Real American Heroes

By: ANDREW KARDON
Date: Tuesday, July 02, 2002

With the 4th of July just around the corner, the smell of patriotism fills the air. Not that we haven't been seeing our fair share of red, white and blue in the past year or so. This year, for obvious reasons, Independence Day will mean a heckuva lot more than it has in decades. So as you light up the bottle rockets and chow down on hot dogs loaded with plenty of kraut (shhh... don't tell Captain America), we'll take a look back at the most patriotic action figures of all time.

Uncle Sam (DC Direct)
How can you have a patriotic toy list without Uncle Sam himself? Okay, so maybe this character's a little wacky as a superhero, but DC Direct's gorgeous rendition of the classic Charlton character gets big props from us. Technically, he's not out in stores for about another week, but he's too damn cool to not include on this list. Who is he you ask? Why just the living personification of the American ideal. The guy who's always appeared when his country needed him. A guy who's probably the only one other than the Trix rabbit who could look cool wearing a star-spangled top hot.

Captain America (Toy Biz)
There've been plenty of Cap figures over the years both good (the original 8" Mego!) and bad (Toy Biz's initial powder-blue Avenger with spring-loaded shield). But easily the best Star-Spangled Avenger ever is Toy Biz's most recent Marvel Legends version. From the painting to the sculpting and the articulation to the shield, this figure is just perfect. Slap him on a freshly baked apple pie and you're set for the fireworks.

Superman (Kenner)
Y'know, despite him being one of the most popular (and powerful!) superheroes of all time, ol' Supes still hasn't had the perfect action figure made yet. Sure, his 8" Mego version was a great rendition, but Kenner's mid-'90s SUPERMAN: MAN OF STEEL line probably stands tall among the heap. Nice sculpting, classic costume and a neat action feature that pushes his head back when you raise his arms to take off into the sky.

Wonder Woman (Mattel)
There've been a few great WONDER WOMAN figures through the years as well, but Mattel's 2000 BARBIE AS WONDER WOMAN takes the cake. A beautiful sculpt with a great costume, including a gorgeous red, white and blue cape. Heck, even the magic lasso makes us weak at the knees.

Sgt. Rock (DC Direct)
He may not wear the flag like most of the other folks on this list, but this guy will certainly lay down his life for it. The cigar-chompin' leader of the Easy Co. fought his way through World War II with the best of 'em. Besides a great sculpt, this grizzled figure comes with some killer accessories like a removable helmet, a machine gun and two hand grenades.

Duke (Hasbro)
All right, all right. So damn near the entire G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO line should be on this list. But we didn't want to take up too much space on the Net, so we went with the Joe's fearless leader, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed DUKE. Originally, Duke was only available through a mail-away offer where you had to send in like five or six proof-of-purchase points. So now you know... and knowing is half the battle!

American Maid (Bandai)
As patriotic as she is clean, American Maid is a hoot. Jumping straight out of the Tick comic book universe, this lady liberty will dust your furniture with one hand while striking down prejudice, intolerance and all around stupidity in her other hand. Plus her figure comes with a neat karate-chop action.

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