Batman 1989 trading cards: first series (O-Pee-Chee)

Today we take a look back at one more piece of Batman 89 memorabilia: the ever-important Batman 1989 trading card set. Being a Canadian, I didn't have easy access to the Topps versions of these cards -- instead we had the O-Pee-Chee versions (which were more or less the same):

image source: mine

I have vivid memories of being obsessed with the Batman 1989 trading card set as an elementary school kid. This was the second trading card set that I'd ever obsessed over, following Topps/O-Pee-Chee's Wacky Packages. 1989's Batmania was a real thing, and it sent a lot of us kids into a frenzy trying to get our hands on anything Batman-related. To this effect, it was a lot easier to convince your parents to buy you a pack or two of Batman 1989 trading cards versus that Starlog magazine with Batman on the cover that was super-expensive by comparison.

Typically found in convenience stores at the check-out counter; these cards made for a quick impulse purchase when you had some spare change leftover from the comic books you were buying. They were actually pretty eye-catching -- yellow packs in a red box that doubled as a display stand really drew attention to the product.

(Note from Mark: I loved these too, and got the Topps version. I hated the gum. Not only did it taste like cardboard, it would get a dust film on the card it was touching. But man I loved these images. I feel like I was getting packs before the movie, so I knew a lot of the plot and images from them. I didn't mind.)

O-Pee-Chee Batman 1989 series 1 display case
image source: ebay.ca

wax packs came in two different designs
image source: ebay.ca

A pack of Batman 1989 series 1 cards cost 35 cents and contained several trading cards, a 'puzzle card' and a stick of gum. Topps had their own Batman 1989 series 1 cards, and the major difference between the two was that the Topps version had 'sticker cards' and the O-Pee-Chee version had 'puzzle cards'. We'll talk about those in a minute.

These cards were pretty low-quality, to be honest. How do you think they were able to afford to sell them for 35 cents a pack? Cheap card stock with a matte finish on the card front and a pulpy texture on the card back. Sometimes the cards would come stuck together or the stick of rock hard gum would stain the cards.  

(Note from Mark: I liked the heavy card stock. I was collecting basketball and baseball cards, and I liked how much tougher these were.)

The entire O-Pee-Chee Batman 1989 series 1 trading card set consisted of 154 cards -- the last 22 cards (#133 - 154) being puzzle cards. The first 132 cards (minus the first card shown in our opener) were movie stills from the film:

front of card #28
image source: mine

The back of the cards had yellow backgrounds and usually contained a description of the scene taking place. I'm a little surprised that these weren't bilingual since O-Pee-Chee printed from Canada and all the packaging for these card was in English and French. Probably for the best, however, since the font would have to be a lot smaller to hold both the English and French versions of the same text on the back of the card.

back of card #28
image source: mine

While getting a trading card set consisting of nothing but movie stills might be considered kind of dull today, this was very exciting back in 1989 when the internet didn't exist and you pretty much had to rely on your memory, movie clips from Entertainment Tonight or Batman 1989 memorabilia magazines to look at scenes from the film.

Any cards with pictures of the Batwing were prized among my friends and I: 

image source: mine

As were the action scenes:

image sources: mine

Or the particularly gruesome scenes:

image sources: mine

Hey look, it's Billy Dee Williams:

image source: mine

I don't think I owned this specific trading card as a kid, but if I did I would've had to have kept it hidden from my parents: 

Joker's bloody mouth
image source: mine 

(Mark: I did own this card and hid it. But I think it was because it was gross and I didn't want Joker to lose.)

Similar to the Topps set, the O-Pee-Chee set included 22 puzzle cards which were necessary to complete both 10-card puzzles (2 puzzle cards revealed the completed puzzle for anyone who wasn't sure what they were striving to complete). As previously mentioned, Topps puzzle cards were actually stickers with a puzzle piece on the back of the card, whereas O-Pee-Chee were not stickers. [I'm not sure if this was by design or a cost-saving measure on O-Pee-Chee's behalf, but after discovering this I felt a little cheated.]

Here's a few card fronts of the O-Pee-Chee puzzle cards to give you an idea of what they looked like:

Joker and his thugs puzzle card
image source: mine

oooh... a Batwing puzzle card. This would've been high-value among my friends and I.
image source: mine

For comparison, here's an O-Pee-Chee puzzle card and it's counterpart Topps puzzle card (which was actually a sticker):

O-Pee-Chee puzzle card
image source: mine

Topps puzzle card
image source: ebay.ca

Astute observers will notice that the Topps sticker card has a different numbering system and has a 'PEEL' indicator in the top right corner. [The Topps card appears to be a brighter shade of red, but that's just my camera. Sorry about that.]

