McFarlane Spawn

Todd does not give me the same read as Vala at all.

I understand how he comes across.

But to me he comes from a place of authentic enthusiasm.

Vala comes from a place of insecurity and little man syndrome looking for validation by pulling others down.
 
Todd displays narcissistic behavior, to be sure, and his self-aggrandizement is quite odious to me.

That said: I’ve never seen him be a hateful, petty, bullying little shit like Vala.
 
JakeEkiss said:
Kind of a proto Vala, isn't he? Loves his own fart smell way too much.
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Todd seems like a legitimately better person, and I think it's important to point that out. He doesn't go out of his way to tell you all about why Mattel sucks and his DC line is better. And even when he sort've is saying that, he's explaining it in a way that doesn't even make Mattel look bad (for instance, when he talks about not having stockholders and no one to answer to for how he prices things).
BUT, the reason his contribution to the toy world has MOSTLY been trash for 20 years or so is because he's so high on what HE thinks is better that even monumental evidence of being wrong was never enough to sway him. As you say, his pupils are dilated and the reason is that he's huffing his own brand. In -that sense alone- I can see the Vala resemblance. Just full of himself. But in no other way would I say they're alike.

Fuck man... even when he finally relented and realized people DO want articulation no matter how much he hates it, he decided to go ahead and do it worse than every other company currently producing highly articulated action figures. Todd could have been doing Savage Crucible or JoyToy level shit, and instead he was like 'what if Spin Master tried to make DCUC.'

AceofKnaves said:
Why not just let the work speak for itself? He gets in his own way constantly.
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I genuinely love Todd's enthusiasm. I do think that is a strength. When he just wants to do a video and be like 'LOOK AT THIS COOL FUCKING THING WE MADE IT'S SO BIG AND COOL!' When he just looks honestly and truly -excited- about the thing, that can be infectious. Basically every other time he's talking it makes me want anything Todd a lot less.
 
I have the advantage of having met Todd once as a high schooler and once as an adult, and he was very gracious and supportive. That might color how it looks to me whenever he's talking about his stuff on his videos saying how cool it is. Look how cool. It's so cool. Comes with a cool batarang. Cool guys.

Vala I just don't even want to meet. My autistic spider sense just tells me he's the kind of person that would act like. Everything he's doing is a favor on my behalf even though it's actually only going to serve him.

Not that I thought he was cool in the first place, but the thing that put him into self-parody for me was when he started doing videos pontificating on the toy industry in a whiskey cellar with a custom table with ammunition in the lacquer, and he had a cigar and a glass of whiskey that he would never touch.

You want to talk about performative male. That's the picture in my dictionary.
 
Damien said:
When he just looks honestly and truly -excited- about the thing, that can be infectious.
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I willing to believe that.

I’m just never, ever gonna watch him on camera because his LOOK AT ME vibe gives me the ick.

I mean: he named his company after himself. Major red flag.
 
I've heard Todd is incredible to be around if you're an artist. Toy stuff was always something he did because he wanted there to be toys of HIS characters and that business just took off. But he's an artist. He wants to draw, and he is apparently powerfully supportive of people that want advice on that career.
 
When I met Scott Campbell when I was 15 he was such a douchebag to me. Yes, he was not at his table, but he was at another table and I was a kid. I just wanted him to sign my Gen 13 and he did it with an eye roll and handled the book like I had handed him soiled underwear from the floor of a locker room shower.

It colored him for the rest of my life.
 
Damien said:
Todd seems like a legitimately better person, and I think it's important to point that out. He doesn't go out of his way to tell you all about why Mattel sucks and his DC line is better.
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Oh yeah, that's why I say proto Vala, because it wouldn't surprise me at all if Vala was inspired by Todd in some of his mannerisms. Todd gives me the impression he probably does talk as much mad shit as Bobby, he just does it a lot more behind closed doors. It's weird because Todd definitely helped realign what toys looked like in terms of sculpt and paint, and then it's like he never believed he could be topped or there was any more ground to cover. He's slowly changed, but his figures feel way outdated.
 
Just opinions, I think the KS blows this out of the water. The torso twist was Todd being Todd, but that figure is a dedicated sculpt with incredible paint. I don't hold up soft goods like others do so don't see this new one as an upgrade persay. Also, the KS was less than this one will cost. I know the time value of money has sway here, but still.

That said, this guy does look sharp! The body they used is a good one and the colors pop. My problem is they dropped the spiky boot accessory and 1-2 heads from NYCC. Maybe it gets released as a Gold Platinum Blue Gold Label Patina version one day. For the asking price on a reused body from 2022 though I don't know that I will buy this one if the accessories I wanted are not included. Still love the idea for the line!
 
Ditko said:
Just opinions, I think the KS blows this out of the water. The torso twist was Todd being Todd, but that figure is a dedicated sculpt with incredible paint. I don't hold up soft goods like others do so don't see this new one as an upgrade persay. Also, the KS was less than this one will cost. I know the time value of money has sway here, but still.
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Of course, just opinions here: Dedicated sculpt is only a good thing if it's a good sculpt. But the KS figure had hideous wrists, those stupid feet, and was designed specifically to not look good in most poses you might want to do with a Spawn figure, or not even be capable of doing them. So the dedicated sculpt isn't really a positive. It's just a thing that it has.
I'm not sure what reason there is to believe the paint on the KS will be any/much better than this figure. After all, it's basically the same design and color scheme. It's not exactly hyper-detailed like, say, the medieval Spawn KS figure.

Even if you're ambivalent about softgoods, the plastic shell cape, while a nice homage to the vintage toy, only further renders the figure practically immobile. If nothing else, the new figure should at least be able to be posed in, you know.. Spawn poses.

For price -- that is certainly going to be dictated by where you live and how it's made available. If I can find this thing at GameStop or at an e-tailer I frequently use, I guarantee it will be cheaper for me than the KS figure was. After shipping, that thing was like 100 CAD for just the regular unsigned version.

I like the KS Spawn, despite what I view as its faults. I don't know if I'll even bother to pick up this new one, and if I do I probably wouldn't get rid of the KS version. So I don't mean this to just bag on the KS figure. But I would definitely see this as a sideways step, not a downgrade. And more importantly, this figure is basically what the KS backers were asking for, which is where I think we might see some frustration from collectors.
 
I got so used to McF Spawn figures without the red deco on the body that I forgot how much it looks like he's wearing a woman's swim suit.
 
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