Mattel DC Figures

[Damien]

This films' Evil-Lyn helm/crown seems very reminiscent of the Sorceress's headpiece from the original Dolph Lundgren MOTU film the more that I look at it.

It's actually just a pretty close mirror for the style/shape of the vintage toy (and anything based on the vintage toy). That seems to be at least one of the design philosophies behind all these movie costumes and I'm here for it.

 

[TheGillMan]

It's actually just a pretty close mirror for the style/shape of the vintage toy (and anything based on the vintage toy). That seems to be at least one of the design philosophies behind all these movie costumes and I'm here for it.

Yeah, I'm really loving the costume designs for this flick. Obviously based on the original toys, with a bit of cinematic flair. If nothing else, this flick is going to LOOK damned good!

 

[jayjonah]

Oh, man, these do look rich! I'm in for a case or two if sold in cases. It would be great if Mattel see's a very positive reaction to these and say hey, let's do the live action DC movies. I would buy them all over again to get better likenesses and in a 1/12 scale.

 

[AceofKnaves]

let's do the live action DC movies

Trust me: they’re gonna do the live action DC movies, and these MotU figures are a good measure of what to expect.

 

[Damien]

I'm pretty content with my McFarlane Batman Forever Batman... but if you give me an even better version of my favorite Batman... I will buy it.

 

[Gothneo]

crap. those look nice enough to make me wanna start collecting MOTU again.

 

[RicksNerdLife]

You know, I remember a period of time, from around 2002 until around 2012, a solid decade, where Mattel could do not wrong in my book.

Starting with MOTU 200x, to DC Superheroes/Universe Classics, to MOTUC, to Ghostbusters, to Movie Masters, to WWE...

I mean, they even did Watchmen comic figures. D

They were on a serious roll, and I was loving everything they were doing. They were pretty much my number one company for a while, picking up so many properties I wanted to see, and doing them well...or so I thought at the time.

Then, I began to see how outdated and formulaic their releases were. Those overused Four Horsemen sculpts across DC and MOTU, I started to grt disenchanted with MattyCollector and the fucking White Screen of Death...

I started seeing what other companies were offering and realizing that Mattel was shorting us. What really made me realize how shit they had started to become was holding my Mafex Dark Knight Trilogy figures up next to the Movie Masters and recognizing that maybe the rose colored glasses were starting to crack. Then those awful BVS and Suicide Squad Movie offerings, and I was off the Mattel wagon altogether, save a few WWE Monday Night War figures here and there...

Then Masterverse happened. A line I bought and sold twice for reasons I'll never fully understand, other than focusing elsewhere, before full committing and snatching everything back up again. I love that line so much. And slowly, but surely, Mattel was winning me back.

So much so that hearing that they were getting the DC license back didn't fill me with dread. Opposite, in fact, I got excited by the possibilities. Especially considering how much I hate McFarlane figures. With a passion. Ratchety pieces of shit.

No, I looked and Masterverse and WWE and think "Maybe they'll get the DC thing right this time around..."

And so far, the Chronicles figures look amazing. Like really, REALLY good. WWE stuff has consistently been great, but I almost view them as their own separate mini-company within an umbrella company, doing their own thing.

If the Chronicles line is any indication, I think come 2027, Mattel may earn its way back into my top contender spot with the DC line. I think the true test for me is seeing how they handle the upcoming Superman sequel.

 

[Reno]

I can relate to a lot of what @RicksNerdLife is saying.

DC Universe Classics is still my 2nd favorite line of all-time right behind Marvel Legends.

Master of the Universe Classics was way up there on my list also and I still deeply regret selling off my collection of those figures. I've never been quite as fond of Masterverse, even though I've purchased and kept most of those figures so far.

Mattel can be great. They can also be deeply mediocre.

I have very little interest in live action figures. I felt where Mattel went off the rails was when they were trying to doing live action DC figures before and they were terrible. These new Masters of the Universe Chronicles figures look far more promising, but I won't be buying those. Even the KPop Demon Hunters stuff looks good for the source material, but I won't be buying those either.

I never have and never will buy import figures, so I don't need Mattel to try to compete with those. I'd personally rather have relatively affordable world-building with hundreds of figures than a few dozen exquisite figures of only the most well known characters. There's just not enough of a difference to me to justify a price point 4x that of the readily available domestic stuff.

I don't expect to buy many of the $12-$13 kids figures like what have been shown for DC, but I do like that it's an option. I hope they use that to experiment with character offerings that they might be initially hesitant to place in their collectors' lines. I've seen them do this with WWE a bit and I fully endorse it (even though I don't buy those figures).

I continue to be cautiously optimistic about the future of Mattel's lines going forward. I fully expect that like any other company that there will be many hits and many misses. I know that I'd personally rather take my chances with Mattel than McFarlane going forward. I've seen enough of McFarlane at this point. While their character selection has improved tremendously this past year, the figures themselves have certainly not (in my opinion, of course).

 

[Atomic Knight]

There’s something here that I’m just not following. Most of you know by now that I dig the more obscure side of the DCU. Not even obscure really, just the mid level stuff. Three of my favorite random @$$ characters are, in no particular order, Will Payton/Starman, WWII Johnny Quick, and Captain Atom (any era). Payton and Atom have both had their own books. JQ was one of the ensemble stars of the All Star Squadron and an associate member of the JSA. Popular enough, right?

But in terms of tooling, the same buck can be used. Most deco can be achieved with paint. New head sculpts are really the only thing required to differentiate these potential figures, and it may not even be that complex. Maybe just a new hair piece. Few, if any accessories required. Perfect figures for the $12.00 price point. So why would the majority of people purchase these at $29.00 or $35.00? Too obscure to pay that much for most folks. And not popular enough to be in the “kids line” for $12.00 each. And FWIW, that’s the kind of figure I’d personally buy these shit out of at any PP.