As kids, collecting the entire 154-card set seemed pretty unfeasible (especially since these things were flying off the shelves -- seriously, I rarely ever saw these since they sold out so quickly), but completing a 10-card puzzle? That was doable. So, for this reason, the puzzle cards were the 'chase cards' of the set, especially since they were limited to 1 per pack.

Because I know you're dying of curiosity, here's what the completed puzzles looked like:

completed 10-card 'yellow border' puzzle
image source: mine

completed 10-card 'red border' puzzle
image source: mine

Topps also released a deluxe factory-sealed Batman 1989 series 1 set that also included 11 bonus storyboard cards. As far as I can tell, these boxes weren't numbered so I really don't know how many were produced. Since these factory sealed sets were exclusive to Topps and never made it to Canada, I don't really know much about them or if the 11 bonus cards formed an additional 10-card puzzle. Here's a few pics of the sealed box if you're curious:

image source: ebay.ca

image source: ebay.ca

image source: ebay.ca

The factory set also included an insert advertising a second series of Batman 1989 trading card set that were also available as a factory-sealed set: 

image source: mine

Much like Topps, O-Pee-Chee released a second series of Batman 89 trading cards that added another 154 cards to the set and picked up the numbering where series one left off (consisting of cards #155 - 308). I had way more luck collecting the second series since a lot of my friends got 'burned out' after the first series and moved on to collecting something else.

If you want to know more about Topps, you can read our informal history of Topps non-sports trading cards from the mid seventies to the early nineties article I write years and years ago. 

Hope you enjoyed the article. If you have any comments/anecdotes you want to share, feel free to chime in below.

-Justin

1989 Toy Biz DC Comics Super Heroes - p2

Welcome to the second part of our look back at Toy Biz' 1989 DC Comics Super Heroes action figures. In part one we took a look at all seven DC superheroes in the toyline. Today, we'll be looking at the supervillains (which was 80% Bat-villains) and any accessories, as well as hoping to answer that ever-important question "Why was this toyline so short-lived?".  

Before we continue, here is the only print advertising for the Toy Biz DC Comics Super Heroes action figures that I was able to find:

Toy Biz Robin appears in a scan from a 1990 JCPenny catalog!

Alrighty. Moving on with the super villains in the Toy Biz DC Comics Super Heroes set (circa 1989/1990):

1) Mr. Freeze

image source: ebay.com

I only owned several Toy Biz DC action figures when I was growing up, and this was one of them. I loved Mr Freeze! Not sure if I got him in a trade with a friend or if it was a gift from a relative, but I got a lot of use out of this guy. I was already familiar him (probably from The New Adventures of Batman cartoon) before I owned him, so that made him that much more desirable. An ice-themed character meant I could pretend to freeze his enemies into place or other cold-weather hijinks. My favorite thing about Mr Freeze was that if he dropped below a certain temperature his head and limbs turned blue. While I don't remember playing with him outside during our Canadian winters, he did spend a lot of time in my freezer. 

Toy Biz Mr Freeze before (left) and after (right) spending 30 minutes in my freezer. This photo isn't doing it justice, but I assure you his head and white arm & legs are slightly more blue than when I stuck him in. Image source: mine

As a kid I always wondered why Mr Freeze had such a close resemblance to Lex Luthor in his Power Suit (see: Super Powers Collection Lex Luthor), not realizing that Mr Freeze was actually included in 1986's third wave of Super Powers Collection figures. While both looked similar and included a removable clear plastic dome for his head, the big difference between the Kenner Mr Freeze and Toy Biz Mr Freeze was that the Kenner version had a power action and additional tubes from his calves to his torso, meanwhile Toy Biz Mr Freeze merely turned blue when he dropped below a certain temperature and didn't have any tubes attached to him (despite what the photo on the back of the card would lead you to believe). There was also a Toy Biz Mr Freeze variant where he had an orange helmet instead of a clear helmet -- which feels as trivial as 'completely green-armed' Aquaman.

