Legion Toywatch: Prequel, part 4 (DC Direct figures)

Today's look back at Legion toys covers the DC Direct figures of the last few years. All of them are in their Silver Age costumes.

The first wave, from January 2001, consisted of the three founders: Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Cosmic Boy. The cool thing about these guys was all the stuff that came with the figures: Lightning Lad had a detachable arm so you could show him off with his metal arm or normal arm; Cosmic Boy came with some small magnets in his hand and some steel ball bearings; and Saturn Girl came with some sort of plastic Saturn symbol. All three came with removable flight belts for the figures and a life-size replica of a Flight Ring for us (sadly, the Flight Rings did not actually allow the user to fly). The pacakging on this was unique to the line, in that it showed the other two figures and the Clubhouse in the background. These three figures are all sold out from DC Direct. (Note that the face scuplts in these promotional pictures aren't exactly what the final version is like.)

Here's a typical front and back for this first wave of figures. Click on the picture of the card back to enlarge it.



Brainiac 5 and Mon-el were the next figures in May 2002, but they were packaged boringly, with no extra stuff. At around the same time, a Mordru figure was released, as part of the Magic & Mystery line of figures (as opposed to the Legion line).




Here's a typical front and back for this wave of figures. The packaging moved to a generic blue with the Legion logo. The Mordru one is a little more unique in that it shows both Mon-el and Brainy on the back, whereas each of those figures backs' only showed the other. Click on the image of the card back to enlarge it.



In January 2003, the next wave of Legion figures showed up: Star Boy, Sun Boy, Ultra Boy, and Chameleon Boy.



Here's a typical front and back for this wave of figures. For these, the packaging changed to a plastic resealable clamshell with stickers on the edges to ensure that it had never been opened. The packaging kept the same generic blue with the Legion logo, but was about an inch shorter because it didn't have the cardboard back. The back also notes that Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad had sold out, and advertises the PVC set too. Click on the image of the card back to enlarge it.



Ferro Lad and Timber Wolf appeared on shelves in Feb. 2004, followed in August by Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy.



Here's a typical back for this wave of figures. For whatever reason, this and subsequent waves of figures went back to the regular plastic blister on cardboard style, and the front of these is the same as the one above. The back is different, though, and varies slightly for the first two ("coming soon: Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy" vs "also available: Ferro Lad and Timber Wolf"). Click to enlarge.


In May 2005, the Composite Superman figure was released. That's an easy enough one to put on this list, he wouldn't have his powers if not for the Legion and (ironically) their statues. This figure, part of the First Appearances wave, also included a miniature reprint of the origin story.




That was the last of the Legion figures, but there are more that you could include depending on your level of anal-retentiveness. Clone Superboy (Connor Kent) and Impulse (Bart Allen) were honorary members, do you include all of their figures (each had figures from DC Direct and from Kenner)? How about Darkseid (multiple figures) and Ra's al Ghul? The Silver Age Superboy or Jimmy Olsen? The Silver Age, Crisis on Infinite Earths, or Superman/Batman versions of Supergirl? Heck, we even have figures for Krypto, Streaky, and Beppo so far.