Mattel DC Figures

Okay well then I guess we’ll see what the future holds. Hopefully we have some idea of what those figures will look like in time for Toy Fair. But if not, I’ll remain suspect and cautious.

Honestly even if we see a peak at the adult collector line that DC has in store and we’re treated to something like a Long Halloween Batman or a Deadman or Swamp Thing inspired by Kelly Jones I might just loose my shit. But I don’t know if Mattel is capable of even recognizing nuance and artistic accuracy


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So since I’m just a tad curious about what the future holds, if we are expecting to see a Batman and Robin figure in the first assortment of these figures (and god knows if this will be for the 7” brand, 6.5” mainline or for kids 12 and under) but what iterations of these characters could we expect first? Are we thinking it’s going to be concurrent? So post Rebirth, maybe something from the World’s Finest comic by Mark Waid? Or are we thinking post modern like Hush Era? Or will it be the institutional /classic George Perez/Jose Louis Garcia-Lopez era of the DCU?


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BATMAN (2025-) #1 | DC

A new day dawns for the Dark Knight Detective as Eisner Award-winning writer Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen) joins forces with superstar artist Jorge Jiménez (Batman, Summer of Superman Special) for an unforgettable new era of Batman!
www.dc.com www.dc.com

Take me to bed or lose me forever.
 
Stoopid_Sandwich said:
So since I’m just a tad curious about what the future holds, if we are expecting to see a Batman and Robin figure in the first assortment of these figures (and god knows if this will be for the 7” brand, 6.5” mainline or for kids 12 and under) but what iterations of these characters could we expect first? Are we thinking it’s going to be concurrent? So post Rebirth, maybe something from the World’s Finest comic by Mark Waid? Or are we thinking post modern like Hush Era? Or will it be the institutional /classic George Perez/Jose Louis Garcia-Lopez era of the DCU?
Click to expand...
Leaving it up to me, I’d fully embrace the idea of the modern DCU regarding comic based figures. This is regardless of who the manufacturer is. To me that’s Dawn of DC and after. Love Perez and JLGL, but just no. Connect the figure line to the comics as directly as possible given the year long lag time.

I’d supplement that with the more mainstream Multiverse stuff. Including the newer stuff like DC vs Vampires and DCeased. And a great catch all for “classic” stuff would be a line of event figures. Also supplemental.

My personal belief is that the figures shouldn’t exist in a bubble. If they can time figures for movies, then they can do it for comics. If a little less precisely.
 
altcunningham said:

BATMAN (2025-) #1 | DC

A new day dawns for the Dark Knight Detective as Eisner Award-winning writer Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen) joins forces with superstar artist Jorge Jiménez (Batman, Summer of Superman Special) for an unforgettable new era of Batman!
www.dc.com www.dc.com

Take me to bed or lose me forever.
Click to expand...

I think this look is a little unlikely. It takes two years to develop a figure and this costume just debuted a couple of months ago. If they already have prototypes available to show by Toy Fair then I think this design is a little far fetched. The Dan Mora costume that was introduced two years ago with the v cut panel lines on his torso feels a little more likely


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The last time Mattel held a DC license we were led to believe that DC had the final say on figure iteration. For instance ‘Classics’ took a hike because DC wanted modern versions on the shelf. I think if Mattel had their way costume designs would be more evergreen but we will see. I am not expecting much, these are for the masses not the corner of the room that we - the collectors live in. Like it or not I do not believe the money is with collector demands. Again we will see, at 53 with 25 years ‘serious’ collecting I won’t be devastated if Mattel offers little. I love my DCUC and would never part with them.
 
We should hesitate to think that modern comic books have a broad readership. Do with that whatever you will. I mean the model is ML; you do both classic and specific modern looks. Particularly for the A and B tier characters. Its a "hydro blast Batman" 90s still alternate that makes sense. To the casual its just Batman; not Long Halloween Batman.
 
I would assume DC will still have tremendous input and it will come down to either whatever they think will sell or whatever they want to push.
 
PanchaMaestro said:
We should hesitate to think that modern comic books have a broad readership. Do with that whatever you will. I mean the model is ML; you do both classic and specific modern looks. Particularly for the A and B tier characters. Its a "hydro blast Batman" 90s still alternate that makes sense. To the casual its just Batman; not Long Halloween Batman.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I was just reading a Bleeding Cool article about how Ultimate, Absolute, and Energon have quite literally saved various comic shops from bankruptcy. Sales have been strong enough to encourage new shops to open or expand. My personal hope is that DC Next Level piles it on for new sales.

I don’t know that there is a direct correlation to sales of action figures and new comics, but common sense would suggest an intersection at some point. But to my knowledge, Hasbro hasn’t indulged in any Ultimate figures as yet.
 
There definitely used to be a correlation, or at least the belief there was. All of these companies just view toys as merch to push their main drivers of revenue. It's still relatively recently where the collector market has become the main one for action figures allowing us to get classic interpretations of characters more often. And even then, we still see stuff like Rivals penetrate Legends decision making. Unless DC thinks McFarlane was way off the mark with its approach, I would assume a similar mix from Mattel.
 
Bananaman said:
The last time Mattel held a DC license we were led to believe that DC had the final say on figure iteration. For instance ‘Classics’ took a hike because DC wanted modern versions on the shelf. I think if Mattel had their way costume designs would be more evergreen but we will see. I am not expecting much, these are for the masses not the corner of the room that we - the collectors live in. Like it or not I do not believe the money is with collector demands. Again we will see, at 53 with 25 years ‘serious’ collecting I won’t be devastated if Mattel offers little. I love my DCUC and would never part with them.
Click to expand...
Worth pointing out that the last time Mattel held the DC license, the mouthpiece for Mattel was a massive liar. So...
 
Yeah, merchandise is used to fill out the bottom line. But there’s sometimes a random element in the mix. IIRC, Jim Lee is an action figure collector, or at least was. So was Geoff Johns. DiDio wasn’t, but liked having cool stuff on display in his office. It’s the kind of thing that DCD/DCC spoke to directly. Not the kind of thing Mattel would worry too much about.

However, if someone isn’t looking into retail versions of the Absolute characters, heads should roll.
 
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