Kenner's Super Powers Collection Mr Freeze
image source: ebay.com

2) The Penguin

image source: ebay.com

Ah, the Penguin. One of the few Super Powers Collection wave one villains that I didn't own -- so yeah, of course I wanted this guy. Actually, the Penguin is one of those characters I never managed to get my hands on even though the (almost) exact figure was released three times throughout my childhood: the 1984 Kenner version, this 1989 Toy Biz version, and the 1992 Batman Returns version (also from Kenner). This was a shame, because Penguin was one of my favorite Bat-villains. I recently managed to finally pick up a loose Toy Biz version... and the vendor generously included his spring-loaded umbrella-weapon accessory:

Note the long tip at the top of the umbrella.
Image source: mine

What's unique about this version of Mr. Cobblepot is that Toy Biz released three different versions packaged with different variants of the umbrella weapon: an umbrella that shot a 3/4" missile, an umbrella that shot a 1 1/2" missile, and an umbrella that simply shot off it's umbrella top. Wizard Magazine reported that the 3/4" missile variant was the scarcer one in the early 90s, so at the time that was the one selling at the highest value.

Whereas the umbrellas that fired missiles were three pieces, the umbrella that fired it's umbrella top was only two. Image source: ebay.com

Additionally, some versions of Penguin also had 'coat tails' you clipped onto the back of him. There's literally no indication on the packaging which version is which, so you really had to know what you were looking for when examining these on the shelf. This was problematic if you were a "gotta catch 'em all" type of toy collector. 

Toy Biz Penguin on the left was the 'no tails' variant, Toy Biz Penguin on the right had two holes to clip his coat tails in.
image source: mine

3) Riddler

image source: ebay.com

The Riddler! He was a brand-new never-made-before Super Powers Collection-scaled figure and I wanted him soooo badly. Several months before actually owning him I'd dream up all sorts of scenarios in which he could be thwarting my favorite DC heroes. I wasn't worried about NOT getting one since he was one of the last Toy Biz figures left on my favorite toy store's shelves -- I mean they had piles of him and nothing else. I finally did get him... it was a gift from my older sister (probably an early birthday present or something) and man was he ever lackluster. He really is a case of 'what you see is what you get'; he didn't do anything special (no buttons, switches, cranks or squirting effects) and his weapon was a piece of paper with a dad joke written on it. He became more of a threat to Batman and the Justice League once I figured out how to wedge a sub-machine gun from one of my G.I. Joes into his right hand. 

I appreciate that they went with his silver-age look (aka: one-piece lime green body leotard with question marks printed on it), as this was the version I was most familiar with after growing up on episodes of Challenge of the Superfriends throughout my youth. If nothing else, this quashed my desire to pick up the Batman The Animated Series and Batman Forever Riddler action figures (both by Kenner).

Alex Toth drew this.
Image source: pinterest.co.uk

It's been speculated that the Riddler is actually a repainted Super Powers Collection Flash torso and legs with a new head and arms. Can you see it? 

Super Powers Collection Flash (right) and Toy Biz Riddler (left)
image source: me

4) Lex Luthor

image source: ebay.com

While Toy Biz decided to go heavy on Bat-villains in the first wave of the DC Comics Super Heroes toyline (since the Batman 89 movie was the driving hype), they mercifully decided to let Superman have at least one villain... and so we got 'Business Suit' Lex Luthor.

'Business Suit' Lex, a far cry from 'Battle Suit' Lex Luthor, is inspired by the business tycoon Lex Luthor we were introduced to in the pages of John Byrne's Man of Steel mini-series from 1986. He's bald, he wears a suit, he's got a kryptonite ring on his left hand, he comes with a briefcase (to carry photos he's going to blackmail someone with) and a handgun to shoot any witnesses. Even though both of my Kenner and Toy Biz Lex Luthors were thrown/given/donated away by an overzealous family member while I was in college, I still managed to keep Toy Biz Lex's briefcase and handgun all this time. It was only recently I was able to re-acquire a Toy Biz Lex in pretty great shape:

It was a little difficult to play up Luthor as a sinister, criminal mastermind with that absurd derpy look on his face. No wonder he punched himself in the head. image source: mine

"Fool! Lex Luthor partners with NO ONE!"
image source: mine

As you can see on the back of Lex, he had a small black switch that, when pressed, caused his left hand to punch himself in the head -- which was about as useful as Mattel's MOTU Two-Bad action figure  who's spring-loaded arms were only able to punch his conjoined twin in the side of the head. Truth be told, since I already had Super Powers Lex Luthor (who looked ready to throw down against Superman or any other Justice Leaguer) he got a lot more play than 'sitting behind a desk deciding which commodities to buy' Luthor. Also, Toy Biz Luthor was significantly taller standing next to Kenner Luthor.

