McFarlane DC Multiverse

The Suicide Squad crowdfund is definitely an interesting choice, and one I'm not entirely sure I see being as successful as the Batmobile. With that, at least you had the boost of the Snyder fanboys. We've already got 2 Margot Harleys, and granted, this may be her most famous look, but it's also from (arguably?) the weakest of all the movies. While I'm happy to have the look, I just don't know if it's one that needed to be relegated to a crowdfund, unless they had more interesting tiers. Like, the jacket is nice, but not crucial. Temporary tattoos- a one-and-done kind of thing (if used at all). And relegating swappable hands to a higher tier? Silly. Having to jump 2 whole tiers to get Joker, in a very non-Joker look, feels icky too. Not that tattoo pimp Joker is necessarily my favorite either, but you know- the purple is kind of Joker's thing. And not even giving him his machine gun, or really any accessories? At least they didn't save him for the top tier; I don't need that variant Harley at all.

If they were gonna tackle Suicide Squad at all, I'd have preferred getting other members as different tiers- Deadshot, Boomerang, El Diablo, etc. Heck, jump to the other film and finally give us Ratcatcher 2 to complete that team. It'll be interesting to watch this one, for sure. I'd certainly like this look and Leto's Joker on my shelf, but I won't be too torn up if they don't meet the goal either. Guess it all depends on price- did they happen to mention how much each tier would be?
 
Reno said:
Yep, the $35 price point is basically just going to be standard Todd-fare for the remainder of the line. He's going to try to cash in as much as he can for as long as he can.

On the McFarlane show they hinted at new licenses that are going to be announced next month. Nothing can replace this one for them, though. I sat and couldn't think of a single big license that Todd could likely get right now that would potentially move the needle. His Avatar, Dune, Anime, Walking Dead, Sports, Video Game and Movie Maniacs lines don't seem to have been at all successful. I'll be buying his Mortal Kombat Classics line, but he's had the MK license for quite some time now and obviously didn't consider it a priority until the DC license was lost. I buy his Spawn stuff, but it must not sell well or he'd do more of it. His old Image buddies don't seem to be pushing him to market their other comic figures. It will be interesting to see where he pivots. They may have to create a new interesting IP to keep market share like other smaller companies have done in recent years, but that would also likely require an improvement in quality.
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I was trying to think of a comic book superhero universe Todd could take on after the DC license expires, and I realized that no one has ever done classic Valiant Comics figures. I would personally be so down for that. Back in the 90's Valiant was right up there with Marvel and DC in popularity for several years until things went south for the whole comics industry. As you can see from my user name and avatar I was a big fan of Ninjak and pretty much the entire Valiant line. It was very popular in its heyday. I'll bet the license wouldn't be that hard to obtain and Todd would do a killer job on the figures. There are so many characters he could do.

Ninjak, X-O Manowar, Solar, Rai, Magnus Robot Fighter, Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior, Archer and Armstrong, Shadowman, Turok, the Harbinger team, The H.A.R.D. Corps, Master Darque, the Spider Aliens, and so many more.

I know it will never happen, but I would buy the hell out of that line.
 
So adding a couple more to my Todd want list... Blackfire for sure - I didn't get the previous Starfire repaint; and probably Red Tornado.

Interested to see what else gets shown at NYCC.
 
Ninjak said:
I was trying to think of a comic book superhero universe Todd could take on after the DC license expires, and I realized that no one has ever done classic Valiant Comics figures. I would personally be so down for that. Back in the 90's Valiant was right up there with Marvel and DC in popularity for several years until things went south for the whole comics industry. As you can see from my user name and avatar I was a big fan of Ninjak and pretty much the entire Valiant line. It was very popular in its heyday. I'll bet the license wouldn't be that hard to obtain and Todd would do a killer job on the figures. There are so many characters he could do.

Ninjak, X-O Manowar, Solar, Rai, Magnus Robot Fighter, Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior, Archer and Armstrong, Shadowman, Turok, the Harbinger team, The H.A.R.D. Corps, Master Darque, the Spider Aliens, and so many more.

I know it will never happen, but I would buy the hell out of that line.
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I would also buy the hell out of a Valiant line. Unfortunately the rights holders of Valiant no longer have any of the Gold Key stuff like Turok, Magnus or Solar, but even without those I would basically be all in. I just read the first 13 issues of H.A.R.D. Corps last year (it really holds up), and it got me in a Valiant fervor.

I think Todd would do well with an Image line (sans Wildstorm obviously), but I'm sure it would be hard to wrangle all of those rights to put them under one umbrella. I really just want a nice Savage Dragon, dammit! When he made Grifter in Multiverse I got so excited and started dreaming of classic WildC.A.T.s and Stormwatch figures, but I'm sure getting WB to approve Wildstorm merch is like pulling teeth for whatever reason, so that dream died pretty quickly.

I'm just hoping he keeps making comic book characters other than just Spawn. We can always use more comic book based toylines.
 
I think we can all look forward to a double dose of Walking Dead figures, both across the various shows, the comics and the invariable black and white / blood splattered "chase" editions that will be shoved at us. Todd and Kirkman seem to be pretty friendly.

