This Unlicensed DC Comics Figure is the Strangest Crossover GI Joe’s Ever Had

For a toy company, partnering with an international distributor is a major act of trust, especially in the pre-internet era. It meant signing over not only the molds, art, and designs for your property, but its brand identity. As much as Hasbro or Kenner was trusting a partner distributor to faithfully reproduce their existing products, they were also trusting them not to go off-script and manufacture new products using the brand name. Famously, Kenner’s South American distribution partner would create the rarest item in Kenner’s Super Powers with their unauthorized addition of a new Riddler figure. Much stranger was the artistic license taken by the designers at Funskool, an Indian toy company who, beginning in 1988, were Hasbro’s Indian partner brand. Their G.I. Joe line is famed among collectors for spawning bizarre, creative new characters with existing G.I. Joe parts and molds, including “Canary Ann” and “Cross Country.” But the strangest new character was far from original: in early nineties India, Superman joined the ranks of G.I. Joe. 

Sold by Funskool as “Superhero,” this figure is without a doubt one of the oddest, most brazen pieces of bootleg merchandise ever made. The utter strangeness of it, an unofficial G.I. Joe Superman, has made it a kind of “cult classic” in G.I. Joe collector circles. Fans are fascinated by the fact that the figure even exists, and its quasi-mythical status is enhanced by the limited information surrounding its production and distribution. Even dedicated historians of the toyline aren’t sure when exactly the figure came to market, nor how many were made, nor how long it was available. What’s most surprising is that there’s no record of DC Comics suing Funskool or having the figure taken off shelves. It flew completely under the radar for years, virtually unknown to even hardcore G.I. Joe fans until the burgeoning global online collecting community in the early 2000s discovered “Superhero” and the other Funskool-original characters. Now, a mint-on-card “Superhero” can sell for over $5k, as with this sample on eBay.

The Surprising History of New Characters in Funskool’s G.I. Joe Line

“Superhero” is constructed with parts from three other G.I. Joe figures: he reuses Flash’s head, the waist from Zandar, and the wetsuited body of Torpedo. Torpedo’s body lends Superhero a Superman-appropriate textureless torso and arms, resembling the texture of his costume – although it comes with a major trade-off, as Torpedo’s legs (and therefore Superhero’s) have supply pouches sculpted onto one leg, and a sheathed knife sculpted onto the other. As the figure’s very existence is “off-model” for G.I. Joe, it’s dubious that Funskool’s design team was especially concerned about these elements not really feeling appropriate to Superman. Also odd is the decision to give Superhero red gloves, rather than the bare hands seen in virtually every other depiction of Superman’s costume. Unfortunately, Superhero’s packaging is without the usual G.I. Joe file card, making his backstory and place within the team a mystery. 

One of the (many) reasons G.I. Joe fans are so fascinated by Superhero is that the sculpt is an amalgam of several other existing figures, making him feel more unique. Many of Funskool’s other original characters were simple repaints of existing figures, as with the aforementioned Canary Ann or Cross Country; even when a Funskool-issue G.I. Joe kept the name of its U.S. counterpart, they were usually repainted. The amalgam characters are, by their nature, some of the more elaborate and odd redesigns, like “Supercop,” who uses pieces from Sergeant Slaughter, General Hawk, and Iceberg. Supercop is without a file card, though his cardback does ominously state that once Supercop finds a criminal “nobody can save them.” New character Skydiver, who was packaged with a plastic-and-string parachute, is given a full write-up, which explains that he is “commander of the newly inducted paratrooper regiment of Joes,” noted for making landings with “just one machine gun and often alone even at Cobra headquarters. He has always come out victorious.” It’s difficult to imagine a kid who wouldn’t want to play with Skydiver after reading that description. 

Although Superhero is the stand-out to modern G.I. Joe collectors, the fan favorite at the time of release was “Street-Hawk.” As a frame of reference, Street-Hawk has been likened by Indian fans who remember growing up on the line as the “Snake-Eyes” breakout character, who was reissued several times with different costumes and accessories (all reused from pre-existing Hasbro molds) throughout the line’s lifetime. Originally issued alongside his motorcycle as “The Man, the Machine … Street Hawk,” the first version of Street-Hawk was made predominantly of parts from Snake-Eyes. The second and third-issue versions used parts from the Cobra T.A.R.G.A.T. figure and G.I. Joe member Spearhead. Street-Hawk is also without a backstory, but is seemingly inspired by a short-lived television series of the same name, making him a “tribute” character – albeit less obvious than – similar to Superhero.

Why Collectors Can’t Get Enough of Unauthorized Action Figures  

Today, it feels like every major pop culture property is micro-managed, and every piece of merchandise that makes it to market is the result of years of approvals, redesigns, and tweaks. Lines like Funskool’s G.I. Joe represent a time before there was that level of oversight, and the results are sometimes hilarious, as with Superhero, and sometimes awesome, as with surprise fan-favorite Street-Hawk. In licensed toylines like the Super Powers Riddler, it can even represent an all-new character in a line full of pre-existing favorites. Either way, to a hardcore fan, it means that they have the thrill back of discovering an item they didn’t know existed in a toyline they though they already knew everything about. Better yet, it could also mean that they had a new, hard-to-find item to chase. 

Funskool’s Superhero is even stranger than most. Not only is it an all-new figure in a beloved toyline with legions of dedicated fans and collectors, it’s a figure based on one of the most iconic characters of all time. More than is even normal for an unauthorized toy, the very fact that this figure exists is noteworthy. It’s certainly unlikely to ever be made again. Loose, that translate to a pricetag of hundreds for a Superhero figure, and in-package, a seller can virtually name their price. Samples come up for sale so rarely that it’s difficult to properly gage what one is worth. The value is fuctionally whatever a collector is willing to pay, meaning that if the carded “Superhero” on eBay now sells at its $5k asking price, that will be the new going rate to own what is certainly the strangest figure in G.I. Joe’s more than sixty-year history.

Heritage Set To Auction Some of the Highest-Grade Samples in Existence of the First Ever 3.75″ Super-Hero Action Figures