The 85th Anniversary of Superman is Coming!

LOOKIN’ GOOD, SUPES!

:superman:

Happy Superman Day, y’all!

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Happy anniversary to Superman!

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Since today is the anniversary, and with me being the collector that I am, I want to celebrate by highlighting some of my favorite Superman collectibles.

Superman “Doll” by Ideal Toy Company
The first Superman toy, released circa 1940. Also considered by many to be the first action figure, although that term wasn’t coined until the 60s.

Kenner Super Powers Superman
This 1984 figure was the Superman toy for a generation.

Man of Steel Superman
From the 2006 DC Direct “Superman Through The Ages” box set. A fantastic (and rare) rendition of John Byrne’s Supes.

Mezco One:12 Superman
Mezco has made some nice cloth costumed Superman figures. These two are my favorite of theirs.

McFarlane Multiverse Hush Superman
Yes, I switched out the angry “possessed” head, but the official vanilla version should be out soon. The best 7” Superman figure, in my opinion.

Sideshow Superman Sixth Scale Figure
Love these 12” figures from Sideshow.


DC Collectibles Superman: “The Man Of Steel” Statues
Wish this line continued past the 15 statues we got. Here’s a couple of personal favorites, based on Lee Bermejo, Shane Davis, and Kenneth Rocafort designs.



DC Direct Super Friends Superman Maquette
My childhood come to life. Look at how closely that resembles the old cartoon :slightly_smiling_face:

DC Direct Christopher Reeve As Superman Statue
What’s a Superman list without this late legend?

DC Collectibles BvS Superman Statue
Best representation of Henry Cavill as Superman, imo.

DC Collectibles Designer Series Superman Statue by Jim Lee
Based on a page from one of my favorite Superman stories (For Tomorrow).

Iron Studios Clark Kent Art Scale Statue
This little statue captures the iconic pose perfectly.

Tweeterhead Superman Maquette
Classic Superman

Iron Studios Prime Scale Superman Statue by Ivan Reis
This 1/3 scale statue will forever be the centerpiece and crown jewel of my collection. Here it is with all the different heads.




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Hot damn, these are AMAZING! That’s a super impressive collection dude! (I’m sure those are also fun to dust :laughing:)

How’d you get ahold of these ones?

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Plus, are there any that you’ve owned for years and years yourself?

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Thank you :pray:. Dusting is a [insert expletive here] :joy:.

Both ebay purchases. The Ideal Superman was offered at half its usual price. That one only shows up like once in blue moon. It’s obviously touched up, and has a repro cape, but considering it’s over 80 years old, I couldn’t pass it up. Super Friends Supes is actually not that hard to come by; it’s an early 2000s release, I believe.

Truth be told, no. I started collecting when we moved into our current home in 2014. I started with Super Powers Superman, which I did have as a child, just not the same piece I have in my collection :slightly_smiling_face:.

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Happy Anniversary Supes :tada::birthday:

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Of course, here I have to point out it’s not just Superman’s anniversary. Zatara also made his first appearance today in Action Comics no. 1.


He would see some success in the Golden Age, but today he might be best known as the father of this lady…
Zatanna box

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Happy 85th Anniversary Superman :superman:

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One of the things that DC has is the legacy characteristics of their heroic community and, IMHO, it’s something that current (and recent) DC has ignored to its peril. It’s something interesting and unique that can readily be adapted that can be popular with fans (a good example of this is the AU versions of the 1990s Flash portrayed by Shipp, and also having Shipp play the DCW’s father to the mainline DCW Flash, and in spite of their edgelord killing of Henry Allen, keeping Shipp around as an actor and havig him still portray the classic Jay Garrick version of the Flash when their multiverse was/is intact.

I think audiences would respond to the family aspect, not just the legacy aspect, of the DC heroes and DC should lean into this going forward.

ALSO: Happy Anniversary, Superman!





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Happy Anniversary, can’t wait for the 100th.

