Tag Archives: 80s

#4057: Green Arrow

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

GREEN ARROW

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Green Arrow uses an arsenal of ingenious trick arrows in his war against crime.  These weapons, combined with his keen eyes and steady hands, make him feared by criminals everywhere.”

A lot of Kenner’s inspiration for their Super Powers line was drawn from Super Friends, understandable, given the show was the defining take on most of the characters for a lot of people at the time.  They ultimately went deeper on the Justice League line-up than the show ever did, but even some of their deeper cuts, like Green Arrow, who had a guest appearance in the show, were still banking on that tie-in.  Though not as big a name as others (at the time; he’s certainly a lot more mainstream now), Green Arrow had a tendency to be one of the nicer figures of any line he occupied.  Was this one an exception?  Let’s find out.  Okay, no, I won’t string you along, that’s just cruel.  He’s not an exception; he’s very nice. Let’s get into the specifics.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Arrow was released in the second series of Kenner’s Super Powers line, one of four new JLA members added that year.  All of them built on the Satellite era line-up, which was still fairly current at the time.  This was Arrow’s second time as an action figure, following up on his debut during Mego’s run.  Both figures used his second, far more distinctive look, which is really a classic.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s got pretty much the standard articulation for the line, with the standard set-up, and the frequent “squeeze the legs” gimmick, which in this figure’s case is a “Power Action Archery Pull”, raising his arms up as if he’s taking aim with his bow.  His sculpt is on par with the quality of the rest of the line, which is to say it’s very good.  Proportions are generally well-balanced, and there’s plenty of costume details to keep things interesting.  Things like the little “G” buckle and the wrinkles in his boots are very cool, and give the whole thing quite a nice flair.  Everything below the neck on this guy was later re-used (with some light re-tooling to remove the knee joints) for Kenner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves tie-in line’s take on the original emerald archer, albeit with a rather ill-sized Kevin Costner head shoved on the neck joint.  But, at the time, it was all unique to Ollie, and it looked really good.  He’s got a bit of pre-posing on the arms, to better work with a bow and arrow set-up.  The figure’s paint is pretty solid; there’s three whole shades of green, which gives him some decent variety.  Application is basic but clean, and he really does look the part.  Green Arrow was packed with his bow and three arrows, which are very nice pieces, but also very, very easily lost, which is why mine has a set of reproductions.  The bow is held securely in his left hand, and the arrows can either go in his quiver, or one of them clips to the bow, to aid in this “Archery Pull” gimmick.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was a kid, I got at least one Super Powers figure each year for Christmas.  This guy is one of the very few I specifically requested.  The year prior I’d gotten Green Lantern, and I really wanted to have this guy to go with him.  In order to make sure I got him, my dad actually bought me a rather sizable lot of Super Powers, which included my Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Superman as well, and accessories for a few others I already had.  Green Arrow was certainly the star, even without his accessories.  As with Aquaman, I recently “completed” him with a set of repro parts from Made Like Old, though he thankfully didn’t need the extensive paint work that Aquaman did.

#4053: The Joker

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

THE JOKER

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

Last week, I dove back into the world of Kenner’s Super Powers, and I’m keeping that whole business going this week.  In prep for this review, I discovered that I haven’t reviewed a Joker figure since 2021, which does seem kind of crazy, given he’s a rather prominent character.  Honestly, I chalk it up to my general feeling that he’s become a bit overplayed, but I digress. Curiously, despite Todd’s focus on the Batman side of things, Joker was a notable omission from the McFarlane revival of Super Powers, so we have to go back to the vintage Kenner days for him.  Let’s take a look at him now!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Joker was released as part of the first series of Kenner’s Super Powers line in 1984.  He was one of two different Bat-Rogues included in the line-up, pairing off with Penguin.  This was Joker’s third figure after his Mego World’s Greatest Super Heroes and Comic Action Heroes figures from the ‘70s.  The figure stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Joker has the line’s standard articulation set-up, which works well enough for him.  His sculpt was totally unique at the time (though it would be retooled for Kenner’s World of Batman line for a Nicholson-inspired Joker in 1991), and like the rest of the line, it’s based on his Style Guide entry.  It’s a nice, polished classic Joker design.  He’s notably a lot skinnier than the other figures in the line, in keeping with his usual depictions, as well as nicely distinguishing him from the others. The suit’s well-defined, with lots of folds and texturings, and even etched-in lines for the pin-stripes on his pants.  The paint work is rather basic, but covers the basics.  It matches his usual depictions at the time, though it’s maybe a bit washed out compared to the other figures in the line.  Joker is packed with a large green mallet, which is hollow on one side, and can fit over his head to look like a larger version of his face?  Because, that’s a thing?  It’s weird, but also somewhat endearing.  I do kind of dig it, in an odd way.  His action feature is when your squeeze his legs, his right arm swings down, so as to smash things with his hammer.  

