Power Lords were an action figure from 1983 made by Revell designed by Wayne Barlowe, and was an attempt to cash in on the success of science fiction and fantasy popularity poplar at the time. The line would compete against Star Wars and He-man; and unlike many toylines from the time they did not have a cartoon or TV series or movie dedicated to them. DC comics did publish a 3 issue comic, with little success. The line lasted 2 waves and then disappeared
One of the great aspects to Power Lords and one of the big interests that I had in the line was the articulation. As mentioned before, in my childhood years I had a fascination with articulation and would cut up my Star Wars figures in feeble attempts to add joints. 3 and 3/4 GI Joes from Hasbro introduced the articulation that I wanted in small scale action figures and changed my idea of how a toy could be made. Ball socket shoulders, elbow hinges, swivel waists, knee hinges and ankle hinges rounded the typical joint scheme along with whatever effect was needed to transform the figure.
Revell decided to get into the Sci Fi Fantasy action figure market in 1983 with the introduction of Power Lords, a line about a human given extraordinary powers to fight evil galactic aliens. The action figures sported a number of articulation schemes, which were ahead of their time given the scale of the figures. The heroic figures were human on one side of their bodies and alien on the other. The aliens had no special features but were amazingly articulated for the time. Even the sculpting was joy.
I still have the figures, they lie in a box in my parents attic with all the other hits from the 80’s. One day I’ll crawl up there, take them from their dusty prisons, wash them off and revisit the fun from this short lived line.
http://www.bigredtoybox.com/cgi-bin/toynfo.pl?powerlordsindex