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Comprehensive List of DC Universe Logo UPC Variants
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Started by revat,

2,163 posts in this topic

ZillaCat

ZillaCat

Posted
Posted

So, for the people who ask where these come from, here are some answers.

 

Here are the sealed packs I have picked up, in addition to the loose books I have.

 

And the other picture is the packs I have bought that were either not sealed, like the Fall of Metropolis set, or I opened them to get to the books.

 

As a completionist I will attempt to find every DC Universe book as a single, but I also want to find as many different packs as I can find.

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165448.jpg.1867a808b0e5ea49a6f4b2402d6566b0.jpg

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ZillaCat

ZillaCat

Posted
Posted

Just to bury everybody with more info today.

 

This thread has identified 19 DC Bullet issues.

Action 693

Action 694

Batman 502

Catwoman 4

Justice League 83

Superman 84 DC

Adv of SM 507

SM Man of Steel 28

Detective 669

Flash 85

Robin 1-2

Justice League International 59, 58

Legionnaires 9

Looney Tunes 1

Showcase 93 #12

Wonder Woman 81

Star Trek 55

Star Trek TNG 55

 

5 of these books are dated Nov '93. They can be seen in the pack posted earlier by Bellrules1. The other 13 are all dated Dec '93, with the exception of Looney Tunes 1. 4 of the 5 from Nov can be seen in the Nov pack. My Dec 20 pack that I opened confirms all 13 that have been identified. And the inclusion of a DC Universe Catwoman 5 in Dec's pack lends weight to the theory that Catwoman 4, listed on the front, would be a Bullet issue.

Looney Tunes is just random, like the Damage 0 DC Universe even though there is no Zero Hour starburst version of that book.

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revat

revat

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Then I broke open the extra 20 pack.

 

have you found any that are not previously on our complete list? should be available on the front page of this thread.

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ZillaCat

ZillaCat

Posted
Posted

No, I have the list, and I am still working my way thru finding all of the "known" DC Universe books. So far I have not identified any unknown books, much to my dismay.

 

I have loaded all of the known issues into a spreadsheet, by month. I am comparing everything to that, looking to see if I can identify what might be out there.

 

For Instance, Jan thru Aug of '94 we list 18-20 DC Universe books for each month. But in Sept we only have 14, and the list we have doesn't match with all of the books listed in the Zero Hour 20 pack I have.

And Dec '94 only lists 7. Dec '95 only lists 1. So if there was a 20 pack for either of those months, what was actually in them?

 

This is what keeps me up at night.

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mysterio

mysterio

Posted
Posted
Just to bury everybody with more info today.

 

This thread has identified 19 DC Bullet issues.

Action 693

Action 694

Batman 502

Catwoman 4

Justice League 83

Superman 84 DC

Adv of SM 507

SM Man of Steel 28

Detective 669

Flash 85

Robin 1-2

Justice League International 59, 58

Legionnaires 9

Looney Tunes 1

Showcase 93 #12

Wonder Woman 81

Star Trek 55

Star Trek TNG 55

 

 

Your list is missing the Batman Adventures #14 bullet.

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Cpt Kirk

Cpt Kirk

Posted
Posted
Just to bury everybody with more info today.

 

This thread has identified 19 DC Bullet issues.

Action 693

Action 694

Batman 502

Catwoman 4

Justice League 83

Superman 84 DC

Adv of SM 507

SM Man of Steel 28

Detective 669

Flash 85

Robin 1-2

Justice League International 59, 58

Legionnaires 9

Looney Tunes 1

Showcase 93 #12

Wonder Woman 81

Star Trek 55

Star Trek TNG 55

 

5 of these books are dated Nov '93. They can be seen in the pack posted earlier by Bellrules1. The other 13 are all dated Dec '93, with the exception of Looney Tunes 1. 4 of the 5 from Nov can be seen in the Nov pack. My Dec 20 pack that I opened confirms all 13 that have been identified. And the inclusion of a DC Universe Catwoman 5 in Dec's pack lends weight to the theory that Catwoman 4, listed on the front, would be a Bullet issue.

