McFarlane doing Super Powers?

[Makernaut]

If it weren't for you folks, I would miss out on a lot of what comes out. I read through this thread and decided to look for these, even though I was just getting out of toys when the original Super Powers line hit. I found the Superman I wanted at my local WM and found a Supermobile about 20 miles away this morning. It was a great day to be out, too. Had a high of 105 degrees yesterday and it was 74 degrees this morning. Great day for a drive and it was capped off by a successful hunt.

I really dig the Supermobile, by the way. My only complaint is that they use the plastic piece that they attach tags to clothes to tie down Superman's cape in the package. It left a small, but very visible hole in the cape and there is no getting around it. Otherwise, the figures and vehicles are cool. I decided to not get the Batwing in hopes that a Batmobile might be in the future.

[MRP]

I think what is so frustrating, for so many, about this new line is Kenner's Super Powers line is legendary. It combined comic accurate sculpts based on the phenomenal Jose Luis Garcia Lopez style guide and redesigns by Jack Kirby with kid friendly bright colors and fun action features. It is a beloved benchmark other DC lines are measured against. I think the sculpts hold up to this day and you could argue the line really has never been equaled.

To see a new line take that beloved branding but with poorer sculpts, scale issues and questionable modern character choices is obviously going to be an issue. If this was called DC Super Heroes I don't think people would have blinked an eye. But it isn't, it's called Super Powers. That means something. I hope the line continues. I hope they fix the scale issues and I hope they add more era appropriate character choices. I hope we don't get the Bat Laughs evil Robins before we get the real Robin.

I haven't decided if I am getting these or nor yet, but I think what a lot of collectors are forgetting is that the Super Powers line when released wasn't intended as a time capsule of "classic DC" it reflected the DC of its time, which happened to be 1985. What Todd is doing is a Super Powers line that reflects the DC of its line, which happens to be 2022 not 1985. He's not doing a time capsule line, he's doing a contemporary DC line which is what Super Powers was when it was released. It reflects the DC of its time, not the DC of 1985. It's not a toyline about DC of 37 years ago, if Super Powers of '85 reflected DC of 37 years before its time (1948) if would have been an abject commercial failure. Super Powers may be a "retro" title now, but it was contemporary in its time and Todd is doing s contemporary line again using that title I may not agree with his choices, but I understand the reasoning behind it.

Sometimes we collectors get so wrapped up and blinded by nostalgia, we forget what the things we love were in their own time.

-M

[Werewolf]

Just by using the Super Powers brand makes it a retro line and the 70s Supermobile and the 89 Batwing are not contemporary. That's also not the current Action 1000 Superman suit with the little wrist cuffs. It's the Super Powers one.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Yeah, it's the mixed messaging. If McFarlane took the name "Super Powers", and kept some of the design aesthetics of the packaging but modernized it, I could see it as a new modern take with a classic name. But again, he has the DC Multiverse line for a completely "now". Why not just offer smaller figures, branded differently? Why go to Super Powers, with the exact card and box design, if you weren't trying to cater to the nostalgia market? But then, if you are trying to cater to that market, why throw in characters like CenoBatman who most older fans don't care for?

[Werewolf]

Mcfarlane Toys already has 3 different lines for modern death metal versions of the characters. Multiverse and two different scales of Page Punchers. I do not expect nor ask for the classic iconic versions of the characters for any of them.

Super Powers was current 38 years ago. Now it is a retro brand. It's okay to admit it when a toy company could have made better character choices for a retro brand. Again, Mcfarlane toys has 3 different modern lines filled with Death Metal characters and I have no problem with that. But, yeah, Cenobats mixed in with 84 Superman and 70s Supermobile is nonsensical.

[wise guy]

The Batman who laughs is not my type of figure either but this about a modern take on the Super Powers line from what I've read. Using the original packaging for Super Powers is sendind a mixed message but Todd loves Batman variations and puts out a lot of Batman figures that sell. The Batman who laughs is a Bat variant in the 7" line so I expect charectors like Azbats(Knightquest), Dark Knight (Miller)Flashpoint Batman etc

[Werewolf]

It does not really make sense as a modern take on a retro brand when the line uses retro sculpts, retro scale, retro articulation, 80s logo, 80s packaging, 80s Superman and 70s Supermobile.

A modern take on Super Powers would be closer to something like Mattel's DCUC which used many classic SP characters but with modern articulation, scale and sculpts.

Cenobats is just a poor choice for a retro line. It's a not a mainstream character or has any appeal to kids. It's character that only appeals to and is known by a segment of adult comic book readers and has already been released in Multiverse

[PNGwynne]

If marketable Batman variants gets an Invisible Jet with WW included in the line, so much the better. I can see a Batman being included in each wave.

But I won't be buying them. I'd rather see Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, even Talon than something like TBWL.

And two points occur to me: One, if this is a collector, nostalgia-driven line, I don't think most of those collectors embrace this character. Two, if nostalgia prods parents/grandparents to purchase these for their kids, I don't those buyers will like this figure, either.

The Batman Who Laughs seems more appropriate to Page Punchers than Super Powers, IMO.

[MRP]

If marketable Batman variants gets an Invisible Jet with WW included in the line, so much the better. I can see a Batman being included in each wave.

