McFarlane DC Multiverse

The DC Direct branding itself is one part of this that does make me curious. I know that when Todd got the DC license he acquired the DC Direct brand including their warehouse of already produced but undistributed goods. I wonder if he will still have any rights to that or if that will follow the license to Mattel. It seems more likely to me that he's negotiating with DC about making statues (or "posed figures") like he currently does for Marvel rather than articulated action figures, but only time will tell.
 
Reno said:
The DC Direct branding itself is one part of this that does make me curious. I know that when Todd got the DC license he acquired the DC Direct brand including their warehouse of already produced but undistributed goods. I wonder if he will still have any rights to that or if that will follow the license to Mattel. It seems more likely to me that he's negotiating with DC about making statues (or "posed figures") like he currently does for Marvel rather than articulated action figures, but only time will tell.
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Yeah, I could see that being viable.. but DC Direct also has no retail presence. Its comic shops and specialty outlets only... I suppose McFarlane could try to leverage his existing relationships with those retailers to change that... but it would have to be a careful dance that didnt infringe on Mattel's master license agreement.
 
PantherCult said:
Yeah, I could see that being viable.. but DC Direct also has no retail presence. Its comic shops and specialty outlets only... I suppose McFarlane could try to leverage his existing relationships with those retailers to change that... but it would have to be a careful dance that didnt infringe on Mattel's master license agreement.
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Not entirely true. DCD produces the Digital waves and the Page Punchers. Both of which I’ve found at various retailers and online. It could be a loophole of a sort. Or not. No idea really.

I dunno what’s gonna happen. I enjoy what Todd’s been doing and I’m not starting over. Especially in a new scale. I’d like to see Todd continue for a few more years. But to the guys who say it’s probably over for Todd, you’re probably right. I’ll still try to hold out some hope without being a Pollyanna.

My main concern is what’s changed at Mattel in the last five years? Aside from no more Toy Guru.
 
Pretty good day for me.

Got the call for Supergirl, Fleischer Supes, and Silver Age Supes at GameStop.

Huntress was on clearance so finally liberated the one gathering dust on a shelf.

And then the staff had found a plat Power Girl and figured I'd want it since I had inquired about it when I picked mine up last week.

Love Supergirl. Captures Bilquis Evely's art perfectly, and despite the constant wind blown hair, it just knocks out the old Target one.

Both Superman figures are perfection and basically what I picture in my head when I think of Superman.

I'm not the biggest McFarlane DC collector, but lately they have been delivering bangers for the characters I like. Can't believe it took this long to get Wonder Woman and some basic characters like this, but I'm glad it did take this long because at this point the line is firing on all cylinders for most releases.

I don't trust Mattel, even MOTU varies wildly for me. I like the new Evil Lyn sculpt and paint wise but the articulation is bootycheeks in 2025. And they had it earlier so.... Anyway, great job, Todd. Can't wait to add my year one Batman to my Trinity and call it.
 
It really is so weird how this line works out. I feel like after my first few figures it's been push-pull and this year's been just amplifying it. There's never just a clean win - great character choice but hard to get. Great sculpt but sells out. Hot figure but there's something weird about the chase.

I'll admit, if Mattel goes 1/12 I'll start over because I desperately want DC figures that scale with other lines for fun action figure pics. If they go MOTU scale, probably not. And I like Masterverse a lot, but it's just not different enough.

I'm buying more McFarlane than I would have anticipated knowing the license is moving - got notification from Gamestop, which was the only place I could get a few of these guys, that Bizarro, Supergirl, Doctor Fate, and Two-Face are on the move soon. At least with the ones who have chase options here I don't care which one I get. I'll be happy with either. And it'll be nice to get a good Supergirl - I never found "weird boot paint choice" Supergirl and the Injustice one is okay, but not amazing.
 
I’d like to have seen Todd hold the DC license for 10-12 years. A period of time in which we could reasonably see him get to just about all of the A and B list characters of the Justice League, Justice Society, and the Titans. As well as miscellaneous others and some deep cuts. I’m not sure what’s going to happen but I’m not short sighted enough to underestimate Todd or just write him off. Do so at your own peril.

