Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Mike Power - Atomic Man




In"Mr. Potatohead vs G.I. Joe" in the last post, there is a reference to Mike Power, Atomic Man. I thought that for you young'ns out there, I'd provide a little footnote.

When I was a kid, the best toy was G.I. Joe, not those sissy 4" G.I Joes, but the manly 12" version with flocked hair, the scar on the chek and with, or without kung-fu grip. You don't believe me? Check out this site for all the evidence you need.

Towards the end of G.I. Joe's run as the dominant boy's toy, Hasbro noticed the tremendous success of a tv show called "The Six Million Dollar Man" as well as it's licensed toys. To cash in on this success, hasbro introduced it's own bionic man, in this case it was Mike Power, who had a blinking atomic eye, transparent atomic arm (with a rotating wrist which powered a hand held helicopter rotor blade), and a transparent atomic leg. As many have pointed out, myself included, having one superpowered atomic leg makes little sense when your other, normal, leg is not going to be capable of running 65 MPH, or leap tall buildings, etc.

I still though he was really cool.

Mike Power would soon be joined by superheroic Bullet Man, the human bullet, but more on that another time.

4 comments:

Patrick said...

Hi John- Found my way to your blog via Rob Scott and his monster art blog. I am also a horror fanatic, and love to draw monsters. I really enjoyed looking at the cool work you have posted here, your collages are very impressive, and I love the incredible variety of classic cartoon characters you choose to depict. You picked some of my altime favorites and some that I had forgotten about until I saw them again here. Hope all is well with your writing ventures, maybe I will bump into you at the San Diego Comic Con? Keep up the great work!!!

khaleroo said...

atomic man was my favourite toy too. god bless you.
;)

Studio 126 said...

With one bionic leg, I bet he could run in a circle faster than anyone else... :-P

George said...

I have an Atomic Man for sale if any interest. I have a Mike Powers karate chopper also.