McFarlane DC Multiverse

One thing I won't miss about this line is the frequent mystery of when and how figures are available. Calling something Red Platinum means nothing without information on HOW TO GIVE TODD MY MONEY. I mean it's great that we have a strong community that helps each other out but sometimes I feel like shopping for this line is trying to get through an escape room.
 
I'm too damn old to start my DC figure collection all over again from scratch. So, it's very likely Mattel won't win me over no matter what they do. I mean, everything has already been done and done again anyway. I can't imagine they'll be able to do anything all that mind-blowing. Oh, maybe they'll give us Hush Batman, or classic Batman, or Rebirth Batman, or classic Superman, or Hush Superman, or Rebirth Superman, etc. etc. etc. It will be interesting to see what kind of approach they take though.

I just hope that Todd gives us Black Canary, Zatanna and Poison Ivy before the license expires. I wouldn't mind seeing The Ventriloquist and Scarface, and The Mad Hatter as well, but I don't think they're even on the radar at the moment, so it's probably a bit late to hope for those.
 
MagnusPrimal said:
I’m quite willing to give Mattel a chance. I’m enjoying the MOTU Masterverse/New Eternia figures. I just hope they don’t make it as hard for me to give them my money as Todd does.
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That's really the trick, right? Any company that can just give you one or three things that you like, that you don't have to fight for, and that's the easiest on board ever.

And yet this industry.
 
Gotta say I’m with Ninjak. I’m too old to start over. Plus, I don’t think I really want to.

I don’t doubt Ace or his sources, yet I don’t see what Mattel can bring new and fresh to the table. At this point I’m over “classic/iconic”. Particularly where DC’s top level characters are concerned. Do I really need another blue/gray Batman with a yellow oval? No matter how well done?

There are entire segments of the DCU (comics) that no one with this license has ever gotten around to. That’s where Mattel can get me provided that they stay 1:10 scale. But I don’t really see Bloodlines or New Age of Heroes happening anytime soon. That’s a road that I think only Todd would’ve taken. Eventually. And even I want to see him finish the JSA first. At least the GA and the Johns lineups.

I’ve been looking at the Jada Invincible figures to maybe continue my action figure journey post McFarlane.
 
I think I know why I'm so willing to give Mattel a shot - I started LATE. I had the horrible experience of starting and liking Icons and Essentials but neither line lasted long enough to feel like a commitment. I've got what, ten or twelve figures from each in a box somewhere? And I have a bunch of the Mafex HUSH figures but those are so specific, and so fragile, that I'm still in the market for DC TOYS, not DC ART figures. And also I started collecting late and missed MOTU Classics so my first non-Origins style MOTU figures are Masterverse so I find them very fun and they didn't feel like starting over cos I was starting my collection with that line. And I missed Mattel's garbage years with DC, so I have less baggage with them overall.

I went deeper than I should have with McFarlane, but the line was such highs and lows that I kept getting pulled back in. Get a couple of fantastic figures in a row, run into egregious scale or QC issues, then more brilliant stuff, then unnecessary sellouts and gamification of collecting... So the one thing I haven't had as a DC collector in my time as a late bloomer collector was a durable (like feels like it can take as shelf-dive and survive), fun in-hand, good range of motion but doesn't need to be import-level, affordable, diverse line, that is EASY TO BUY.

I'll really only be starting over from a single box of good but limited figures, and Todd's wildly varied art pieces, many of which are beautiful but none of which hit that "toy" vibe I'm looking for. I always joke that the better the Todd figures the more likely it'll rip your skin off on an edge or tight joint. I fully expect Mattel to pull shenanigans but I'm not so afraid to start over considering I'm still not happy with my ability to put together a lot of very basic teams and lineups with this line.
 
docsilence said:
I think I know why I'm so willing to give Mattel a shot - I started LATE. I had the horrible experience of starting and liking Icons and Essentials but neither line lasted long enough to feel like a commitment. I've got what, ten or twelve figures from each in a box somewhere? And I have a bunch of the Mafex HUSH figures but those are so specific, and so fragile, that I'm still in the market for DC TOYS, not DC ART figures. And also I started collecting late and missed MOTU Classics so my first non-Origins style MOTU figures are Masterverse so I find them very fun and they didn't feel like starting over cos I was starting my collection with that line. And I missed Mattel's garbage years with DC, so I have less baggage with them overall.

I went deeper than I should have with McFarlane, but the line was such highs and lows that I kept getting pulled back in. Get a couple of fantastic figures in a row, run into egregious scale or QC issues, then more brilliant stuff, then unnecessary sellouts and gamification of collecting... So the one thing I haven't had as a DC collector in my time as a late bloomer collector was a durable (like feels like it can take as shelf-dive and survive), fun in-hand, good range of motion but doesn't need to be import-level, affordable, diverse line, that is EASY TO BUY.

I'll really only be starting over from a single box of good but limited figures, and Todd's wildly varied art pieces, many of which are beautiful but none of which hit that "toy" vibe I'm looking for. I always joke that the better the Todd figures the more likely it'll rip your skin off on an edge or tight joint. I fully expect Mattel to pull shenanigans but I'm not so afraid to start over considering I'm still not happy with my ability to put together a lot of very basic teams and lineups with this line.
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I started “adult collecting” with Todd and Spawn. So circle of life and all that. I stuck with him for about 15 waves. Then the figures became more like articulated statues with less connections to the Spawn comics, so I quit and sold them off.

