Mattel DC Figures

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Is the ending of DCUC due to Rainbiw Lanterns and/ Super Powers figures a factual thing, or assumptions? My assumption was DCUC line ended because DC/WB decided New 52 only and wanted products to mirror this shift. The New 52 launched September 2011, DCUC ended 2012 and DCD drastically reduced output and shifted to New 52 at the same time.

Personally, I loved the Super Powers and Super Friends figures, but I agree the Rainbow Lanterns were unnecessary. DCD had already done them, and while the articulation may not have been there, they were better looking figures with unique sculpts. Also, the Anti-Monitor figure was in his least desirable costume (credit to McFarlane for doing a better version). And while I’m happy to blame Neitlich for so many of the things that went wrong, this wave may have been dictated by WB due to the release of the Green Lantern movie. The market was flooded with GL product during this time. DCUC and Batman Legacy had another few waves of decent releases after.
 
Atomic Knight said:
Reading over the last several pages, it seems like everyone has an opinion or an idea. All equally valid. And the almost inescapable conclusion that I come to is that no matter what Mattel does, we (adult collectors) will remain unsatisfied for the most part.

Mattel in many ways would be better off to just write us off. Forget we exist. No upside to having us.
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That's an overly nihilistic reading of everything here. My personal takeaway is that if you just make universally good DC toys for the first time literally ever, people will be ecstatic. The most overly nitpicky nerds ever (no shade, I am also this guy) going "Well, they haven't made the entire Sivana family and every single major ape character from pre-New 52!" is not representative of the overall happiness people will have with the line.

AceofKnaves said:
Change can be scary, I suppose.

Although when talking about “adult collectors” some of us need to remember that an “adult collector” might not be in their 40s/50s with a huge amount of toy-baggage. An adult collector could be a person in their 20s who never had a chance to build a DC figure collection and is just starting.

I think some of us say “adult” and mean “late-middle aged men”.
🤷‍♂️
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That guy is me. I have a handful of DCUC, DCSH, and Mattel DCM releases, mostly Azrael, Aquaman, most of the Atom Smasher wave (including the BAF), and supernatural characters, but never even bought a Batman toy. Ever. Because they all kinda suck, or are too expensive. Give me a good Batman at retail prices for the first time literally ever, and I will bite. I love basically every corner of DC. I just need good toys of those characters.
 
scottg10 said:
Is the ending of DCUC due to Rainbiw Lanterns and/ Super Powers figures a factual thing, or assumptions?
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For me, it is second-hand information from Mattel. For you... it is third-hand information from me that you can choose to believe or discard as you will and I won't be upset either way as I can't/won't say anything else to verify it so I understand how that comes across.

What -I- was told was that neither Rainbow Lanterns nor Super Powers were directives from DC, and were, in fact, Scott being given more authority than he'd had before over character selection. There were always figures in waves that were Scott's darlings, but apparently 15-16 were the first he had a lot of say in (the Validus and Bane waves), and 17 (Rainbow Lanterns) and 18 (Super Powers) were mostly Scott.

17 and 18 sold horribly and sales didn't really bounce back enough for waves 19 and 20 -- with the line already being cancelled internally before wave 20 wrapped production. Wave 20 was released in early 2012. MOTUC was still going and was seen as Scott's chance to prove himself - but (probably no fault of Scott, really, as MOTUC had burned through all its major and even secondary characters) MOTUC sales were declining as well throughout 2013. MOTUC was internally cancelled after the 2014/15 line-up (after it was finalized, I mean - but before it was released), which was already at the factory. Scott put in his resignation in 2014 -- because (my speculation here) there was just nowhere left in Mattel for him to run. Both of the lines he was in charge of had basically collapsed as he'd gotten more control of them, but his name was still big enough that other companies wanted to hire him.

Obviously, they quickly realized he fucking sucked at everything, since he flounced around to two of three different toy companies in as many years and then decided to stick to a YouTube channel where he literally -looks- unemployed.


Anyway... I'm confident enough in my sources to believe everything up there is fact besides the thing I labeled as my own speculation. But, as I said at the top, you are in no way obligated to just believe me.
 
Damien said:
For me, it is second-hand information from Mattel. For you... it is third-hand information from me that you can choose to believe or discard as you will and I won't be upset either way as I can't/won't say anything else to verify it so I understand how that comes across.

What -I- was told was that neither Rainbow Lanterns nor Super Powers were directives from DC, and were, in fact, Scott being given more authority than he'd had before over character selection. There were always figures in waves that were Scott's darlings, but apparently 15-16 were the first he had a lot of say in (the Validus and Bane waves), and 17 (Rainbow Lanterns) and 18 (Super Powers) were mostly Scott.
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Thanks, I appreciate the insight. It was mainly a question of curiosity, it was so long ago and Neitlich is long gone, so it doesn't really matter at this point. I know corporations tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over, but hopefully they've learned enough since then to not to let one man's ego tank an entire product line.
 
God wave 17 pisses me off so bad. Who the fuck genuinely believes anyone would buy all this shit, let alone all at once?

I'm still waiting on Bleez. She's been high up on my wishlist for any and every DC line. Surprised we've somehow never gotten her. Same goes for all Lantern girls, actually.
 
Niko (protozoalord) said:
That's an overly nihilistic reading of everything here. My personal takeaway is that if you just make universally good DC toys for the first time literally ever, people will be ecstatic. The most overly nitpicky nerds ever (no shade, I am also this guy) going "Well, they haven't made the entire Sivana family and every single major ape character from pre-New 52!" is not representative of the overall happiness people will have with the line.
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I’m glad you said that, because it’s given me some much needed perspective on my own posts. If the figures are good, I’m going to be on board in some capacity. I’m making myself out to be much more difficult than I am by presenting things I’d like to see as demands.
 
Neitlich was reportedly an enormous Green Lantern fan. So was his counterpart, Bill Benecke who was design lead, I believe. Neitlich went so far as to use the prop Green Lantern ring from DCD as his wedding band. The raised profile of Green Lantern at the time with the movie and Geoff Johns as lead writer on the comics gave him the perfect opportunity to push out a ton of Lantern stuff. Coincidentally, Georg Brewer at DCD was also a GL fan and did much the same thing.

Confluence of events setting up the perfect shit storm overexposing Green Lantern for a decade. Ugh.
 
I was trying to remember what the story was behind Johns involvement. I came across this link, but of course the fwoosh is down so I can't get the whole retelling or find out who made the post.

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My interest fell off a cliff after that Lantern wave.
 
Atomic Knight said:
Neitlich was reportedly an enormous Green Lantern fan. So was his counterpart, Bill Benecke who was design lead, I believe. Neitlich went so far as to use the prop Green Lantern ring from DCD as his wedding band. The raised profile of Green Lantern at the time with the movie and Geoff Johns as lead writer on the comics gave him the perfect opportunity to push out a ton of Lantern stuff. Coincidentally, Georg Brewer at DCD was also a GL fan and did much the same thing.

Confluence of events setting up the perfect shit storm overexposing Green Lantern for a decade. Ugh.
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I’m also a huge Green Lantern fan, so it worked out for me (in the short-term) and I bought it all, but I’m not going to disagree that they went too far and the movie flopping definitely did not help. Sadly, by the time the animated series came out, no one wanted to have anything to do with GL, so no action figures, almost no other product, leading to the show’s cancellation, and as you noted, GL product dried up for years to come.
 
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