To me, McFarlane’s DC Super Powers revival continues to be one of the coolest things in toys introduced last year. I’d go so far as to say this series is near perfect, or would be if it weren’t for the occasional exclusive that seems to be impossible to find anywhere at reasonable prices. Yeah, Black Manta and Reverse Flash are on the top of that list. Because why make them obtainable, right? But, as I get older I’ve learned to let things go and not obsess over a figure missed here and there. Beyond that, I’m loving this line so much and today I’m rolling out another reason why… Brainiac and his High-Tech Space Craft, The Skull Ship!

Here are the figure and vehicle in their packages and the presentation is still as gorgeous as ever! You get the bright blue and yellow deco with red stripes and the Super Powers logo with exploding stars that evokes the Kenner line and milks that nostalgia for all it’s worth. This is retro-style packaging done right! Well, almost… the cards and bubbles used for the figures are not collector friendly, so I’ll have to tear Brainiac out of there. Fortunately, most of the vehicles can be returned to their packaging, and I’ll definitely be keeping all of those boxes. Ironically, if it weren’t for the vehicles, I probably would have been collecting this line mint-on-card, but because we’ve had so many fun vehicles, I’ve gotta open them up and play with them! Let’s start with Brainiac…

Kenner’s Brainiac was all chromed out and undeniably cool, but here we’re getting something more akin to his original appearance in Challenge of the Superfriends before he got the metal makeover. And I’m not complaining, as this is indeed my preferred version of Brainiac. The colors aren’t an exact match, but I really dig what we got here: Green skin, pink shirt with preppie collar, white belt, boots, and arm bracers, and black undies. The sculpt is fairly simple and lets the vibrant colors do the talking, but you do get some nice attention to detail on the belt, the portrait is excellent, and he has his neural network sculpted onto the top of his head. This figure looks great!

Brainiac has the standard articulation for the line, which includes your basic 5-POA plus hinges in the knees. The feet have peg holes and these figures work really well with any Kenner Star Wars compatible stands you may have lying around to help with running or action poses. The Kenner action gimmick where you squeeze the legs or arms to throw punches or kicks has not been brought over to this new line, and that’s fine by me as it probably helps to keep costs down. There are no accessories included, which I think is this line’s only real drawback, but Brainiac has both hands balled up into fists, so he couldn’t hold anything anyway.

The Skull Ship is a thing of ridiculous beauty and really captures the somewhat goofy concepts of the Kenner line’s vehicles. There is a little assembly required here, as each of the tentacles have to be snapped on, and each one is designated for a specific location. This version of the Skull Ship takes the much, MUCH larger and rather iconic design from the cartoon and shrinks it down into a more manageable and toyetic one-man ride. More like a Skull Shuttle, or a Skull Mini-Rig, to keep the Kenner analogy going. The bulk of the toy is cast in some very nice glossy silver plastic representing a giant robot skull octopus, with the cabin cast in a white plastic frame all set on a purple base. The side panels are kitted out with some beautiful light blue translucent plastic with a sculpted hexagonal pattern making it look like some kind of energy forcefield. Under the right light, it actually looks like these are lit up! The black eyes have two horizontal red slits, which I would presume are capable of firing laser blasts. I also really dig the exhaust pipes that flank the mouth grill and also sweep around to the back of the little ship.

While it’s supposed to be a space ship, the toy is designed to roll along the ground, which causes its chubby, segmented tentacles to wiggle back and forth. It’s a simple action gimmick that manages to look both silly and creepy at the same time! The control panel is represented by a colorful and nicely detailed pre-applied sticker.

There is a peg inside the cockpit to secure Brainiac, so this is something that he flies around while standing, despite the art on the side of the box showing a silhouette of a figure sitting inside. He looks really cool manning the controls, although he does need to bend down a bit to reach them, so it’s a good thing he has those knee hinges. And if he gets tired he can rest his butt against the back rim of the vehicle like a seat. I’ll confess, this thing would look pretty silly creeping across the ground, but whooshing it around the room firing pretend lasers at Superman has me feeling like a kid again!

Just seeing this figure and vehicle together puts a huge smile on my face! I seem to recall that a Skull Ship was originally planned to be released in the Kenner Super Powers line, but it never happened, so this is an extra special release for me. And just like nearly all of the vehicles released in this line, I think McFarlane’s version captures every bit of the spirit of that vintage Kenner goodness. It’s much smaller and simpler than Blue Beetle’s Bug Ship, but I like that we’re getting a couple different size classes in this line as well. It looks like the next vehicles will be black repaints of the Whirly-Bat and Bat Wing, but I’m really hoping to see a release of Lex Luthor and the the Lex-Soar 7!