Kenner released Super Powers action figures from 1984-1986. While the line was cancelled in 1986, groundwork had already been laid to extend the toy line into the future. In fact, several figures were completely sculpted and made it to the unpainted hardcopy stage or slightly farther. Rocket Man represents one of those characters where the three-dimensional prototype was finished and ready to use for tooling. As of 2017, the unpainted hardcopy shown above, missing only the head, represents the second most complete Rocket Man prototype example I'm aware of. While only a single 100% complete hardcopy example has surfaced, another less complete example along with some extra parts have also shown up.
Based on existing internal advertising strategy paperwork, it appears Rocket Man was slated for heavy promotion within the 4th series assortment amongst the unproduced Power Plus line-up. The backpack size and accompanying removable panel suggest a AAA battery may have been intended to drive Rocket Man's power action feature.
The hardcopy is cast in a green colored urethane, known as dynacast, that was popular for making hardcopies during this time period. The head, arms, and thighs affix to the torso via small steel dowels making each piece removable. Similarly, steel dowel attach the lower leg components to the thigh. A silicone mold for each component was made from the original sculpting and used to hand cast each urethane piece.
Rocket Man was slated to be joined by a number of other characters as part of the unproduced 4th series wave. Additional new characters that made it to the hardcopy stage included: El Dorado, Shockwave, Silicon, Quadrex, and Manbat. These would have been joined by a sub-assortment referred to as "Power Plus" figures that utilized parts of existing figures coupled with newly sculpted components. Batman, Superman, Cyborg, and Firestorm represent some of those characters planned for release as "Power Plus" incarnations.
Please note that the above images are exclusively for use on kennersuperpowers.com and may not be used elsewhere without written permission from the website owner. I hope fellow collectors will honor that request. Abiding by this request will ensure additional unproduced material is added to the site throughout 2017 for collectors to read about and view.
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