TOMMY'S - UNITED STATES
Member Since January 2009
221 Artworks | Watched by 14

Secret Wars Commercial Model Cel of Spider-man & Wolverine (1984) 1st Appear. of Byrne Costume

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Additional Images

Secret Wars Commercial Storyboard

John Byrne Brown Costume 1983
Artwork Details
Location: Spider-man vs Wolverine Art
Title: Secret Wars Commercial Model Cel of Spider-man & Wolverine (1984) 1st Appear. of Byrne Costume
Artist:  Russ Heath (All)
Media Type: Paint - Acrylic
Art Type: Animation
For Sale Status:
Views: 65
Likes on CAF: 6
Comments: 4
Added to Site: 4/9/2026

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Description
We all know the Secret Wars comics and what famous costume came from it, but did you know the comic was produced to sell toys? Mattel approached Marvel and wanted to make a toy line and Mattel specifically wanted the words "secret" and "wars" used because kids responded strongly to those words, so the toy line and the comics were released together as "Tie-ins" to one another. Wave 1 of the figures were released in late 1984 with the core characters of Spider-man (blue/red), Captain America, Iron man, Wolverine, Doctor Doom, Doc Ock & Magneto. The black suit Spidey figure came in wave 2 in early 1985.

This hand painted model cel features my 2 favorite characters on the same cel! The Spidey was designed by Russ Heath and is the same model that was used on Spider-man and his Amazing friends, Wolverine's artist is a mystery to me but it is modeled after John Byrne's initial Wolverine brown costume design (1983). So technically, the Secret Wars commercial is the first appearance of the brown costume, followed 4 years later by the Pryde of the X-men cartoon. Oddly the cel is dated 1985 (most model cels from Amazing friends have the same date) which means it was likely used as promotional material for the commercial and toys. Also, the QC process wasn't very good for the show because they left out the "V" in Wolvies name, I give you "WOLERINE!". Also, I've seen variants of this model cel where Wolverine's neck is brown instead of the yellow shown here but the commercial indeed uses the yellow neck version.

https://youtu.be/rDBB84jFKUY?si=Sz8jptUQaP0W-QC7

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TOMMY'S - ( 5 )
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Member Since: January 2009
Last Login: April 2026
Country: UNITED STATES
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Marcus Wai Member Since 2005
1    
Posted On 4/9/2026

Very clean designs!  There is no room for interpretation with such definitive images!

George H Member Since 2009
1    
Posted On 4/9/2026

Fantastic cel art!

Kavi H Member Since 2018
1    
Posted On 4/10/2026

Wolerine! Awesome cel and a really cool part of Marvel promotional/tie in history from the Secret Wars era

K Gearon Member Since 2011
1    
Posted On 4/13/2026

Super cool!  Maybe the most popular Marvel heroes, particularly of the time.  And I love the brown and tan Wolvie costume :)  Congrats!