The Super Powers figures are better sculpted, better articulated and better engineered toys but I still really dig the Secret Wars figures. They are so bright, shiny and colorful. Love the glossiness of them. They look like toy candy. I think they are just cheerful looking little figures.
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Secret Wars Hulk Prototype
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You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return... -
It sucks that Mattel totally halfassed the Secret Wars line. There totally should have been a Hulk, considering that he was the second most well known Marvel superhero to the general public at the time (i.e. non comic-reading folks) it's staggering that he wasn't included in the line.
And yeah, Kenner totally screwed up by banking on the Kirby Fourth World characters for the second series of Super Powers. As a fan of those comics, I was thrilled to see them, but the general public was just confused by these completely unknown and weird characters. They were all pegwarmers for years afterwards from what I remember.Comment
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Man, I would have LOVED that Hulk as a kid! The lack of a Hulk was stupifying. Clearly, Mattel was more concerned with making truckloads of cash off of MOTU. And to think they originally pitched this SW concept to DC and they passed.
I think Kenner was thinking MOTU and GI Joe too much with Super Powers. By going all in on Darkseid as the big bad, they ignored the villain characters that many kids knew like the Riddler and Bizarro. Older seasons of Super Friends was still in constant reruns, as was Batman '66. They had built in advertising through those. Heck, even though it was 6 years earlier, the line may have lasted longer had they just went straight "Challenge of the Super Friends" with the toys.
ChrisComment
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I have heard that Mattel intentionally put very little money into Secret Wars as they didn't want it to cannibalize the sales of Masters of the Universe. Thus explaining the lack of capes in the first wave and incessant reuse of body parts. I still have no idea what motivated some of the second wave character selections. I also think that throughout the era Mattel overemphasized villains over heroes. Just look at Battlestar Galactica, Apollo was arguably the main character and had no figure, but we got a Boray. The Hulk would easily have outsold Baron Zemo. Oddly, I always figured a Secret Wars Hulk would have had cloth pants so his torso and legs could be used for The Thing. I figured their Thing would have had printed rocks like the lines on their Spider Man.Comment
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Beautiful figure. I would have bought it for sure. It does remind me of the Vic's Novelty Hulk. Maybe it's the lack of neck.Comment
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I guess I never realized that Hulk was never made for the line. I had a few of them back in the day but was always more of a SP fanComment
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Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions
Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
http://www.plaidstallions.com/reboot/shopComment
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And yeah, Kenner totally screwed up by banking on the Kirby Fourth World characters for the second series of Super Powers. As a fan of those comics, I was thrilled to see them, but the general public was just confused by these completely unknown and weird characters. They were all pegwarmers for years afterwards from what I remember.Comment
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Considering they were on every Saturday morning, I don't think I'd call them unknown. Old stone face was the premiere big bad for the last two seasons of Super Friends. There wasn't a lot of coordination twixt Kenner and Hanna Barbera, or so it seemed, but this actually made sense. The big problem was that Darkseid shipped in a solid case, which is why he joined the Flash on pegs around here for many years to come after the third wave tanked.
I didn't know about the case lots of Darkseid, that was clearly a fumble. He should have been short packed.Places to find PlaidStallions online: https://linktr.ee/Plaidstallions
Buy Toy-Ventures Magazine here:
http://www.plaidstallions.com/reboot/shopComment
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Yeah, i agree that TV exposure is probably a safe bet, I just think Kenner vastly overestimated the Apokolips crew's potential popularity with kids. They were relatively new to children at this point (heck I didn't even know some of these characters!).
I didn't know about the case lots of Darkseid, that was clearly a fumble. He should have been short packed.
- IanRampart, this is Squad 51. How do you read?Comment
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While selection of characters may have been a factor, keep in mind the reports over the years of the pack-outs for wave three. According to what I've read, some of the third waves cases were packed full of older figures with only a handful of the new ones; according to one source, you could get a case with 6 new figures and 18 of one old figure (that was in either Tomart's or Lee's some years ago) . It sounds crazy, but it would explain why there were so many Flash figures left around my area when the line ended (and there were a LOT of them).Comment
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