I can think of hundreds of DC characters that might sell at $12.00 that may very well peg warm at $29.00.

 

[Damien]

But in terms of tooling, the same buck can be used. Most deco can be achieved with paint. New head sculpts are really the only thing required to differentiate these potential figures, and it may not even be that complex. Maybe just a new hair piece. Few, if any accessories required. Perfect figures for the $12.00 price point.

Also the perfect figure to build out the 'adult' line. Just like Marvel Legends uses low-cost/low-effort characters to fill in waves, particularly where that wave already has some new tooling or lots of deco.

So why would the majority of people purchase these at $29.00 or $35.00?

My guess would be articulation. The kids' stuff will be drastically more limited, if we're still using the WWE Basic/Elite/Ultimates formula as a model. Also, don't dismiss the relevance to collectors of small things like extra hands or an extra accessory.

And not popular enough to be in the “kids line” for $12.00 each.

Hard disagree. I don't think popularity of the character -necessarily- informs whether they will make it into a kid-focused branding. Keep in mind that the kids' line is (presumably) being made as a compliment to the collector line. Same scale, relatively the same style of figure (again, if we're using WWE as the model). Which means Mattel will be well aware that collectors are going to get the cheaper figures to fill out their collections.
Mattel is also aware that sometimes you can sell kids toys just because they look cool, not because the character is super popular and has instant name recognition.

I can think of hundreds of DC characters that might sell at $12.00 that may very well peg warm at $29.00.

I don't think it's that simple.

 

[joshsquash729]

I think it looks like Brie in a neutral expression, but since we usually see her face framed by her hair the headdress throws off the likeness.



The shapes on the sculpt are generally correct, though the paint on the eyebrows and eyes could be improved.

That was my thinking too, I just didn't know how to articulate it. Don't know what that phenomenon is called, but there's definitely something to it- where, if you see just someone's face but without anything else naturally found on a human there- ears, hair, etc., it looks off. We see a crown where her hair would be, which makes it look like it's part of her head. Even Idris' figure to an extent; it happens a lot with helmeted characters.

Might just be a prototype thing, too, but the color of the plastic feels like it's paint more than it just being cast in that color of plastic, if that makes sense. Might just be a face-printing thing, but it actually feels, at least to me, like there's some paint on the face that's slightly thicker than it needs to be.

Don't know when I became an armchair expert on action figure paint and likeness, but here we are.

 

[PanchaMaestro]

I’m not as anal about mixing lines as many here. To this day I still use some Toybiz legends in my ML display. My DCUC has some early DCDirect mixed in for characters they didn’t get to. For example I prefer the Legion DCD because I wanted them to look like teenagers not adults and they sit fine with my DCUC display. That said; I dont think I’d want my B- and C list DC characters to only be available with no ankle articulation

 

[TheSameIdiot]

I never have and never will buy import figures, so I don't need Mattel to try to compete with those. I'd personally rather have relatively affordable world-building with hundreds of figures than a few dozen exquisite figures of only the most well known characters. There's just not enough of a difference to me to justify a price point 4x that of the readily available domestic stuff.

Mattel will win a lot of fights by virtue of being the only game in town. I'm eager to replace my DC Icons Swamp Thing and Harley Quinn, Mattel Wonder Woman, and MAFEX Catwoman and Joker. I don't even own a classic 6" Deathstroke. If they make those figures and they're decent—like Marvel Legends decent—I'll buy them.

I doubt Mattel will top my MAFEX Nightwing or Bane—they're among the best figures I own—but I would replace others, like Mezco's Constantine, if Mattel's figures were good enough. I don't necessarily need Mattel to compete with imports, but doing so would open them up to a new audience (like me).

By the way, if their DC figures are as good as the movie MOTU stuff, I'd argue that they are competing with imports. I could absolutely see a MOTU movie-quality Mattel Batman dethroning my MAFEX Batman.

I can think of hundreds of DC characters that might sell at $12.00 that may very well peg warm at $29.00.

I don't think so. As Damien pointed out, Marvel Legends is the model. Your 35th Spider-Man purchase pays for characters like Hypno-Hustler. Hypno-Hustler won't move as many units as Spider-Man Variant 274, but that's baked into the business model. You cook up a few great sculpts like Hasbro's Vulcan body, re-use them regularly, and use that to pay for unique base bodies like Constantine. Marvel Legends has been doing that for more than a decade now. Mattel should be able to follow the same pattern.

As far as price goes, I expect these to be around $30 by the time the line begins. That's the going rate for collector-style figures, even relatively cheap domestic brands.

I won't buy the extremely niche D-list DC characters, but if I were interested in them, I'd want them fully articulated. PanchaMaestro said as much, and I expect most of the board agrees with him.

 

[ASM]

Those He-Man figures look better than Marvel Legends! Hopefully, that’s the treatment DC gets. But I could see this being a GI Joe thing, where DC doesn’t get the best articulation because they aren’t owned by Mattel.

 

[Stoopid_Sandwich]

lol I just have to share this with the rest of you. I was just on eBay perusing around for Batman figures and I found this hilarious auction. How fucking low on the totem pole does Mattel have to be for a guy to try and con/swindle people into thinking they’re buying a bootleg of a Mafex figure

CT Toys No.105 Hush Batman Blue Ver Action Figure Opened | eBay

The CT Toys No.105 Hush Batman Blue Ver Action Figure is a 6-inch PVC figure based on the character Hush from the Batman franchise. This particular version is in a blue color scheme, representing the character's unique design. Batman is a 1:12 scale. With its detailed design and high-quality...

ebay.us

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