Tag Archives: Super Powers

#4125: Robin

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

ROBIN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Robin was the sidekick of Batman and a member of the Justice Society Infinity”

In 1961, Flash #123, a story titled “Flash of Two Worlds,” reintroduced the original Flash, Jay Garrick, by showing his exploits as having taken place on a parallel Earth to that of Barry Allen, the then current Flash.  The story’s success led to follow-ups, reviving other Golden Age DC heroes, and placing them on this newly created “Earth 2.”  Since Earth 2 had allowed the characters to age more or less in real time from where they’d been left off in the ‘40s, when the “original” Dick Grayson reappeared six years later in 1967, he wasn’t a teen sidekick anymore, but rather an adult member of the Justice Society.  But, where his Earth 1 counterpart would take up the monicker “Nightwing,” Earth 2 Dick maintained the “Robin” name.  While the Earth 1 Dick gets most of the toy coverage, Earth 2’s version gets a lot of coverage himself, and he’s even joined the Earth 1 version’s four Super Powers figures with one of his own.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Robin is the final figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers, numbered 66 in the overall line-up.  He’s not specifically denoted “Earth 2” anywhere on the packaging, but the bio on the back indicates it, though the call-out of Justice Society Infinity is a really specific post-Infinite Crisis reference.  When Earth 2 Dick Grayson first reappeared, he was sporting a costume heavily inspired by Batman’s, rather than his own Robin costume.  This figure is based instead on his second, more on brand costume, which, it should be noted, was actually worn by Earth 1 Dick Grayson first, during one of of the JLA/JSA crossovers.  Earth 2 Dick had full possession of it after that, though, and he kept the look until his demise during Crisis on Infinite Earths.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s using the standard male body that’s based on the Flash mold, a first for any version of Dick in the line.  That said, it’s a far better match than the rather large base body of the first two Nightwings, and means he scales far better next to the various basic Batmen, so I certainly don’t mind it.  He gets a modified version of the Gold Label Nightwing head sculpt, with the hair removed on the sides and the lines of the mask removed, so that his wrap-around mask can be properly displayed.  I like that they keep that bit of consistency between the two.  He also gets a new belt piece, which matches well to his unique belt design as seen in the comics.  It’s all topped off with a cloth cape, which I think is actually a little nicer than a lot of the others from this line.  His color work is very bright and colorful, and the paint application is mostly pretty clean, and without any real slop or bleed over.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When McFarlane’s Super Powers started, we got a modern Nightwing, and I figured that was the only Dick Grayson we’d get.  Then we got ‘90s Nightwing, and I was like, wow, I guess we’re getting two, but that’s got to be it, right.  Then we got ‘80s Nightwing, and I was really happy, but also 100% sure there was no way there could possibly be another Dick Grayson.  So this guy?  Totally out of left field.  Am I shocked?  A bit.  Am I unhappy?  Not in the slightest.  He turned out really well.  It’s a design that translates really well to the aesthetic, and it just makes for an incredibly fun figure.  And, sure, I’m now thinking it’d be great to *also* have his first costume, but you know what, I’m okay with just this one.

#4121: Green Lantern – Hal Jordan

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

GREEN LANTERN — HAL JORDAN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Test pilot Hal Jordan went from being a novelty, the first-ever human Green Lantern, to one of the most legendary Lanterns to ever wield a power ring.”

We’re four episodes into Lanterns, the latest live-action adaptation of Green Lantern, and I gotta say, despite some definite reservations going in, I’m really quite enjoying it.  Though he’s not the real star (that’s John Stewart), my personal favorite GL Hal Jordan’s been getting some rather nice focus, courtesy of a very strong portrayal by Kyle Chandler, which is nicely adapting what works well about the character and stripping some of the stuff that…doesn’t.  I like the more seasoned take on Hal, a take that goes back to the character’s book’s relaunch in 1990, which positioned Hal as one of the last of the Silver Age heroes, and actually showing his age a bit.  And how did they show this? Well, the same way that you show that any male comics character is older and more distinguished: bright white streaks on his temples.  Yeah, that’s the ticket

