Mattel cancels DC?

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[palitoy]

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.

[Earth 2 Chris]

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

[palitoy]

Hmmmm....

I wonder if there's some sort of collector saturation point; a level at which even the diehardest fan thinks "I really don't need ANOTHER Batman." Especially if the cost is such that the product is WAY removed from the "impulse buy" level. (Something that'd limit the number of secondary and tirtiary characters they could produce.) Those Timm-esque figures were neat, but kinda pricey for what you got.

Don C.

I think the saturation runs more into "I don't need another Batman in that scale"

There is a lot of choice out there.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I wonder if there's some sort of collector saturation point; a level at which even the diehardest fan thinks "I really don't need ANOTHER Batman." Especially if the cost is such that the product is WAY removed from the "impulse buy" level. (Something that'd limit the number of secondary and tirtiary characters they could produce.) Those Timm-esque figures were neat, but kinda pricey for what you got.

Don C.

[huedell]

I hope Hasbro picks up the licence. It would be great to have Marvel and DC in the same scale and style again.

I think I see what you're looking/hoping for and why you feel it doesn't
particularly exist right now.

Personally, I have about 60 DCUC figures and haven't bought even
ONE Marvel Legend figure, because even tho' the MLs are the same scale
as the DCUCs (and aren't that bad actually), there still seems to be
something a bit more "stylistic"(?) about Marvel Legends' sculpts
that makes me pass on them.

However, the MARVEL UNIVERSE figures have a more "neutral" style feel
to me, to their sculpts, and so I've collected about 50 of those figures happily.

If for some way of chance that Hasbro gets the liscence and makes
a perfect DCU compliment to the 3 3/4 inch scale Marvel Universe line...
well, that would make me happy to buy many of the same
character versions of the DCUC stuff I already have in the 6 inch scale.

[samurainoir]

I would have bought more if I could find them. And those times I did find them were at Cons or Toy shows and the prices were too high. I really wanted Zatanna and the one time I saw her, the guy would only sell her as part of a set. I didn't want the set.

I hope Hasbro picks up the licence. It would be great to have Marvel and DC in the same scale and style again. As well as the same scale as GIJOE.

Given that our Canadian retailers were really hit and miss with which waves they picked up, it hasn't been really that much fun collecting this line unless you lucked out and found them when they would pop up at discount in Winners. Even if you made a cross border trip, it's so often hit and miss because other collectors and dealers from up north tend to clear things out.

Comic Stores of course had to charge a premium if they got theirs via Diamond.

[huedell]

It's as alive as ever with me... as long as they are still selling on
Matty collector... I'll pay extra and pick 'em up on Ebay.

[johnnystorm]

Can't say I've bought more than a couple DCU figures ever, and I prefer DC over Marvel comic wise. Too high a price, too hard to find, too many variants of the same people. I have zero interest in Blackest Night Atoms or White Lantern Flashes. The few I liked were oddballs like OMAC or Kamandi. Plus DC Direct offered many of the same characters at the same prices. I don't remove my figures from the package, so articulation doesn't mean a whole lot to me personally. But price was the kicker.

[boynightwing]

I would have bought more if I could find them. And those times I did find them were at Cons or Toy shows and the prices were too high. I really wanted Zatanna and the one time I saw her, the guy would only sell her as part of a set. I didn't want the set.

I hope Hasbro picks up the licence. It would be great to have Marvel and DC in the same scale and style again. As well as the same scale as GIJOE.

[Thor]

It doesn't surprise me. Between terrible distribution and awful prices I'm surprised it lasted that long. Thw only figures that I have were from a time that these were cheaper or on clearance.