Super Powers Collection
action figure lines based on DC Comics characters
The Super Powers Collection is a line of action figures based on DC Comics superheroes and supervillains that was created by Kenner Products in the 1980s.
History
In 1984, DC Comics awarded the master toy license of their characters to Kenner Products, following Mattel's "action feature" heavy Masters of the Universe toy line. The initial pitch seemed to be heavily influenced by Kenner's popular Star Wars toyline with multiple playsets dedicated to individual franchises like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, Lois Lane, and the Super Jrs. Winning the license away from Knickerbocker and Mattel in 1982 with an emphasis on action and art, Kenner devised hidden mechanisms within the figures that would trigger an action when the figure's legs or arms were squeezed. This emphasis on each figure's "super power" led to the naming of the line: "The Super Powers Collection". Each figure in the first two series were also packaged with a mini-comic featuring an adventure with a spotlight on that character. The figures also included a cut-out collector's card on the back of each package.
With his Apokoliptian New Gods characters like Darkseid judged ideal antagonists for the line, comic creator Jack Kirby received some of the only royalties of his long career for redesigning his characters for Kenner. Artist George Pérez also received royalties for his design of Cyborg and redesign of Lex Luthor. Ed Hannigan had already redesigned Brainiac in Action Comics the previous year (June 1983).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Super Powers Collection” is action figure lines based on DC Comics characters. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Super, Powers and action, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7642660. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1984, 1982 and 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “Super Powers Collection” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.