I actually had The Riddler /Acertijo! Great memories! The reason for making The Riddler in Argentina was because Batman 66 reruns was a big hit on TV here in Argentina, and The riddler was the most important villain with Joker and Penguin, so naturally every kid collecting the line would want The Riddler, I know I did!
I remember seeing the ads for Super Powers figures in my comics. I knew I HAD to have them! I was amazed by some of the characters who were allegedly supposed to happen, but never did....like Vigilante and Paul Kirk Manhunter.
Super Powers remains my favorite toy line of all time. Those figures were the perfect size for my little hands. The articulation was great (on most figures) and the action features added a lot to my play as a kid. The Toy Biz super hero line that followed was neat too but Super Powers became my gold standard of action figures. That line will always be unique to me in that it never had variant figures. Good video, Scott.
I loved the Super Powers line, I was much more of a DC than Marvel kid growing up, so having so many varied figures was awesome for me. Dr. Fate, Captain Marvel, Red Tornado...not to mention the New Gods figures and the ones either from the show or made specifically for the line like Samurai and Golden Pharaoh! But I will forever stand by my statement that the model used for the Super Powers Green Lantern figure is the greatest figure ever designed. That thing is a friggin' masterpiece of form and function. It looks EXACTLY like it's supposed to, has great articulation, and the action feature in no way diminishes or alters the play value or pose ability. Also...to me the greatest thing about the Super Powers line, it's secret weapon....was that absolutely LEGENDARY artwork by Jose Luis Garcia. To this day his art is what I see in my head if someone mentions a DC character he worked on.
Dude! You're spot on! This was my first introduction to Dr. Fate, and it took me YEARS to learn his name and who he was! I remember seeing his toy for sale as a kid and loving his costume!
@@spectorcreative1872 Same -- and then I ended up buying comics with Dr. Fate and other characters featured on the cover, precisely because I had played with those toys. It's a shame that kids no longer have that on-ramp to comics. It's also a shame that comics are horrible now.
First off I love this channel!! I love toy history as much as you and have been collecting for 30+ years. 0:57 You said MOTU was the first to offer “action features” but then said MEGO had it in the 70’s. Eagle Eye GI Joe had an action feature and so did the Adventure Team Intruder, well before MOTU. And honestly, we can go way back to a time when many toys had action features and some company’s thrived on it… Marx Toys for one, from wind-up tin toys to Big Loo. Hey, I don’t mean to sound like a jackass but want others to question that statement. Again, I’m a sub and love the content! Thanks 🙏🏼
Johnny West had quick-draw features in the late 60s, Mego had Fist Fighters and Mattel had Big Jim with his karate chop and Pulsar with his pumping blood in the early 70s, Hasbro had Eagle-Eyes and Kenner had Six Million Dollar Man with various bionic features in the mid-70s
Ah yes, the Super Powers line! Was such a fan of this line when I was a kid, still have the Batman still sealed on card, for some reason I never opened him. Great job on the DC Classics line, that Classic Detective Batman is still one of the best Batman figures out. 👍 Awesome video Scott, very informative.
I had every TSPC figure except for the mail away Clark Kent, carded Steppenwolf (I had the mail away version) and Golden Pharoah. The last 3 or 4 figures I bought I only found at Quality Farm & Fleet an 80s version of like what Rural King is now. I remember I had to pick between Orion and Golden Pharoah and I got Orion. I have a bunch of DCUC and also that Lex Luther from the Superman line. Some of my favorites are the Red Tornado, Blue Devil, Blue Beetle, Samurai and Hawk & Dove figs.
Gotta love Superpowers. I had only Superman, Batman and Robin but none of them made it. They did make a Superfriends Superman for the DC Multiverse line later using the same DCUC body. I felt that was closer in color and even has the cloth cape with the collar and everything.
