Mego

As a collector who often seeks to complete ongoing collections, I can appreciate what Scott Beatty is going for in his 200-page tome, The DC Comics Action Figure Archive. Indeed, I’ve learned to love the process of archiving things both as a librarian and as an overactive collector who needs to keep things organized lest they ultimately serve as the seeds of my destruction.

The DCCAFA is full of great photographs of toys, cut out arranged in a familiar ‘DK Guide’ style against white backgrounds, with clear labels and brief descriptions that include information about the year of production, the company of origin and accessories that each figure came with. The figures in the book (all, obviously, based on DC Comics characters, so no Spider-Men here), range from companies like the now-defunct Mego, Kenner, and ToyBiz, to Hasbro, DC Direct, and Mattel – all of whom have produced DC toys at some point and get equal time on the pages. This collection of toys displayed next to each other, especially in the vast Batman section, really shows the evolution of the action figure as both collectible and plaything, while the entire book presents the lowly action figure as a not-so-lowly evolving art form and idea that is somehow granted further validity by putting it all in a big, hardcover book. You know, like when you put pin-ups in hardcovers and suddenly they’re ‘art’ and not ‘perverse’.

The discussion of figure making and figure history is minimal as the author presumes a certain level of previous experience with figures on the part of the reader, with the book’s main focus being on the toy photos peppered throughout the columns of descriptions. It serves as a survey of very basic figure information, and an excellent starting point towards completing your own collection. All of the figures are arranged alphabetically throughout, though by character name, and not the series that they appeared in. Most listings are only a few words, with actual pictures appearing for random figures throughout. While I’d love to see every Lex Luthor standing side by side, this is, again, a ’starting point’.

By the definition of the book, ‘action figure’ includes things like Minimates and Pocket Heroes, but omits statues and static things like Heroclix and pewter figurines.

Despite the thoroughness, the book cuts off in the middle of 2007 – which is one of the perils of paper publishing encyclopedic references, especially in a digital age. Mattel’s DC Universe and JLU lines, and DC Direct’s many line, have made significant additions towards this archive in the short time since publication. The pages aren’t arranged in a format that would be especially welcoming towards an updated edition (though there’s a ton of white space on every page) – so don’t expect an ‘every toy ever’ perspective, but so look forward to the pretty pictures. Page 130 seems to omit the DC Superheroes Mongul figure that was released in early 2007. but I’ll allow that it was probably released on the cusp of when the book was being sent to the publishers. Also note that page 140’s ‘The Penguin’ (in the upper right hand corner) has the wrong image attached to it. The pictured Penguin is actually from ‘The New Batman Adventures’, and is very different from the details listed for ‘The Batman’ Penguin. Page 109 misidentifies two of the Killer Crocs listed on the page. So what I’m saying is ‘proceed with caution, but remain delighted’. This is probably the last point that the entirety of the DC action figure world can be encapsulated in a single book this handsomely.

With the release of Superman Returns into theaters on June 28th, Superman mania is in full swing. You can’t go anywhere without being smacked in the face with the iconic ‘S’ shield of the big, blue boyscout, and honestly, that couldn’t be more exciting for me.

I’m not a huge Superman fan. He’s too clean, too powerful, and too outwardly flawless to really garner any sympathies from me. He wouldn’t steal your girlfriend, but he could, and he’d probably be a lot better at a lot of things, and I don’t need that kind of emasculation. Beyond the character himself, that big ‘S’ has always stood for hope in hopeless situations, imaginary or not. So, on some deeply personal level, where that icon of the ‘S’ has burnt its way into our collective psyches, something inside of my brain smiles, whether it’s just to advertise a movie or not.

But every hero must have their foil and their antagonist. Someone to keep them actively fighting wrongdoing and prevent them from falling into indifference. For Superman, who can punch his way through mountains and give you a lobotomy with a finely-honed blast of his heat vision, that archenemy is Alexander Joseph Luthor, affectionately nicknamed ‘Lex’. Alternately a mad genius, a billionaire industrialist, president of the United States, and once a friend of Clark Kent, he’s still nothing more than a normal human in physical attributes. Still, he manages to wreak havoc in the Man of Steel’s life, using resources scientific, magical and alien.

This year is a banner year for collectors of Lex Luthor miscellanea, with DC Direct announcing a good handful of Lex action figures and busts, to be released over the next 6 months or so. So, let’s take a short look at the future (and brief past) of Lex, in action figure form.

The very first Lex Luthor action figure of note came from the Mego Corporation in 1980, in a line of miniature figures called ‘Pocket Superheroes’, a name that would later be resurrected by DC Direct for their own line of tiny hero figures. Mego somehow failed to incorporate Luthor into their legendary 8” articulated figures, instead including a strangely human-sized Mr. Mxyzptlk as the primary Superman villain. What’s scarier is that I can spell ‘Mxyzptlk’ without any kind of hesitation.

In the following years, more incarnations of Luthor showed up in both his purple suit (in Toy Biz’s 1990 DC Comics Superheroes line, miscrediting him as ‘Luther’) and the charming green pants / purple shirt / raygun combo (1984’s Super Powers Collection from Kenner). Sometimes, he’d even don his hi-tech battle suit, still in those same ill-chosen colors, and go blow-for-blow with Superman and exchange knuckle sandwich recipes. In 1997, Time Warner released the Superman Animated Series, which also featured Lex prominently, adding more figures to the accompanying toy line by Hasbro. Still a bit later than that, the Justice League and JL Unlimited cartoon series prompted further figures all executed in Bruce Timm style, but absolutely none of the aforementioned figures stood over 5” tall. Having an action figure that breaks the half-foot-tall mark is pretty essential if you want to be taken seriously. It wasn’t until 2003 that DC Direct released a 6.25” Luthor in their Superfriends Deluxe sets, paired with a cartoon-styled Superman. This Lex is also of note for having the largest collar that an action figure has ever, or will ever, possess. It’s probably safer this way.

In May, DC Direct released their second Lex figure ever, clad in perfectly sensible Silver Age attire. You can just ignore the giant blue blob that he’s wearing for a hat, right? The poor guy’s baldness really gets to him. Try not to stare. Mattel also released a movie-based Kevin Spacey Luthor, though minimal in articulation and still fairly small. I’m not leaving out the ‘Smallville’ Lex Luthor figure. That figure left itself out. You know what I mean. Aside from two tiny Heroclix figures, we’ve scraped the bottom of the salty, Lex-flavored barrel.

The future of Lex is even more exciting. Soon, DC Direct alone will be releasing five new Lex figures. We’ll get ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ Lex, in his green 80’s battlesuit. We’ll get a metallic Lex based on the artwork of Alex Ross in ‘Justice League’ series 5. We’ll get a mammoth 13” Lex with real fabric clothing and complete articulation. We’ll get a tiny Minimates Luthor. And we’ll get a truly whacked-out maniac Luthor based on the art of Ed McGuinness, also in his battlesuit, from the ‘Superman / Batman Public Enemies’ set. Check out the publicity images below and tell me that they don’t represent an awesome variety of Lex.

Finally, Mattel will also be including yet ANOTHER battlesuited Luthor to their DC Superheroes lineup. If all of these similar Lex figures seems like overkill, take another look. All of them represent a different artistic vision of the Lex Luthor persona, a different incarnation of Lex in a different period of comic and world history, from wacky oddball Lex, to President Lex.

I will soon shave my head and join him in the pantheon of great bald men. Patrick Stewart. Telly Savalis. Lex Luthor. And me. Hell, it’s all falling out anyhow.