Retro Rayner

[huedell]

Thats the issue though, you are setting your self up for disapointment if you are trying to force your wants on the company that has its own plan. The plan as I have heard it was as I and others have said, a retro style, not sticking to 70s era characters.

Which is a plan with NO NUMBERS involved, so I'm just having my say
to keep those unsure numbers on the CLASSIC side,
and not the MODERN side...and, so are others Audi.

I won't be "disappointed" if there are more clssic than modern BTW.

.You can want that all you want, but that doesn't mean the company is screwing up by not following your plan instead of theirs.

Maybe if there was proof that my direction was killing the line... but
of course there isn't... not now anyways.

We consumers will express ourselves to put our requests in for
how we'd LIKE to see the line proceed.... that's just how it is.

[boynightwing]

Kyle's an online exclusive. He wont be peg warming. I'm not a huge fan of the character either. I have a lot of leftover resentment towards him for being the replacement of Hal Jordon when no replacement was really necessary. I have in my own head stopped acknowledging most of DC's 90's Green Lantern continuity. Then to contradict myself, I like the concept of an artist with a GL Power Ring. So Kyle doesn't completely suck.

[jwyblejr]

What I was implying when I said "no one was getting bumped" is that these figures weren't taking the place of other figures that could be released.

[puckace]

Lou I did read your posts in their entirety. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

I too would rather see more classic characters from the 70's. But I'm ok with other decades if it means I get more ReMegos to choose from. Here's to hoping you are mistaken and most of what we desire will get made in time.

If you told me a couple years ago that all the Retro stuff would be made, I would have checked the date for April lst

[The Bat]

My 2 Cents...if I were Mattel, and there was a BIG budget Green Lantern Movie coming out...I'd be making lots of GL Figures.

[LOU]

Exactly hue!! No one here, not even the EMCE and/or Mattel people themselves, can predict the future and definitively state when the line will end. So then, how can anyone realistically say "no one got bumped" unless you do definitively know when the line will end? You can't. That's the equivalent of Mego reassuring in 1975 that Mr. Mxy didn't cause any other character to get "bumped" from the line...when in actuality that fact couldn't be discerned until the line ended about 5 years later. Then once the line ended and there was no Luthor ever made, suddenly it seems the resources and time wasted on Mxy could've been utilized on Luthor; at that time it would appear that Mxy was a poor choice over Luthor. Ultimately that means Mxy was indeed made "instead of" Luthor or Mxy "bumped" Luthor. So basically what I'm saying is aside from Nostradamus, no one, not even the Retro Hero makers, can predict how long this line will continue...and unless they know how long the line will go on for (ie: know what the final character roster of the line is), there's absolutely no way anyone can say "no one got bumped" because you simply can't possibly know that ahead of time. Fact is we KNOW there's 4 Green Lanterns coming out before some main heroes and villains. So then, what happens if the line is cancelled in 6 months? All the GL lovers will have their 52 Green Lanterns but the rest of us will be sitting here without Hawkman or Firestorm for example. Bottom line, no one can predict the future and until we have these main heroes in our hands, there is still a chance we'll never see them. The point is, make the main heroes and villains FIRST, before the lesser-known characters. Then if the line does end prematurely (which, sadly, many of them do these days so you have to be realistic), at least it would have a roster of characters featuring the popular and legendary heroes and villains. Regardless of what anyone says, there's absolutely no reason to have a Kyle Rayner, a proven shelf warmer, before a Hawkman, I don't care how popular everyone claims this character was/is (not that I beleive that anyway) there's simply no way he should've been made into an action figure before other characters...Green Lantern movie or not. Modern characters in this line should be reserved for later waves, if they must be included, and should certainly not be produced before Mego era characters. It's exactly as you say Hue, these 4 GL's are representative of resources that we one day may be wishing were utilized on other characters. Let's just hope that's not the case and this line goes on for at least a couple more years. But with only about 12 figures a year, having 1/3 of them be GL's is alarming to me. Every wave of these that we get should be considered a blessing, a blessing that shouldn't be squandered making weak characters all based on a presumptive assumption that the line will last long enough for all the main characters to get made too. No one can make that guarantee as toy companies end lines abruptly sometimes. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is come back and read this post of mine in a year and see everything I've written here come to fruition; and it's a very real possibilty that that very thing could happen. It's happened far too many times before in Super Hero action figure history and we need to learn from history here as well.

