McFarlane DC Retro (Batman '66, The New Adventures of Batman, Super Friends)

All caught up:-

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Jayna looks like she is miles away.... 😄

Fingers crossed for some more of the core classics and......Wendy, Marvin and of course the dog. As much as I disliked their inclusion as a child they are pure retro gold and I do not believe we have ever had them in figure form before
 
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While we wait for the next DC Retro Super Friends wave, I've posted some pics of my Batman '66 collection in the Collections forum if anyone is interested.

scottg10

Post in thread 'ScottG10's Collection Pics'

I grew up watching reruns of Batman '66' while playing with my Super Powers toys. I had Batman, Robin and the Batmobile, but was always disappointed that I didn't have a Batgirl or her cycle to hang out with them. I don't care what toy companies say now or then, I would have gladly bought a Batgirl figure.

When Mattel did the first Batman '66 line, I was all over it, childhood memories come to life in plastic form. I finally got my Batgirl, but Mattel didn't get very far before calling it quits. I then jumped over to to Figures Toy Company, because they covered a lot more ground, but...
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Bananaman said:
As much as I disliked their inclusion as a child they are pure retro gold and I do not believe we have ever had them in figure form before
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Mattel had the Zan, Jayna and Gleek in their 6" DC Universe Classics line although Gleek was only available as a convention exclusive. I agree that they're wonderful to have!
 
scottg10 said:
While we wait for the next DC Retro Super Friends wave, I've posted some pics of my Batman '66 collection in the Collections forum if anyone is interested.

scottg10

Post in thread 'ScottG10's Collection Pics'

I grew up watching reruns of Batman '66' while playing with my Super Powers toys. I had Batman, Robin and the Batmobile, but was always disappointed that I didn't have a Batgirl or her cycle to hang out with them. I don't care what toy companies say now or then, I would have gladly bought a Batgirl figure.

When Mattel did the first Batman '66 line, I was all over it, childhood memories come to life in plastic form. I finally got my Batgirl, but Mattel didn't get very far before calling it quits. I then jumped over to to Figures Toy Company, because they covered a lot more ground, but...
  • Like

WHockC7.jpeg
Click to expand...
Awesome display! I know it's highly unlikely, but I hope McFarlane makes one more wave of Batman 66 retro figures with Mad Hatter. For me, he's the last missing figure for the line. It seems like McFarlane can pull off some big surprises. So, maybe? If not, it was still a fun line to collect and a creates a pretty complete display, like you have (although mine looks much worse than yours).
 
I still have all my 66 figures in their boxes, hanging on my wall. It's been lovely and retro, but I may need to utilize that space soon, so they may all have to come out. Seeing them all out of box like that makes me want to try and track down the Batcave and Villain's Lair sets, but heck, I don't have room for them.

I really hope we get Mad Hatter somehow too. He's the last I feel we really need for it to feel "complete". I know Todd has seemingly shifted focus over to Superfriends and such, but you never know, especially with the comics/animated loophole. Could always just throw in a comics-based 66 Mad Hatter in with the Superfriends line; don't think too many would complain.

Of all the lines I've heard rumors that Todd might be able to keep going after losing the master license, I hear the most rumors about him still doing the retro figures. Nothing confirmed, of course, so don't take my word for it, but it would be nice to see. I'd say there's definitely a market for them, and there's tons of Superfriends characters left to keep the line going for another couple years, probably. I really just want a Superfriends Scarecrow before it all ends, however unlikely that seems to be. I have the old DC Direct one, but I'd love to see something updated too.
 
Is there speculation that the TV and animated stuff is on a different contract somehow, or Mattel isn't interested? After Superfriends not sure what else there would be.

Mad Hatter, another Freeze variant and civilian Bruce and Dick make sense to me, he had to have been considering civilian versions as he has the unmasked heads and made the Library playset.
 
I'm so sorry to be that guy, but I don't remember the specifics of the rumors nor where I read them (I wanna say it was a fairly reputable source, as there's really only a handful of places I read and even somewhat believe), so by all means, put zero stock into what I say.

I want to say I remember reading that Todd was trying to work something out where he could continue making some sort of DC product past the expiration date, and that DC and Mattel seemed at least marginally interested in trying to work something out; the lines that seemingly had little-to-no interest from Mattel were more of the retro-style lines (Superfriends, 66, Super Powers, etc.) and the statues/mask replicas he's been making. Also maybe that it fell into one of those weird gray areas where, due to the scale or classification of the figures themselves (action figures vs. adult collectible, for instance), that that may allow him a weird little loophole. Don't think he'd be able to keep producing anything close to the 7 inch scale, well articulated and accessorized figures, but that he could- in theory- keep producing something that was vastly different from Mattel's offerings.

Again, take what I'm saying with a tub of salt (in fact, go ahead and take it as false until proven otherwise). I'm not trying to break any news or seem cool with some inside scoop or anything. I'll try and track down some of the posts, but I can't promise. Ultimately, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, or what's changed- for the better or worse- for Todd since.
 
Thanks, it is plausible speculation given that the Retro stuff likely has different licensing and a different audience, and Mattel may want to focus on the new DCU with its built in licensing agreements along with the comics. So subcontracting the animated and retro to Todd if he still wants it could be beneficial to all parties. I doubt Mattel would revisit Batman 66 at this point, they did their line and apart from the Batmobile, Bats and Robin, and the big four villains, not sure they'd have much interest.

The wildcard to me is Batman the Animated Series - does Mattel have any interest in going back to the Timmverse or the Young Justice lines? They went deep with JLU....
 
I think Mattel would be silly not to do BTAS stuff, honestly. Obviously both shows have a pretty faithful audience, but I feel like BTAS, even more than 66, is a cash cow. To many, that's THE version of Batman and Joker. 66 feels very "of the times", whereas BTAS feels timeless in many regards. Not that I necessarily want to start all over from scratch with a BTAS line, since we've gotten most of the characters from DCC and McFarlane, but I could possibly be enticed under specific circumstances.
 
I've heard that in general that Mattel is less likely to let other play in their sandbox than other companies. I think that they're also still a little butt-hurt that they lost the license to McFarlane in the first place. I don't know anything, but my intuition is that if McF continues to do anything DC related it will have to be like the "posed figures" (statues) like they do for Marvel or maybe the Todd's Mods or whatever ever that vinyl Q thing they recently acquired that is mildly similar to Funko stuff. I don't think that Mattel is going to allow much of anything unless there is some give and take in the form of shared revenue or access to other licenses or crossovers that they think they themselves can profit from.
 
I think much of the rumors go like this…. A couple of folks speculate about what if McFarlane got to keep DC Direct, and some people think that is a good idea and talk about it, and then suddenly it’s a rumor and it spreads. It think if it was anything beyond a rumor, we would have heard more about it by now.

I would love to see Super Powers, DCAU and DC Retro continue, even with McFarlane, as long as they drop the damn chase/exclusive, impossible to get nonsense. They actually made Jayna pretty readily available after her starting out as a Platinum, so if that is a sign of things to come (and it’s not too little, too late), then I’d be down with that.
 
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