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The DC Comics legacy is one of the reasons I have always been a bigger DC fan than Marvel. During the Silver Age and the Bronze Age (when I was a kid) DC Comics did a good deal with their Golden Age characters. It makes me sad that they haven’t done that as much in recent years.

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It’s Superman’s 85th, but… I don’t know what to say about him that I haven’t already said, so… here’s some images I have on my computer presented without context:

Supes Elephant

Superman Destroying Slums

Superman Rebuilds the Slums

Happy 85th anniversary, my dude! Here’s to 85 more!

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what is your favorite superman comic and why because for me its the superman family


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Happy 85th Anniversary to Superman! So many fond memories. I was only 3 when the first movie came out but I remember watching it on tv later on.

Christopher Reeve was my Superman. John Williams is and always be the composer that I will always think is awesome because of the score for Superman.

My mom had a cake tin that had either Superman’s Face and symbol or Batman’s Face and Symbol. I always asked for Superman.

After Crisis, I picked up Superman #1 and collected it for several years, those stories meant a lot to me and I am happy to relive them here on DCUIU.

Here’s to many, many more! Keep fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way!

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Superman + Lois Mauricio Abril



Envoys From The Evil Empire

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As a fellow collector, I’ll highlight a few of my favorite Superman action figures and in order of release (all pictures that follow are from eBay) to ring in the big guy’s :superman:well 8-5 by:

1989

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My first-ever Superman figure. My dad picked him up for me one day while I was in school (this was during first grade).

When I got in the car after school and after I put my seat belt on, my dad said “Close your eyes, I got something for you.” and when I opened them after having heard the rustle of something being removed from a plastic shopping bag, the above beauty was in my lap and I stared at him in awe the whole ride home.

After we got home, I hurriedly ripped Superman out of the package and lost myself in adventure after adventure with him and his fellow Toy Biz heroes and villains for what felt like hours on-end.

For me, that’s the Superman figure that defined a generation.

I still have that 34-year-old original standing alongside my other childhood Toy Biz DC figures, along with a carded duplicate that I picked up some years back.

While my childhood original doesn’t have its Kryptonite ring anymore (lost during a move in my teens, as far as I can gather), he’s still in great condition. The memories I have of playing with him and creating adventure after adventure for hours upon hours and day after day for years on-end are as fresh and vivid in my mind as when I was making those memories in the first place.

1995

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Kenner is the greatest toy company of all time, so its only natural that they would have an entire line starring the greatest comic book character and superhero of all time as well.

In a line of stand-outs, Power Flight Superman is the best of the bunch.

While beautifully sculpted and painted, he was also the first Superman figure to feature the post-Death/Return look in plastic and in my four eyes, is still the best to do so.

1999

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I am an unabashed, hardcore fan of Superman’s blue and white threads from the Triangle Era. I love the comics it was featured in and I love the above figure, which is easily Hasbro’s best Superman Blue piece (and also the best figure in their DC Super Heroes line).

2006

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Mattel’s DC Super Heroes is an oft-overlooked line that is filled to the brim with absolutely wonderful Batman and Superman figures (and if you’re wondering why it was B&S-only, the only DC properties Mattel had the license to make comic-based figures from 2003-2007 for were Superman and Batman; it wasn’t until 2007 that their license expanded to include the entire DC roster, which would first be seen in DC Universe Classics, the follow-up to DCSH).

John Byrne’s Superman is my all-time favorite comic version of Superman and the above figure aptly captures the spirit of Byrne’s take on The Man of Steel.

While it was never officially said to be or marketed as a Byrne Superman, its quite clear that the figure was designed to evoke him and to quote Sesame Street’s “C is for Cookie” song, “That’s good enough for me.”

Also from 2006, this beauty by DC Direct, from series 1 of their Reactivated line:

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Reactivated was a line of re-issued figures from assorted DC Direct lines, with Superman having been a re-issue from their 2003-2004 Superman line and seen in his original release from that line down below:

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I missed the 2003 release of this figure, so when it was announced that DC Direct was re-issuing him in their Reactivated line in 2006, I jumped at the chance to get him as he’d long been regarded as an all-time great in the annals of Superman figures and I wasn’t going to miss a second go-around at getting him.

