Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Legion Toywatch: Prequel, part 3 (PVC set)

Part 3 of our look at Legion toys, in anticipation of new stuff from the animated show coming soon.

Previously:
Part 1 - Tyr, of the Super Powers set, 1986
Part 2 - Legion lead/pewter figurines from Grenadier, 1986

After the metal figurines for the role-playing game in 1986, it was over a decade until the Legion got three-dimensional again. By the late 1990s, DC was producing its own line of figures and figurines under the DC Direct banner. The Legion got into the act with a box set of PVC (plastic) figurines in 1999.

This was the first time the Silver Age Legion were immortalized in plastic. We got Chameleon Boy, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, Colossal Boy, Brainiac 5, Lightning Lad, and Mon-el.


Click photo to enlarge

They came in a unique box, too - instead of being a normal box, this one had red fins to make it look like the old clubhouse. Very geekily cool.



The set is still listed in the DC Direct catalog, but I don't know if you can order a set through them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are the only Legion figures I have. When I saw the box, I just couldn't resist. I'm sorry to say I've never taken them out of the box, they look too good in it. :-)

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't be sorry Jonathan. Mine are displayed the same way. I think they look better in the box.

As for the origin of the poses correct me, Michael, if I remember incorrectly, but aren't they based on the Legion statues that Clark/Superboy kept in his room?

Michael said...

Good call, Scott, I had forgotten about that. I found an image on one of Jim Drew's pages (his Legion site is called "Frunt").

The panel he has (from Adventure 289, reprinted in Superboy 185) shows only Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy, in basically the same poses as we see in PVC. I'm not sure where the others came from, if anywhere.

This has Mark Waid's metaphorical fingerprints all over it. I had sent an email to both him and the late Rich Morrissey in 1999 asking about it but I never heard back from either.