That is NOT what I imagine Superman sounding like – Super Powers Toys and Record

This one always brings back a flood of memories. The Super Powers toys weren’t the best in the world — their “points of articulation” were a bit lacking — but they were action figures for my favorite comic book characters, and they wiped the mat with the Marvel Secret Wars line. I can recall racing the Batmobile along the floor of my kitchen and the time I took Lex Luthor outside and he got gravel in his joints from the driveway and I could hear it rattling around in there from that point on — couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

There was of course the cartoon tie-in, and while that was fun, one of the more obscure items associated with this line is a short vinyl record that contains a brief adventure for the heroes. I had thought that it was lost in the folds of history and the dense fog that is my memory, but thanks to the magic box known as “The Internet” I’ve been able to track down some pictures of it:

I even found the actual audio. You can listen to a recording of “The Darkseid Saga” here.

While Darkseid sounds cool, and Desaad is as cloying and annoying as I’d imagine him to be, when Superman shows up the whole thing starts to fall apart. He sounds more like a newsreel narrator from the 40’s than a Man of Steel. And the “You Decide!” ending felt like a jip to me when I was a kid, and still feels like one to this day. I realize that it synced with the TV ad campaign, but still — you want some resolution for your six-minute drama.

Here are a couple of the “You Decide!” ads:

I like the first one and how it illustrates the awesome power of these figures by having them chop through stacks of small pine cones and popsicle sticks. Laugh. Out. Loud.

Thanks to supermanhomepage.com and cooltoyreview.com for their postings of the audio and pictures of the record. Quite a trip down Memory Lane.