Man I wish they would re-release the Super Powers figures exactly as they made them before. I would totally buy my son the whole collection to play with
Greatest line ever made superpowers iconic in UK we did not get cartoon or comic but we new the characters it was awesome superman still got many colours and shades due to age it was also era of best superman movies was always upset never could get Clark and they looked strait out of my annuals .Yeah new Kirby got rights years later that's his new gods line he came up with
Superpowers is definitely one of the best toy lines. I Heard that the OG. Superpowers Vehicle line would of included WW invisible Jet/Plane as fan of Superfriends / Superpowers that would have been a fun addition to have as a collector.
@@spectorcreative1872 Also wondered if some of these retro remakes of figures use the same molds or is the tooling remade? Your videos inspire all kinds of curiosity!
Ideal toys, Captain Action, action figures had the costumes for D.C. and Marvel heroes along with other heroes in the mid 60's. For a kid back then, you couldn't imagine having a comic book come to life, ...at least in our imaginations.
Hadn't done a toy run for a while so I did a last minute one today. Stumbled on to the Todd McFarlane one's today at a Walmart. Got them all. Couldn't say no.
Loving your videos! I was obsessed with Superpowers as a kid so naturally as an adult I gravitate toward DCUC. I'm also a sucker for CLASSIC looks (think like late 30's - early to mid-90's) so I REALLY loved that that seemed to be a large focus. DC doesn't get classic-based figures that often these days. Still missing a few from the old Superheroes line, DCUC, and Legacy here and there, but I've got tons. The really was maybe one of the most fun aspects, the "Who...IS...this?" aspect. For me, Marvel Legends also pulled that off well. Heck it's what MADE me a massive fan of Moon Knight and more obscure others so much so I came to familiarize myself with them and even buy old vintage retro comics of. I tend to focus most heavily on Batman specific roles with DC. I always wished you guys got around to Mad Hatter, Ventriloquist and Scarface, Talia, and a few others. Do you have any roles you wish you could have gotten around to?
I can see a company allowing a repaint of an existing character to get a second character out of it, but congrats on getting them to agree to releasing him on an all Spanish language card. That's something I wouldn't expect a company to allow. That's a great homage. The next time the Riddler appears in a Batman movie, he should be wearing Green Arrow's ring.
I would love to see a picture of the Super Powers figures side by side with their corresponding DC Universe Classics figures. Either a complete group shot or multiple single character comparisons. If anyone has or knows of such pictures please send me a link.
I had started collecting the Mattel DC line as soon as the Four Horsemen indicated they were working them - Starting (I believe?) with the dedicated Batman line (2003 or so?). I still have a carded Zip Line batman! Their Joker and Killer Croc via Mattel were really great. As a fellow kid of the 80's, my two all time favorite lines was MOTU and DC Super Powers, to have the same company, sculpt/design team involved on both of the new lines iteration was a dream come true. Thanks for being a huge part of those products direction and (especially with MOTU classics) existence!
Just find out abut you channel! It's amazing. I'm trying to catch on with past videos. Contratulations!! I always felt that Super Powers were the ultimate superhero toy design, and I never undertood why Hasbro never released new waves of characters in the Super Powers style. I feel people of our age would buy them like hot cakes. The same with the ultra rare figures, like Cyborg. The vintage one is sold for more than 1,000 $ on eBay. Why they never release an aniversary edition of the character, so we could finally complete our collections? I know for a fact that every Super Powers collector would want one.
I never could figure out the fascination with those old Mego figures. To me, they all look like they're wearing oven mitts and rain boots, and cowls are as bulky as football helmets. Every hero looks like they're wearing their big brother's hand-me-down but they're not quite old enough to wearing it yet...
With all due respect to DC Universe Classics - which are mega-cool - Super Powers are my all time favorite toys. I have a question that I have been curious about for some time: Is a pure "retro" continuation of the Super Powers collection possible? And by this, I mean a modern-day continuation of the line, with the EXACT same packaging, retro-style sculpting, and "power action" aesthetics? I would absolutely go nuts over something like that. I've always told myself that If money were no object (meaning - if I won the mega-millions lottery) I would find some way to do exactly what I just described- re-start the Super Powers collection - somehow. What would it take to do something like this? A HasLab "kickstarter" - like campaign maybe? (I would seriously pay $1,000 for a fourth wave of Super Powers figures if they were faithful in every way to the originals). True story - shortly after the line ended when I was a kid in the late 80s I had a nighttime dream that I walked into a KB Toys and found the "fourth wave." I specifically remember Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Cosmic Boy, Sinestro, Karate Kid, and Dawnstar as some of the figures in the wave! As you can tell, I'm a huge Super Powers fan.
