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.