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I honestly don’t really recall much about getting this guy.  He was one that just was sort of added to my collection in the shuffle.  I wanna say I got him at the same time as Penguin, at a Comic Con?  He had neither his accessory, nor his coat tails.  I got the mallet first, with a larger lot that also netted me Penguin’s coat tails, and a Batmobile.  The coat tails were actually really recent, only in the last couple of years.  Nothing about getting this guy is particularly notable, and, if I’m honest, after so many Joker figures, it’s hard to find anything notable about this guy in general.  But, he’s certainly not a bad figure.

Friday Figure Addendum #0075: Aquaman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

AQUAMAN

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

When is a Friday Figure Addendum not a Flashback? When it’s for a review I only ran three days ago.  I mean, I guess that’s still a flashback.  Right?  But it doesn’t feel like it, and I’m writing this literally right after the proper review, so I’m just gonna drop the “Flashback” for this one.  So, let’s talk a little more about Aquaman!

In Tuesday’s review, I discussed my Super Powers Aquaman, who was a rather cheap addition to my collection, which came to me in rather rough shape.  Further more, I was seven when I got it, so it only got more played with from there.  For the fullest extent of what I’m talking about, here’s what my Aquaman looked like in March of this year:

As you can see, he took quite a beating.   Since my Super Powers are something I’m rather proud of, with a pretty prominent display spot, I wanted him to be a bit better.  I used to do a fair bit of customizing, and even some restoring from time to time, so I decided to break those skills out again, and get this guy back up to his fullest potential.  I think I did pretty well, and I’m very happy with the end result.  And, I threw in a repro trident courtesy of Made Like Old, so he feels all polished and complete.  For a beater figure I bought for $2.50 almost three decades ago, I think he’s doing pretty well!

#4049: Aquaman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

AQUAMAN

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Aquaman, King of the Seven Seas, can remain underwater indefinitely, can swim tremendous distances, and can communicate telepathically with sea creatures and have them obey him.”

Hey, it’s Super Powers!  I haven’t talked about Super Powers since January, after a whopping 25 Super Powers reviews last year.  I blame Todd McFarlane.  I mean, for, like, a lot of things, but in this case, he’s responsible for the upswing and then downswing in new Super Powers figures after a 40 year break, which gave me a bunch more to review.  I’ve decided to finally get myself together and take a look at the remaining unreviewed Kenner Super Powers in my collection, so, you know, here’s that.  We’re starting off with Aquaman, swift and powerful monarch of the seas!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Aquaman was released in the first series of Kenner’s Super Powers in 1984.  He was no stranger to the toy world at this point, with multiple figures from Mego, and even a Captain Action set from Ideal.  As one of the heroes to receive his own Filmation cartoon, as well as maintain a presence for the whole run of Super Friends, Aquaman’s a pretty logical pick, especially for this era.  Perhaps the most curious thing was that, for all his prominent placement early in the run, he never got any of his own antagonists in the line (McFarlane did at least give us a Black Manta).  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His movement is standard for the line, with the caveat that, unlike most of the line, his action feature is in his legs, triggered by squeezing his arms, rather than the usual reverse.  It’s worth noting that Flash, also in the first series, had the same set-up, though.  It makes him slightly less stable on his feet, but ultimately, it’s not a major shift.  Aquaman’s sculpt was unique to him, and certainly up to the line’s high standard.  He’s clearly working closely towards that Jose Garcia-Lopez style guide look, even moreso than some of the others in the line.  There’s a ton of work going into the texturing, especially on the scaled shirt.  The head is also quite a spot-on Aquaman, in a way that I think a lot of later figures would miss; he feels like the same general character seen in Super Friends, but also doesn’t look quite as silly.  There’s a slight goofy charm still there, though, and you do love to see it.  I particularly love that swoop to how his hair falls, which just feels very natural and expressive.  His posing is more understated for this line, which tended to at least somewhat bend the arms.  Since he was meant for swimming, though, Aquaman’s got straighter arms, and a particularly well sculpted flat hand on the left side.  Aquaman’s color work matches well with his classic design, covering all the basics, but not getting too crazy.  Aquaman was packed with a trident (Tim would note that it’s technically got five points, though, so it’s really a “quintdent”), which is quite prone to both loss and breakage, but there are thankfully a lot of pretty decent reproductions out there, if one were so inclined.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Aquaman is, I think, my second Super Powers figure.  He was purchased during one of many trips to Ageless Heroes, a comic shop that closed down at the end of the ‘90s, and liquidated all of its inventory.  He was behind the counter, tied to a backer board, and wound up being, like, $2.50?  It was a very low price.  Admittedly, he was in very rough shape, and remained that way for my entire childhood.  At the time, it was pretty much the only way I was getting a classic Aquaman, though, and I wasn’t much for the hook-handed look, so I was pretty thrilled.  Over the years, I’ve contemplated getting a replacement in better condition, but more recently I decided to give my original some TLC, and get him a bit closer to his former glory.  I love every Super Powers figure, but Aquaman is certainly one of the nicest, in a decidedly understated sort of way, that I can really dig.

