into.

I can’t tell you exactly where my love of Daredevil came from. It had to be comics related, because his cartoon presence in the ’90s was pretty scarce and I don’t recall seeing any of his appearances in first run. I certainly recall one of his early team-ups with Spider-Man from the first essential collection, and I think I had a small stash of Daredevil back issues. Whatever the case, I was invested from a pretty early age. Obviously, my first figure was from ToyBiz, but, curiously, it was neither of the two figures I’m looking at today. Weird, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Daredevil was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes in 1990. He then received a repainted release in 1994’s Series 5. The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation. At this point, Toy Biz was very much working through the left over stylings of their DC line, which had aped a lot of Kenner’s Super Powers, albeit in a more rudimentary fashion. The sculpts on the first Marvel Super Heroes have a lot in common with Toy Biz’s in-house sculpts from the second series of their DC line. They’re up-scaled about half an inch, but they keep the articulation scheme and ever so slight preposing. DD’s sculpt was technically unique, but it was also very similar to other Series 1 figures, just with some DD-specific elements added. The head’s the main selling point, of course. It’s a little on the soft side, and the horns in particular are rather nubby. But, given the era, it’s not terrible. The body features sculpted elements for his belt, holster, gloves, and boots, which is more than a lot of DD sculpts have offered. The Series 1 release is in his classic all red, which is largely just molded plastic, with minor paint work for his face and logo. The Series 5 release upgrades him to his then-current armored look, which changes up his paint tremendously. It also means that the paint doesn’t remotely line up with the sculpted costume elements, but, honestly, given the softness of the sculpted details, it’s not the end of the world. The plant is particularly fuzzy on the second release, and it doesn’t hold up particularly well to wear on either one. Both releases included an “exploding grapple hook”, which is a missile launcher. It’s black on the Series 1 release and silver on the Series 5.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

My original Daredevil figure was from the Spider-Man Animated line, but the repaint of this guy came pretty quickly after. I recall that it was featured in a story in a Spider-Man magazine I had growing up, and this guy was at Cosmic Comix, so my dad bought him for me. His sculpted details jumped out as wrong, and that’s when I learned about the magical world of repaints! I only added the original release to my collection a few years ago, when one got traded into All Time. They’re both definitely dated, but I still dig them.