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Saturday, June 20, 2020

Kenner Super Powers Samurai

Card design by http://polymerphelia.blogspot.com/
LORD OF THE WINDS

Seeking to create more super-heroes to help in the defense of New Genesis from the forces of Apokolips and Darkseid, the New Gods chose History Professor Toshio Eto. Bathed in a strange beam of light, Eto was granted the ability to manipulate wind.

By saying "Kaze no Yō ni Hayaku!" (Translation: Swift As The Wind!), he can fly by creating a small tornado around his lower body and can conjure powerful gusts from his hands that can knock back even large objects. Using his new found powers and wielding a blade of energy, Eto now fights against the forces of evil as the super hero, Samurai!

In addition to controlling wind, Samurai can also call upon other abilities, invoking them by speaking a phrase in Japanese: turn invisible (Tōmei Ningen, "Transparent Man"), burst into flames (Igo Moen, "Great Flame Go"), or create illusions (Hi ga Moe, which is just gibberish, so no translation).


The third and final wave in the Super Powers Collection was released in 1986 and among the ten figures released was Samurai, a super-hero who originally appeared on the Superfriends cartoon! Samurai comes with a green cloth tunic and a yellow plastic sword, Squeezing his arms together activates his power action "gale-force spin" causing his lower body to spin around like a tornado!

Samurai wasn't a character in the comics, he was a Japanese superhero created by Hanna-Barbera specifically for the Super Friends animated television series. The character was one of the later additions to the team along with other ethnically diverse heroes (Black Vulcan, Apache Chief, and El Dorado) created in an effort to promote cultural diversity. He was portrayed by voice actor Jack Angel.

Samurai made his first comic appearance in the third DC Comics Super Powers tie-in comic series, where his secret identity and origin were first revealed, written by none other than the great Carmine Infantino.

Now lets take closer look at the figure:

And 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 Samurai!


How about today's adventure with Samurai? What other Super Powers figures do you wish Kenner had made? Lets hear from you in the comments section below!

4 comments:

  1. Always liked this character, especially on the cartoon.

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    1. If the line had continued we would have seen more Superfriends characters like Black Vulcan and El Dorado!

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  2. I don't think I ever saw this one in a store, which is why I was so excited to get him the Christmas he came out. The sword broke easily, but the figure was easy to take care of. Apache Chief was the character I would have liked a figure of most, but I imagine he would have had to come in small and large sizes to work.

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

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