Mattel DC Figures

I for one welcome the break from buying DC figures aside from the occassional $100+ one from InArt or LPZZ. The sticker shock will save me from myself, I'm convinced of it.
 
My problem with the high end stuff is threefold:

Price. I really can’t afford it. Or at least I couldn’t when I started this endeavor. But to me, even now, it’s almost like a Papal indulgence. More than $50.00 for a lone 6” figure is just too much. If you like them and can afford them, God bless. But it’s just not for me.

Fabric costumes. Just no. I understand that this is mostly a Mezco thing, but still no. I’m old enough to where I had the full size GI Joes as well Mego Superheroes. And a bunch of other Mego stuff too. I’m not even close to interested in the upkeep and maintenance of these figures. Full stop.

Variety. There isn’t any. Once you claw together all of the high end companies, domestic or import that produce figures in the 5-9 inch scale, then cull the non comic figures, what’s left isn’t much. If you try to scale it, it’s even less. I’ll take Todd’s hoops over that shit.
 
Yep, I'm also out on InArt, LPZZ, MAFEX and Mezco. No matter how good a figure, I'm just not going to participate when a standard issue figure is anything over $40. It's the same reason that I'm out on things like Loose Collector, Frazetta, etc. Even the $60 price point for the upcoming McFarlane Image Founders line is a bridge too far for me.

Now I'm still willing to pay up for special figures as I've bought all of the Marvel Legends HasLabs and Made to Order offerings. I caved on Mezco Ultimate Godzilla (at a heavy discount) and Black Bolt / Lockjaw. But those are going to be rare occurrences.
 
With InArt and LPZZ I'm basically only in for very specific Batman figures that look like the best things I've ever seen. Mafex is also a once in a long while treat I allow myself for figures they just do better than Hasbro. Fortunately I typically hate the looks of most of what Mezco produces as they always look more like soft goods-laden dolls more than anything, so I've yet to own one and doubt I will any time soon.

The Dick Tracy stuff almost got me, but it's based off the comic not the movie, and while I still like it enough, not for the price, and not for a 12 inch doll with an oversized box.

Thankfully, I have enough McFarlane DC stuff that the Beast Kingdom Alex Ross-looking JLA figures haven't been calling to me like I thought they might.
 
If you don't think a toy can be worth more than $50, I get it. For me, they're a steal. I bought MAFEX's classic comic Spider-Man figure in 2022. I haven't been tempted by a classic Spider-Man since. You skip three ML Spideys, and suddenly you've got enough for a MAFEX figure. I spend more on imports up front, but because they're ahead of the curve, I'm not eyeing upgrades for at least four or five years.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
If you don't think a toy can be worth more than $50, I get it. For me, they're a steal. I bought MAFEX's classic comic Spider-Man figure in 2022. I haven't been tempted by a classic Spider-Man since. You skip three ML Spideys, and suddenly you've got enough for a MAFEX figure. I spend more on imports up front, but because they're ahead of the curve, I'm not eyeing upgrades for at least four or five years.
Click to expand...

This is me.

And I'm also not really doing variety of completionism these days, so I'd rather have a high end banger of a Batman than fill out the family or rogues with Sorta Good Enough For Now.
 
Most stuff from Mafex gets blasted out of the water by CTToys and similar knockoffs now too, so if it's a big name character you're only looking at $40-ish rather than the usual $100-$120 on say BBTS.
 
My deal with the high-end stuff is that my favorite characters are all hyper-specific and never get made in those formats. The MAFEX stuff is gorgeous but if you gave me $100 right now to buy one, it'd be Caine from John Wick 4 or the T-800.

Well, that being said, I could see them making an Elektra. That would be a purchase for me. The gap from main event to midcard is smaller at Marvel, but most of my DC favorites, no chance.
 
Atomic Knight said:
Thanks for the unvarnished answer.

How would you think Mattel would define success going forward?
Click to expand...

