Superman 1964

We are back to the first kit I ever owned.  Today, he is one of the four most recognizable super-heroes in the world.  Aurora made the other three, also.  Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Wonder Woman.  The original box is a painting of Superman, which somewhat resembles George Reeves.  Sources say the painting was by Paul Madsen.  The box art was later changed to comic style art as the line expanded and Aurora wanted a uniform look.

The kit was re-issued in the mid-70's as part of the Comic Scene line.  The idea behind the Comic Scene was pretty cool for the time.  There was an 8 page instruction sheet/comic book included in the kit.  I show the cover from the comic below.  The first couple of pages are the assembly instructions then you have a 5 page story.  One of the story pages is a full page spread and has everything in the panel except the character.  You put the comic page behind your completed model kit and you have an instant 3-D display.

I feel I am obligated to mention that MPC re-issued the kit in 1984.  They did it under the title of Super Powers.  They wanted a "friendlier" face on our hero, so they re-tooled the face to make it about twice as wide.  I call this one Big Head Superman.  I am showing the box, but I do not have a copy of the kit.  I really don't like that head at all.  Every issue of the kit since 1984 also has the bigger head.  If you want one that has the original head sculpt, you are going to have to get a kit from before it was re-tooled.  OR, you can get a newer re-issue and follow the information super highway over to Thunderboy to get a head.  Chuck has lots of other cool stuff you might also want.  http://www.hroch.us/thunderboy.html  You will not be sorry you visited.

If you are going to make a model kit of a comic book hero, where better the advertise it than in a comic book?  

Original box:

George Reeves:

Second issue box:

Comic Scene Box:

Front page of the Comic included:

Super Powers box:

My Superman is a Comic Scene version but I did not rip the comic up to pose with it!  One of the things I really liked about most of the Aurora figure kits was this.  You could play with the bases to make a more interesting display.  I was actually sitting at a Wendy's drive thru waiting my turn and I noticed the three color brick work.  The next day I painted the bricks on this wall to match the shades on the side of the restaurant.

Current goings on

Recently I have been working on getting back to running some Dungeons and Dragons.  I am really excited about the way Paizo is doing things with Pathfinder.  The writing is phenomenal and the art is great.  The NPCs have dimension instead of just being a group of random stats with a a randomized name and class.  I am starting where they started, with Hollow's Last Hope.  I am currently painting miniatures to cover every encounter in the adventure.  I am also working on the next adventure, Crown of the Kobold King.  Here is a shot of a few of the miniatures.