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 Total Justice tie-in comic #1 (1996). | |
| Type | action figures |
|---|---|
| Company | Kenner Products |
| Country | USA |
| Availability | 1996–1997 |
| Materials | plastic |
| Features | Snap-on "Fractal Techgear" Armor |
Batman Total Justice is a line of toys produced by Kenner based on Batman and other, connected, DC Comics characters.
In 1996, Kenner started production on a new line of 5" scale DC Comics character figures. This line, like Legends of Batman and Legends of the Dark Knight, featured all new sculpts of popular DC Comics characters. To appeal to buyers, Kenner produced the line under the high selling Batman title, calling the line Batman: Total Justice. This line featured Batman, Robin, and The Huntress, but also included other DC Comics characters including Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash and others.
This was the first line of DC Comics character figures released by Kenner since the Super Powers Collection line of figures ended 10 years earlier. Kenner stopped production after only 18 figures were released: 14 regular figures, one chase variant, and three exclusives. A fourth series of figures was planned to include Blue Beetle, Dr. Polaris, Fractal Armor Green Lantern and Fractal Armor The Flash. [1]
Also, it has been speculated that the fifth assortment - which likely got no further than the earliest of planning stages - was to include Martian Manhunter, Supergirl, a Fractal Armor Robin, and Prometheus as its villain.
On a distant planet, an evil being known as Darkseid prepares for his invasion and destruction of Earth. Batman learns of this diabolical plan and recruits the world's mightiest superheroes in an all-out assault on Darkseid's forces.
In his mountain fortress, Despero plans his conquest of Earth. Batman creates light-refracting armor to help the heroes avoid Despero's high-tech security devices.
In 1996, DC Comics produced a three-issue tie-in mini-series featuring the heroes from the first series (Batman, Robin, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern) plus Blue Beetle, Gypsy, Darkseid, and a Parademon ("Mike," who might be the same Parademon from Villains United ).
In 1997, Landoll's released a series of seven Coloring & Activity books featuring an ongoing story and character designs for unreleased toy characters [2] , as well as two children's books, And Justice for All and Justice on Apokalips [3] [4] , that followed the same basic story of Darkseid, with Despero's help, trying to find the pieces of an "Ultimate Weapon" that had been scattered around Earth.
In 1998, Kid Rhino released the Total Justice: The Ultimate Weapon "audio adventure" on CD and cassette. [5]
Looking to reuse the steel tooling used to make the toys, the Hasbro toy company (owners of Kenner) repainted six of the Total Justice figures and released them exclusively at the Warner Bros. Studio Store in 1998. They later released a mix of unused Total Justice molds and new sculpts in a series of two-packs at mass retail. [1]
In 1998, Hasbro produced the same figures included in the Total Justice line, but this time released them as a shared exclusive between KB Toys and Diamond Comic Distributors under the name JLA (a tie-in with the popular comic title). [6] Several of the unproduced Total Justice figures were released under the JLA name, but no new Batman-related characters were included. Each figure in the JLA line included a stand with the JLA logo and a mini comic cover. Starting with Series 3, the line started to include characters from the Young Justice comic book.
Some characters appeared in Landoll's Total Justice coloring books with Fractaltech armor, but they were never made in the toyline:
All of those characters received figures once the line was rebranded into JLA except Supergirl and Oracle. [7] [8]
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