Mattel DC Figures

I'd definitely expect the first few waves to be loaded with heavy hitters, but that doesn't mean there won't be some lesser known characters thrown in for good measure. I'm sure we'll see something like Batman and Joker in the first wave, with maybe a Robin or Nightwing in there as well. If only one spot is there for someone like Katana or Geo-Force in the first few assortments, I'm personally going to take that as a good sign.
 
@TheSameIdiot and @secondwhiteline, your point is taken. 30-50 new characters per year is indeed a blessing.

I still feel like I buy way too many repeats, re-do's or alternate costumes (way more than 30-50 per year), but that's more on me than it is Hasbro. I'm going to make an effort to reduce my purchases of those repeats to only 1 for every 2 new characters I buy, but it's hard.
 
Also down the line they can expand what it means to be a Batman-adjacent character: “. . . and the Outsiders”, “. . . Incorporated”, et cetera.
With time, there are lots of ways to slot things in.
And the entire Legion of Superheroes are Superman supporting characters, from a certain point of view.
Let them cook.
 
I miss the original DC Direct. All of the figures were original sculpts. Later on they would repaint some or have a base body (Brightest Day Jade & Dove). There are other examples but that is all I listed. The figures looked like they came right from the comic book. The outfits looked accurate. I liked the Tim Bruckner sculpts. I personally prefer the statue type figures with limited articulation. I don't need my figures to be able to crouch on a gargoyle. I like figures for display. Since these were figures usually found at your local comic book shops, it made sense to find a variety of characters like the New Teen Titans or the Justice Society. This is the line that could have made box sets of the Sea Devils, Blackhawks, Time Masters and so on.

With that said, I think a separate line for mass retail works just as well. Mattel made figures with more articulation to play with as well as display. You can add more characters than just the main Justice League but not some deep cuts like Captain Comet or Automan. I wanted to combine my figures but the 4H sculpts didn't go well with the DC Direct figures, In my opinion.

I'm a bigger DC fan than Marvel. I started with DC and read DC comics for 40 years. I read some Marvel comics in the mid to late 80s. I read the Avengers since this was like the Justice League. I tried the X-Men and Fantastic Four but that didn't last long. I was interested in the Defenders but they changed the line up and title to the New Defenders, so I dropped it. People may look at the DC Mattel line the way I see Marvel Legends. I know the big names but there are a lot of figures I don't know and wouldn't buy like Marrow, Husk or Hypno Hustler. I'm not interested in looks I'm not familiar with. I prefer the Bronze Age looks, which Marvel Legends seems to making now.

I hope Mattel makes some great figures and a wide variety of characters. They will probably start with some more recognizable characters and make some more obscure characters after some time. It would be nice if they can make a comic version of a character like Peacemaker since he's more well known than before. I think they might make more current looks and then work their way out to other looks. The kids line seems to be based off of current looks from what we have seen.

If I had my way, I would prefer for DC Direct to be back to making comic book action figures which could be ordered online in this day and age and make as many obscure figures as they can.
 
AceofKnaves said:
Also down the line they can expand what it means to be a Batman-adjacent character: “. . . and the Outsiders”, “. . . Incorporated”, et cetera.
With time, there are lots of ways to slot things in.
And the entire Legion of Superheroes are Superman supporting characters, from a certain point of view.
Let them cook.
Click to expand...
Spider-Man ML waves absolutely have Daredevil characters in them, and no one would argue with Punisher there either. A Batman wave could easily justify Katana or Black Lightning.
 
tenzilkem said:
I miss the original DC Direct. All of the figures were original sculpts. Later on they would repaint some or have a base body (Brightest Day Jade & Dove). There are other examples but that is all I listed. The figures looked like they came right from the comic book. The outfits looked accurate. I liked the Tim Bruckner sculpts. I personally prefer the statue type figures with limited articulation. I don't need my figures to be able to crouch on a gargoyle. I like figures for display. Since these were figures usually found at your local comic book shops, it made sense to find a variety of characters like the New Teen Titans or the Justice Society. This is the line that could have made box sets of the Sea Devils, Blackhawks, Time Masters and so on.
Click to expand...
I still think that old Tim Bruckner Superman sculpt is one of the best Superman figures out there, excluding the articulation of course. For years he was the best Superman I had, even when I got a few Mcfarlane figures. Last year he was released from service thanks to the Mafex DKR Superman, but still, that sculpt, those proportions were amazing. Nobody sculpts like that anymore.

DSC04170.jpg


I honestly wish somebody would take that sculpt and simply add modern articulation to it. Who wouldn't want one? This figure looks like Superman the most out of any I've seen.