The overall design flows nicely, the sculpt is beautiful and for a very long time, this was one of the most articulated Superman figures available.

2008

Like I said earlier, I love Superman Blue and Mattel’s take on him in their DC Universe Classics line is easily my all-time favorite figure of him.

2020

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The very first Superman from the inaugural year of McFarlane Toys’ DC Multiverse line.

Three years in and many other Superman figures later, the Action Comics #1000 Superman is still one of McFarlane’s best takes on The Man of Tomorrow. The sculpt is fantastic, the articulation is great, the paint applications are on-point and…he comes with a flight stand, something precious few Superman figures before featured.

2022

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@moro highlighted the plastic crown jewel that is 1984’s Kenner Super Powers Superman, so I’d like to highlight his 38-years-younger junior, from McFarlane Toys’ Super Powers line.

Kenner Super Powers is the crown jewel in the DC action figure crown, and the McFarlane Super Powers line has perfectly captured the aesthetics of the Kenner line while also establishing an identity all its own.

The line is a gateway for those who are entirely new to Super Powers, while also giving established fans like myself a chance to buy brand-new Super Powers figures at retail (in this case, Walmart as the line is exclusive to them), something I was never able to previously do as the original 1984-1986 line from Kenner was at retail when I was only a baby.

A fantastically swell piece, McFarlane’s Super Powers Superman is its own thing with its own aesthetics while also most definitely carrying on the proud legacy established by the Kenner Super Powers Superman from 38 years prior (as of 2022).

Superman’s legacy in licensed merchandise stretches back almost as long as his existence in-general and while I could go on for hours about Superman toys (and I have, trust me :wink:), I’ll stop here, as the above favorites are a small sampling of the wonderful world of Superman toys, as well as a small sliver of a peak into the wonderful world of DC Comics toys in-general.

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Lovin’ it @Vroom! I have all those in my collection, except for ToyBiz Supes, and think they are all very worthy picks.

The 90s Kenner Man of Steel line in particular I think is an underrated gem. Yeah it has a lot of crazy Superman suit designs, but that’s part of the fun, me thinks. You got me going on that line and, in a very short time, I have most of it on display.


Couple imposters that don’t belong to the Kenner Man of Steel line on this shelf, I know :joy:.

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Did you see the Superman Blue pieces I added in?

Thank you and the same for your picks (especially any we mutually geek out over :smiley:).

Oh, absolutely. As I’ve said before, its one of the very best lines from the Kenner/Hasbro era and then some.

Fun Fact: Some of them are comic-accurate (Street Guardian Superman) and comic-inspired (Ultra Shield Superman).

Absolutely! Toys (be they for kids and/or kids-at-heart) are all about imagination and creativity and Kenner absolutely imbued that in the variants they made for Superman…as well as the 200+ variants they made for Batman across multiple lines over many years. :smile:

I spy with my four eyes the Mattel DC Multiverse Injustice Superman (hope McFarlane has one coming at some point) and Batman. Two fine figures that were made of metal…for some reason. :smile:

Plastic, metal or tree bark, as long as it looks cool and is worth the bread it costs, I’m in. :superman_hv_4:

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I did! Was gonna come back & say something but didn’t want to hijack the thread (which we’re kinda doing now, but hey, we’re still talkin’ Supes!) I have the DCUC Superman Blue, and think it’s the best figure we got of that version of Supes, especially with the little electricity effect pieces. Looks great on the shelf next to his red half. The Hasbro line I’ve yet to dabble in. I’m too afraid to delve into some of these lines, mainly because of display space.

Correct, along with a Mattel Injustice Supes from the first game (dead center). They camouflage well with this bunch!

I kind of like that the other two are made of metal. Couldn’t tell you why other than their heftiness is impressive :joy:

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