I might buy a better Haunt figure if he somehow improved on the old one...and that's a mighty MIGHT!

Honestly I think he should just lean into Warner Bros. properties like Looney Tunes, or movie figures he can get rights to. Stuff NECA hasn't already scooped up. Monster Squad or other properties that suit his predilection for monstrous stuff.
 
I'm in for mullet Superman, Zero Hour Joker and Red Tornado for sure. I wish Spectre was a single release but oh well...I may never own him. The two packs are too expensive for my toy budget. My buying has slowed collecting all lines due to the price increases. I love my toys but I like spending money on other things too. What is wrong with me!? SIGH.
 
Image Comics may have been an option, but it would probably have to be an all in situation. There is a nominal “Image Universe” including all the founders material except for Jim Lee. It also includes some of Kirkman’s stuff too. Which would be the sticking point. Invincible, and I assume all related material, is now licensed to Jada Toys. An Image toy license would be kinda pointless without Invincible.

My two comic based suggestions for Todd would be Judge Dredd, and Hellboy. Both well within his wheelhouse. Both well within his scope of interest. Both are somewhat problematic in some respects.

Judge Dredd: Are North American audiences actually tuned in to these characters? Enough at least to support a toy line past a few waves? Does Todd have enough juice at this point to will it into existence? I dunno. I might buy a few just to see what they’re like.

Hellboy: A character that is everything Spawn is not. Wildly successful to begin with. Is there a below the surface rivalry between Todd and Mike? Even if there isn’t a rivalry, what would happen if Hellboy outsells Spawn? I don’t think Todd’s ego could deal. Pesky human nature. Plus side is that there are lots of visually interesting characters under the Hellboy umbrella. Even more if you include all of Mignola’s creator owned properties.

My hope is still for Todd to keep a piece of the DC license under DCD/DCC. With the blessing of DC and Warners who Todd has established a strong working relationship with. Longshot, but still maybe. Those guys on Todd TV seem pretty upbeat.
 
I gotta wonder if the man just actively hates Harley. I'd buy the first Suicide Squad movie Harley (one of the few things I liked about that first movie her costume design) but I legit don't want a Leto Joker at all or need all the bells and whistles. Gotta give Todd credit as a mercenary merchant - he's going to squeeze all the blood from this stone before it's over and I can't blame him for that, though he could make it EASIER to separate us from our money. I didn't have the time or patience to chase the figures yesterday but might've picked up Batgirl and Scarecrow if they'd still been available by the time I got around to it.

It blows my mind how I got into this line because they were so cheap and so easy to buy and as we leave it's become "I may never actually see any of the figures I want to pay 40% more for than I would have two years ago."
 
docsilence said:
It blows my mind how I got into this line because they were so cheap and so easy to buy and as we leave it's become "I may never actually see any of the figures I want to pay 40% more for than I would have two years ago."
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Correct. The buying experience for the fans has become worse and worse as the line went on. What the hell happened?
 
Duckmobile is 100 bucks. Making a difficult, expensive day even more so. Glad I’m not in for this live action stuff. Good luck fellas.
 
Atomic Knight said:
Duckmobile is 100 bucks. Making a difficult, expensive day even more so. Glad I’m not in for this live action stuff. Good luck fellas.
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That's the price I expected.

After shipping and tax it's going to be close to $200 for the five figures, $100 for the Duck, $300 for the lot. Still undecided on the Duck.
 
Pro tip: If you’re buying from the McFarlane Toy Store, start checking about 10 of 12:00 and scroll down from the top a little bit. Sometimes the new stuff is not top of the page.
 
yojoebro82 said:
That's the price I expected.

After shipping and tax it's going to be close to $200 for the five figures, $100 for the Duck, $300 for the lot. Still undecided on the Duck.
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Yeah, it's all actually pretty manageable if you want the whole wave. In fact, with tariffs and the opportunity to squeeze a little extra out of customers (the "first ever", "Batman Returns", "its a duck" tax), I was expecting the duck to be closer to $125. $100 is great, in my opinion.

I'm torn on the "mayoral" Penguin figure, simply because I have the NECA 1/4 scale version on a shelf and I'm not sure I need that look in this scale, I'd probably be pretty happy with just onesie Pengy in his duck. But, it would also be easier to just hit purchase on the bundle that McFarlane will definitely have on his site and then I don't have to worry about adding things one at a time or the site being slow and missing out. Bundle is just a one and done click. Decisions, decisions lol
 
Think I've decided against the Duckmobile, but I may try and snag that Penguin loose somewhere. If anyone wants the duck but not the driver, let me know. And as always, may the toy gods be in your favor today!
 
Finally had some luck with the Returns figures. Kept an eye on the ToyShiz links; the bundle popped up first on MTS, and I didn't feel like waiting for the others, so I went ahead and snagged it. Right about the time the order went through, Max popped up on GameStop, and I snagged him and Scarecrow from yesterday. Easy peasy, in and out, as all things should be.

EDIT- looks like Max is showing up in searches on GameStop, but when you click the product page, it gives an error message. Don't know if that means he's sold out, got put up early, the site is crashing, or what, but hopefully it doesn't spell disaster for anyone who got orders through.
 
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