#3985: Tyr

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

TYR

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

Last year, I reviewed 25 Super Powers figures here on the site, which is a crazy metric for a line that was three decades dead and only had 35 total figures when I started the site.  McFarlane running a revival certainly helped bump those stats.  The main point I’m getting at here is that the rarity of a Super Powers review wasn’t really a thing last year.  Unfortunately, we’re going back to more standard operating on such things this year.  But, let’s at least start off on a good note, with a proper vintage figure review!  Today, we’re looking at that true classic of a DC character, Tyr. ….What, you don’t know Tyr?  I can’t believe you don’t know Tyr!  He’s only….wait, hang on, sorry, let me check the wiki…oh, darn, there’s no wiki.  Right.  So, like, the before times.  Tyr, despite indications to the contrary, was *not* a Kenner original creation like so many others in the final year of Super Powers, but rather a fairly minor Legion of Super Heroes villain.  He’d resurfaced not terribly long before his toy, but again as a minor player, making his inclusion odd to say the least, especially given that the Legion themselves wouldn’t get any sort of action figure coverage for another decade and a half.  But hey, that’s Kenner.  And this is Tyr.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tyr was released in the third and final series of Kenner’s Super Powers line in 1986.  As with many of the characters contained within, this was Tyr’s first figure, and would also remain his only figure until DC Universe Classics released him as an expressed homage to Super Powers in 2010.  The figure stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall (not counting his mohawk) and he has 6 points of articulation.  Tyr’s articulation scheme is the same as all of the line’s standard figures, which is good and sensible.  He had a unique sculpt, which remained so, thanks largely to the end of the line.  He was based on Dave Cockrum’s design for the character from the comics, and honestly it’s a design that meshes pretty darn well with the established aesthetics of the later run Super Powers figures, which only further added to him feeling like a Kenner original character.  The sculpt is, honestly, not the strongest work from this line.  While the proportions and general build are okay, he feels oddly devoid of smaller details, and generally just very basic and kind of geometric. The head’s certainly the best part, with a lot more texturing, notably on the hair, as well as a little more definition in his face.  The body, on the other hand, is weaker.  His posing is very stiff and flat, and it’s not helped by the rather boxy nature of the right arm, which also feels like it sits too low?  I don’t know.  Said right arm is also home to the figure’s action feature.  Squeezing his legs raises the arm and shoots the missile portion.  It’s a basic feature, but more nuanced in how it works, since it doesn’t use any exposed buttons of levers.  Honestly, this part’s actually really cool, so props to Kenner on that.  His color work is pretty much point for point what he looks like in the comics.  It does what is needs to.  There’s a bit of bleed over on some of the smaller line-work, but it generally looks good.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I, like many other people, only know of Tyr’s existence because of this toy.  And that’s pretty crazy, because my dad’s a pretty huge Legion fan who absolutely owned Tyr’s earliest appearances when I was growing up.  I remember seeing him in the line-up on the Super Powers Archive, and, well, I can’t say he ever impressed me terribly.  He was one of those far away figures I don’t know if I ever really saw myself owning.  And then, suddenly, he was one of the last three I didn’t have.  And, now, here he is.  My dad got him for me for Christmas, as has become the tradition, and he got here a little late (as has also become a tradition, I guess), so he was officially my first figure of the new year.  He’s, like, fine.  That’s really it.  Fine.  Like, it’s cool to own him, and he’s the first Legion toy, so I guess that’s neat.  And, admittedly, the missile firing bit is fun.  So I’ll give them that.  But the actual figure is sort of just fine.  Still, I’m glad to own him, and he’s cool on the shelf.  And now I just need two more, with the caveat that my visual line-up is complete, because I do have stand-ins for Cyborg and Mr. Freeze.