Hi Scott,
Absolutely. You can't please all of the people all of the time. My remarks have nothing to do with the unbelievable quality and talent involved with these figures. As I said before, the GL exclusives are beautiful to look at, it's strictly the character selection I don't like. I will buy them simply to support this historic toy line because I truly hope it does go on and on for years. I just hope we don't miss out on any staple characters with a premature cancellation of the line. Then I'll have 4 Green Lanterns but no Joker or Riddler or Hawkman or...etc. That's what I worry about because aside from JLU, no Super Hero toy line has ever had the chops to really make a large number of figures and far too often in the past we've been stuck with a short-lived DC Hero line and end up with say, Huntress, but no Wonder Woman. I'm just a realist and collector all rolled into one and if this line does continue for years and years then I too would have no problem with eventually doing every Green Lantern, every Superman, every Batman, etc. I just don't like the idea this early in a line with so many glaring DC omissions.

Just for the record...it SUCKS being right in this case. I'm not normally an I-told-you-so kind of guy but in this case I caught a lot of flack for my remarks about my displeasure with these GL exclusives some months ago in this very thread (read above quotes.) For everyone who raved about these 4 GL exclusives and argued in favor of them, as I said above a long time ago, I knew 4 Green Lantern characters (6 total) so early in the line was not a wise move, GL movie or not. I was a realist and I knew this line wouldn't go "on for years" and we'd be stuck without some major characters in place of these GLs. Now the line is cancelled and we're forced to do EXACTLY what I was saying above here months ago...have glaring omissions of other DC characaters in place of 6 Green Lanterns. I really wish I was wrong but my quoted remarks above from months ago sadly ring VERY true now don't they? A shame really. Why was I the only one who saw this coming? So now we'll have 21 DC figures with more than a 1/4 of the whole collection being Green Lanterns. Absurd. I never did and never will understand these character selections and again, it really sucks that I turned out to be right.
I hope you guys who were so in favor of these GL exclusives enjoy them, of course, but I'd still have rather seen some Bat villains and heroes like Hawkman, Red Tornado, Firestorm, Supergirl, Batgirl, Robin, etc. Now the line is over, you guys got what you wanted...and sadly here we are, exactly where I said we'd be. This is just really rotten news that the line is done after 2011. Hopefully some of the characters I just mentioned will indeed be made before the end of the year. I should've listened to my gut on this one but I didn't. These GL's should never have been made and it was obvious to me from the start for the very reason I already cited, the resources could've been used to make other heroes and villains. Damn GL's....makes me want to unload the whole damn collection now and get rid of them.

[vc9k]

You weren't the only one that thought this or saw it coming, you were just the only one to say anything about it. All of Mattel's DC lines have suffered this same fate(except for DCUC and that's only because it's still going). The idea is to spread characters out so that they have good figures to keep the line going for years but the lines all get cancelled, so we end up with figures no one was asking for and we don't get figures we really wanted. Regardless of whether you collected the lines or not this has happened to: Infinite Heroes, Batman: Brave and the Bold(turned into a Batman repaint wave), JLU, and now Retro Heroes. Some of these lines had more figures than others but there are still big obvious gaping holes in all of them.

