how would you have changed Super Powers?

[Boshek]

Speaking of gold mine, they should reintroduce the line to retail (same characters, likeness and card art but maybe 4 inches like the current Batman line and without action features).

[Mr.Marion]

Some of the character selections look pretty ridiculous especially in hindsight. Makes me appreciate mego for making characters that even DCU classics never got around to making like Aqualad, Speedy, and Jor'El.

[samurainoir]

I would have loved Swamp Thing in the line-up, but I always want weird and quirky characters (I had just discovered Alan Moore's Swamp Thing comics around this point... they liquidated the Swamp Thing line when it came out later.

[samurainoir]

This was super-cool. Anyone know what the "Super Power" action would have been? Whip arm perhaps?

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Didn't they decide that the Catwoman above came from another aborted DC comic line? That's the Mazzuchelli Catwoman from Batman: Year One, and she didn't debut until early 1987, after SP was cancelled.

Either way, it would have fit, much like Kenner's other late 80s/early 90s output.

Chris

[Random Axe]

I've told this story several times, I'll condense it for this thread. Neighbor across the street when I was starting high schol worked for Kenner. He designed the action features of the Super Powers and other lines. Anyway, I was over at his house with his son when I noticed an unpainted head on his drafting board that was slightly bigger than SP size. it was obviously a black guy with a small fro wearing a mask. This could have either been John Stewart or Black Lightning. I never got to ask the question and now I regret that.

I agree with most of the sentiments above, character selections and their ties to Kirby's New Gods stuff is what shortened this line's life. Cyclotron has a figure but Spectre does not?

[samurainoir]

it was obviously a black guy with a small fro wearing a mask. This could have either been John Stewart or Black Lightning. I never got to ask the question and now I regret that.

Do you remember the guys name? (or the son's name?) maybe we can google 'em up and ask!

Consensus seems to be from different sources that it would have been John Stewart, because Black Vulcan was slated for the line(?). Tony Isabella, the (co-?)creator of Black Lighting has talked about his situation with DC and royalties... which resulted in Black Vulcan appearing in Super Friends instead of Black Lightning.

[LordMudd]

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Boshek





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Speaking of gold mine, they should reintroduce the line to retail (same characters, likeness and card art but maybe 4 inches like the current Batman line and without action features).



In my opinion, this could have saved the original line, even from Darkseid.

CCC.

[cjefferys]

Being a fan of Kirby's New Gods at the time, I was thrilled to see those characters immortalized in toy form and featured in the Super Friends cartoon, but yeah, now I can see that they wouldn't exactly click with the non comics reading general public. And man, some of their third series choices were downright bizarre, like Cyclotron, Tyr and Golden Pharaoh. There will still tons of better, legitimate DC characters they had to choose from.

[cjefferys]

I would have loved Swamp Thing in the line-up, but I always want weird and quirky characters (I had just discovered Alan Moore's Swamp Thing comics around this point... they liquidated the Swamp Thing line when it came out later.

Yeah, Swampy would have been great in that line-up. I was deep into Moore's Swamp Thing when Kenner's Swamp Thing line came out, I remember being highly disappointed that they didn't make a John Constantine figure.

[tmthor]

One thing they should have done was if they were going to use Darksied use the show on daily not just a sat morning cartoon. but I feel that working in small groups like maybe the teen titans .....or a group of batman figures (batgirl, alfred, catwoman) and Superman (Lois lane, Jimmy olson, and bizaro) but would have gone after movie licences like the superman movies and tied them into the figure line

[samurainoir]

[huedell]

To me the thread title is kind of a contradiction---personally.

And I think the Four Horsemen sculpting/creative team and other higher-ups at Mattel would say essentially the same thing too, considering their decisions when working on the mainstream modern DCUC line. They paid tribute to the "now iconic" Kenner SUPER POWERS COLLECTION line in so many ways--

Heck, Mattel even marked their "official ending" of their hugely successful DCUC line with Super Powers tribute figures that not only had the standard cash grab repaints, but also uber-nerd-catnip "not-so-standard repaints" . I mean, sure, Riddler was a repaint, but what a wacky tribute repaint. And the planned, but never released Gold Superman? And let's not forget a whole new figure with Myxie (who was planned for the vintage line but never released). They even struggled to justify a Build A Figure repaint for the one SP repaint fans really had been rallying for; Kalibak.

That kinda stuff "says something" about the legacy of the SP line... especially since Mattel's ego was left at the door, them not being the original manufacturers in the first place.

While I agree with much of what was said in this thread as far as "Put the heavy hitters in!" "Don't take chances!", the truth is that the very things we disliked about the SUPER POWERS line are a big part of what made it special.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I think the Super Powers line was special the moment that iconic first wave appeared in that ad on the back of DC Comics. The then-amazing level of sophistication in the sculpting, the character selection, and yes, the thought that went into the Power Action feature set it above anything anyone had ever done with the DC license. Add in two of the greatest accessories ever made, the Hall of Justice and the Batmobile, and you have a legacy even Golden Pharoah coudln't muck up. Head-scratching choices like him ride on the coattails of the things Kenner did absolutely perfect early on in the line.

Mattel has mined every aspect of their own MOTU property with the Four Horseman as well. Even stuff most fans dislike, like the sci-fi He-Man iteration. So their mentality appears to be "redo it ALL", not just "redo what was GOOD".

Chris

[enyawd72]

Personally, there was nothing I disliked about Super Powers...I just wish it had kept going.