DC Toy Thread

[LordGigaIce]

I'm just sad that Premier/Core reveals are likely being ignored because "it's not collector stuff". Again, the relative amount details and features Mattel is bringing to their MOTU and DC "entry range" has been DAMNED impressive this year.

There were some interesting tidbits coming out of NYCC. Apparently, due to being the same scale, the heads on the Core stuff will be fully interchangeable with the heads on the collector figures, which seem to be going by the "DC Legacy" label (apparently McFarlane Toys somehow kept the DC Multiverse name, despite that name originating with Mattel years ago... I have no idea how that works).

All of that is to say that between the heads being viable swap material and the bevy of accessories each Core figure comes with... I still think they're a hell of a bargain. They're not just great on their own, but even if you were determined to just stick with the collector Legacy line you can still treat the Core figures as accessory packs. Weapons, alternate heads, weapon racks? All for $13 and change? That's a great deal, any way you slice it.

Like you, I think they have A LOT to offer people on their own, but they still have a pretty strong appeal to collector-oriented people as well. Like... the McFarlane Toys accessory packs went from between $15-$25 depending on the pack, so treating the Core releases as accessory packs where you get weapons and one extra head is great.

But yeah, they'll probably get me on the Fraction Batman. I haven't enjoyed a month to month Bat-series in a LONG time. I don't think I've stuck with getting a book monthly since the MtMtE IDW era

Same. Everyone's going nuts over Absolute, and here's Matt Fraction quietly having the best mainline Batman run arguably since the 90s (I have a complicated opinion on Grant Morrison's run).
Hush may be my go-to for comic Batman designs, but the Fraction look is pretty great as well, and I'll be happy to pick that one up.

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[LordGigaIce]

Blokees Hush Batman is pretty cool.

A size comparison between the Blokees and the new Mattel Core.

The Hushening Returns!

 

[LordGigaIce]

Speaking of the Mattel Core stuff, I finally got the Jokerized Batman.

I wanted to take the opportunity to do a bit of a comparison between this one, and the version McFarlane did. Why this design? Well... this design comes from the Batman Who Laughs, the Batman from Earth -22 who finally killed the Joker, but got infected by Joker toxin in the process, becoming a version of the Joker with Batman's intelligence and skill set. The Batman Who Laughs is most well known for his black leather Pinhead-esque look, but he looked like this for a few panels in his backstory issue. It was a brief look for the character, but both McFarlane and Mattel decided to do figures based off it.

To be clear, McFarlane's was a $20 collector-aimed figure when it came out, and Mattel's is a $13 kid-aimed figure. They're not supposed to be interchangeable or comparable so rather then get into which is "better," I just wanted to look at how both companies approached this niche design.

McFarlane went way harder on this then they had to. For a version of the character who only exists for a few panels, it got a lot of love. The sculpt is entirely unique. There are loads of detailed tectures sculpted in that give it a bit of a rough and grimy feel. The two-tone cape is even represented with the green lining painted on. Even the batarang is a new sculpt, rather then be a repaint of the one of the existing moulds they have. Accessory-wise he has a figure stand and a trading card, along with said batarang.

Mattel's version is mostly a reuse of the Core Batman design they've been pumping out since the summer. I say mostly, because there are differences. The head is obviously unique, but so are the gloves. The gloves shocked me because given the kid-centric nature of the line, I'd have totally forgiven them if they didn't do that, but they went that extra mile. The belt is also unique, being a Hush-esque pouch belt. That is accurate to the source material (see McFarlane's) but it's strange they've only used this version of the utility belt on this guy, and not the Hush-inspired repaint from the Nightwing and Bane three pack.
Additional accessories include the standard Mattel DC Core accessory sprew. They include two types of batarangs, some flares (or they could be vials with Joker toxin), handcuffs, a spiked boxing glove, and a mine-looking thing. They're also all cast in glow-in-the dark plastic. The cuffs and s-shaped batarangs are reused from previous Core releases, but everything else is new moulding.

The mine is actually "kryptonian repellent." I guess that means that the accessories are kryptonite, being green and all?

He also continues the Joker's gimmick from the first wave, coming with Jokerized faces for his wave mates. John getting a glow in the dark green face was the workaround for not wanting to give a Black guy whiteface, I guess.

Again, the McFarlane and Mattel releases are trying to do entirely different things with the same character. The McFarlane one emphasizes detail in the sculpt, and a lot of paint to bring that detail out. The Mattel one has a lot of mould reuse, but that's ok. Detail and paint isn't the goal, it's fun and play value. They both succeed in what they set out to do, and they each went far harder for a very short lived look for the character then either had to.