[LOU]

EXACTLY vc9k!!! Exactly! I agree 100% and always have. At this point these toy companies need to be realistic about life expectancy of toy lines. Very few, especially Super Heroes, go on for years. I was saying this when these GL's were announced and everyone kept saying things to the effect of "These GLs are not at the expense of other characters being made." Yeah okay. That really seems to be true. At this point, there's no logical basis for anyone to argue anymore because the fact is more the 1/4 of this "Super Heroes collection" is Green Lantern characters. You can't fulfill my "prophecy", if you will, any more accurately than that. This is just terrible news and I wish I didn't hear about the demise of Retro Action Heroes. As I say, I am not surprised one bit, just depressed about it.

[megocrazy]

I know a recent thread on this was pulled and I'm not sure what direction it was going when it was because I missed the ending, so delete this if this starts the ball rolling again in the wrong direction. Sorry. While this is unhappy news there's no doubt, in my mind, that Mattel had some major play in this line not succeeding. The GL figures had nothing to do with it. We, as powerful as we want to be, are a very small portion of what is needed to make a line survive. That said many have complained that we were unable to find these figures at retail. That means other consumers, many more than just the Museum members, never got the chance to support the line either, because they simply weren't there to be...consumed.

We all know Mattel had the right consultants on how to develop these figures. I think the overall satisfaction with the final products from ST TOS, Venture Bros, TZ, Universal Monsters, DS, etc., proves that. The way these figures initially hit the market with loose crappy bodies was a shot in the foot. How many jumped off the band wagon when they first saw these figures? How many parents said they would not buy their kid another one of these crappy figures? First impressions make a major difference, especially to those that weren't Mego fanatics and were experiencing their initial views of 8" figures of this type.

I am "assuming" when I see "SOLD OUT" near a figure sold online that it's sold out. I know that's not necessarily true but evidently it's what Mattel wants me to think so....I will. that means every figure that has been a Matty exclusive has sold out of the initial offering. If it is true, I'm surprised they would not continue the line in the same way they've done the MOTU line. Even if it was done as a Retro line and not specifically a DC one with things like Ghostbusters thrown in. As I said if this starts a fire douse it, that was not my intent. Not sure where the other thread went when it got violent.

[vc9k]

Well we're not really blaming anyone(I'm not anyway) I was just bringing up the fact that the same "save the character" scenario has occurred more than once and the results have always been the same, those figures just end up not coming out. One time is a chance, two times is a coincidence but three times or more is a trend.


Doing the GL's made sense because the movie is coming out(although it looks like it's going to be a dud..) but who knows why certain characters were included so early, the EMCE guys didn't get to make that call.

[Spyweb007]

It's disappointing news to say the least, but to be successful the line has to grab kids attention, maybe if approached as a kids line and marketed that way the results would have been different, but us collectors just aren't enough. If you look at Mego's original strategy, figures were released at a slower pace, but with some accessories, playsets and vehicles along the way to increase play value. To be the huge success we were all hoping for Mattel would have to bring in new consumers, and that's not easy to do. I think Emce toys is on the right track with their Zombie building kit, which should bring in collectors, some kids (although "zombies are not appropriate for everyone's sensibilities) and hobby enthusiests as well. Eventually people will be able to download and print 3-d pieces with 3-d printers, and who knows how that will affect the hobby. It would seem wise to try and infiltrate this market now before technology changes the game yet again. Just think of all those big chain craft stores out there, each with a small toy section, waiting to be exploited.

[LOU]

I know a recent thread on this was pulled and I'm not sure what direction it was going when it was because I missed the ending, so delete this if this starts the ball rolling again in the wrong direction. Sorry. While this is unhappy news there's no doubt, in my mind, that Mattel had some major play in this line not succeeding. The GL figures had nothing to do with it. We, as powerful as we want to be, are a very small portion of what is needed to make a line survive. That said many have complained that we were unable to find these figures at retail. That means other consumers, many more than just the Museum members, never got the chance to support the line either, because they simply weren't there to be...consumed.