#3839: Red Tornado

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

RED TORNADO

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

You know, the last time I broke from McFarlane Super Powers coverage to go back to the vintage Kenner stuff, it was for a spinny sort of robot guy.  So, this time around, as I break from the McFarlane Super Powers coverage, it’s to look at a vintage Kenner figure of a….spinny sort of robot guy?  What are the odds?  Well, actually 1 in 17, because there’s the 2 of them in the original 34 figure run and all.  So, you know, simple math and all that.  Last time, however, it was Cyclotron, a character made up by Kenner for the line, but this time it’s DC’s original spinny sort of robot guy, Red Tornado!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Red Tornado was released in 1985 as part of the second series of Kenner’s Super Powers line.  This was Red Tornado’s first action figure, and would remain so until Hasbro added him to their JLA line in 2000.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He’s got all the standard articulation, plus movement at the waist, which is tied into his action feature, though it does still actually hold a little bit of posing.  Red Tornado got a totally unique sculpt for the line.  He’s sporting his second, and by far best known design, which he’d had for almost two decades at this point, so it was a sensible choice.  It’s a solid recreation of things.  The design elements are all raised, which is actually quite a nice way of handling it, and gives the design quite a bit of pop.  He gets a cloth cape, as was the usual for the line.  It’s a fairly nice cape, with the collar, and printed striping on the sides.  His paint work’s rather simple, largely just being the yellow detailing.  It does what it needs to, which is the important thing.  Red Tornado’s action feature is “Power Action Tornado Twist;” squeezing his arm spins his lower torso at the lower half.  It’s a little finicky, but not a bad recreation of his comics power.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Red Tornado is actually one my earliest Super Powers…possibly even my first?  It was either him or Aquaman.  I got him at a Farpoint, and I was exploring the dealers room with my Grandmother, and I wanted either this or the ToyFare-exclusive Reverse Flash, both of which were kind of expensive.  This wound up being the one, even though he didn’t have his cape.  He went over 20 years sans-cape, but I finally got one thanks to Jason at All Time.  He’s a neat figure, and a highlight to a line that’s already itself a highlight.

#3815: Cyclotron

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

CYCLOTRON

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

Okay, so I’m taking a brief intermission from McFarlane’s Super Powers to look at…Kenner’s Super Powers.  Look, I’m nothing if not a creature of habit.  When last I looked at the proper Kenner line, I looked at one of the line’s original characters made up by Kenner for the line.  Today, I’m looking at the other one!  Not content with two spinning heroes, Kenner decided to introduce a third, re-using a name that DC had already used, but on a completely un-related character.  So, anyway, here’s Cyclotron!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclotron was added to the Super Powers line in its final year, alongside Golden Pharaoh.  It was, of course, his first figure, but, like Golden Pharaoh, he also turned up in DC Universe Classics.  Curiously, though he’s had two figures, neither of the two comics Cyclotrons have gotten any figure coverage at all.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  His waist joint is more meant to facilitate the action feature, but can turn independently as well, so that’s a nice little extra bit of movement.  Also, while he’s got the neck joint, when his face plate is in place, the joint can’t be used.  Cyclotron has an all-new, totally unique sculpt.  It’s based on a Jack Kirby design, which is honestly pretty nifty.  It’s definitely got some early Wonder Man vibes to it, which I don’t mind.  The coolest element by far, though, is the robot face underneath the face plate; it’s a bit rudimentary, but it’s still super neat, and quite unique.  The color work on Cyclotron is honestly pretty unique, so he stands out from the rest.  The application’s basic, but clean, and fits well with the rest of the line.  Cyclotron’s only accessory is the face plate, and he also gets his “Power Action Cyclo-Spin”; you spin the torso counter clockwise a few times, and squeeze his legs to release it and send his torso spinning the other way.  It’s actually a pretty fun feature.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cyclotron’s an earlier addition to my Super Powers collection, and the first of the later run figures I got.  I was fascinated by his design, and found an eBay auction for one without his faceplate.  And I had that one for a good two decades, no faceplate at all, but there he was.  I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to complete him, but as I’ve neared the end of my Super Powers collecting, I’ve gotten a bit lucky on the parts front.  I managed to get a solid deal on a complete Cyclotron, so I could finally finish my original.  He’s goofy as hell, but also one of my favorites from the line.

