I find amusing since Spin Master has, largely, scuttled any 4" offerings for the year, minus some Batman Ninja stuff that I'm not entirely confident will even see US distribution.
We'll see what Mattel offers next year
Oh man, Mattel.
So I like Stargirl. She's fun, she has a retro golden age aesthetic I like, she's a great JSA member, and the JSA is my favourite part of DC.
McFarlane doesn't look like he'll be making a Stargirl before his licence runs out so I bought an old Mattel DC Universe Stargirl figure for my McFarlane DC collection. True, Mattel's stuff was six inches and Todd's is seven, but she's supposed to be a teenager so I can fudge that.
Anyway it gets here and holy hell this thing is bad. The hips are unsightly but at least they're functional. She can't stand though, not even with a figure stand. And she can't hold her staff. At all. Like the physics of how the toy was designed don't work with the one accessory she comes with. It's a total clusterf**k.
Needless to say... I'm tentatively curious to see what Mattel has planned for DC, but it does suck they're getting the licence back when what McFarlane and Spin Master have been putting out laps Mattel's last offering tenfold.
I'm curious what Spin Master's six inch Superman line is like, as their four inch stuff packed a lot of articulation and accessories in for the price you paid. I'm sure it's good... but I just don't see myself checking it out.
I think the biggest issue for me with Hasbro's kids offerings is just how limited they've kept it. I'm under no illusion about its nature, but it's a bit frustrating that, nearly two years in, they've only made 5 villains (with Venom being VASTLY overused, repainted into a sixth "character", and Doc Ock being a 5 POA). Over that same time, the Avengers line has amounted to 6 members and three villains.
The Marvel kids stuff is just kinda... there. The Star Wars kids stuff looks interesting though. I don't love Star Wars enough to get a full cast of characters in Black series, but a four inch Darth Vader and four inch Luke for the desk might be fun. Maybe a Darth Maul too because I was cursed to be eleven when Phantom Menace came out and thus still labour under the delusion that he's cool.
I love that GI Joe fans who were open to a new scale and/or who can afford to start a new collection are eating really good with a line made by people who clearly have a love for the franchise. But I wish the pendulum would swing back toward 4-inch, or at least that collectors of that scale would get something that wasn't "here's construction we moved last, because we need to milk that for a change". The new modern sculpts in the Retro line (well, the FANG pilot) just before it became o-rings again were pretty neat.
I'll say this for Classified at the six inch scale. It's REALLY good and I'm not even much of a GI Joe fan. I only have a Cobra Commander and two Crimson Vipers and that's about all I need but I am very impressed with what I have.
Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series are licensed products so part of the production cost goes to paying Disney.
GI Joe Classified, though, is entirely in house and it really shows what Hasbro can do at the six inch scale when unencumbered. Like I said, I have two Crimson Vipers and I've managed to make both of them feel like unique figures based just off of being selective with their accessory loadouts. They come that packed with stuff.
I find myself missing the high end 3.75/4 inch scale too, but part of me thinks those days aren't coming back? I have Marvel 3.75 inch Iron Man and Mandarin on my desk right now, from the heyday of that scale. These things are mini six inch figures with how much articulation they pack in.
As awesome as they are... I just don't see Hasbro or anyone else putting that kind of money into a scale commonly associated with "kids lines" these days. Six and seven inch is just where the collectors market is now.
Which makes Spin Master losing DC even sadder, because they were the closest we got to those 3.75 fully articulated Hasbro figures in a good while. They really pressed the limits of what was possible at the $8-$10/4 inch "kids toy" price point.
