Not to sound like an old fogy, but when I was growing up there were three hard and fast rules all comic book heroes were expected to follow: punch first and ask questions later, wear your underwear on the outside of your costume, and, most importantly, have an alter ego. Be it Bruce Wayne or Don Diego de la Vega, all masked crusaders were someone else when the sun is up. Far from being mere ciphers, these daylight guises were important in their own right, with their own ongoing relationships and story-lines. For all that, the alter ego is sadly unrepresented in action figure form, especially in the 6-inch scale.
Back in the dark days of 1974, Mego produced the Montgomery-Ward exclusive “Secret Identity” outfits for their 8-inch World’s Greatest Super Heroes line. Not figures per se, the “Secret Identity” sets were instead alternate clothing and heads for Mego’s Superman, Batman, Robin, and Spider-Man figures. (That’s Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and Peter Parker, respectively.)
As far as store exclusives go, these are pretty impressive, but the sets were only offered once and most young collectors (like me!) never even knew they existed. Interestingly enough, 40 years after they were first offered the DC characters are being reissued by Figures Toy Company. Hey, 3 out of 4 is pretty damn good, considering!
The next alter ego to be immortalized in plastic was Clark Kent in Kenner’s Super Powers line. The figure was only available through a mail-away offer, making it one of the tougher Super Powers characters to track down. It’s a great figure, but that lone Clark in a sea of spandex heroes does look a little odd. It wasn’t until Kenner’s 1992 Dark Knight Returns figure that we had a Bruce Wayne figure to stand beside him.
“Bruce-to-Batman” type conversion figures became something of a staple starting the early ’90s. It was an easy way for a company like Kenner to fill in gaps when a wave came up a figure short. As far as the collectors who waited patiently for a decent suited version of Bruce — well, they’re still waiting, all these years later. Sure, there were a few halfhearted movie efforts from Mattel and the crazy expensive Hot Toys version, but neither of those fit the bill.
Marvel’s characters fared a little better, thanks to the company’s close association with ToyBiz. (At one point, ToyBiz actually owned Marvel, buying the comics giant after it went bankrupt in 1996.) #1 son Spider-Man seemed to benefit the most, thanks to his high profile film debut in 2002. I don’t know if it’s the pop-bottle lens of his glasses or the fact we seem to have walked into this kid’s room at a bad time, but this picture gives me the willies.
Thwipp, tiger. While the movie version of J. Jonah Jameson makes an excellent placeholder until an official comic version comes along. this particular Parker is useless for general display. It looks nothing like the comic incarnation of our hero and the water-squirting gimmick in the arm gives the figure a strained, unnatural posture that makes it more suited to a Williams Burroughs custom than ol’ Web-head.
ToyBiz also released this version of Ultimate Spider-Man/Peter Parker. While not much to write home about in the articulation department, the use of rubber overlays, alternate arms and extra head makes this a fun toy nonetheless.
ToyBiz met 6-inch collectors at the halfway point with unmasked variants of many of Marvel’s most popular characters in the Face-Off 2-packs. And while it’s cool to have Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock sans masks, collectors still wait patiently for civilian versions of those characters.
It wasn’t just Earth-based heroes who had secret identities they needed to worry about. Eternian protector He-Man made the interesting choice to wear “non-masculine” clothing as Prince Adam, relying on a perception of fey ineffectiveness to conceal his (rather obvious) alter ego. If all it takes to fool the average Eternian is a pair of skin-tight lavender pants and a pair of rabbit-fur boots, then the entire planet will be powerless the next time Bootsy Collins comes to town.
This happy little fellow was actually two figures in one. Adam Power came packaged in his human form, but with the touch of a button he’d rotate 180 degrees at the waist, revealing Adam’s alter ego “the Power Lord.” It was an interesting gimmick but was just a little too weird for most kids. Given a choice, most kids would pick He-Man over this hellish inverse of Slim Goodbody any day of the week. Look closely — he’s got a thumb on either side of his hand. It’s downright ooky.
No discussion on this topic would be complete without a mention of the original alter ego figure: Ideal’s Captain Action. Originally debuting in 1966, the good Captain was really just a guy with a slammin’ cosplay closet, but it was the closest you could get to an unmasked Spider-Man back then. Granted, he looked nothing like Peter Parker, but that’s where your imagination comes in, hey? Like all good heroes, Captain Action has returned from the dead and is available at retail once more. Judging from those arms, he may want to work out a bit.
It becomes clear that, in spite their importance, a hero’s alter ego is viewed as little more than a gimmick to action figure manufacturers. The 6-inch scale collector has to content themselves with the occasional extra head, trying to kit-bash characters that by all rights should already exist. You’d think that, after squeezing out 300 Iron Man figures, Hasbro would take a shot at Tony Stark. He could be in a suit, he could be in a t-shirt — it doesn’t matter. Fans just want a Tony Stark figure. Same with Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Steve Rogers, and a dozen others. As long as it’s a decent representation of the character then fans will be happy, and happy fans keep the lights on.
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