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 - 

One interesting thing about this card is that there appears to be an error corrected by a sticker.   The contents list at the bottom says “One toy figure”

But if you peel back the sticker you see that it originally said: “One toy figure with accessories.”

The correction is because the SP Wonder Woman figure doesn’t really come with an accessory.   She has her lasso but it is permanently attached to her hip.  It is not removable.

Below is the card of the original Kenner Super Powers Wonder Woman as well as the Gulliver foreign release of WW which both had different artwork than the Kenner version.  As you can see Mattel went their own way on the art on their card and didn’t use either version of these.   I’m not sure why.

The Figure - This figure, like the lighter colored Superman, surfaced on Ebay from Chinese sellers as factory sample discards several a year or so ago.   Clearly Mattel had some plan for her to be released, perhaps in a multi-pack that never came to fruition.   The main difference from her regular release is all of the gold parts are now yellow and her bracelets are now blue instead of silver.

Collection 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.  Gold Superman comes with Kalibak’s left arm.

Comparison – Here is a look at the Super Powers tribute Wonder Woman alongside the the first DC Universe Classics release and next to the original Kenner Super Powers Wonder Woman.

You can see our earlier features on DCUC Super Powers Superman , Gold Superman and DCUC Super Powers Batman by clicking on those links

This sample was provided by Mattel