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Have you tried swapping the belts on JokerBats and the pseudo Hush version? I’m wondering how the yellow tone would play on that version.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Have you tried swapping the belts on JokerBats and the pseudo Hush version? I’m wondering how the yellow tone would play on that version.

I gotchu

The yellow pouch belt is very... um... yellow. Which doesn't work for the more muted or even brown tones usually associated with the pouch belt with Hush. That being said, the muted capsule belt does kind of work with the Jokerized Batman and there are some precedents for a yellow Hush pouch belt...

Both the Blokees Champion Hush Batman and the McFarlane Super Powers Hush Batman opted for very yellow pouch belts, so I think it can certainly work.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Yeah, I don’t think the yellow pouch belt looks too bad there, especially with the brighter grey tone used by the 3 pack. Might even work on the first DC Core to compliment the brighter blue tone on that figure.

Gosh dang it! Why you’d sell me on an extra figure just for the belt and accessories?! Might wait and see if it sees a discount during the holidays, the JokerBat doesn’t seem especially popular, just from broad vibes I’m getting.

Not sure if seen, but there was a China Toy Expo last week and Mattel showed off some of their upcoming slate, including a few not show at NYCC:
-A “basic” Hush release (probably the same as the one Mattel is taking preorders on, minus all the extra stuff)
-Batman: Caped Crusader based on the Amazon animated series and is appropriately stylized.
-Peacemaker in a leisure suit?
-Ultimate Joker, vaguely Killing Joke inspired, but from what I can tell from the blurry images, a butt TON of accessories and options

 

[LordGigaIce]

Yeah, I don’t think the yellow pouch belt looks too bad there, especially with the brighter grey tone used by the 3 pack. Might even work on the first DC Core to compliment the brighter blue tone on that figure.

Gosh dang it! Why you’d sell me on an extra figure just for the belt and accessories?! Might wait and see if it sees a discount during the holidays, the JokerBat doesn’t seem especially popular, just from broad vibes I’m getting.

Sorry

This goes back to what I was saying earlier though, that even if someone wanted to go all in on the collector stuff going forward, the Core/Premier line is still an excellent value, if only for extra heads, belts, and accessories. At $13 a pop they're a better deal then most accessory packs on the market.

Not sure if seen, but there was a China Toy Expo last week and Mattel showed off some of their upcoming slate, including a few not show at NYCC:
-A “basic” Hush release (probably the same as the one Mattel is taking preorders on, minus all the extra stuff)
-Batman: Caped Crusader based on the Amazon animated series and is appropriately stylized.
-Peacemaker in a leisure suit?
-Ultimate Joker, vaguely Killing Joke inspired, but from what I can tell from the blurry images, a butt TON of accessories and options

All of that sounds great, save for the Caped Crusader reveal. No shade meant, but I think super stylized designs like that are always tricky to pull off when it comes to "collector-grade" action figures.

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[LordGigaIce]

Custom combining McFarlane Alex Ross Justice Batman with the head from Year One Batman.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Yeah, I don’t think the yellow pouch belt looks too bad there, especially with the brighter grey tone used by the 3 pack. Might even work on the first DC Core to compliment the brighter blue tone on that figure.

Gosh dang it! Why you’d sell me on an extra figure just for the belt and accessories?! Might wait and see if it sees a discount during the holidays, the JokerBat doesn’t seem especially popular, just from broad vibes I’m getting.

Not sure if seen, but there was a China Toy Expo last week and Mattel showed off some of their upcoming slate, including a few not show at NYCC:
-A “basic” Hush release (probably the same as the one Mattel is taking preorders on, minus all the extra stuff)
-Batman: Caped Crusader based on the Amazon animated series and is appropriately stylized.
-Peacemaker in a leisure suit?
-Ultimate Joker, vaguely Killing Joke inspired, but from what I can tell from the blurry images, a butt TON of accessories and options

UPDATE!

SO it turns out that Mattel also used a pouch belt on the black and grey Rebirth-esque Batman in the Clayface vs pack. I found someone on eBay willing to sell just the Batman from the set for about the price of a single carded Core figure, so I snatched it up. I had a spare belt from the first wave Batman from a figure I pillaged for custom parts, and swapped it onto him, so I could use his pouch belt for the Hush-esque Batman from the Bane and Nightwing three pack.

Thing is, it's a unique mould from the pouch belt of the Jokerized Batman!

