Kenner seemed to really want to promote Superman for
1988, it being his 50th anniversary and all. He was getting
a major
relaunch in the comics, and much media attention,
not to mention a 4th feature film, a television special,
and a new cartoon series! So Kenner had to figure out
how they wanted to celebrate the Man of Steel themselves-
a task they apparently went about by showing how many
variants they could come up with. Outside of the Gold
Anniversary Superman, and the Power Plus variants, these
two were proposed for the standard line. We have no way
of knowing of either or both were planned, or if only
just one of all the variations would end up being produced.
In any case, there are some neat ideas here. My vote would
be on the Robot Superman, personally, although I do dig
the movie faithful Kryptonite one, with a lead case too,
even though it looks like he's got some Elvis thing going
on with his lip there. It looks like the Robot Superman
would be yet another metallic figure.
One thing you can give Kenner credit for, is that unlike
later variants these two are both actual variations seen
in the comics or the movies. For many years, Superman
kept a series of robot duplicates of himself to act as
"manservants" in the Fortress of solitude or
to help out in emergencies while he was busy. Ironically,
the robots were immune to Kryptonite, while variant #2
is dead by now. Where is Miss Teschmacher when you need
her?
Robot Superman custom by Jason
Geyer.