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern — Hal Jordan is the second to last figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation.  He’s figure 65, and is the first figure in this set not to be stealing someone else’s number.  Which is, admittedly, kind of amusing, because he’s astoundingly similar to another figure we’ve already gotten.  Hal’s obviously the post-1990 version of the character, meaning he ties in rather directly with the Cyborg Superman and Eradicator from this same set, as part of the “Reign of the Supermen” set-up, given his presence in that story and its effects on his own storyline.  His inclusion also feels like it’s probably meant to at least loosely tie into Lanterns, much like the Supergirl figure ties into her movie from this year.  Lastly, it serves to offer up an alternative figure for people who haven’t gotten the line’s first Hal GL, which was part of one of the change-over assortments after the line left Walmart, and which remains a rather pricey figure.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s predominantly makes use of parts from the prior Hal figure, which makes a lot of sense.  That figure was, himself, mimicking the original Kenner mold, and doing a pretty good job of it, at that.  The Kenner mold’s one of my favorites, and I liked the update a lot too, so it’s a strong starting point.  Hal gets a brand-new head sculpt.  I was honestly surprised by that, since I feel like you could pretty easily just re-use the original head here, but they’ve decided to go for something more directly patterned on Pat Broderick’s depictions of Hal from the relaunch, specifically the shaping of the face, as well as the slightly longer hair.  I like that it still looks pretty consistently like the same guy, but he looks a little older than the last sculpt.  His paint work is *almost* identical to the last one.  The general layout and all the colors remain the same, but obviously he’s got the white streaks in his hair.  Also, his insignia is now outlined in black.  Don’t really know why, and it’s a departure from all the others, but it looks perfectly fine.  Hal is packed with his power battery, which is the same piece as last time.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was one of the lucky few to get ahold of the last Hal for a decent price, so I didn’t really *need* this one, but also I can’t say I hate that we got it.  He’s just got some minor changes, but they work well, and do help him feel more distinctly different from the main Hal.  The only real downside to this figure is that we get two Hals in the updated style, but never a John Stewart to match the rest of the GLs.  That said, this figure’s release does at least make a standard GL body more plentiful, should someone want to make a more classic John on their own…

#4117: Eradicator

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

ERADICATOR

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“The Eradicator is an ancient artifact of Krypton with sentient personality, who has been ally and enemy to Superman.”

During the “Reign of the Supermen” storyline, where four potential replacements for the original Man of Steel arose following his death, the new guys were all kind of set-up to represent the various trends of characters in comics.  The Eradicator took on the role of “edgy rebrand” with a “kewl” sounding name and a more lethal attitude towards criminals, but was, interestingly, not the one that turned out to be evil, merely lacking the human empathy that makes Superman, you know, Superman.  He was also the only of the new Supermen who didn’t really stick around, though he’s returned here and there as the story allows for it.  Eradicator’s first figure was supposed to be in Kenner’s Man of Steel line, but was cancelled and shunted to a mail-away release through ToyFare magazine.  Now he’s getting the (pseudo) Kenner treatment again, with some Super Powers coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Eradicator is the fourth figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation line, numbered 64 in the overall line.  He’s the last figure in this set to share a number with a prior release, which he claimed from Wave 11’s Cyborg.  The figure stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Eradicator in the comics had a body that used some of Clark’s DNA, so he looked quite a bit like him (mostly; they were inconsistent about his hair), and so it’s little surprise that he’s using a lot of Superman parts.  He’s using a variation of the updated Superman body from Wave 9, but specifically the slightly more streamlined version from Wave 10’s black suit Superman.  The gripping hand on the right arm is kind of redundant, and the belt throws off the look a little bit, but generally it works.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is similar to the standard Superman, but with Eradicator’s signature goggles, and also a much more angry expression, better fitting Eradicator’s personality.  He also gets a cloth cape piece, which isn’t *quite* accurate to Eradicator’s usual look, which had the cape more dramatically flared at the shoulders and also went behind his logo.  That said, such a look would be quite difficult to do while also maintaining the aesthetic of the line, so I think they made it work well enough to pass muster.  The cape is once more missing the “S” on the back, but I’ve made my peace with that this far into the assortment.  Eradicator’s paint work is generally pretty good.  Application is clean, and the shades are all pretty eye-catching.  My only complaint is the color for the goggles; they’re gold, when yellow would be more accurate to the vintage style.  Super minor thing, though, and not enough to ruin the figure by any stretch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since Eradicator didn’t stick around in the comics the way the others did, he was gone by the time I was reading, and it was his Kenner figure that introduced me to the idea, which has always tied me more to his presence as a toy.  There’s no denying he’s got a design that looks cool as a toy, and that holds up here.  This figure is kind of easy to overlook in an assortment with some flashier offerings, but he’s no slouch, and the minor issues I have with him certainly don’t keep him from being a very cool figure.

#4113: Cyborg Superman

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

CYBORG SUPERMAN

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Cyborg Superman, also known as ‘The Cyborg’ is an evil counterpart to Superman with a robotic body designed using Kryptonian technology and genetics.”