Looney Tunes is just random, like the Damage 0 DC Universe even though there is no Zero Hour starburst version of that book.

 

Dear Zillacat -- Great work on your part. Also, your photo of the open 20-pack was very informative. Here's what I know:

 

1. We believe that there those large 20-pack bricks exist for every month of comics from November 1992 thru November 1994.

 

2. There is also a 10-pack brick for June 1995.

 

3. Between another guy and myself, we have had in hand every single 20-pack and 10-pack brick pack except the 20-pack that presumably exists for March 1994. We believe a 20-pack exists for March 1994 because all usual DC Universe variants have been found for that month. If anyone has this brick in hand, we would love to hear about it.

 

4. Many of the bricks from Nov 1992 thru Oct 1993 have 2nd, 3rd, etc printings in them. Those are designated with roman numerals such as II, III, IV, etc. But none of those bricks seem to have DC Universe variants in them.

 

5. The first brick with the DC bullets was for issues dated November 1993. Only the top 4 issues in that brick (that is, the ones that can be seen through the plastic, namely JLE 58, BM Adv 14, Robin 1 and Act 693) have the DC bullet. The rest in the brick have bar codes.

 

6. The second brick with DC bullets was for issues dated December 1993. That is the brick that you opened for us and showed in the photo above.

 

7. The bricks from Jan 1994 thru Aug 1994 all have DC Universe variants.

 

8. The brick from Sept 1994 had the four "Zero Hour" comic books on the cover, all with zero hour symbols in the UPC boxes. The rest of the issues in that pack (like Batman 511, Detective 678, Action 703, and Superman 93) had DC Universe symbols.

 

9. The brick from Oct 1994 contains issues that are numbered "0" and have the zero hour symbols in the UPC boxes. Example include Batman 0, Detective 0, Action 0, etc.

 

10. The bricks from Nov 1994 and June 1995 contain issues that all have the DC Universe symbol in the UPC.

 

11. All other DC Universe variants from Dec 1994 thru Dec 1996 seem to come from 5, 6 and 8 pack sets (examples shown in your photos above), and 2-packs.

 

12. In my opinion, some of the most elusive DC Universe variants seem to come from those 2-packs. Examples include Adv of SM 499, Action 686, Superman MOS 20, Superman 77, Detective 680, Detective 682 with orange cover, Detective 685, Superman 96, Superman MOS 42, Azrael 22, Action 705, Batman 516, Batman 517 and Batman 524. If you have any of those in hand, consider yourself lucky!

 

I'm still looking for the Adv of Superman 531 DC Universe variant. I'm raising my bounty to $200 for one in FN or better because I'm getting tired of running all over the place to look for the darn thing.

 

It is interesting to me that these bricks and packs all occurred in the hey day of the early to mid-1990's. In those days, there was a speculating boom. Everyone and everyone's brother was hording comic books. There were comic shops popping up everywhere and packs of comic boks were on sale in Toys R Us, Costco, and K-B Toys. And then the bubble burst!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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mysterio

mysterio

Posted
Posted
Just to bury everybody with more info today.

 

This thread has identified 19 DC Bullet issues.

Action 693

Action 694

Batman 502

Catwoman 4

Justice League 83

Superman 84 DC

Adv of SM 507

SM Man of Steel 28

Detective 669

Flash 85

Robin 1-2

Justice League International 59, 58

Legionnaires 9

Looney Tunes 1

Showcase 93 #12

Wonder Woman 81

Star Trek 55

Star Trek TNG 55

 

5 of these books are dated Nov '93. They can be seen in the pack posted earlier by Bellrules1. The other 13 are all dated Dec '93, with the exception of Looney Tunes 1. 4 of the 5 from Nov can be seen in the Nov pack. My Dec 20 pack that I opened confirms all 13 that have been identified. And the inclusion of a DC Universe Catwoman 5 in Dec's pack lends weight to the theory that Catwoman 4, listed on the front, would be a Bullet issue.

