McFarlane DC Multiverse

It's funny how a lot of complaints that were true early on in McFarlane's DC run, but aren't true now, are still being continually brought up by some people as examples of why they're glad McFarlane is losing the DC license.

Complaint:
"Todd only makes Batman and Batman related figures."

Reality:
McFarlane's DC line has not only expanded to include the entirety of popular DC characters, to the point you can now complete like 4 different eras of the Justice League, but the line has also gone deep into the fringes of the DCU to include such characters as Ambush Bug, Ragman, Jonah Hex, Psycho Pirate, Kite Man, Swamp Thing, The Question, Shining Knight, Frankenstein, Darkstars, New Gods, and etc.

Complaint:
"Todd hates women and doesn't make any female characters."

Reality:
McFarlane DC Multiverse has released multiple versions of Wonder Woman, Super Girl, Batgirl, Power Girl, Huntress, Hawkgirl, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and others as well as figures of Superwoman, Batwoman, Batwoman Beyond, Fire, Poison Ivy, Punchline, Carrie Kelly (Robin), Steph Brown (Robin), as well as announced upcoming releases of Black Canary, Zatanna, and comic Poison Ivy, etc.

So, if you don't like McFarlane's DC figures for whatever reason (sculpt, scale, articulation) that's perfectly fine, just say so. But don't keep rehashing the same tired old arguments that aren't even true just to try to justify your dislike for the line.

This is not directed at any particular individual. It's just something that I've noticed a lot on message boards and in comment sections, and I find it kind of disingenuous and petty. It's like some people out there have a serious case of "Todd Derangement Syndrome". LOL
 
I found the Merciless/Batman Who Laughs two-pack at GameStop, but I just couldn't pull the trigger at $79.99. Do you know if it's an exclusive there?
 
Ninjak said:
It's funny how a lot of complaints that were true early on in McFarlane's DC run, but aren't true now, are still being continually brought up by some people as examples of why they're glad McFarlane is losing the DC license.

Complaint:
"Todd only makes Batman and Batman related figures."

Reality:
McFarlane's DC line has not only expanded to include the entirety of popular DC characters, to the point you can now complete like 4 different eras of the Justice League, but the line has also gone deep into the fringes of the DCU to include such characters as Ambush Bug, Ragman, Jonah Hex, Psycho Pirate, Kite Man, Swamp Thing, The Question, Shining Knight, Frankenstein, Darkstars, New Gods, and etc.

Complaint:
"Todd hates women and doesn't make any female characters."

Reality:
McFarlane DC Multiverse has released multiple versions of Wonder Woman, Super Girl, Batgirl, Power Girl, Huntress, Hawkgirl, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and others as well as figures of Superwoman, Batwoman, Batwoman Beyond, Fire, Poison Ivy, Punchline, Carrie Kelly (Robin), Steph Brown (Robin), as well as announced upcoming releases of Black Canary, Zatanna, and comic Poison Ivy, etc.

So, if you don't like McFarlane's DC figures for whatever reason (sculpt, scale, articulation) that's perfectly fine, just say so. But don't keep rehashing the same tired old arguments that aren't even true just to try to justify your dislike for the line.

This is not directed at any particular individual. It's just something that I've noticed a lot on message boards and in comment sections, and I find it kind of disingenuous and petty. It's like some people out there have a serious case of "Todd Derangement Syndrome". LOL
Click to expand...
I remember when people couldn’t wait until Mattel to lose the license and that the 7” scale was superior to 6” scale.
 
I saw probably the most logical buy/return repack on the shelf at Walmart today. Someone had taken a Jade figure from its package and put a Target exclusive Fire in its place. Still strapped into the plastic tray to boot. Wish I had thought to get a picture. " Yeah this figure is green so it's all good we will take it back" 🤣
 
Ninjak said:
It's funny how a lot of complaints that were true early on in McFarlane's DC run, but aren't true now, are still being continually brought up by some people as examples of why they're glad McFarlane is losing the DC license.

Complaint:
"Todd only makes Batman and Batman related figures."

Reality:
McFarlane's DC line has not only expanded to include the entirety of popular DC characters, to the point you can now complete like 4 different eras of the Justice League, but the line has also gone deep into the fringes of the DCU to include such characters as Ambush Bug, Ragman, Jonah Hex, Psycho Pirate, Kite Man, Swamp Thing, The Question, Shining Knight, Frankenstein, Darkstars, New Gods, and etc.

Complaint:
"Todd hates women and doesn't make any female characters."

Reality:
McFarlane DC Multiverse has released multiple versions of Wonder Woman, Super Girl, Batgirl, Power Girl, Huntress, Hawkgirl, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and others as well as figures of Superwoman, Batwoman, Batwoman Beyond, Fire, Poison Ivy, Punchline, Carrie Kelly (Robin), Steph Brown (Robin), as well as announced upcoming releases of Black Canary, Zatanna, and comic Poison Ivy, etc.