Astronaut Hank Henshaw was originally introduced in the comics in 1990, as a sort of dark “real world outcome” take on the Fantastic Four origin story.  Though originally intended as a one-off character, his creator Dan Jurgens thought there was more to explore with the character, so during 1993’s “Reign of the Supermen” storyline, he was reintroduced as Cyborg Superman, claiming to be the genuine article rebuilt with Kryptonian technology following his demise at Doomsday’s hands.  Though the other three replacement Supermen from “Reign” would all receive figures through Kenner’s Man of Steel line in the ‘90s (well, okay, technically Eradicator actually made it out as a ToyFare exclusive), Cyborg Superman was notably absent from the line, not seeing any sort of toy release until nearly a decade later, under via DC Direct.  He’s finally getting that retro figure treatment now, though, through McFarlane’s continuation of Super Powers.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyborg Superman is the third figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation, numbered 63 overall in the line (which he took from Wave 11’s Nightwing, since we’re still doubling up there for whatever reason).  Cyborg Superman dials right into the overall Superman theme of this assortment, and while he’s a little outside the original line’s run, it’s not crazy to think of it continuing far enough to include him, especially given the McFarlane run has already tapped into “Knightfall.”  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  It should come as no surprise that Cyborg Superman is using some Superman parts in his construction, but I was admittedly not expecting it to be the first Superman mold, rather than the improved one from Wave 9. He replaces the head, right arm, and left lower leg with new parts, so he does at least lose the Todd-inspired head sculpt, but he’s still a touch too tall and a little bit pigeon-toed.  Generally, though, the new parts do a lot to help rehabilitate the mold.  The head is more in line with the updated Superman, while still showcasing Henshaw’s slightly more hardened, angrier expression, and the raised and etched in elements of the robotic pieces are quite impressive.  *Technically* the torso should really have been resculpted as well, since it’s half-robotic, but ultimately, with the arm being resculpted and the cape hiding a lot of it, the look is pretty well pulled off.  The cape is the exact same one included with Supergirl and Powergirl, which means that like Supergirl, he’s missing the logo on the back, which is kind of annoying, but not the end of the world.  His paint work is…well, okay, it’s not strictly speaking accurate, because a proper Kenner Cyborg Superman would almost certainly be vac-metalized.  That said, such a process is clearly beyond the scope of the McFarlane figures even with full retail support, so it’s definitely not happening here, and it’s not fair to hold it against him.  The basic silver is perhaps not quite as exciting, but it’s well done.  My only actual complaint on the painting is that they missed painting the red loops on his belt, even though they’re still sculpted there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first introduction to Cyborg Superman was actually fan complaints that he wasn’t included in Man of Steel, which led to me finding out more about him, and eventually buying the DCD figure when it was released.  He’s an interesting enough character, and he’s certainly got quite a striking design, so the fact that he’s got as few figures as he does is genuinely surprising.  This one’s got a few flaws that hold him back from perfect, but I do quite like him, and I think he’s a good fit for the line.

#4109: Power Girl

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

POWER GIRL

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“Power Girl is the Earth-Two equivalent of Supergirl, native Kryptonian and cousin to Superman”

There was a moment, about a month ago, when I was a little concerned that I might run out of a good stock of DC stuff to review on Tuesdays.  I’m significantly less worried about that these days.  Why’s that?  I’ve got so many new Super Powers to review, that’s why!  Last week, I was marveling at Supergirl, the first new female character added to the line since the vintage run, who actually doubled the number of them in the set.  Well, we’re bringing that count up to three today with Supergirl’s alternate universe equivalent, Power Girl!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Power Girl is the second figure in Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation line, officially numbered 62 in the line, a number she’s stealing from Cyborg, due to Wave 13 doubling up on the Wave 11 numbers for whatever reason.  In addition to following up on Supergirl’s Super Family theme, Power Girl also joins the rapidly increasing Justice Society line-up that’s been added by the revival, though this time we’re getting a later run addition, though one that’s certainly still within the purview of the vintage line’s run.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  Structurally, Power Girl is very similar to Supergirl, which makes a degree of sense, especially for this era of the character, before certain assets became quite so prominent in her design.  Speaking of design, she’s more or less using Power Girl’s second costume design, when they removed the boob window in favor of a v-neck collar.  It’s what she was wearing at the time of the original line, so I can’t really fault it, and I think it translates the best to this style of all the available choices.  Like Supergirl, she’s using a modified version of the Wonder Woman body, which has removed all of the Wonder Woman-specific elements.  Power Girl gets a unique set of lower legs, featuring buccaneer boots, as well as a unique head sculpt.  While not quite as strong as the Supergirl head, this one’s still pretty solid, and it’s certainly sharp.  Like Supergirl, she’s got a cloth cape, and it’s still kind of odd sitting, but in Karen’s case, that’s not as much of an issue, since her cape usually hung over her shoulders a bit more, which this one does.  Her color work is generally strong.  It’s bright, eye catching, and fairly cleanly applied.  For whatever reason, she’s got a choker painted onto her neck, which isn’t really a Power Girl thing, at least with this costume, but admittedly I don’t hate it, and it breaks up the neck a bit, so I don’t hate it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I wasn’t exactly bummed about the line having no Power Girl the way I was about Supergirl, I was at the very least a little sad to see the end of more JSA members when all was said and done.  In that regard, I was certainly pleasantly surprised to see her crop up here.  She’s a fun addition, while maybe not quite as polished as Supergirl was, she’s quite nice.

