McFarlane DC Multiverse

I'm happy to see that they learned from their mistake with the Superman movie Robot and included swappable number plates on the Rocket Red brigade. That should lead to a few more sales. I still bought plenty of sill blue robot though even without them. I'm sure that I'll buy multiples of Rocket Red as well.
 
AceofKnaves said:
I still prefer the “Rappaccini’s Daughter”, toxic, psychopathic mass-murderer to the “Avatar of the Green” Ivy. I fucking *hate* that she has “powers” beyond being personally poisonous and also a genius botanist. And I utterly despise the inhuman appearance of the skin. She used to be this rad noir-ish character and actually EVIL. She’s on my short-list of “these Bat-villains are actual monsters” with Scarecrow and the Joker, and it saddens me to see her diluted and made “nice” and also given Swamp Thing-lite status. Bah.
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Okay now that I know this is your take, I feel safe rapping with you on this.

Buddy of mine really wants the new casting for the Batman sequel to be Phantasm, because who else could have redhead be. I expressed the obvious.

He told me that was stupid because this is a grounded universe and we don't need a superpowered plant lady. And what kind of story could you even tell with Batman anyway because she's so boring.

And I said first off, you could just drop that angle and make her an expert in toxins and chemical warfare. She doesn't even need to be personally poisonous for Reeves. And I think she would be really interesting, like a Brit Marling character, If you make her an ecoterrorist and put her up against Batman as a commentary on vigilantism and ethics and how one person's extremism is another person's moral code at the end of the day, and that Society always fails to reconcile these moralities in the name of personal agenda and bias.

And then he said, Well, Phantasm is cooler.
 
So this guy just revealed the first 2+ waves of Mattel product starting in July. Line will be called DC Universe and be in the 6.5” scale.

Apparently, will be similar to their current WWE offerings, with 2-3 lines with differing levels of articulation, detail, and accessories.

The really high end line won’t kick off until 2027.

Video is in Spanish BTW.

 
Agreed, Alex Chen is pretty spot on.

These sound like the "basic" figures. I likely won't care until the lines similar to the "elite" and "ultimate" start to get announced for 2027 and beyond. I can't imagine myself buying anything similar to "basic" model unless it's a character that's never been made otherwise and that seems relatively unlikely for a kids' line.
 
Batman? Robin?? Joker??? THE FLASH??? These can't possibly be true 😂

Given the selection, I'm sure it's accurate; I'm more interested that these are planned for next summer, as our expectations were set for 2027. Cautiously excited!
 
Whereas I’m preemptively bored. Where’s Sideways or Loose Cannon?

On the positive side, if Mattel is going to release multiple lines in the same relative scale and design style, like WWE, it acts as a multiplier. The line will grow faster than you think. It’s just that some figures will only have basic articulation and few to no accessories.
 
Atomic Knight said:
Where’s Sideways or Loose Cannon?
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Not in the first two waves of basic figures, of course. I mean: come on, now. This will be the *start* of a *new* line. Not to your tastes, perhaps (although that’s what you said about McF at first so we shall see), but there’s really no logic and no point in being upset that the first waves of an-all new line present A-listers and household names. Frankly, it would be irresponsible for Mattel not to have Batman, Superman and the Joker on the shelves immediately and constantly.
 
AceofKnaves said:
Not in the first two waves of basic figures, of course. I mean: come on, now. This will be the *start* of a *new* line. Not to your tastes, perhaps (although that’s what you said about McF at first so we shall see), but there’s really no logic and no point in being upset that the first waves of an-all new line present A-listers and household names. Frankly, it would be irresponsible for Mattel not to have Batman, Superman and the Joker on the shelves immediately and constantly.
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I guess. But would it be so bad to throw us a bone? A bone shaped like Blue Devil or something. The presumed first eight figures are leaked and five of them are Bat flavored. C’mon. They’re not even trying.

My working theory is that this part of the lineup may be entirely based on DC’s top tier:

Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Green Lantern
Flash

And nominally

Aquaman
Green Arrow
Hawkman

This would include families, legacies, and, villains, and maybe supporting characters as Todd seems to have made them viable. The collector line would have the potential for everything else. A basic line with limited character options would be very effective in keeping things evergreen.
 
Atomic Knight said:
They’re not even trying.
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There is “not trying”, and then there is “not trying what we would like them to try”.

I submit to you that DCUC had the benefit of a couple of years of SuperBat characters already before its first wave. AND Mattel at that time *also* had a firmly/established “kids line” presence before they even ventured into 6inch at all.

And McFarlane had the benefit of getting to start out “collector focused” from the jump, and while they took wild swings they were wild swings with a literal and metaphorical bat. It was years before they started the deep cuts we crave.

This is an incremental, wide-scope merchandising restart, not just one line of collector-focused figures.

I don’t know if Mattel will “throw us bones” or not, though their MotU output and the existence of the Creations site suggests they may. I *do* know that Mattel will do its best to establish a retail foothold and not be dead on arrival. That means A list characters, promptly and widely available. That means establishing the new lines so that they *can* have the potential to branch out.

Trust me: I hate all the corporate fuckery, and speculation about it frankly bores me. BUT it is what it is, regardless; and our best chance for getting cool stuff from Mattel is to hope they can get stuff in stores and selling so that, hopefully, someone *can* take some wild swings.
 
Fair. And I do understand that Mattel needs a retail beachhead, but I just keep coming back to the aspect of starting over again. Again.

It also seems as though Todd has attempted to poison the well and salt the earth. He’s flooded the zone with Batman product, and removed himself from the toy aisle in Wal Mart. And by putting out some of this crazy character selection, he’s raised the profile of these types of characters to the buying public. I’m getting Captain Carrot and Guardian from Todd. I don’t really want another Green Lantern or Superman now.

And yeah, I know we’re talking about different scales. But we’re also getting another radical change in trajectory. Back to basics again. Again.
 
Counterpoint: “basic” means “kids”. And we all benefit from new generations of kids getting excited about these characters. I, for one, want there to still be a Batman long after I am personally stardust and irrelevant.
 
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