#3792: U.S. Airman

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

U.S. AIRMAN

WAR HEROES – WORLD WAR II (*NOT* LION ROCK)

Okay, let’s have a history lesson.  But, like, not the sort of history lesson you might expect from a review with “WWII” in its title.  I mean, yeah, sure, that’s very important history and all.  Especially now.  But, it’s, like, not my expertise?  And it’s very scary.  So, I’m focusing on a less scary sort of history that I know about.  And that’s toys.  Right, so in 1964, Hasbro invented the action figure with G.I. Joe.  It was a smash success, which of course meant there were lots of imitators.  One of those imitators was the “Fighting Yank”, produced by Mego Corp, who had, in fact, copied Hasbro’s molds, and shut down production when Hasbro threatened legal action.  Mego reformatted into their smaller scale offerings, finding success with their 8-inch licensed offerings.  At the same time, they were brought a concept for a line of military-based figures, using the smaller-scale 7-inch body developed for the Teen Titans figures.  Not wanting to incur Hasbro’s wrath again, this line was released without any reference to Mego.  Primary distribution was handled by Mego’s overseas distributors Lion Rock, whose name was also stamped on all of the figures.  The line was, confusingly, named a different name in most countries, so that’s all fun and good and super easy to track.  Is that what I’m reviewing today?  Not in the slightest.  Confused?  You won’t be, after the next episode of Soap! review on the Figure in Question!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The U.S. Airman is part of the War Heroes All Battle Equipped in World War II line, a manufacturer-less line of Lion Rock-duplicates produced in the ’80s, seemingly exclusively for Woolworth’s.  How manufacturer-less are they?  The back of the neck, where the copyright information was located on the originals, literally looks like a rasp was taken to it.  Fancy.  These figures were, more or less, direct counterparts for official Lion Rock offerings.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation.  He’s built on a copy of the Teen Titans base body, which is itself just a slightly miniaturized Mego Type II body.  It’s okay, but the hands are a bit more brittle on this copy, so there’s a crack on one of his thumbs.  The head is scaled to it as though it were an adult, and it’s honestly a pretty nice generic sort of ’40s soldier type.  He’s got an outfit that consists of a bomber jacket, khaki pants, and a pair of plastic boots.  They’re fairly consistent between the official figure and the knock-off, with the one notable change being the use of velcro on the jacket, rather than snaps.  It means things don’t stay closed as well, especially given the scale.  Otherwise, though, the tailoring isn’t too bad.  He also gets an aviation cap and a uniform cap, which both fit nicely on the head, as well as a belt, goggles, a breathing mask, a knife, and a pistol.  I believe he’s also supposed to have a clip board, but mine appears to be missing that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I spent a lot of my time in the ’90s on the internet pouring over the same handful of toy sites, one of them being Mego Museum, which is how I learned about the existence of any of these figures in the first place.  I never really imagined I’d get one.  And, I suppose I haven’t, now have I.  Anyway, I kept that information locked away in my brain, until the day it was called upon, which was, in fact, the day a bunch of them got traded in at work and I was the guy who knew what the heck they were.  This guy was in the batch.  Since he’s a knock-off, he was cheaper, so it was even harder to pass on the opportunity to get one.  My grandfather was in the Air Force in WWII (or what became the Air Force, at least), so I have an attachment of these sorts of things, and I like that this figure even looks a little bit like he did during the war.  It’s also just kind of a nifty piece of action figure history, and I sure do love that sort of thing.

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.

#3764: Golden Pharaoh

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

GOLDEN PHARAOH

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“British archaeologist Ashley Halberstam was working on a dig in Giza, Egypt, when he was struck by a mystical bolt of energy that emanated from a lab run by the New Gods. This bolt of energy Transformed Halberstam, unleashing the latent energies inherent in his body and turning him into Golden Pharaoh. Golden Pharaoh uses his uncanny pyramid power for the forces of good.”