But I won't be buying them. I'd rather see Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, even Talon than something like TBWL.

And two points occur to me: One, if this is a collector, nostalgia-driven line, I don't think most of those collectors embrace this character. Two, if nostalgia prods parents/grandparents to purchase these for their kids, I don't those buyers will like this figure, either.

The Batman Who Laughs seems more appropriate to Page Punchers than Super Powers, IMO.

I'm not sure a purely nostalgic line gets picked up by Walmart for their toy department. Maybe on a limited scale for their collectibles half shelf in their electronics aisle, but not an large scale to be put in their toy department. But the price point doesn't fit the collectibles niche for Walmart either. They have to sell it to the buyers of the retail markets they want to carry it before they can sell it the end customer, and with that price point they need volume to make it work, so just an online only offering isn't going to cut it. Walmart doesn't want a line that only has retro-appeal, they want it to appeal to as wide a potential customer base as possible and if, as a toy maker, your goal is to have it carried by retail outlets, you have to tailor your line in such a way as they will buy it to carry in their stores or your line goes nowhere.

We saw what happens when retailers think your stuff doesn't have mass market appeal when several of the things Mego showed at Toy Fair a few years back never went into production because no one was interested in carrying it (those 14 inch Kiss and Brule Lee figs for instance and whatever those bouncing balls are). With toy departments shrinking and with fewer brick and mortar outlets to carry it at all, you have to position your line to make buyers for those markets see the line as having as wide an appeal as possible. That's the business reality toy makers have to operate in that collectors don't want to care or think about, but it shapes most of the decisions made about what figures to include in a line.

-M

[Boris71]

I can't see why because a line is based on an older toy line it can't include modern characters, Hasbro's TVC Star Wars line went from the original characters right through to the rise of Skywalker, it even had characters from the animated stuff and loads of EU characters, using the original style logo and packaging, without a word said, they have done the same with the retro 5POA Star Wars line including stuff from the Disney+ series, personally I'm really excited to get my figures from the Obi-Wan series, and with the 5POA Marvel retro line, again with out any clarion calls that it makes it not a retro line.

Personally I say if you don't like a modern character or a newer design don't buy him, but these characters are often liked buy younger readers and buyers, and collectors, which gets sales moving, and a possibly bigger and better range of characters than the original 3series of Kenner Super Powers figures, than I don't see how it is a bad thing, a few of the super powers characters were either relatively new like Firestorm or were the new designs of the character like Lex, Brainiac, and batman. I did see some pics of a blue devil prototype once and he was very new to the DC Comics.

One last point, for me technically is the bat who laughs that new a character, if you take into account, and this is just my assumption here, that the name is a play on the old Lon Chaney movie, The Man Who Laughs, and that Bill Finger basically ripped off the makeup from that movie for the Joker when he first appeared, you could look at this as just owning up to its origins, plus the outfit looks very reminiscent of Cesare's outfit from The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.

Maybe we should just embrace these lines while they last and enjoy once again buying toys to add to our collections and not just over priced collector figures that aren't as good as we would like.

[Makernaut]

I think I am going to order an after-market, custom cloth cape for the Superman I just got. It'll wind up costing me more than the figure, but I really don't like the material they used for the capes. AND...that is separate from the fact that they package them by tagging the cape with a plastic tie that leaves a big ole hole in the cape. I like the figure, though and it will be worth it to have it look a little closer to the original Super Powers Supes.

[TRDouble]

Whew! A lot of hate for The Batman Who Laughs being in this line! I am just going to skip it like I did Darkseid and any other figures/characters that don't interest me. Hopefully someone will like it, buy it, and keep the line going.

I haven't been able to open anything in the last week or so, but I finally opened up Batman and the Batwing... very fun! I felt like I had an actual toy in my hand and not a collectible, which is basically everything else I buy. I was never a big Super Powers fan, even though I had and still have a lot of them. But I loved the vehicles I had -- that incredible Batmobile (which I cannot find), Supermobile and Lex-Soar 7. I will probably buy more figures because they are fun, but I really hope the vehicles sell well enough for more.

Next up to open is Superman and The Supermobile.

[enyawd72]

One last point, for me technically is the bat who laughs that new a character, if you take into account, and this is just my assumption here, that the name is a play on the old Lon Chaney movie, The Man Who Laughs, and that Bill Finger basically ripped off the makeup from that movie for the Joker when he first appeared, you could look at this as just owning up to its origins, plus the outfit looks very reminiscent of Cesare's outfit from The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.

Lon Chaney is not in The Man Who Laughs. The actor playing Gwynplaine is Conrad Veidt, the same actor who played Cesare in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

[Jase]

Picked up Darkseid and the Supermobile today. The only figures I haven’t come across yet and still need to pickup are Green Lantern and Flash. The Batman McGiggles can just go away.

[Boris71]

Lon Chaney is not in The Man Who Laughs. The actor playing Gwynplaine is Conrad Veidt, the same actor who played Cesare in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Thank you for that, I think I got the freaks and the man who laughs mixed up with his London after midnight character in my fuddled mind.

Stupid thing is I was only showing my other half this week the pics of the man who laughs and the jokers first appearance.