As I get closer to retirement age, or at least thinking about it age, Todd dipping out would make it pretty easy. Except I still enjoy it, and I’m not sure I’m ready to quit. All of my DCD and DCUC figures are gone. This is the hill I die on as a collector. If 2026 is it, so be it.

Mattel clearly wanted the license back, and backed it up with a lot of cash. But has anything really changed at Mattel since 2019? Toy Guru is gone. Thankfully. Jim Lee is for all intents and purposes, the head of DC. James Gunn has taken over the media side, but none of those things have anything to do with Mattel. TG was gone before Mattel lost the license.

In 2018 and 2019, Mattel scaled up on a lot of DC figures. Noticeably on the teen male figures. Beast Boy, Kid Flash, and Robin were larger and had bigger proportions than the adult male figures from DCUC. Many, if not most of these figures from the last two years were not close to compatible with DCUC. There is no guarantee that whatever Mattel produces will scale with the DC figures they made circa 2005-2017. Has QC gotten better? Distribution?

What if Mattel sticks with 7” scale?

As I said, I’m not writing off Todd yet because there are way too many moving parts right now and too many questions to answer. I’ve read the press releases. It says “worldwide rights”. Nothing I’ve seen says “exclusive”. Perhaps I’m grasping at straws. But I do so full of self awareness.
 
Gardner Grayle said:
I’d like to have seen Todd hold the DC license for 10-12 years. A period of time in which we could reasonably see him get to just about all of the A and B list characters of the Justice League, Justice Society, and the Titans.
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He's gotten a reasonable amount of popular DC characters out in just the last few months and there's some more good stuff on the horizon. All in the last year. Imagine where we would be if he hadn't spent the first four years on Batman? At the rate he gets stuff out, you wouldn't have needed ten years.

Anyway, I saw a preview of the Corenswet (sp?) Superman. Looking pretty good so far.
 
I stopped at the Target near work and it looked like they had filled the pegs with McFarlane figures. In the toy aisle there was a Red Platinum Nightmaster along with Superman, Tempest & Dark Flash. There were also 2 Red Platinum Batman Begins Scarecrow figures along with the Batman 89 & Batman Begins Batman. Also, a bunch of Wildcat & Commander Steel figures. I already found Nightmaster & Scarecrow, so I passed.

In the Collectors section there were regular & platinum Adam Strange & Deadshot figures but no Batman Year 2 figures. I picked up the regular versions but I wasn't interested in the platinum versions. They also had 2 Digital Superman figures, a regular & platinum Digital Dr. Fate figures but no Two-Face figures. I picked up the regular Dr. Fate but I didn't care for the gold & dark blue version.

I can't believe there were 6 platinum figures in one store at the same time.
 
altcunningham said:
Pretty good day for me.

Got the call for Supergirl, Fleischer Supes, and Silver Age Supes at GameStop.
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They came in already at Gamestop!? The website shows 4/29 release date still. I am dying to get that call from Gamestop! He is one of my most anticipated figures this year and I preordered him at the store as soon as he went up.
 
Sgt. Stinky said:
They came in already at Gamestop!? The website shows 4/29 release date still. I am dying to get that call from Gamestop! He is one of my most anticipated figures this year and I preordered him at the store as soon as he went up.
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I would clarify Canada GameStop, but I saw elsewhere that the US should also be having these now.
 
Really disappointed with the Kaiju figure. I was hoping it would have regular mega fig articulation
 
What's the story with #4, Lex, and Terrific? Later preorders? Is Todd really only going to give us half of the JLI and not Guy or Hawkgirl?
 
thewyldman said:
Really disappointed with the Kaiju figure. I was hoping it would have regular mega fig articulation
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While I agree that Kaiju is ass - 5 points of articlatuon? Really? - It is more or less consistent with the previous King Kong and Titano 'mega fig' releases... which were also barely articulateed hunks of junk.
 
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