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| Super Friends |
1.) 1980's Kenner Super Powers
Kenner Super Powers was a toy merchandise that was derived from the success of the DC Super Friends show. This 5 inch toy line eventually had its own animated T.V. Shows called Super Friends: the Legendary Super Powers and Super Powers Show: Galactic Guardians. The toy line is expansive in terms of characters produced for the D.C. Universe. Scattered over 3 series and 34 action figures in total (not counting the play sets and the vehicles). The great thing about this toy line is that each action figure is packed with an action feature gimmick that activates a range of motions for each character. Each figures also comes with a Mini-Comic. Which further expands the characters' introduction to kids apart from the animated show tie-in. This toy line is well loved by collectors even up to this day. DC also released a couple of comic book mini-series help expand the popularity of this toy line. (I apologize however that I used a Kenner Michael Keaton Batman as a stand in for Batman. I couldn't find a decent Super Powers Batman figure at a good price. But the Keaton Bats were reused body from the Super Powers Batman)
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| Total Justice and JLA |
2.) 1996 Kenner Total Justice/1998 Hasbro JLA
Fresh from the success of the JLA comic book series relaunch under Grant Morrison, Kenner once again dived their fingers on releasing a new DC Universe Action Figure series since the success of Super Powers. Batman: Total Justice is a series of 5 inch Ultra-Stylized Action Figures that features the DC Heroes in great musculature sculpting detail and some wacky futuristic weapons and armors. However, this was not as well loved by collectors and fans alike when compared to the Super Powers toy line. On a personal note however, this was my favorite toy collection during that time because this happens to be the first Superman action figure that I owned. Total Justice lasted for Three Waves and 19 figures all in all before Hasbro revived the toy line two years later and re-named the line simply as JLA. JLA lasted 4 series with a total of 24 figures, 4 box sets of 5 figures, and a couple of 12 inch figures. DC also released a 3-issue limited series comic book based on this toy line which they simply called Total Justice.
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| Justice League Unlimited |
3.) 2003 Mattel Justice League Unlimited Fan Collection
In 2003, Mattel would capitalize on the successful Justice League animated series and released a toy line based on the show. Simply called JLU, this 5 inch toy line features five points of articulation for each figure and is a fan favorite. Though the action figure's design are cartoonish (which remained faithful to the show), this toy line rivaled the level of popularity of the Kenner Super Powers toy line for toy collectors. The appeal and success could perhaps be attributed to the wide range of characters released in this toy line. You could effectively complete the whole DC Universe if you were able to complete this toy line. You could probable see all of the characters released in these websites JL and JLU. To many new generation of DC fans, the show put John Stewart as the definitive Green Lantern for the new generation. The show lasted for 5 seasons and is one of the longest running Justice League animated TV series ever that featured recurring themes and story continuity. There was also a comic book series released based on the show.
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| DCUC/DC Direct JLA |
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| DCUC/DC Direct JLI |
4.) 2006 Various Mattel DCUC/1998 DC Direct Collectibles.
I decided to lump together both Mattel DCUC and DC Direct 6 inch action figure toy line because of the sheer number of toy lines produced for this line. And my DC Universe 6 inch action figure is a cherry picked mix of various DC 6 inch toy lines because my purpose was to seek out and collect as many DC Universe characters that I could. Retaining at least one version per character (except a couple of multiple characters like Superman from various toy lines). Mattel initially started their 6 inch toy line via DC Super Heroes which basically was a Superman and Batman centric toy line. The success of this highly poseable action figure (which features an average of 23 points of articulation per figure) would led them to even further the expansion of their characters via DC Universe Classics. For a comprehensive checklist you can visit DC Classics because I have lost count on the waves and characters released in this toy line. DC Direct on the other hand was a premium format highly detailed action figure toy line that features limited points of articulation but features highly detailed sculpts. I consider them as poseable statues because each figure possess unique and exclusive sculpt from the other. There are no rehash nor reuse of the action figure's body. Through the years, DC Direct would feature comic book artist centric action figures and each series or waves would be inspired from a specific comic book artist. Perhaps the best among them all is the action figure series based on Alex Ross' Justice and Kingdom Come comic book maxi series.