So, if you don't like McFarlane's DC figures for whatever reason (sculpt, scale, articulation) that's perfectly fine, just say so. But don't keep rehashing the same tired old arguments that aren't even true just to try to justify your dislike for the line.

This is not directed at any particular individual. It's just something that I've noticed a lot on message boards and in comment sections, and I find it kind of disingenuous and petty. It's like some people out there have a serious case of "Todd Derangement Syndrome". LOL
Click to expand...
I think it's one of those "two things can be true at once" scenarios. Todd does do a lot of Batman- which is more than fine by me. I love Batman more than any other hero, but I can certainly see how someone would get fatigued, especially when their favorite hero is neglected in favor of another Batsy. Just from a business standpoint, I get why Todd does a lot of Batman- he sells like nobody's business, and there's a lot of potential to reuse parts. Even with all the Batmans he's produced, they all sell pretty dang well. It's guaranteed money, so one could argue Todd would be foolish not to do as much. He's the "anchor" character, so to speak. But when it comes down to it, he's done more Batman figures in his short tenure than maybe any other company has ever done. Mattel gave us a heck of a lot, granted, but it felt more spread out.

And sure, Todd has given us a fair amount of females, but it took him a while to really get around to it. The first handful of waves were all pretty sparse in that department- there was some Harley, some Wonder Woman, etc., but didn't get around to other heavy hitters until much later (or just recently). There's still a fair amount of heavy-ish hitters he hasn't, and probably won't, get around to- Black Canary, Star Sapphire, comic Cheetah, Talia al Ghul, etc. Not all, but a lot of the earlier female figures seemed to have to have some extra "cool" element to them- Last Knight on Earth Wonder Woman, The Drowned, Dark Knight Metals Wonder Woman, Mcfarlane designed Wonder Woman, Batwoman Beyond, etc. He didn't seem to want to release just a plain female figure, aside from the first wave's Harley and Batgirl. Those first few waves/years- almost all the female figures were variations of the same character- a bunch of Harleys, Batgirls, and a bunch of Wonder Womans (could have been because of the hype of the movie, but still), but not just a classic look WW. Todd's said he wanted to give some variety and give versions people normally wouldn't get from other lines, and I do believe him for the most part. But it seemed like he was kinda missing the point- a lot of fans didn't want a "cool" version of the character, they just wanted the character as they normally look, but Todd didn't think that would appeal to young male collectors. Even when it came to movies, we'd get 1 female character in those early days- movie Wonder Woman, but no Cheetah. TSS Harley, but no Ratcatcher II. That changed a bit as it went along, granted- we got Cyclone, we got B&R Ivy AND Batgirl, which surprised a lot of people. Todd can not want to make female characters because they don't sell, and he can also be proven right in that (like in the case of Black Adam Cyclone, etc.) He can give us female characters, but it may take time and demand to get him to come around to it. Especially when comparing the roster of his figures to DC Universe Classics, there seems to be much more variety in the latter.

Again, I think it's not quiiiiiite as simple as we'd like it to be, and ultimately it comes down to a matter of opinion. For some people, the amount of Batman figures he makes is perfect, for others it's too much. For some, the amount of female figures he makes is lacking, to others it's just right. When it comes down to it, almost all sides are right in this scenario. There's no right or wrong way to run a toyline, ultimately. Todd certainly has some interesting views, and sometimes sticks to his guns a little too much, but it's his company, and he can do what he wants. That said, he does often listen to fans too, and tries his best to give them what they want, or so it seems. I give him a lot of flak, some deserved, some undeserved. I do think that, despite all the hubbub, most fans are relatively easy to please. It's a balance of giving them what they want and telling them what else you're going to do. If nothing else, I admire the amount of big swings that he takes in order to try and give fans something different. Doesn't always work out- it can often be frustrating when we seem to be running ourselves ragged telling him what we want, but sometimes it's a really interesting swing that really hits home. Who'd have thought we'd be getting a wave of Batman & Robin movie figures 20-ish years after the fact? Only Todd! Which is part of what makes him losing the license all the more frustrating, because it does really seem like he was starting to hit a pretty good stride.
 
Ninjak said:
It's funny how a lot of complaints that were true early on in McFarlane's DC run, but aren't true now, are still being continually brought up by some people as examples of why they're glad McFarlane is losing the DC license.

Complaint:
"Todd only makes Batman and Batman related figures."

Reality:
McFarlane's DC line has not only expanded to include the entirety of popular DC characters, to the point you can now complete like 4 different eras of the Justice League, but the line has also gone deep into the fringes of the DCU to include such characters as Ambush Bug, Ragman, Jonah Hex, Psycho Pirate, Kite Man, Swamp Thing, The Question, Shining Knight, Frankenstein, Darkstars, New Gods, and etc.

Complaint:
"Todd hates women and doesn't make any female characters."

