In 1978, the first Superman telephones were made by MicroCommunications (MCC) in CA. Model #41-85. Very few of these phones were actually released and made it to the public. MCC did not have the license to sell them, so DC Comics shut them down for copyright infringement. Upon being shut down, instead of being destroyed as ordered, the Production Manager took the original molds, the statues, and unused phone bases with him. Eventually he sold them all (with the exception of the original molds) to a private collector in Florida in 1979-1980. There were approx. 50 Superman statues. It is believed the original molds were sold to  Allied Telecommunication Equipment Co. (ATE) located in NY in 1979 who made Superman and Wonder Woman telephones which were fully licensed by DC Comics. Both Rotary and Touch Tone versions. And later Character Phones Inc. took over the licensing of the phones and produced their own in 1981.

I believe this to be one of the original phone statues produced by MCC in 1978. The statues were produced separately from the phone bases. The original phone bases came as a brown wood grain base version as well as a red plastic base as opposed to later phones that were red and white, yellow and etc..The statues did not have holes drilled in the bottom of the feet as they had not been mounted to the phone bases prior to being discontinued. This statue does not have any drilled holes in the bottom of the feet. However, it does have placement areas where the holes would have been drilled as shown in the pictures above. The statue is in near mint condition with no apparent blemishes except for the soles of the feet where the paint is weak. Comes with original cloth cape which is still in mint condition and has never even been attached to the figure. You are buying ONLY THE FIGURE. I do not own the phone base as most of them were destroyed or thrown out by the production manager and they are extremely rare to come by. The last picture is a stock image to show what it looks like with the base. Also, this will be shipped in a normal shipping box. These statues did not have their own boxes when produced in 1978.

This is an excellent piece for any die-hard Superman collector to own that has an unexpected interesting history behind it!!!!!