I went straight into the open arms of DCD. I’d recently come back to DC Comics after several years of reading indie comics. From Hellboy down. But DC was my home and I was back. And DCD was there to greet me as well. And I was almost all in. QC and scale issues aside, I was smitten. Finally DC action figures past Batman and Superman. My dream made manifest. That lasted about 7-8 years when they truly began shitting the bed in terms of QC.

After some grumbling, I jumped to Mattel. They quickly won me over with Orion and Etrigan in DCUC wave 1. All in again. I quit in a rage after “Fangirl 2.0” announced the end of DCUC at SDCC 2011. Ahead of DC Comics New 52 initiative. I loved DCUC at the time. I just didn’t know any better. I came back to it a few years later, but it was never the same. They lost the license to greed, apathy, and mismanagement. I saw that only in retrospect. And I was skeptical of both Todd and Spin Masters.

As an aside, I’m not the guy who is gonna buy the high end stuff. Import or domestic. Can’t afford it, and don’t really trust myself with them anyway. Like an expensive pair of sunglasses you manage to sit on. That was never an option for me. Plus no real variety. That’s my crucial go to…character selection. Doesn’t much exist in the higher end stuff.

When Todd started, I didn’t want 7” scale. Now I prefer it. I’m not the biggest Bat-Fan, but recognize he is the center point for the DCU on all platforms. Todd is the third time starting with DC figures for me. I don’t think there’s a fourth time in me. And all I’ve ever wanted in terms of collecting is what Marvel fans have had since 2000. One consistent line of figures encompassing the entire DCU. This is the third time this century that the DC license has changed hands. Plus DCD. Four companies, thousands of figures, and no internal consistency whatsoever.

And now, we start anew. Maybe I buy, maybe I don’t. But Todd losing the license hits harder this time. Maybe because there is probably no next act for me.
 
Gardner Grayle said:
And all I’ve ever wanted in terms of collecting is what Marvel fans have had since 2000. One consistent line of figures encompassing the entire DCU.
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That right there. I have the benefit of not having been disappointed repeatedly after getting deeply invested. I'm still open to a Legends-level commitment to DC figures but I haven't been burned badly enough yet. Hasbro is not without its massive problems, but I can honestly say I would not want to start over if they lost the Marvel license. (Same with Star Wars.) I'm shockingly happy with what I have, but they keep throwing out stuff that's worth buying. It blows my mind that DC hasn't been able to accomplish something similar.

I wonder if a lot of it is on DC itself. I remember when I was buying Heroclix all the time Marvel would put out 2+ times the sets and the variety and Wizkids said the approval process for the figures was much slower with DC and it cut back on their ability to produce what they wanted to produce. I imagine their action figure side is equally difficult.
 
I think a consistent line has long been what most collectors have wanted for DC. Mattel's DCUC started off strong, with only a few missteps here and there (under-sized iterations of Sinestro and Big Barda spring to mind), but for the most part the style and scale was harmonious across the line. The character selection was great too, with a solid blend of heavy-hitters and deep cuts. Yeah, the articulation is incredibly dated today, but early DCUC still mostly looks good on a shelf together to this day. As time went on though, Mattel really began to shit the bed, and the line took a nosedive. I'm sure DC/WB mandating things like New 52 versions of characters didn't help either. So, the dream of a consistent line died there.

To me, McFarlane was never going to be an option for consistency, since his line is all over the place as far as scale, paint, articulation, character selection, etc.. Sure, all lines have some of these issues to some extent, but McFarlane almost made it a feature. You want a Superman that scales with Batman? Tough! Batman doesn't even scale with Batman in this line! He started to really improve on the character selection aspect, but then pulled shenanigans like making desired characters in their iconic costumes as rare variants. I'm not trying to shit on Todd here, as some of the figures I have really liked, but I wound up collecting far fewer than I would have had there been more cohesion across the line. The lack of females definitely didn't help matters, and I wound up really cherry picking characters.

So, we come back to Mattel, and we don't know if there is a snowball's chance in hell of having a truly cohesive line or not. We have no idea the scale, and whether they will aim to be compatible with McF, DCUC, Marvel Legends, or just another thing altogether. I honestly have no idea if I'll be collecting their stuff at this point, but I have to say they need to at least somewhat scale with one of the other lines I mentioned for me to even consider it.
 
I bought an old McFarlane figure today. Harley Quinn. I'm talking the first Harley Quinn from the first year of figures. Was she even in the first Wave? Still, I'd past on her when she came out because she looked to animated to me. Todd said she wasn't animated and was in fact a comic version, but I still felt she looked a bit cartoonish.

I always thought he'd let her out again. Since McFarlane is wrapping up, and I have all the Batman stuff, I didn't want to have that one hole in the collection. So, I bought her at a comic shop. She really isn't AS cartoonish or animated looking as I remember. Still, she definitely immediately makes you think of Harley from BTAS.

But I like the figure, and I'm glad to have it.
 
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