Looney Tunes is just random, like the Damage 0 DC Universe even though there is no Zero Hour starburst version of that book.

 

Dear Zillacat -- Great work on your part. Also, your photo of the open 20-pack was very informative. Here's what I know:

 

1. We believe that there those large 20-pack bricks exist for every month of comics from November 1992 thru November 1994.

 

2. There is also a 10-pack brick for June 1995.

 

3. Between another guy and myself, we have had in hand every single 20-pack and 10-pack brick pack except the 20-pack that presumably exists for March 1994. We believe a 20-pack exists for March 1994 because all usual DC Universe variants have been found for that month. If anyone has this brick in hand, we would love to hear about it.

 

4. Many of the bricks from Nov 1992 thru Oct 1993 have 2nd, 3rd, etc printings in them. Those are designated with roman numerals such as II, III, IV, etc. But none of those bricks seem to have DC Universe variants in them.

 

5. The first brick with the DC bullets was for issues dated November 1993. Only the top 4 issues in that brick (that is, the ones that can be seen through the plastic, namely JLE 58, BM Adv 14, Robin 1 and Act 693) have the DC bullet. The rest in the brick have bar codes.

 

6. The second brick with DC bullets was for issues dated December 1993. That is the brick that you opened for us and showed in the photo above.

 

7. The bricks from Jan 1994 thru Aug 1994 all have DC Universe variants.

 

8. The brick from Sept 1994 had the four "Zero Hour" comic books on the cover, all with zero hour symbols in the UPC boxes. The rest of the issues in that pack (like Batman 511, Detective 678, Action 703, and Superman 93) had DC Universe symbols.

 

9. The brick from Oct 1994 contains issues that are numbered "0" and have the zero hour symbols in the UPC boxes. Example include Batman 0, Detective 0, Action 0, etc.

 

10. The bricks from Nov 1994 and June 1995 contain issues that all have the DC Universe symbol in the UPC.

 

11. All other DC Universe variants from Dec 1994 thru Dec 1996 seem to come from 5, 6 and 8 pack sets (examples shown in your photos above), and 2-packs.

 

12. In my opinion, some of the most elusive DC Universe variants seem to come from those 2-packs. Examples include Adv of SM 499, Action 686, Superman MOS 20, Superman 77, Detective 680, Detective 682 with orange cover, Detective 685, Superman 96, Superman MOS 42, Azrael 22, Action 705, Batman 516, Batman 517 and Batman 524. If you have any of those in hand, consider yourself lucky!

 

I'm still looking for the Adv of Superman 531 DC Universe variant. I'm raising my bounty to $200 for one in FN or better because I'm getting tired of running all over the place to look for the darn thing.

 

It is interesting to me that these bricks and packs all occurred in the hey day of the early to mid-1990's. In those days, there was a speculating boom. Everyone and everyone's brother was hording comic books. There were comic shops popping up everywhere and packs of comic boks were on sale in Toys R Us, Costco, and K-B Toys. And then the bubble burst!

 

 

:applause: Brilliant, highly informative as usual.

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ZillaCat

ZillaCat

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great synopsis Capt. That matches my research. There are a few questions that it still raises.

 

A couple of comments and questions.

You mentioned 4 DC Bullets in the Nov. '93 pack. Don't forget Catwoman 4. It is dated Nov. '93 and should be in that pack somewhere.

You mentioned that June '95 has a 10 pack. I don't think we can count the absense of a 20 pack as proof that "only" a 10 pack exists. Refer back to my newest packs, which show both a 20 pack and a 16 pack, for the same month with the same content, minus 4 books.