Reality:
McFarlane DC Multiverse has released multiple versions of Wonder Woman, Super Girl, Batgirl, Power Girl, Huntress, Hawkgirl, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and others as well as figures of Superwoman, Batwoman, Batwoman Beyond, Fire, Poison Ivy, Punchline, Carrie Kelly (Robin), Steph Brown (Robin), as well as announced upcoming releases of Black Canary, Zatanna, and comic Poison Ivy, etc.

So, if you don't like McFarlane's DC figures for whatever reason (sculpt, scale, articulation) that's perfectly fine, just say so. But don't keep rehashing the same tired old arguments that aren't even true just to try to justify your dislike for the line.

This is not directed at any particular individual. It's just something that I've noticed a lot on message boards and in comment sections, and I find it kind of disingenuous and petty. It's like some people out there have a serious case of "Todd Derangement Syndrome". LOL
Click to expand...
My #1 reason for wanting to see the license move on is that I don’t like companies that make things I want, but can’t buy (or have to jump through hoops to get). This isn’t exclusive to McFarlane, but this company is by far the worst. There are times when close to 50% of releases are chase figures, and it is infinitely more egregious when it is an original character or the preferred look for a character. I’m not interested in reliving the 90’s or collecting Funko Pops, take this nonsense somewhere else.

I don’t like the lack of scale consistency. Again, not exclusive to McFarlane, but still one of the worst. Apparently they inherited this from DC Direct.

I don’t like the 1:10 scale that much for DC, I prefer 1:12. However, I acknowledge that this nothing more than my own preference and not something inherently wrong with the line or company.

I love the fact that they revived Super Powers, but a lot of the early figures they did were quite bad, and they kept reusing those molds, even when they had better options. And the lack of females in this line is sad.

I love the DC Retro releases, no complaints here except for the aforementioned chase figures.

I’m happy that they are doing new characters for BTAS, but they are locked behind a $120+ paywall of figures I already own, but of worse quality, covered in horrible “cell-shading” and with terrible distribution. And this from a company whose owner stated in an interview that they would not do BAFs that force you to buy a bunch of figures you don’t want. However, full credit for making this line available again for people who missed it the first time, including the vehicles, and especially for making the unreleased Jokermobile.

I love the Batmobiles and Batman movie figure releases. Likenesses can be a bit rough, but that is true across companies. I just setup a whole display for these, and it looks pretty damn good.

I fully acknowledge that McFarlane Toys has done some awesome stuff that Mattel will likely never do, but at the end of the day, the cons outweighs the pros for me.
 
How many of those female characters were only released in the last year? Jade, Power Girl, Spoiler, Hawkgirl, Huntress - am I forgetting one? How many females did we get from 2025 Superman? Zero of three options.

Feel free to give him a pass on this point, but I won't.

I'm still pissed about Beast Boy. Almost did a deal for one for almost $200 today and just realized I would never be able to open the figure and I would also always resent the figure. Because for some reason, he got limited to a physical booth at a convention. In 2025. What. The. F....
 
I was able to get a pre order in on Amazon for Mirror Master a minute ago. I don't know if they will cancel it or if it will actually ship come Oct 1, but we'll see. Hopefully I can just find one in person soon. But today at Wal-Mart and Gamestop, no luck.
 
To be honest, as someone who only bought a few of Mcfarlane's offerings, what I dislike the most- well apart from the fact that his figures don't like to stand very well and of course, sporadic distribution where I live- is the articulation. Specifically the poor way it is implemented. It has the right amount of joints, but the joints themselves are not designed to give the most range of movement, to feel nice in hand, to create fluid poses. There's some worse than others of course, but even the best figures in the line don't feel much more posable than the worst marvel legends figure (and marvel legends usually aren't that good articulation-wise).

It doesn't help that the way they construct their joints is weird and badly executed. There's so much potential, in the hands of a great designer and sculptor, but I haven't seen a single figure that is really nicely articulated and can do whatever you want with it. Look at what Jada is doing, for a similarly-priced example. Compare how joints feel, how much range they get, how much smoother the posing is. How poses kinda just fall onto place with minimal effort. I don't get that feeling with my Mcfarlane figures, at least not with the ones I have. And it's not even only me talking about it, in my country they are known as "McStiffs" for being so hard to pose and having such poor range of motion. And it doesn't help that here Mcfarlane figures sell for double to triple the retail price thanks to import taxes and retailer markups.

There are many other problems of course (headsculpts are usually misses, sculpts can be weirdly soft and under-detailed, little to none accessories, lack of fisted hands for most figures, poor character and costume choices, the lack of traditional looks for most of the line, etc). The truth is, when the line started I had a lot of hopes that we would finally get a fantastic DC line of figures, but now that the line's ending, I think we didn't get that. I hope others enjoyed it more than I did, but the line had really good ideas with really poor execution, and that's just disappointing. It's not like I expect Mattel to do what Mcfarlane didn't, so I guess I'm stuck with looking out for import figures for my DC characters. At the very least, I enjoyed the figures I did get, but man they could have been so much more.
 
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