Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 9, 2024 | 8 comments

Todd McFarlane, are you listening?

It’s always exciting when we get word of a new wave of McFarlane Super Powers toys. Like this week, news leaked that we can expect characters like Guy Gardner, Metamorpho and Fleischer Superman in the coming months. Not official, mind you, but that’s the word around the playground.

McFarlane has done a ton of figures already, many of them deep cuts, but we all have lists of figures we’d like to see and 13th Dimension reader Anthony Conn is no exception. Anthony’s put together a rather eclectic list of 13 figures/playsets that could legitimately make the cut, interspersed with those that could be categorized as wishful thinking. He even ranked them — and mocked up faux packaging/backing cards for each.

Dig it. It’s a gas.

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By ANTHONY CONN

13. Mr Mxyzptlk/Bat-Mite Two-Pack. A nice way to present these two, smaller-stature characters would be to produce them in the classic 3 3/4-inch scale that’s generally associated with Kenner’s vintage Star Wars figures, and then release them as a twin-pack.

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12. Supergirl. We need more female representation in the line, and Kara Zor-El would be a solid addition in lieu of yet another Superman repaint. Also, it’s the character’s time to shine, especially since she was evidently an unproduced figure planned for the classic Kenner line.

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11. Swamp Thing. A rumored, unproduced release for the vintage line… so much so, it’s been said that the Swamp Thing animated series line released in the early 1990s was a result of unused concept work for Super Powers. Plus, I’m a longtime fan of the character.

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10. Bruce Wayne (Mail-Away Offer). One of the more memorable figures from the Kenner toyline was the Clark Kent mail-away offer. A clever way to homage this would be to offer Batman’s alter ego as a website exclusive.

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9. Emerald Empress. I know what you’re thinking: “This guy is way too much of a Legion of Super-Heroes fan,” and you’d be right, but I’m thinking that this release would be killing multiple birds with one stone.

1.) The line needs more female representation; 2.) It’d be cool to see a world conquering level villain that’s also a woman; 3.) The character’s look with the right sculpt would fit the line well; and, 4.) It would pay homage to the classic Kenner line and some of it’s later-wave character choices. (I mean, really? What was up with Legion villain Tyr being included in the original run?)

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8. Jonah Hex. It’d be another obscure character pull for the line… who just happens to be a favorite of mine.

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7. The Joker (1989). The recent Wave 5 Batman black-paint variant was obviously produced to pay homage to the 1989 Tim Burton-directed film, but there may have been some subtle cross marketing pollination going on due the release of 2023’s The Flash, which saw Michael Keaton reprise the role. When McFarlane finally does its take on the Joker, it should look like Jack Nicholson’s portrayal.

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6. Mark Shaw, Manhunter. A huge factor that led to the success of the Kenner line, in my opinion, was the inclusion of Jack Kirby concepts. Mark Shaw is a personal favorite of mine (again) and I think the short-lived John Ostrander-written book of the late 1980s — along with the his Suicide Squad — were some of the most inventive takes on the superhero genre for it’s time: a man who did heroic acts for the reward, basically a bounty hunter who specialized in super-villains. Mark Shaw is a Kirby creation (First Issue Special #5, 1975), and his solo series costume would look great in action-figure form.

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5. Hall of Doom Playset. One thing the current line seems to be lacking is a playset, and instead of revisiting the well just yet and producing a new take on the classic Hall of Justice, how about we give the iconic Super Friends Legion of Doom headquarters a try?

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4. Helspont. It’s nice to see the Ted Kord Blue Beetle finally getting the Super Powers treatment — especially when you’re a fan of Charlton Comics, many of whose characters were picked up by DC in the 1980s. Here, we have Helspont, a Justice League-level threat that has been the basis for neat-looking action figures in the past and who just so happens to be the product of WildStorm Productions, which DC acquired in the 1990s. (It helps that DC frontman Jim Lee used to own the company.) The figure would add some more intellectual-property diversity to the line.

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3. Ambush Bug. Keith Giffen was a genius: His work on Justice League International, Legion of Super-Heroes, along with solo stuff like Ambush Bug, are testaments to this. Giffen’s recent death has saddened fans and contemporaries, and what better way to honor him than by making plastic effigies of what many consider to be his comic-book alter ego, Irwin Schwab, the Ambush Bug. Do a website exclusive plush Cheeks, too, please.

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2. Blue Devil. Yet another alumni of the fabled unproduced Kenner waves, I’d say that it’s high time to release this figure. Plus, he looks cool… or, at least the 11-year-old fanboy I was in 1985 thought so.

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1. Booster Gold. The time-traveling hero appears to be coming but he still tops my list. Booster needs some action-figure exposure, especially if James Gunn has plans for him in the upcoming DC cinematic franchise — and it ain’t right not to have Gold if you’re gonna have Blue (Beetle).

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Honorable Mention: Brainiac (Terrifying Robot Variant). The Ed Hannigan redesign that was the basis for the vintage Kenner figure is quite possibly my favorite Brainiac look ever, simply due to the fact that it was one of the few villains that actually terrified me as a child. Sadly, DC Comics has pretty much abandoned it for whatever reason. It’s nice to see that we’re finally getting his Skull Ship, but, c’mon, where’s the matching figure to go with it?

Special thanks to the artists, credited and uncredited, whose efforts made the creation of the mock card and box art such a fun way to busy myself during a Sunday afternoon, including: Dan Mora, Dan Jurgens, Paris Cullins, Jordi Bernet, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Stephen R. Bissette and John Totleben.

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MORE

— The TOP 13 Classic SUPER POWERS Figures — RANKED. Click here.

— FILMATION BATMAN: McFarlane Toys’ New Wave — REVEALED! Click here.