Also, you stated that between yourself and one other person you have had all but one of these bricks in hand. Did you open any or all? And if you opened any of them, were they all DC Universe books? Or were there any with random Direct Market books, like the Metal Men 3 in my Dec. pack?

Myself, I keep going back to the math.

Jan '94 to Nov '96 is 35 months. At 20 books a month we would have 700 books sporting the DC Universe upc logo. Subtract the 24 Zero Hour books, and assume that the June '95 10 pack is the only one, that brings the total down to 666 books. ( an ominous number on it's own, let's hope that isn't the actual number). Going back to the master list we have compiled here, there are only 523 known DC Universe books.That leaves 123 books unaccounted for. So, are they unknown DC Universe issues, or random fillers during each month.

In addition, let's factor in my stack of smaller multipacks. Superman Wedding Album. The list counts 2 issues, both different but having the DCU logo. If one of those was available in the Wedding pack that I have, and the other one was available in that months 20 pack, then that should reduce the number of 'found' books by one, meaning there is another missing book from that months 20 pack. And I would make the same argument for other sets, like the Troika set or the Deadman set. So, if we start factoring in that kind of logic, the number of missing brick books goes up again. And for the Death of Superman reprints. And for the 'rarer' 2 pack books.

 

Personally, I will continue to hunt for unopened packs. I will keep them sealed, unless I can get a second one. For me, the only way to confirm or deny the existence of a DC Universe variant is by opening and cataloging the contents, as I did with the Dec. pack.

 

Does anybody else have any of the 20 packs unopened, or have personal experience at opening one?

Edited by ZillaCat
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mysterio

mysterio

Posted
Posted
Great synopsis Capt. That matches my research. There are a few questions that it still raises.

 

A couple of comments and questions.

You mentioned 4 DC Bullets in the Nov. '93 pack. Don't forget Catwoman 4. It is dated Nov. '93 and should be in that pack somewhere.

You mentioned that June '95 has a 10 pack. I don't think we can count the absense of a 20 pack as proof that "only" a 10 pack exists. Refer back to my newest packs, which show both a 20 pack and a 16 pack, for the same month with the same content, minus 4 books.

Also, you stated that between yourself and one other person you have had all but one of these bricks in hand. Did you open any or all? And if you opened any of them, were they all DC Universe books? Or were there any with random Direct Market books, like the Metal Men 3 in my Dec. pack?

Myself, I keep going back to the math.

Jan '94 to Nov '96 is 35 months. At 20 books a month we would have 700 books sporting the DC Universe upc logo. Subtract the 24 Zero Hour books, and assume that the June '95 10 pack is the only one, that brings the total down to 666 books. ( an ominous number on it's own, let's hope that isn't the actual number). Going back to the master list we have compiled here, there are only 523 known DC Universe books.That leaves 123 books unaccounted for. So, are they unknown DC Universe issues, or random fillers during each month.

In addition, let's factor in my stack of smaller multipacks. Superman Wedding Album. The list counts 2 issues, both different but having the DCU logo. If one of those was available in the Wedding pack that I have, and the other one was available in that months 20 pack, then that should reduce the number of 'found' books by one, meaning there is another missing book from that months 20 pack. And I would make the same argument for other sets, like the Troika set or the Deadman set. So, if we start factoring in that kind of logic, the number of missing brick books goes up again. And for the Death of Superman reprints. And for the 'rarer' 2 pack books.

 

Personally, I will continue to hunt for unopened packs. I will keep them sealed, unless I can get a second one. For me, the only way to confirm or deny the existence of a DC Universe variant is by opening and cataloging the contents, as I did with the Dec. pack.

 

Does anybody else have any of the 20 packs unopened, or have personal experience at opening one?

 

Interesting analysis. I do have one question, in that the bricks often have titles with two issues represented (denoted with a * on the labels on the packs). Do we know if DCUs were ever duplicated month to month? If Flash #92, for example, could have shown up in two consecutive packs that could help explain the smaller number.

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