#4105: Supergirl

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

SUPERGIRL

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE TOYS)

“As the most powerful teenager on the planet, the Girl of Steel possesses all of Superman powers from superhuman strength, speed and invulnerability all the way down to his flight and enhanced senses.”

Somehow Super Powers returned.

No, wait, that’s probably not the vibe, right?  Super Powers being back is a good thing.  Hmmm… “It’s just been revoked?”  No, not it either.  “The reports of Super Powers’ death have been greatly exaggerated.”  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Right, so if you haven’t gathered by now, McFarlane’s Super Powers revival line is not quite as done as it seemed to be when I wrote my review of Cyborg almost a year ago.  It genuinely looked that way at the time, but then Entertainment Earth swooped in and seemingly salvaged the line for at least another four waves.  So, that’s actually pretty cool.  One of my notably complaints about the McFarlane run when I wrapped things up in that Cyborg review was that, despite adding 72 figures to the line, McFarlane hadn’t actually addressed a major issue with the original Kenner run, which was the lack of female characters outside of Wonder Woman.  Now, I’m not going to take *all* the credit here, but we’re literally one figure into the continuation and the count of female characters has already doubled.  Let’s check out Supergirl.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Supergirl is part of Wave 13 of McFarlane’s Super Powers continuation line, officially released under the DC Direct branding.  This is the first of the four Entertainment Earth-exclusive assortments, sold as sets, and it started shipping out right at the end of July.  A bit of curious housekeeping right at the start here: on the backs of the boxes, the figures are all shown on a yellow background, each with a number, mimicking the wave 3 cardbacks from the Kenner run.  Supergirl is figure 61, which is interesting because that spot was previously occupied by Deadman from the Gold Label Wave 11 assortment from last year.  The rest of the single carded figures remain, but all of Wave 11 has been removed, and their numbers re-used for some reason, despite the fact that even the cases of this assortment still number it as “13,” and you can only get to that number if you count the Gold Label assortment.  So, that’s kind of weird.  Doesn’t affect the actual figures, but weird.  Moving on.  The figure stands 4 5/8 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation.  Structurally, she’s using a variant of the McFarlane Wonder Woman body, which I actually haven’t personally handled.  It’s not too far removed from the original Kenner mold, though, and this likewise feels pretty closely related.  At first glance, I felt like she was too tall, but relative to the other figures in both the McFarlane and Kenner runs, she’s not too far out of place.  Her outfit’s sort of an interesting choice.  Kara was part of both the original Kenner pitch for the line in the early ‘80s and the planned continuation of the line post-Series 3, both times using her design from the 1982 style guide, which is her blouse and hot pants look from the ‘70s.  It’s been theorized that by the time she actually hit the line, they’d have put her in her updated headband-sporting “jazzersize” outfit from 1984, but that’s all rumor.  What we see here is actually something that the mainstream Kara really never wore, since her original look was an all blue dress without the red skirt, her replacement was the blouse and shorts, then there was the headband look, and then she died.  This is ultimately closest to the look sported by the Matrix Supergirl in the ‘90s (though the belt’s not quite right), who wasn’t actually Kara.  In actuality, the design is essentially lifted from some additional style guide work DC hired Jose Garcia-Lopez to do in the ’00s, as part of a more “evergreen” branding for the character.  Given Garcia-Lopez influenced the bulk of the original line, it means she remains consistent.  Moreover, the original Supergirl movie had started with the ’84 redesign, before ditching the headband and red shoulders, resulting in a look that was very close to this, and it’s not too far of a reach for Kenner to have potentially used such a look had they introduced her to the line, so I can’t really complain.  In terms of the actual figure, she gets a new head, which very much dials into the ‘70s/early ‘80s Kara, which I quite like, and she also gets a belt piece, which matches well with her cousin’s usual get-up.  She gets a cloth cape and skirt, which work well enough.  The cape sits a bit odd due to the size of the clip and how the hair interacts with the shoulders, but with a little bit of futzing, it looks okay.  Kara’s color work is bright and colorful, just like it should be.  In contrast to most of the rest of the line, her skin tones, especially on the head, are molded, which is more accurate to the Kenner approach, so I’m definitely a fan.  What I’m not a huge fan of is the removal of the “S” on her cape, which has been on most of the Supermen in the line, so it’s a bummer it’s missing here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really thought the line was done, and I was really bummed we never got a Supergirl, who I’d honestly wanted since before the revival even happened.  I was thrilled that there were more figures coming, and even more thrilled that Kara was amongst the first batch of them.  Interesting quirks to her costume aside, she’s really great, and does what this line does best, which is feel like an authentic Kenner product.  I have minor quibbles, but that’s really all they are.  Perhaps the biggest drawback to her is that you have to buy five other figures to get her.  Less an issue for me, but not great for the more casual fan.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0082: The Penguin

