Mattel cancels DC?

[Earth 2 Chris]

Good point, I never followed or collected the line but the last time I was in a Target there were these Green Lantern versions of everybody and it seemed more like a DC Direct approach than mass market.

I think that was the final nail, along with the spotty distribution and the rising price. My guess is Mattel saw the buzz around the DC Direct figures and rings and wanted in on it, so they shifted their focus away from the truly classic nature of the line.

Those Action League figures on Flashpoint are a real headscratcher. The format is aimed at kids, and the storyline is something that is probably not even appropriate for children, and definitely nothing 95% of them will ever see. The line didn't even sell well with a B&B tie-in!

Chris

[EMCE Hammer]

DC is doing well right now with toys for younger children. There are Little People, the latest incarnation of the chunky superheroes, Imaginext, and now even Lego. These lines all incorporate the classic versions of the core heroes with just a recent smattering of some of the extended GL-verse coinciding with the movie. For awhile there was also B&B merchandise on the shelves, but now that's gone. There's really no natural progression in place once one moves on from the kiddie stuff. I've got three boys, and we spend a lot of time in the toy aisles. They have expressed ZERO interest in the GL or YJ stuff. It's a handful of characters in a scale that doesn't match anything else they have. We never see the YJ cartoon, and they didn't see the crappy GL movie. None of their friends have any of the toys either. Maybe a GL cartoon will help, if I can find it and remember to DVR it. That's the only hope I see in the near future. The Batman movie isn't going to inspire anything - another black Batman, Catwoman and a Bane that will probably look like a wrestler. They'll lose every time to the latest rainbow clone trooper if not something else. My boys never cared about the larger DC figures, we only saw tertiary characters and they were priced as 'collectibles' in my mind.

OTOH, Marvel's Super Hero Squad stuff has just about run its course, and has been replaced by a Playskool line. No Little People right now, but they did have a similar line recently. They are just now switching from Mega Blok to Lego, and they've had a solid run with movie toys that looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future. I don't know if it's that Marvel's movies as a whole are better and more plentiful that makes everything else better, but their whole approach just seems more cohesive.

I picked-up a B&B Riddler a couple weeks ago. That line left a lot on the table. We'll just continue to buy what DC we can find that we like and ignore the rest.

[samurainoir]

With the depth of characters that they have given us, it's no wonder that DC Classics ran it's course... and way past the point where any of us would have thought. Kamandi and the Metal Men! Even Super Powers ran for what? three waves and the third wave was pushing it since all the heavy hitters were covered in the first wave, and many fan favourites by the second. I guess Blackest Night/Brightest Day really did make for easy repaints for the most part, which let them use existing tooling on popular characters like Flash and Wonder Woman to squeeze out a couple of more waves.

Between JLU and Classics, I think Mattel milked all they could from it. If there is new ground to cover, it is making 3 3/4" scale DC figures with as much articulation and complex sculpting as Hasbro does with the current crop of Star Wars, GI Joe (ankle and wrist joints!) and Marvel Universe. Infinite Heroes just couldn't compete with the quality of what Hasbro has been pioneering in that scale.

[huedell]

Between JLU and Classics, I think Mattel milked all they could from it. If there is new ground to cover, it is making 3 3/4" scale DC figures with as much articulation and complex sculpting as Hasbro does with the current crop of Star Wars, GI Joe (ankle and wrist joints!) and Marvel Universe. Infinite Heroes just couldn't compete with the quality of what Hasbro has been pioneering in that scale.

How could they? The IH figure design made little sense.
I can't imagine the market audience for slightly out of proportion
3 3/4 inch scale figures. AFAIC, if yer gonna go quirky, it should be
in for a penny, in for a pound. They already have those "SUPER FRIENDS"
"JLU" and "B&TB" figures.

[huedell]

I think if they'd put some more thought into variants of the classic characters the line would have lasted longer. A Golden Age or Bronze Age Wonder Woman, Superman with the light blue costume (they never did do that), Wally West Flash with the V-belt and white eyes, etc. Not flavor of the month crossover versions like Star Sapphire WW, Blue/White/Chartreuse Flash, etc.

Chris

Good point, I never followed or collected the line but the last time I was in a Target there were these Green Lantern versions of everybody and it seemed more like a DC Direct approach than mass market.

It would've been fun to design my own wave release rosters
with longevity of the line being an overall goal.

I'd give DCUC an 8 out of 10 or 7/10 at worst as far as that goes.

With the depth of characters that they have given us, it's no wonder that DC Classics ran it's course... and way past the point where any of us would have thought. Kamandi and the Metal Men! Even Super Powers ran for what? three waves and the third wave was pushing it since all the heavy hitters were covered in the first wave, and many fan favourites by the second.

Well, our expectations on toy marketing judgement and line longevity
have exponentially exploded since the mid-1980s