DC Toy Thread

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Thing is it's better than it was. Even Todd's love of Batman doesn't reach 90s levels where like 95% of the DC toy aisle space was Batman, and 5% was Superman. MAYBE you'd see someone else, but only if they could work it into the Superman line. And women? Forget it. Kenner/Hasbro did make some Wonder Woman figures but IIRC they were all direct market releases meaning you'd never see them on retail shelves.

So when people today complain about the over-abundance of Batman I'm like "this is nothing."
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
Thing is it's better than it was. Even Todd's love of Batman doesn't reach 90s levels where like 95% of the DC toy aisle space was Batman, and 5% was Superman. MAYBE you'd see someone else, but only if they could work it into the Superman line. And women? Forget it. Kenner/Hasbro did make some Wonder Woman figures but IIRC they were all direct market releases meaning you'd never see them on retail shelves.

So when people today complain about the over-abundance of Batman I'm like "this is nothing."
The late 90s was basically "taste the rainbow of Batmen". Feels like a LOT of modern collectors have either forgot or weren't around for it. Kenner DID do a few female figures...but you'd never see them because all the trading card/comic book speculators had jumped ship to toys by that point.

On a lark, I looked at the pricing for some Batman and Robin figures...and the female characters and secondary villains are easier and CHEAPER to get now than most of the Batman and Robin variants!
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
The late 90s was basically "taste the rainbow of Batmen". Feels like a LOT of modern collectors have either forgot or weren't around for it.
Yea. Like I was there when every new Batman got an almost infinite number of repaints that clogged shelves. Nothing today even comes close to that level of Batman over-saturation. So I find it hard to buy into the outrage some modern collectors have at McFarlane or SpinMaster, or Mattel.

I guess I find it funny that they thought Mattel WOULDN'T lean hard on Batman and it's like... lol no. If you're paying for the DC licence you're pretty much paying for Batman. Everyone else is just a bonus. And switching from Todd to Matty was never going to change that.
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I dunno, I just know that I've seen plenty of Batman-only toy lines over the years. All I'm saying is, if you're going to make 85% of your DC line Batman, then why not just do a Batman line?
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
I dunno, I just know that I've seen plenty of Batman-only toy lines over the years. All I'm saying is, if you're going to make 85% of your DC line Batman, then why not just do a Batman line?
My take is…the current retail or management environment would only allow for single product line for DC, at least at the moment. Batman, while still quite popular, has cooled in the past decade relative to where he was in the late 2000s to 2010s, where the character was still receiving a steady stream of appearances in movies to maintain popularity (plus appearing on DC animated features and shows). A LOT of those initiatives have slowed, which I think has had the knock on effect of diminishing consumer momentum for the character on the whole.

When Spin Masters launched their DC stuff in 2020 with Batman, alone, it was fairly successful becuase, well, “Batman sells”. But the DC Superhero Spin off struggled to match that pace. To the point the line would get fairly hefty hiatus periods.

Mattel, with how they’ve shifted their management priorities over the past half decade, WANTS a line that provides a wide spectrum of characters at an accessible price point. After all, all those decades of DC films, shows and animated series are still floating around the myriad of streaming venues as well as Gunn’s more “open universe” perspective in the new era of DC films (2025’s Superman likely introducing many younger fans to Mr Terrific, Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, AND Metamorpho!).
But history shows that Batman MUST be the anchor. He (and his broader “brand family”) are what is going to maintain this segment to allow Mattel to touch on a wider variety of characters
 


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