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| The Batman Justice League |
Batman's continued popularity over the years for DC would spawn a new animated series after the end of the JLU animated series. Just like JLU, which initially spawned from the Bruce Timm produced Batman: The Animated Series cartoons, The Batman animated series would introduce the Justice League on it's 5th and final season. Their appearance however were short lived and was limited to a couple of solo team up episodes with Batman as well as a final two-part episode that pitted a powerless JL team against robots bearing the stolen powers of the JL. The 5.5 inch action figures marked an improvement compared to the JLU ones as it now featured elbow and knee joints. In the photo above, I sneaked in a JLU Green Arrow because he was part of the JL team in this animated series but curiously was never given his own action figure in this toy line. You can also see the points of articulation comparison above. Though some JLU characters featured knee and elbow joints, but most JLU figures shared the points of articulation of the Green Arrow figure above. The Batman would also have its own short live comic book series to support the show.
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| Batman: The Brave and the Bold |
The reason why The Batman animated series was ended was because Fox kids decided to come up with a new Batman animated series that would expand Batman's adventures by teaming him up with various DC characters. Batman: The Brave and the Bold was a Batman centric animated series that featured one shot episodes that would feature Batman teaming up with a DC Superhero. This mirrored the last season the The Batman animated series but the difference was the story direction of this animated series was geared more towards kids as compared to its predecessor. The show lasted for 3 seasons only. The bright spot however is that this 5.5 inch toy line would feature a good number of DC Superheroes that were featured in the show. The action figures lacked the knee articulation and had this ugly looking holes in arms and back of the figures that were supposed to be used for interchangeable weapons. Mattel would also later release re-sculpts of these figures as part of DC's New 52 relaunch. There was also a comic book series released for this show.
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| The New 52 Justice League |
The birth of the New 52 DC Universe in the DC Comics would also signal a rebirth in the DC action figures department. DC Comics re-branded their DC Direct into DC Collectibles and launched their new 7 inch action figures based on the revamped Justice League Comic Book series based on superstar artist Jim Lee's art. The new action figures marked an improved in terms of the quality of its plastic as it now featured a more softer and rubbery plastic. The problem with the old DC Direct action figures was the high breakage due to the hard plastic becoming brittle overtime. The change in the quality of its plastic would address that issue for toy collectors. DC Collectibles would also follow the DC Direct model where they base their action figures on a comic book artist's art. And the success of this new toy line can clearly be seen by DC Collectibles artist centric releases like the most notable of them all, a Bruce Timm action figure series based on the Batman: The Animated series TV show. This for sure modernized the vintage 5 inch Kenner Batman action figures released 20 years ago. Perhaps a modernized JLU action figure series based on the old JLU animated series might not be far off. If this happens, I'm sure DC toy collectors would go nuts!
Bonus:
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| Jollibee Justice League |
1.) Jollibee Justice League Kiddie Meal Toy
In the Philippines, the success of the JLU animated series would grant a local fast food chain its own toy merchandise that came with its kiddie meal. The Justice League Kiddie Meal toys were bigger compared to the official JLU action figures and stand around 5.5 inch. These are more in scale with The Batman and the Batman: The Brave and the Bold toy lines. Each figure comes with its own action feature gimmick that stayed true to the earlier concept of the Kenner Super Powers toy line.
These are one of my favorite JL toy collections that I have because of its rarity in the action figure world. This kiddie meal toy also had a second series that didn't include Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter.
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| The New 52 Action League |
For toy collectors who are into cute stuffs (like Funko Pops?), Mattel was also able to release a 2 inch toy line based on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold Action League. This toy line was released to rival Marvel's Superhero Squad toy line. I included this in my feature because I think this toy line was so underrated and it is sad that it didn't start a trend/craze the way Funko Pops captured the cutesy market.
So this wraps up my Justice League toy feature. The photos I used here were old photos I found while I was trying to clean up my photo files in my computer. This gave me an idea to write a new article to help hyped up the upcoming Justice League Movie. I haven't written that much of late because I was becoming too lazy to shoot photos and write blogs. Here's hoping however that I could relight my passion to write in this blog. Hopefully I could follow it up by writing about the DC Multiverse Justice League Movie Action Figures that I recently acquired. Man I'm so hyped by the movie!
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