The Quadrex Question "You dare threaten a 20th level intelligence? I'll scramble your circuits!" Are these the words of an unproduced action figure? Possibly, possibly not. But to find out the truth we must delve into the whole story behind the conundrum that is known as Quadrex. Or is he? What We Already Know There is no denying that one of the most popular action figure lines has been the Super Powers Collection produced by Kenner Toys from 1984-1986. Since the Collection's untimely demise, this line has only grown in stature. But what was being worked on when it suddenly was canceled? Were there any existing figures? And what stage of development was the would be 4th series in? Let's find out, shall we? From all the evidence, Kenner was indeed deep into development of a 4th series for the Collection. Weighing al the sources' information, a plausible final lineup would read thusly: Blue Beetle, Supergirl, Solomon Grundy, Clark Kent, Swamp Thing, Blue Devil, Booster Gold, Man-Bat, Batgirl, Bizarro, and Quadrex. Quadrex? Who in the world is Quadrex? Well, we'll get to that in a moment. First, let's look at the reasoning behind the other choices. At the time these were proposed, the Justice League comic had been reborn and featured Booster Gold and Blue Beetle prominently, as it also did such third wave figures as Mr. Miracle and Shazam! (Captain Marvel). Swamp Thing lends credence to this assortment, having shown up later in his own line. The figure fits in with the Super Powers Collection quite well, and demonstrates his own "super power", a winch hand. No other figure in the Swamp Thing line had such actions built in, leading one to assume the Swamp Thing had been held over from an unused mold. Reports have surfaced of a prototype existing with knee joints. Also, the Man-Bat prototype surfaced in the mid 1990s. In the letter column of the Blue Devil comic, issue 18, editor Alan Gold states that a Blue Devil figure was in line to be produced in 1986 (which would have put in in the 1987 assortment). Supergirl had been used as a concept figure that helped win the license for kenner, and concept art for her figure exists as does art for Bizarro. Solomon Grundy was a long standing Superman villain, and had made many appearances in the Super Friends cartoon, which the line was loosely based on. Clark Kent, of course, had been released as a mail-in during the 3rd series. There have also been rumors of the inclusion of Catwoman, but we'll get to that later. Blind Conjecture So that leaves Quadrex. Super Powers had started introducing "made-up" characters in the 3rd series with Golden Pharoah and Cyclotron. On first glance, Quadrex seems to be another of these "fantasy" characters. But is he really? There is evidence that the name Quadrex was a temporary name used internally on Kenner concept art. There has been other concept art that has surfaced showing another four-armed character called "Bio Bug". This art is pretty distinct from the final Quadrex sculpt, outside of the 4 arms. A representation of this design is shown at right. But what if this figure was based on an existing character in the DC Universe? There is such a character that fits the bill, and has ties to Superman, which seems to be a criteria for many other villain figures. There has been talk that Quadrex was to have been connected to Darkseid, but that doesn't seem as likely as the Fourth World characters were mainly limited to the 2nd series. First appearing in Action Comics #342, the blue-skinned four-armed alien Grax tried to eliminate the Man of Steel from time to time, although his appearances were few and far between. However, the one place he did appear outside of the Superman books was in the Super Friends comic that ran from 1976-1982. Interestingly, Grax appeared multiple times over the years. Although the comics was a companion to the Super Friends cartoon series, it was also considered part of contemporary DC continuity, with many footnotes relating what was happening in the heroes concurrent adventures in their own titles. That most of the characters in the Super Powers line had appeared in the Super Friends series lends credence to the theory that the designers were at least aware of Grax. Kenner designers had also redesigned other characters for inclusion in the line, so appearance alone doesn't count him out. Add in the fact that "Grax" is similiar to "Quadrex" leads me to believe that this character was at least the inspiration for the figure, if not the exact model. To views of Grax are shown below, from the Super Powers comic #14 and Action Comics #417. Below I have may shots of the Quadrex prototype. This is a resign casting that was molded from an existing Quadrex Dynacast Hardcopy. The detail has been kept pretty well, and shows how intircate the figures were getting when the line was cancelled. Coupled with the equally as detailed Man-Bat, it becomes evident what a shame it isthat these never saw the light of day. One last point: one of the hardcopies of this figure was shown in Tomart's Action Figure Digest #87 recently, but must have been missing the correct left thigh. The one show in the magazine actually has two right thighs, with one reversed and placed on the left side. This is evident if you look closely at the musculature and how it joins at the hip. These parts are easily interchangeable, so it was most likely the magazine staff was unaware of the subsitution, and not purposely misleading the readership. Click on any photo for a larger version. And the Rest (Click on each picture to get the whole story behind the prototype) The other prototypes that have shown up for the 4th series most notably include Man-Bat, who was based upon the Neal Adams design, and not the later more bestial look. At first thought to have only been sculpted, it has recently been proven that this figure made it all the way to tooling, which is more the pity that Kenner never used this figure anywhere else, given that they had already paid for most of the expense of manufacture. Although Man-Bat was an awfully odd choice for the line, not having made made recent appearances in the Batman books during the mid 1980s. Coupled with Quadrex, this shows that the line's designers were looking for unique characters over popular ones. This is also another reason the line probably died, and a lesson Hasbro unfortunately took to heart. Catwoman has been named as a possible choice over the years, with concept art for a vehicle (the Cat Crawler) showing up and a possible prototype making the rounds at toy shows. Although her outfit at the time was a throwback to her costume from the 1950s (and it's color scheme matched that of the concept art vehicle) the prototype shown wore the costume that debuted shortly after the line's demise. Was Kenner supplied with an advance look at the upcoming outfit? Was this sculpt made for the later Batman Returns line as an early concept sculpt? Was it intended for a DC line that was never produced? So far, no one has a definitive answer. The Flash, while not part of the Super Powers Collection, is part of a kindred line that never materialized. This figure would have been in scale with Super Powers and had knees joints. It was based more or less on the short-lived TV show, which is probably why it never saw store shelves. This figure, like the Flash isn't really part of Super Powers, and unlike the Flash, it was actually produced as the flagship figure of the mid 1990s Man of Steel line. However, this prototype test shot has knees joints, which none of the production figures do. It shows that Hasbro hadn't completely abandoned articulation at that point, but it was definitely it's last gasp. The complete story of this beloved toy line can be found at The Super Powers Archive housed at ToyOtter. A great timeline of Kenner history can be found at Dan Flarida's Kenner Toys page. And another look at more Super Powers prototypes, including a production mold for Man-Bat can be seen at Michael Mensinger's Super Protos page.