Nostalgia aside, what's your vote for greatest superhero toyine ever?

[Random Axe]

I gotta go with WGSH simply because they were the visionaries who paved the way. How many toylines ever had both major lisences? You could literally put Batman, Captain America, the Penguin and Conan in the Batlab and have hours of goofy road trip adventures.

I also have to give it up for Super Powers for the sturdiness of the figures, the extent of their line and for creating action features for each character.

Neither will ever be topped by any modern company. Contemporary toy imaginations have been replaced with P and L reports. The action figure love is a generation away from being extinct.

[enyawd72]

While there's no denying Mego's impact, I don't consider them the best superhero toyline ever because of two glaring issues. Cost cutting, and scale. The smiling, short eared Batman Mego produced bears little resemblance to how the character actually appeared in comics at the time, and Captain America is lacking in both headsculpt and costume. Add to that the obvious scale issues with Hulk and Thing, and I feel those four figures bring the WGSH line down a notch as a whole. Those issues bothered me as a kid, and they bother me now. Mego even had difficulty with scale in their pocket heroes. Spider-Man possesses a huge barrel chest and is beefier than Superman, Batman, or Captain America, who along with Aquaman are particularly scrawny looking next to other figures in the line.
This is where Super Powers got it SO right.

[ctc]

>This is where Super Powers got it SO right.

Hmmmm.... I think I'd rate the superpowers guys a very close second. They looked great, decent playability and had tons of nifty vehicles; but as a kid I had a problem with some of the poses and action features. Stuff like Flash's bent arms, which looked like he was running, but were limited for what else you could have him doing. The Mego posability was a BIG plus for me. So were the hands on the T2, which could hold things; and the idea that you could change or add to their outfits and equipment without needing a whole new figure. (That used to bother me about Star Wars figures way back when.)

>Mego even had difficulty with scale in their pocket heroes.

Oh.... there were a LOT of problems with those, especially the squatting early ones. They all looked like Chuck Berry.

Don C.

[wilbs518]

Mego WGSH. No question.

[jds1911a1]

I loved the WGSH but I have to go with Super powers, the scuplts are fantastic the batmobile is in scale and has awesome play features, the super power features are really good, The hall of justice, bringing the New gods to the wider non-comic fan audience. Add to that the sheer durability of the figures

I liked some of the Kenner batman lines (and actually collected them for several years 89-94) but all the lines had way too many batmen, and kitchey/reccyled kenner vehicles (including the super powers batcopter and a silverhawks plane), the modified super powers scuplt for batman into keaton worked well though. Batman animated was great except for all the extra batmen and robins for the lines

JLu and secret wars suffered from bottom dollar accounting - generic sculpting on the body brings them down despite the character choices.

[Wee67]

Clearly, Megos are not underestimated here, but I really do think they were a great line... BUT not the greatest.

I loved Megos for the breadth of the line and, more importantly, their play-ability. You really could use your imagination and pose them in so many positions. The modern toy line that includes a wide range of characters and has great articulation AND outdoes Mego for sculpts and accessories is Marvel Legends. I really think I could have some pretty cool adventures if I was a kid playing with Marvel Legends.

[enyawd72]

Clearly, Megos are not underestimated here, but I really do think they were a great line... BUT not the greatest.

I loved Megos for the breadth of the line and, more importantly, their play-ability. You really could use your imagination and pose them in so many positions. The modern toy line that includes a wide range of characters and has great articulation AND outdoes Mego for sculpts and accessories is Marvel Legends. I really think I could have some pretty cool adventures if I was a kid playing with Marvel Legends.

Do you prefer the Toybiz or Hasbro ones? I liked Toybiz when they started out, but the figures were painted too "dirty" and got over-articulated at one point, ruining the sculpts IMO. I like the cleaner, less articulated look of the Hasbro Legends.

[batmanmc]

Me go wish by far for me

[EmergencyIan]

Kenner Super Powers line was so well done. I think it wins. As far as nostalgia goes it would be Mego (all three sizes). Though, I have a good deal of nostalgia for the Super Powers line.

- Ian

[MegoSteve]

Super Powers, Mego, DC Direct, and Justice League are all tops in my book. Hard to pick the best... any one of them could be on any given day.

DCUC I like, too, but I never really felt the need to collect them all. The rapidly inflating price point just killed my interest.

I agree that Hasbro's DC 9" line of the late 1990s is very underrated. The bodies could have been better (articulation was a little weird), but I love that they did Silver Age versions and the sculpts and costumes were fantastic.

[Wee67]

Do you prefer the Toybiz or Hasbro ones? I liked Toybiz when they started out, but the figures were painted too "dirty" and got over-articulated at one point, ruining the sculpts IMO. I like the cleaner, less articulated look of the Hasbro Legends.

I would that there are times when the level of articulation actually lessened the play-ability. As far as Toy Biz v Hasbro, I think I really don't have enough of emotional attachment to prefer one over the other. In fact, if I went on emotion alone, I would have voted WGSH BUT... the thread asked to put nostalgia aside and try and be objective.

[kingdom warrior]

Mego WGSH easy but Big Jim P.A.C.K came in a close second,loved those, and of course GiJoe Adventure team was a fav also.

I did dig The Hasbro figures that they made of both DC and Marvel Heroes those figures are pretty cool shame they could not continue with more......Toy Biz wasn't too bad not great but they had a few figures i really dug a lot.