We all know Mattel had the right consultants on how to develop these figures. I think the overall satisfaction with the final products from ST TOS, Venture Bros, TZ, Universal Monsters, DS, etc., proves that. The way these figures initially hit the market with loose crappy bodies was a shot in the foot. How many jumped off the band wagon when they first saw these figures? How many parents said they would not buy their kid another one of these crappy figures? First impressions make a major difference, especially to those that weren't Mego fanatics and were experiencing their initial views of 8" figures of this type.

I am "assuming" when I see "SOLD OUT" near a figure sold online that it's sold out. I know that's not necessarily true but evidently it's what Mattel wants me to think so....I will. that means every figure that has been a Matty exclusive has sold out of the initial offering. If it is true, I'm surprised they would not continue the line in the same way they've done the MOTU line. Even if it was done as a Retro line and not specifically a DC one with things like Ghostbusters thrown in. As I said if this starts a fire douse it, that was not my intent. Not sure where the other thread went when it got violent.

This is all well and good but my remarks (and I suspect vc9k's) were not necessarily blaming the demise of the line on the GL exclusives. My remarks were simply about the GL exclusives themselves as character selections. Besides, I agree there's a myriad of other possible reasons why the line itself failed and to be honest the GLs probably don't have anything to do with it. But as I said, I'm not speculating on that here in any way. I thought I was pretty clear. I am simply saying that there should not have been 6 GL figures so soon in this line (movie or not) and I said that months ago...for this very reason, because we'd likely end up with a line of Super Heroes that are GROSSLY disproportionate in favor of GL characters. This is no longer my opinion (as it was months ago), this is now fact. More than 1/4 of the line is GL characters...again, exactly what is stated in my previous quotes from way back when these things were announced. I don't care what any fan of this line says, there's no way I will believe they are content with having Yellow Sinestro but no...say, Joker. Problem is no one wanted to listen to what I was saying back then...as vc9k said, this is not a news flash, toy lines like this only last 4 or 5 waves with rare exception. So why would everyone think it was so great that 6 GL characters make up a majority of a "DC Superheroes collection." There's no sense in it. There is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't have been a Robin before these GLs...that simply goes without saying from where I'm sitting. But it is what it is, the line is ending and although I'm hopeful, I doubt this line will ever make the other main heroes.

[jayraytee]

Could it be possible that Mattel saw the line losing steam and they thought a movie tie in of Green lanturns might give it enough kick to stay alive.. but it didn't..

[rche]

Could it be possible that Mattel saw the line losing steam and they thought a movie tie in of Green lanturns might give it enough kick to stay alive.. but it didn't..

Can't see how that would make any sense; seeing that the first two GL exclusives sold out within a month of release. I suspect the John Stewart figure will also show a 'sold out' sign very soon.

[jemboy2004]

See LOU and vc9k The Hal GL has pretty much sold out at all the stores it got too and the GL's on Matty have all SOLD OUT. Only one that hasn't is Sinestro so I'd say your thoughts that the GL's killed the line are totally wrong. If basing on that then you could say Sinestro and Luthor killed the line but I don't think so... As a matter of a fact which wave landed at TJ MAXX? Batman, Two Face, Aquaman and Black Manta did and you know why? because they were not selling at TRU's express stores, which they were being sold at so seem's Batman didn't save this line either. Your I was right story is all wrong. I know I talked to many at TRU who know why they stopped ordering the figure's. Wave 2 didn't sell at their express stores and during xmas season too. You ever see those commercial on how TJ MAXX get's their great merchandise at big discounts? Well they get them due to a retailer like TRU ordering more than they can sell... Wave 2.... Batman was in that set.

As a matter of a fact I'd say the GL's could have saved the line if they sold them at retail since the movie is coming out and just because some people on rotten tomotoes say's they don't like the movie doesn't mean it won't be a huge success. Transformer's comes to mind, critics didn't think too highly of transformer's but that didn't stop thsoe movie's from being BIG HITS!