1942 DC Comics Promotional Superman Figure
GUEST: When my great-grandfather passed away in the '90s, he ran a boarding house. My dad and his siblings went to his house and pillaged and went through all the stuff that had accumulated through the years. They found, uh three Superman figures. My dad took, got one, and then I'm not sure if my uncles got the other two.
APPRAISER: This is a Superman figure.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: But there's a lot of Superman figures.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: This is the Superman figure. Superman, the quick story is, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. He first appeared in 1938, "Action Comics" 1. Cover date June of 1938. Book went on sale April 1938. Superman literally changed our world of comic books. It would not be the same.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: We would not be doing what we do with comic books if it weren't for Superman and Action Comics 1. This is the birth of superheroes as we know them. This would have been released in 1942, and this is not something you could buy.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This would have been a retailer incentive to promote DC Comics.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Do you know what he's made of?
GUEST: Wood?
APPRAISER: Happy you guessed wood…
GUEST: (laughs)
17:06 APPRAISER: …'cause it's close. But it's actually known as Syroco Wood, which was invented in upstate New York in the late 19th century, in Syracuse. And what they would do is, they would take a wood pulp and mush it into a mold, let it harden. It was to create a faster track instead of actually carving wood. Now, when it comes to this particular figure, there are two versions. There's one, as we see here...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...in this unusual kind of brown and red pants fashion, which is not the Superman as we know him in his blue and red suit.
GUEST: No.
APPRAISER: And then there is a blue and red version. Now, when we look at this figure compared to the fully painted example, we only have paint applications on his hair, face, chest, pants, and boots. Condition-wise, I consider him rather remarkable. I mean, he retains so much of his original paint. There's no chips. He's just awesome!
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: I mean, literally, you almost gave me a... I'm still freaking out that I'm seeing this right now.
GUEST: (laughs) Okay.
APPRAISER: So I apologize in advance. In terms of DC Comic history, collecting Superman and DC novelties, it literally does not get better than this. This is the start of it all. It's one of the earliest figures of Superman. Conservatively, at auction, to under-promise, over-deliver, I would say, for the brown and red Superman, it's easily a $3,000 to $5,000 figure.
GUEST: Three to, okay. (voice trembling) Mom and Dad are gonna be really happy. That's awesome.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: I have to tell the uncles, too.
APPRAISER: (laughing) Especially if you got two more hiding in a closet!
GUEST: (laughing): Yes.
APPRAISER: And to put it into perspective, I'm being conservative.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Because the last one that came up for public auction, which was in 2023...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...brought a little over $6,000. And the condition of yours blows that one out of the water. So this is gonna achieve a pretty penny if it were to ever sell publicly.
GUEST: Okay. Thank you, Travis.
APPRAISER: This is why, why I exist! (laughs) What I live to see!
$3,000 - $5,000 Auction
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Owner Interview: 1942 DC Comics Promotional Superman Figure
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