Secret Wars was a 1984-1985 line of action figures and playsets, launched as a tie-in between Marvel Comics and the Mattel toy company.
The line was a reaction to DC Comics' 1984 deal with Kenner Products for the Super Powers Collection. Mattel, concerned about losing the DC account to Kenner, made a similar deal with Marvel. Mattel's request was that the line would be supported with an event comic book that included the words "secret" and "wars", which Mattel's market research found worked particularly well with children in focus groups.[1]
Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter came up with the concept for a year-long twelve-issue crossover called Secret Wars, in which Marvel's most popular heroes and villains would be plucked out of their daily lives to a distant galaxy, where they would be given alien weapons and technology and forced to fight each other.[2]
Some of Mattel's choices for the toy line impacted the look and direction of Marvel's superhero characters. Shooter introduced the idea of a new, black costume for Spider-Man,[3] which was not intended to last for long, but Mattel was very enthusiastic, because it allowed them to sell two versions of the same toy.[1] The "alien costume" was revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man to be a living creature, who separated from Spider-Man to become a new character, Venom.
At Mattel's request, Marvel designed updated, "high-tech" costumes for Iron Man and Doctor Doom.[2] Mattel also requested new female characters, and Marvel introduced two villains, Titania and Volcana, as well as a new version of Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter.[1] None of the three female characters were produced as part of the toy line. In fact, while dozens of characters were involved in the comic miniseries, Mattel's initial Secret Wars series only included eight characters: four heroes (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Wolverine) and four villains (Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, Kang the Conqueror and Magneto).[4] The toy line featured several vehicles, as well as figures in the later series, that never featured in the mini-series.
The line included two series of action figures, along with vehicles and playsets, as well as a third series of figures released outside North America.
Figures were 4+1⁄2 inches (110 mm) tall. They came packaged in a bubble-card pack. The back of the packaging card came with a character illustration and biography, a short 4-panel comic, and a depiction of available figures in the series.
They each came with a large plastic "Secret Shield" accessory that held a lenticular image. Heroes carried circular red shields and villains carried square gray shields, which were supposed to represent a sort of video communicator. The lenticular "secret identity" image was viewable through a clear plastic window in the top cover of the shield and shifted between showing either the character's costumed or secret identities. There was also a packet of four lenticular "secret message" cartoon inserts that came with each character that fit in the Secret Shield.
The back of the packaging card had a character illustration and biography, a 4-panel comic of the character in action, and pictures of all eight Series 1 figures.
Poor sales of Series 1 cut back the North American release of this series to just five figures rather than eight. The remaining three were only released overseas. The back of the packaging card had the same character illustration, biography and 4-panel comic like the Series 1 figures but instead had pictures of Captain America, Doctor Doom, and Doctor Octopus from Series 1 and all five figures from Series 2. Except for black suit Spider-Man, none of the characters were featured in the mini-series.
These were originally planned to be part of Series 2 but were instead dumped in overseas markets. Packaging was in Spanish language text. None of the characters were featured in the mini-series.
Available through Sears' 1984 Wish Book Catalog. Came in white pasteboard mailer boxes with direct-printed black-text labels. Contents were packed in sealed plastic bags.
Each vehicle came with extra "secret message" lenticular inserts for use with the characters' Secret Shields. They displayed the vehicle in action to inspire extended play ideas.
A racing motorcycle with a sidecar pod and a stabilizer tailfin between them with an air intake on top. The fairing on the front of the motorcycle and the cockpit over the sidecar both opened to allow the figures to be seated. There were plastic lasers on each side of the front wheel that reciprocated when the cycle rolled forward. A secret compartment for stowing a Secret Shield was behind the seat in the sidecar. They were identical designs remolded in different-colored plastic.
A toy helicopter that could seat 3 figures that was in a cramped 1:16 scale. It was repurposed from a design for 4-inch figures, so it was difficult to get the 4.5-inch figures in and out without scraping them. There were stub wings on the sides that held black plastic missiles (three on each side), a flexible side-firing black plastic minigun at the co-pilot's position, a black plastic Vulcan cannon mounted on the right side of the nose and a black plastic radar mast mounted on the left side of the nose on slide-on brackets, and two forward-facing black plastic machineguns mounted in fairings under the nose. There was a partition in the back of the passenger compartment that could be opened and used to store a Secret Shield. It not only came with new "secret message" inserts but also an extra Secret Shield.
A three-part glider toy. It had a plastic fuselage with a rubber nosecone and two white foam-rubber wings that fastened into the fuselage with snap clamps. The wings had to be covered with large sectional stickers with patterns on them that were difficult to apply evenly. Although it came with an action figure, there was no seat, harness, or cockpit to secure it and it would often fall off or unbalance the glider.