As announced, back in February at Toy Fair 2014, the final figures in Mattel’s long running 6″, Four Horsemen sculpted, DC Universe Classics line will be a series of tributes to the 30th anniversary of Kenner’s beloved DC Comics ‘Super Powers’ 3.75″ action figures.   Mattel is repainting 6 figures (including a collect-and-connect figure) and giving us one last new mini-figure sculpt as a “thank you” to the fans.   In it’s 7+ year run, Mattel’s DC Universe Classics has released 6″ versions of all 34 characters that were released in the 1984-1986  Kenner Super Powers line, however not all of the paint jobs on the Mattel figures matched their vintage counterparts.

I think by now everyone that knows me knows that I am a HUGE fan of the original Super Powers line.  After all we house the Super Powers Archive here on AFi as well as have a dedicated Super Powers blog.  I have loved and encouraged and even helped Mattel out with some of the past DCUC Super Powers figures so I was greatly looking forward to these, and even with Mattel sending me samples I will be buying a second set to keep carded when they are released.

I think it’s important to note that these are merely a Super Powers tribute/homage and not a intended to be a replica in figure or card.   There are quite a few differences in details on all of the cards and figures from their original Kenner release.  That said it’s still a nice and fitting end that the line end with a tribute to it’s roots.  While some will argue that the DC Universe Classics line surpassed it’s predecessor in terms of “wow” factor, and certainly DCUC has far surpassed the Kenner line in terms of time and character selection, still all involved with the DCUC line were big fans of the original line and wanted to see it recognized as a blueprint to doing a great line of in the same style and in the same scale DC Comics action figures.

THE PACKAGE

To Mattel’s credit they did use the original image out of the actual DC style guide for the card.   Kenner took the same image and modified it to better fit the card.

THE FIGURE

The Batman figure that is repainted here goes WAY back to the first wave of DC Universe Classics Detective Batman, which is not the same as the original Mattel’s 6″ Batman in their DC Super Heroes waves.   The original DCUC Batman was a much darker gray color on the body suit and a slight darker blue for the rest of the costume.   It also featured the “mask shadow” on his forhead that was prevalent in the 70′s.  We did get a lighter colored Batman that was closer to this figure in a 2-pack with a re-release of Clayface, but the colors were still not light enough to match his Super Powers counterpart and the figure featured a battle damaged chest emblem.   The colors on this figure are a much better match for his 1984 Kenner counterpart, the only difference is the gold highlight on the belt buckle.

Just like the Super Powers 3.75″ Batman, this Batman does not come with any accessories.

COLLECT AND CONNECT

The Collect and Connect Kalibak piece is in the mailer box not in the bubble with the figure.  It is polly-bagged and taped to an “L” shaped piece of cardboard in the mailer box so that it’s not in the package with the figure, as that would not be accurate to it’s vintage counterpart.   Batman comes with Kalibak’s right arm.

When you collect all 6 figures in this Super Powers tribute you will be able to build a brown, more Super Powers accurately colored Kalibak figure.

COMPARISONS

Here’s the dynamic duo:

The first 3 figures:

The other 3 figures will be Mr. Mxyzptlk, Gold Superman, and The Riddler.  The figures will  be sold in waves of 3 and will be $30 a piece. These first 3 will be available to order this fall on MattyCollector.com.   Click here to see our feature on the Super Powers style Superman figure.

This sample was provided by Mattel