Had to look up this video again after seeing my Mattel Super Powers Superman today - great video, and I love that you did these for the 30th! Question on Superman: were there more than one issue of him? Mine has a gold belt buckle and the colors are different from the picture you have in the video, so I thought I'd ask. 😁
Great video and this was a great toy line and I collected them much later in life bc I was already 18 wen these came out and had joined the service in 84. so mego dc/marvel were my favorites and my 1st super hero line that came from comics to my hands!! Now the great DC universe classics changed that i wish classics were still here. Now you say motu was first action feature figure , I thought Mattel big Jim was the 1st one with the karate chop action. There were also mego figures made with action features. I have a question bc of your time / experience with Mattel and motu. Was Heman headsculp made or taken from Mattel big Jeff figure from big Jim toy line??? I know some big jim stuff was used alot for motu (battle cat and others). Also was wondering if you could do a video on the big Jim toy line ?? It was my 3rd favorite toy line as a kid👍🏽
Wait... you worked on DC Universe Classics ? I have two Batman figures, a Wonder Woman and a Joker from the DC Universe line. They are awesome figures.
It's just SuperFriends. Challenge of The SuperFriends was one season in 1978. Before that was SuperFriends, All New SuperFriends then after was World's Greatest SuperFriends, SuperFriends: The Legendary Super Powers Show and Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.
I was a baby at the beginning of the 80's, tween by the early 90's and the thing my classmates and me loved most was the punching or running action depending on squeezing superman's legs or the flash's arms respectively. Why'd you hafta go and make the adult collector figures all Toy Biz having no power action at all?
Mego had action features as well... the short lived Fist Fighters consisting of Batman characters in North America (and others overseas and in Mexico's Lily Ledy versions).
Wrong! Challenge of the Superfriends was 1978 only. Mego era. Each season of Superfriends has its own name. 1984 was Legendary Super Powers and 1985 was Galactic Guardians.
You mentioned something that caught my attention. Could you go into some detail about reusing molds and such? For example you (and I've heard this before from others) say that the Toybiz Batman line 'released' Super powers in their batman line and show the two Jokers... but Toybiz does look a bit different... has the squirting flower etc. Batman was claimed to be a Super Powers Batman... but it needed the new belt torso winch thing, New arm guantlets, new movie boots.. and even a different head. SO what is the difference between 'adjusting these molds' and just making all new ones? MOTU was always easy to see where it was just color and paint but the same basic Body bucks... but Super Powers always had new belts and new gloves and new 'things' that appeared sculpted right on the toy. I'd love some behind scenes explaination to that.
I can definitely talk about this "in general" in an upcoming video. But I didn't work for Kenner or Toy Biz so I don't know specifics on these figures.
Great video and I love this toyline...not sure you can say Motu was the first action figure with action features though...that I know of you've got the BIG JIM with Karate chop action...unless you're saying that's a "doll" and not an "action figure." Also, wasn't there a mego with some kind of action feature? I enjoy your videos.
ToyGuru/Scott, with the retro 3.75 Marvel line announced today by Hasbro, which company has the rights to make a retro 3.75 DC Super Heroes Kenner homage line? Is it even possible?
That explains why there were so many 80s inspired DC toys hogging the racks. Is that why the JLU figures were so bootlegged looking and cheap feeling? Because you schnooks were putting the money into your nostalgia? If that's the case. Hardcore man.
What?? what kid from the 80's didn't read DC Comics? I got to know all of these characters from the comics, not from the SP toyline and definitely not from that stupid Hanna Barbera cartoon.
