I sometimes had to get creative.
They made a Green Arrow action figure so I was determined to have a Black Canary one as well. I bought the Marvel Invisible Woman from Fantastic Four (I had no idea who she was) because she looked like Black Canary. The Catwoman figure they made at the time had a blue one-piece bathing suit like costume with dark boots so I put that on the Invisible Woman figure and topped it off with the black tuxedo coat from the Penguin. Ta-da - there was Black Canary. LOL
That's pretty clever, and probably not far from what they would have produced, had they actually made her.
And seems there were a few variations of the Catwoman suit, so as you describe using the blue for Canary would have still stood out from the purple for Catwoaman. Also the blue molded buccaneer boots version actually lent themselves better to Canary.
Well done! Do you still have it, or a surviving pic? Would love to see it.
I went a different "custom" rout and just made up my own lame character with figures and parts I inherited.
Was actually a Klingon with a Romulan helmet, and I added a cape!
In my head Captain America had an Eagle theme, so with Falcon and the now added "Condor" they all became like a bird themed trio.
(this was also before the Disney Condorman film LOL!)
Last edited by Güicho; 08-05-2020 at 06:11 PM.
As a kid in the early 70s I had a lot of what was mentioned here-Mego figures (from DC I had Batman, Robin, Superman, Tarzan, Shazam, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Riddler and Joker plus a bunch of Marvel, Apes and Trek)) the plastic Corgi? Batmobile, etc. but had a few others as well. One of the first and what tuned me on to DC at first was the Good Guys Viewmaster set...
which had story reels taken form the Adam West Batmas series and the 1968 Filmation cartoons.
I also had a couple of the Remco remote control flyers, one was the Batcopter....
the other was a Star Trek set with the USS Enterprise.
My favorites were probably the Viewmasters and the Megos though.
-M
Comic fans get the comics their buying habits deserve.
"Opinion is the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding." -Plato
Kenner Total Justice Darkseid with the big claw.
I didn't care that Darkseid wasn't known for grabbing people with a big claw gauntlet. He was big, cool-looking, and could pick up my other action figures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CvKwGxgCJM
Reimagined public domain superheroes in a 1945 that never was!
Read the superhero webcomic THE POWER OF STARDUST!
Although soon outdone be the garish 90s Legends of the Dark Knight line. ...eXtremely!
I did not collect these, but I guess I can recognize the over-the-top appeal for a kid. If Shatter Blade, Lava Fury, and Neural Claw Batman weren't enough,
Certainly Jungle Rage Robin would make any kid's head explode with wonderment! : D
(I'm happily aware there is some precedence for at least some of these in the actual comics - https://i.imgur.com/unoIPcl.jpg
although taken to the 90s eXtreme here.)
Nooooooooooooooooooooo!
Last edited by Güicho; 09-10-2020 at 06:05 PM.
I recognize the kid appeal. Is nobody fessing to having any of these?
Somebody has to have been buying them, cause they churned out so many.
And they weren't done yet,
Next came Knight Force Ninjas
Cause nothing says stealthy Night and Ninja like the addition of outfits, accessories and weapons in DAY-GLOW!
Even the Batmobile got hit with the Day-Glow!
LOL Arsenal Cape Batman actually reminiscent of a color fliped Zur-En-Arrh
I think eXtrme Ghostbusters got hit with the Day-Glow craze too.
As well Joe's with their own eXtreme roided-up line, and a similar horrifying wave of Ninja-Day-Glow-Joe's from that time period, maybe 93?.
Last edited by Güicho; 09-10-2020 at 06:06 PM.
While those ^ off-color and over-done tech. gimmicks didn't work for me at all.
Almost as outrageous was The completley anachronistic period-themed Batman variations of the Legends Line
Which somehow made perfect sense and did work for me.
I'll proudly fessup to being a Legends of Batman mark, and getting this one after the fact: they had several wonderfully outrageous themed figures :
Egyptian
Midievel Knight
Gladiator
Pirate
Samurai
Viking
Longbow etc ....
"-battling crime throughout time!-"
And my favorite Dark Rider Batman with whip and sword!
Batman wants to be Zorro so bad here, it's embarrassing!
Also can't help but think this line (minus Bat-Caveman) influenced Morrison's Batman Lost through time (the Return of Bruce Wayne) story arc, about a decade later.
Last edited by Güicho; 08-17-2020 at 06:40 AM.
Nope. Even as a kid I always had a disdain for variants. I still remember hating my Battle Armor He-man and Thunder Punch He-man... because they weren't 'the real' He-man in the comics and cartoons. Though admittedly the Battle armor action feature was a lot of fun... but still wanted the 'real' one. I felt the same way with the Superheroes. I didn't even like black movie Batman because he wasn't the iconic blue and grey like Super powers. I think i used him as an evil clone or something. The roided out weird poses of total justice turned me off... especially since they were embracing the 90's costumes that i didn't care for... but i did get a parallax because I'm a huge Hal Jordan fan.
But yeah, the scuba ninja dayglow strike squad stuff never appealed to me. The closest would have been a Dark Knight wall crawler I think... and again, because he was a bit more 'blue' then the black caped versions that were everywhere ;P
If you like Super Powers, Mego 3.75 inch, or Kenner's early figures of the 90s; you'll love these fun new toys!
The Spin Masters (I guess Mattel abandoned the licence?) is a fun little line, somewhat a throwback to Superpowers in scale (also that they seem to be adding vehicles is a bonus!), although a little to heavily stylized for my taste (not as bad (in a good way) as the DCAU figures, which reflected the cartoon look)
Compared to what they should be able to achieve; in detail, articulation and paint aps by today's standards, even at this scale, these just feel a bit boxy sculpted, and play-skool. (to me).
Which is who they are intended for, and that's fine.
They are fun (very kid friendly) as intended, a nice clean and consistent look they are quite collector appealing, I've gotten a few (the "mystery" accessories are pure easy gimmick garbage, as are the crap just between the shoulder-blade capes, a fact which they do well to hide in all the promo material), still they are charming, and as the line grows, I might get more.
Last edited by Güicho; 04-04-2020 at 04:10 PM.
Yep, I'm torn with them. I picked up Nightwing, but returned him before I opened him when I realized I DID have 3.75 scale Nightwing. I just didn't think he was QUITE cool enough for me to have double of the character...
I think they may actually be 'better' figures than the old Super Powers... but for some reason I just like them less. Probably the heavily stylized bit. Super Power aimed for that Jose luis Garcia Lopez art... my all time favorite DC designs. while these do seem a bit more 'kiddy'. Though I do like them better than the Arkham Multiverse figures we've gotten recently.
I think the biggest thing is, that i'm just weaning myself off collecting right now. I have my favorite characters in SP, DC 6", Secret Wars, Marvel Universe 3.75 some Marvel legends... not to mention OTHER properties I like... and i'm just out of room. They're kind of cool... but not cool enough to replace what I already have. So I don't see myself getting too deep into them.