I even have Tim Bruckner's action figure book, Pop Sculpture. A great look at how action figures were made back in the day. They were a true art back then, nowdays less so I think.
 
secondwhiteline said:
Yeah, 30-50 new characters a year that deep into a toyline sounds amazing. We're at the point where the biggest consensus choices for female characters that ML needs to make are at the Diamondback level, you know? That they're even still finding 30-50 new characters a year that are saleable is incredible.
Click to expand...
…and the idea that only 3-5 of them are the iconic versions of new characters that fans have actually been asking for is even more incredible. 😛

Sorry. It IS an impressive body of work, but I couldn’t resist. 😉
 
Atomic Knight said:
I get that. MLs has a 25 year head start.
Click to expand...
For all intents and purposes, you can pretty much cut that in half, because just about every figure released between 2002 and 2013 has been remade between 2014 and 2026.

tenzilkem said:
I miss the original DC Direct. All of the figures were original sculpts. Later on they would repaint some or have a base body (Brightest Day Jade & Dove). There are other examples but that is all I listed. The figures looked like they came right from the comic book. The outfits looked accurate. I liked the Tim Bruckner sculpts. I personally prefer the statue type figures with limited articulation. I don't need my figures to be able to crouch on a gargoyle. I like figures for display.
Click to expand...
Had the figures been in vanilla poses (like that Superman) or even all-out action poses, I think I could have lived with the limited articulation, but too many of their releases tried to split the difference, and they just looked weird to me.

The other downside for me, and this just comes with the territory when you’re doing unique sculpts, is inconsistency. The DCD Golden Age JSA, as a collective, was all over the place in terms of scale and aesthetics.

I still like the idea behind the line. It would just need to be executed better if they were to ever try it again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alt
Xavion2025 said:
I still like the idea behind the line. It would just need to be executed better if they were to ever try it again.
Click to expand...
I’d still like to see Todd do this. Takeover the DCD model and modernize it. Do niche figures and story specific figures. Maybe focus on Elseworlds or Multiverse characters. Leaving the world building to Mattel.

Probably not going to happen. At least not soon. Mattel is going to want to get their feet under them first.

Not specific to Todd or to action figures in general, but does anyone know what happens with DCD after December 31st 2026? Three possibilities exist in my mind…

A) Mattel takes it over.

B) Todd keeps in to produce other types of merchandise under the masthead.

C) It reverts back to DC and they sit on it for a while.

Just curious.
 
spinc said:
I still think that old Tim Bruckner Superman sculpt is one of the best Superman figures out there, excluding the articulation of course. For years he was the best Superman I had, even when I got a few Mcfarlane figures. Last year he was released from service thanks to the Mafex DKR Superman, but still, that sculpt, those proportions were amazing. Nobody sculpts like that anymore.

DSC04170.jpg


I honestly wish somebody would take that sculpt and simply add modern articulation to it. Who wouldn't want one? This figure looks like Superman the most out of any I've seen.

I even have Tim Bruckner's action figure book, Pop Sculpture. A great look at how action figures were made back in the day. They were a true art back then, nowdays less so I think.
Click to expand...
That Superman was the start of my DC collection, and he remained in the display until a couple years ago. He's in a bin now, but I doubt I'll ever sell him off as he's just such an incredible sculpt. His articulation is the only downside.
Xavion2025 said:
The other downside for me, and this just comes with the territory when you’re doing unique sculpts, is inconsistency. The DCD Golden Age JSA, as a collective, was all over the place in terms of scale and aesthetics.

I still like the idea behind the line. It would just need to be executed better if they were to ever try it again.
Click to expand...
One of the biggest issues with DCD was the lack of a cohesive, line-wide scale. Most of the time the figures within a wave would scale okay together, but put two different waves together and they looked all wrong. They also did a lot of artist specific stuff, which is fine if you are ONLY collecting figures from a specific run or storyline, but if you're wanting your JLA and JSA to hang out together you can forget it. DCD did some great sculpts, and I still have a few sprinkled into my DCUC display (their Power Girl, while not very articulated, looks SO much better than her DCUC counterpart).

Don't get me wrong...DCD did a lot of great stuff, and made some massive improvements before the transition to McF. The quality of the figures massively improved, with breakages not being nearly as common, and the scale and style got a lot more consistent. I personally liked having another line running that could sometimes be fudged in to my DCUC collection.
 
I've still got quite a few DC Direct figures in my display that I still really like.

Some of the oldest that I still display are Spider Jersualem, Oberon, Tom Strong/Pneuman, the Preacher characters, the Endless characters, the Plantary characters, the Silver Age Daily Planet characters, the Authority characters, The Shade, Vandal Savage, Tim Hunter, Promeatha/Sophie, Enemy Ace, Smallville cheerleader Lana Lang, Fatality, Starman, Silver Age Batgirl and Batwoman, Brother Blood, Harbinger, Ganthet/Guardian, several Weaponers of Qward, Beppo, Norman McKay, Dr. Light and some of their Kingdom Come and Legion of Super Heroes figures. Those are mostly from the very early 2000s but I still have a lot of the later stuff also, but in my opinion a lot of their earlier stuff is more unique wheras a lot of the later stuff was also more likely to done also by Mattel.

I need to track down a Crimson Mist Batman. I had one and sold it and I regret that.

Mattel's DCUC line is still my favorite portion of my DC figure collection but I've certainly got a fair amount of DCD/DCC and McFarlane mixed in.
 
Last edited:
Atomic Knight said:
But an outlier in the first couple of waves is nearly essential to me. Could be Jesse Quick, could be Captain Atom, could be Superman from Gotham by Gaslight.
Click to expand...
Yeah... what the new DC line really needs is those weird, outlier characters that no one would see coming. Like.. ~checks notes~ Superman.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top