I don't mind this at all, because I can give the Hush-lite figure a pouch belt that's still distinct from the Jokerized Batman's pouch belt.

Interesting note though, the pouch belt from the vs Clayface two pack only has two pegs on the back of his belt for weapon storage, while every other belt mould in the Core line has three.

This doesn't bother me, because I just need Batman to be able to carry a batarang and a grapple gun, and he can still do that. Still, it is worth noting.

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[LordGigaIce]

 

[Steevy Maximus]

"Oh noes, the line is dead, it's showing up at ROSS!"

I DID find remnants of wave 2 at Ross yesterday, a couple Supermans and a Stealth Batman. At $9, it IS cheaper than Target's going rate of $13...but I feel like Amazon will have better deals during the holidays.

 

[LordGigaIce]

"Oh noes, the line is dead, it's showing up at ROSS!"

I DID find remnants of wave 2 at Ross yesterday, a couple Supermans and a Stealth Batman. At $9, it IS cheaper than Target's going rate of $13...but I feel like Amazon will have better deals during the holidays.

I don't think Ross is a death blow or anything. Lots of stuff ends up there. I just got my nu-MotU 200x Trap Jaw there.

Still, I do think this DC Core line has had some weird distribution. It's only shown up at Targets and GameStops so far, and wave two has been incomplete. Every Target and GameStop I've been to that's switched out to wave two just puts out stealth Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern. I've yet to see a Jokerized Batman in person. I only got the one I have because I ordered it directly from Mattel. It's really shocking, because Jokerized Batman ties the wave together with the Jokerized face masks for the rest of the wave.
I don't know if this is a SS '86 Starscream situation where there was some issue with this specific figure's distribution or what, but it's just very odd.

As is the fact that I've yet to see these show up at Walmart at all, or that some of the vs packs or even the Robin cycle set just never showed up in person, period.

I donno. Maybe there's just a bit of confusion and reluctance to fully switch over to Mattel since McFarlane still has part of the DC licence for a few more months. Maybe they're waiting for the holiday rush to wrap up before just going whole hog on the new line.

We'll see what 2027 brings.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Finally took the plunge into Mafex, and who better to give it a go with than my favourite Batman villain, the Scarecrow?

 

[Steevy Maximus]

I don't think Ross is a death blow or anything. Lots of stuff ends up there. I just got my nu-MotU 200x Trap Jaw there.

Hell, it’s considered a viable enough distribution venue McFarlane makes those carded reruns . Speaking of, I also saw a lot of those when I was there, along with the Ninja Strike Gorilla Grodd. Grodd was only $5, and while a little small, might jive well with the Core line.

Still, I do think this DC Core line has had some weird distribution. It's only shown up at Targets and GameStops so far, and wave two has been incomplete. Every Target and GameStop I've been to that's switched out to wave two just puts out stealth Batman, Superman, and Green Lantern. I've yet to see a Jokerized Batman in person. I only got the one I have because I ordered it directly from Mattel. It's really shocking, because Jokerized Batman ties the wave together with the Jokerized face masks for the rest of the wave.
I don't know if this is a SS '86 Starscream situation where there was some issue with this specific figure's distribution or what, but it's just very odd.

As is the fact that I've yet to see these show up at Walmart at all, or that some of the vs packs or even the Robin cycle set just never showed up in person, period.

I donno. Maybe there's just a bit of confusion and reluctance to fully switch over to Mattel since McFarlane still has part of the DC licence for a few more months. Maybe they're waiting for the holiday rush to wrap up before just going whole hog on the new line.

We'll see what 2027 brings.

Yeah, though that’s been true of a LOT of more ”kid-centric” lines this year: Cyberworld Energon Surge has seen sparse distribution of the standard and deluxe CyberChangers. Walmart distribution of Masters of the Universe, as a whole, was pretty spotty during the film’s peak theatrical period and only hit many stores with the “Collector Island’s” return. And I don’t follow Mattel’s WWE range to know how distribution has been there.

When it comes to availability on the assortments being carried…that might be on Mattel. I checked on the case assortments at EE, and in both waves, Batman and the next top hero are heavily packed, with the remaining hero and villain at a mere one per case. And in the case of GameStop, stores might only be getting partial cases.

Though, I think you might be on to something with not wanting to bother with Mattel’s DC range until the entire until the collector range launches. And don’t forget that Man of Tomorrow is due next summer, so I could see Walmart just holding off until the film build up as part of a major, coordinated, cross market push.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I wish we had Ross's here.