The Geek Summit blog reported on a black-suited Toy Biz Lex Luthor without a button in the back, which they are pretty certain was the prototype for Lex:  

actual vs prototype Toy Biz Lex Luthor?
image source: http://thegeeksummit.blogspot.com/

5) Two-Face

image source: ebay.com

I only learned about this fig sometime in the late 90s. He was part of the that infamous second wave of DC Comics Super Heroes figures (which also included Hawkman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and two different versions of the Flash) they never showed up in my toy store. [I lived in a small town in Canada, by the way.] Had he been available to me, I would've done everything in my power to convince a family member to buy him for me since this was a NEW character to add to my Super Powers toy collection. At the time, I was very into Batman and his Bat-villains, so a Two-Face figure would've seen a lot of use in my collection. I remember looking very hard at the Kenner Batman Forever Two-Face fig and making a hard pass. The Batman The Animated Series Two-Face action figure (also by Kenner) was a contender, but for reasons I cannot recall I did not end up purchasing him.  

image source: ebay.com

Two-Face's only accessory was a giant coin. Having never seen this action figure in action, I'm assuming you cranked that button on his left side to make him flip him coin. As mentioned, I was a pretty big fan of Two-Face thanks to Doug Moench's run on Batman:

Batman #397 (1986) cover illustrated by Tom Mandrake

It's only as I write this that I'm realizing that Toy Biz got Two-Face's suit colors inversed -- purple should be on his 'ugly' side, not his 'handsome' side. Doesn't matter, I still want this guy. 

A few accessories were available for this toy set, namely this carrying case (which held 12 figures)...

This case will hold 12 of your 15 Toy Biz DC action figures.
image source: ebay.com

...and all of the vehicles we reviewed in our Toy Biz Batman article. Which isn't so bad, really. All the Bat-villains can pile up in the Joker Van and hit the town.

In retrospect, I'm not surprised that Toy Biz decided to push the 'Batman agenda' and stuck mainly to Bat-villains since Batman's popularity was at an all-time high. To wit, Brainiac was the only villain from the first wave of the Super Powers Collection that wasn't included. More new supervillains would've been welcomed (ex: Ocean Master, Black Manta, Sinestro, Trickster, Captain Cold), but I guess Toy Biz was waiting for the third wave before they started rolling them out...  

...but we never saw a third wave of Toy Biz DC Comics Super Heroes action figures because DC license had reverted back to Kenner by 1990. Why? Rumor has it that DC was so disappointed in the quality of the DC Toy Biz figs that they pulled the licensing away. I actually have no firm proof of this, so this is all hearsay. 

Is it plausible? Well, in 1989, Toy Biz was just entering the action figure business and some of their DC figures were -- admittedly -- of mediocre quality and design (I'm looking at you 'squirting' Green Lantern, Aquaman and 'wind-up' Flash), especially in such a competitive action figure market.

That's alright, though, since Toy Biz would go on to greater things when they picked up the Marvel Comics license in 1990. Few remember the first wave of Marvel Toy Biz figures (probably because they flew off the shelves)...

The Toy Biz Marvel figures still had gimmicks, such as Punisher's ability to fire caps.
Image source: ebay.com

Already, you begin to notice improvements in design and detail with Toy Biz's Marvel action figs. image source: ebay.com

...but nobody reading and collecting comics in the early 90s can forget Toy Biz's 1991 X-Men action figures (actually part of Toy Biz's second wave of Marvel figs), which became a big hit among X-Men fans and anyone who liked Wolverine in general.

House ad for X-Men Toy Biz figs in the back of a Marvel comic. Now THIS is how you advertise a toyline aimed at comic readers.

Thankfully, Toy Biz's first few series of Marvel action figures managed to stay in-scale with their Toy Biz DC figures (if only slightly taller), which meant that Toy Biz's Marvel figs could also play more-or-less in scale with your Kenner Super Power Collection, too. This was great news if you ever wanted to see the X-Men slug it out with the Justice League.

Toy Biz Magneto (without helmet) stands next to Toy Biz Superman and Toy Biz Lex Luthor. By series 2, Toy Biz's Marvel figs started to get extra articulation in their arms. Lucky ducks.
image source: mine 

Well, since this is a DC comics blog and NOT a toy blog I'd better wrap it up here. While the history of Toy Biz and what happened to them throughout the late 90s and early 00s is pretty interesting, I'll leave you to research that one on your own.

-Justin