Something that’s been a fixture of my Christmases for a good long while is Kenner’s Super Powers. Somewhat unique about last year was how many Super Powers figures I got between my two Christmases, thanks to McFarlane actually really stepping up their game with their continuation. But, I’m going back to the proper Kenner stuff for the day. And what a proper Kenner thing it is, since it’s one of the two characters they made up for the line, Golden Pharaoh! Who’s Golden Pharaoh? Well, he got that little bio and…that’s actually really it, since he never made the jump to the comics outside of some tie-ins. He did get a DCUC figure, which I’ve reviewed previously, but now I’m going back to the beginning!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Golden Pharaoh was part of Super Powers‘s third abs final assortment, released in 1986. Obviously, this was his first figure, and like his fellow Kenner creation Cyclotron from the same year, it would be his only figure until DCUC. The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  While the general set-up of his articulation is pretty standard for the line, the positioning of his arms, coupled with the nature of his costume design with the wings and all, limits his range on the shoulders a fair bit.  The neck is also rather stiff on mine, but that might also be linked to the age of the translucent plastic, and I’m certainly not gonna force it.  Pharaoh’s sculpt was unique, based on Jack Kirby’s design work for the character.  It’s certainly a unique look, and while the sculpt proper is a little soft in some spots, it generally works out alright.  He’s got a rather basic color scheme.  It’s certainly an odd of assortment of colors, and notably no actual gold (something that was ultimately addressed by the DCUC figure).  I do dig the translucent purple on the torso, though.  Golden Pharaoh was packed with a staff, which he can hold in his right hand.  He also had a “Power Action Soaring” feature, which pops his arms upward when his legs are squeezed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Golden Pharaoh was, as has been the trend for the last few years, my “big” Christmas gift from my parents.  He’s certainly one of the line’s more oddball offerings, and one that I don’t know that I really, truly imagined owning at the outset of collecting this line.  He just seemed like one of those far away things.  On his own, he’s perhaps not the most impressive, and could use maybe a bit more flair.  I have to wonder how much cooler he’d have been if he’d maybe been vac metalized gold, but ultimately, he’s not a bad little figure.  And here I am, three figures away from finishing up Super Powers.  Which feels increasingly odd.

#3524: Shazam!

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

SHAZAM!

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

Fun FiQ Fact #0003:  The character that would eventually become Shazam was originally intended to be called “Captain Thunder” and “Captain Marvelous” before Fawcett Comics landed on “Captain Marvel.”

Kenner’s Super Powers has a very hard link to Christmas for me.  As a kid, for a good stretch of time, I got one every Christmas, and, in recent years, it’s a trend that’s returned.  I’m actually very close to the end of the line, which also means that I’ve gotten to the point where all of the ones I need are nearer the more expensive side of things, and also all hail from the line’s last year.  That includes today’s focus, a Captain Marvel named Shazam!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shazam was released in 1986, as part of the third and final year of Kenner’s Super Powers line.  While the character wouldn’t actually take on the name “Shazam” in-universe until 2011, since by 1986, the Captain Marvel trademark was firmly in Marvel Comics’ possession, so whether he used the name in the books or not, no toys could use it.  Rather amusingly, Marvel themselves didn’t really do much with it either, with their first figure based on any of *their* Captain Marvels not seeing a release until the late ’90s.  But, I’m getting side-tracked.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has the line’s standard 7 points of articulation.  Shazam sported a unique sculpt, based specifically on his later DC design, which moved him more into the traditional spandex set-up.  His sculpt is a little stiffer than the others, which is especially notable in the straightness on the arms.  His head seems a bit soft compared to others in the line.  They’re clearly trying to capture the character’s more unique facial features, while keeping him in-line with the house style of the rest of the figures.  The end result is sort of middling.  Definitely not the strongest the line had to offer.  His cape was cloth.  On my figure, it’s a repro; the original had a unique plastic clasp piece, as well as some rather nice printed details.  Shazam’s paint work is minimal, but it’s decent enough.  There’s a little wear on mine, but nothing crazy.  Shazam gets no accessories, but he gets the usual action feature.  In his case it’s a “Power Action Thunder Punch;”  squeezing the legs makes the arms swing in opposite directions.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

As has been the trend on the last few of these, Shazam was my main Christmas gift from my parents this year.  While Mister Miracle was one of the line’s finest, and a great send-off from the final year, Shazam is definitely more middle of the road.  He’s okay, and I’m sure glad to finally have him, but he himself isn’t much to write home about.  And now I’ve got four left.  This is getting very exciting!