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

PENGUIN

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

It’s another Friday, so let’s get ourselves back into that flashing back sort of mood, with another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, I find myself taking a return look at the Penguin.  Yay?

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!

This was from very early in my run on the site, just four months in.  I was *not* thrilled to be reviewing a second Penguin figure that quickly.  So not thrilled that I’ve only reviewed one Penguin figure since, and that was 11 years ago.  Like I said, he’s not one of my favorite characters.  This was my first Super Powers figure review, which feels odd, but I guess it’s good I got him out of the way?  I think my actual review’s okay, if perhaps a touch on the brief side.  My figure’s umbrella was missing its arm, which I’ve since replaced with a repro part, seen here in the photos.  Yay, he can hold it!

#4061: Parademon

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

PARADEMON

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Although the Parademons of Apokolips wear protective armor and can fly, their true strength is in their numbers.  There are literally thousands of them, and, the acting together, they can overcome even the most powerful heroes.”

After the first year was really focused in on the heavy hitters, in terms of both heroes and their antagonists, subsequent years of Kenner’s Super Powers run would dial in a bit more on the weirder side of DC.  Jack Kirby was brought in to do some work on the line, and a focus was placed on his creations the New Gods, who would serve as a notable backbone for the antagonistic side of the line.  It also gave us I believe our earliest instance of an army builder in a super hero line, in the form of the Parademon!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Parademon was released in the second series of Super Powers, as one of the six Fourth World figures added to the line-up that year.  The figure stands a little over 4 1/2 inches tall and it has 7 points of articulation.  Most of the Fourth World characters got some degree of redesign for the line (only Darkseid and Mr. Miracle kept their originals), and the Parademon is pretty much the most divergent design of the bunch.  Steppenwolf and Mantis both got pretty hefty re-works, but the Parademon winds up sharing no elements with its original comics look.  Perhaps there was a feeling that there was too much green amongst the villains?  Or maybe that the proper Parademon look, with its more ogre-ish features, might not be as kid friendly?  It’s hard to say.  I’m hard-pressed to say this is a bad design, mind you.  It’s actually pretty decent, and feels like a respectable take on a retro-inspired alien design.  It just doesn’t really read as a Parademon.  That said, the sculpt is fun.  It’s more cartoony than the rest of the line, but maintains the same level of detailing and general stylizing, so it doesn’t feel out of place with the rest of them.  The color scheme, heavy on reds and oranges, feels a bit more like Firestorm than anything else from the line, but it’s generally unique, and certainly stands out on the shelf.  The Parademon was packed with a yellow blaster pistol, which is easily lost (especially since the hands don’t really grip it all that tightly), so there’s reproductions available.  The Parademon also featured a wing-flapping action feature, triggered by squeezing the legs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I purchased the Parademon for myself, more than two decades ago.  I’d gotten $20 to Cosmic Comix for Christmas, and used $15 of that to buy an Elongated Man, so I had $5 left, and that ended up going towards this guy, mostly because I didn’t have it.  He lacked his accessory, bit in more recent years I’ve “completed” it with a replacement gun from Made Like Old.  It’s a kind of weird figure, in that it’s got pretty much no connection to the comics, but it’s certainly not a bad toy, and it’s memorable for it’s sort of out there nature.

#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.