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Saturday, June 20, 2020

Kenner Super Powers Cyclotron

Card design by http://polymerphelia.blogspot.com/
THE COMPUTERIZED CRIMEFIGHTER

Cyclotron was an android built by Superman. He was then programmed with the knowledge of all the powers and weaknesses of every superhero and supervillain in order to be the Justice League's tactician.

He was created in the hopes that he would be able to anticipate the next moves a villain would make based on their prior tendencies. He could also recognize heroes unfamiliar to the rest of the League. However, Cyclotron was capable of little independent thought.

The android also has the ability to disguise himself as a human. For some reason he also has the secret identity of Alex LeWitt!? Although he had only limited physical abilities, he could rotate his torso to deliver a powerful "Cyclo-Spin."


Cyclotron is dressed like a biker in green and yellow leathers, showing off his man boobs! He features a removable face plate (with cool red shades over his eyes!) disguising his true robotic nature. Wind him up by rotating his upper torso to the left and squeeze his legs to activate his "Cyclo-Spin" punch!

"Who is this guy?" we all wondered... No one had ever heard of him! Well, there is a reason for that. See, Cyclotron was created by Kenner specifically for the Super Powers Collection and had never appeared in any comics or cartoons before. This, perhaps, among other reasons could explain why the line petered out and was canceled, dooming any chances of a 4th wave. I have no idea who came up with him -- some toy executive looking to fill out the line without having to fork out any royalties, I suppose.

Another robot? Capable of little, if any, independent thought? Oh good grief! To me, that means he could be taken over by a foe with superior will and intellect... like Brainiac, for instance, and turned against the heroes! Lame, lame, lame! Or perhaps more accurately, Kenner, shame, shame, shame!

Cyclotron (not to be confused with an earlier obscure, unrelated golden age character) only made one comics appearance, shoehorned into the third Super Powers comic tie-in from 1986!

As he wasn't based on any existing characters and not being that popular, Cyclotron figures aren't that hard to find and can be had for pretty reasonable prices as well, even carded. Many loose examples are missing the removable faceplate, however.

The figure doesn't look all that bad though... Lets take a closer look:

The Packaging:
Card Front Card Back

Finally, here is a printable bio-card replacement! Just print these two images out on card stock and cut them out and glue them together to make your own replacement bio-card for Cyclotron!


Time to hear from you! What are your thoughts on today's adventure? Did Kenner make a terrible mistake by making Cyclotron instead of licensing another more popular DC property? Please leave a comment in the section below.

5 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. He is a nice figure and clean with working action. I got him along with Samurai.

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  2. The only Series 3 Super Powers figure I've ever come across at a yard sale/flea market. And twice over the years. Both times missing the face/chest plate.

    His design actual fit well with the aesthetics of DC at the time or at least SUPER POWERS. Character wise he's like a less capable Red Tornado.

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    Replies
    1. I will say this, whoever designed him was obviously channeling Jack Kirby.

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  3. hahaha I designed those trading cards... a little credit please wink wink nudge nudge.

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Thank you for taking the time to leave your thoughts on this adventure.

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