That’s a large part of the problem. Mattel is so bloated that they don’t need to succeed. They can produce shitty figures for boys 10 and under and still meet enough of a quota and leave the collector market to rot and still justify holding onto the license for another 20 years because they have the capital for it. Again look at what happened to the JP line. When Mattel tried to make an olive branch to collectors with the announcement of the Amber Collection, fans in our demographic went nuts but then quickly went silent when they learned that Mattel had no serious game plan and just kept releasing human and raptors into perpetuity. It wasn’t long before the abandons the 1/12 scale market and just went back to profiting off of more 1/18th scale stuff. The same will be true of DC merch.

Watch them release 10-12 figures (which btw will probably take up to 3-4 years just to make it that far in. )And they’ll fumble the ball time after time. Probably even barely making it out of the bat family. And when we get tired of their antics they’ll just release figures for kids and relegate themselves to a “love it or leave it, losers.” marketing strategy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Stoopid_Sandwich said:
That’s a large part of the problem. Mattel is so bloated that they don’t need to succeed. They can produce shitty figures for boys 10 and under and still meet enough of a quota and leave the collector market to rot and still justify holding onto the license for another 20 years because they have the capital for it. Again look at what happened to the JP line. When Mattel tried to make an olive branch to collectors with the announcement of the Amber Collection, fans in our demographic went nuts but then quickly went silent when they learned that Mattel had no serious game plan and just kept releasing human and raptors into perpetuity. It wasn’t long before the abandons the 1/12 scale market and just went back to profiting off of more 1/18th scale stuff. The same will be true of DC merch.
Click to expand...

I was on the receiving end of that, happy to buy a semi-decent looking JP line in 1/12th scale. After they abandoned it I quit, as I wasn't going to restart everything all over in the Hammond Collection sizing. Imagine if Black Series just went away and Hasbro thought "well they'll just have to switch to Vintage Collection. Nuts to that!
 
Stoopid_Sandwich said:
That’s a large part of the problem. Mattel is so bloated that they don’t need to succeed. They can produce shitty figures for boys 10 and under and still meet enough of a quota and leave the collector market to rot and still justify holding onto the license for another 20 years because they have the capital for it. Again look at what happened to the JP line. When Mattel tried to make an olive branch to collectors with the announcement of the Amber Collection, fans in our demographic went nuts but then quickly went silent when they learned that Mattel had no serious game plan and just kept releasing human and raptors into perpetuity. It wasn’t long before the abandons the 1/12 scale market and just went back to profiting off of more 1/18th scale stuff. The same will be true of DC merch.

Watch them release 10-12 figures (which btw will probably take up to 3-4 years just to make it that far in. )And they’ll fumble the ball time after time. Probably even barely making it out of the bat family. And when we get tired of their antics they’ll just release figures for kids and relegate themselves to a “love it or leave it, losers.” marketing strategy
Click to expand...

JP is a much less character-rich property with serious scale issues for a 1/12 line (i.e. it's a property built around dinosaurs) whose un-toyetic main characters are scientists in -- admittedly fantastic, Dr. Alan Grant is a fashion icon -- workwear. I think this is going to be much more a combination of the WWE line and the stuff they do with MOTU: humming along quickly enough where any crappy figure is going to be instantly forgotten because the next wave is already out, and also, hope you like repaints of A-listers. In other words, a typical superhero line.
 
Stoopid_Sandwich said:
That’s a large part of the problem. Mattel is so bloated that they don’t need to succeed. They can produce shitty figures for boys 10 and under and still meet enough of a quota and leave the collector market to rot and still justify holding onto the license for another 20 years because they have the capital for it. Again look at what happened to the JP line. When Mattel tried to make an olive branch to collectors with the announcement of the Amber Collection, fans in our demographic went nuts but then quickly went silent when they learned that Mattel had no serious game plan and just kept releasing human and raptors into perpetuity. It wasn’t long before the abandons the 1/12 scale market and just went back to profiting off of more 1/18th scale stuff. The same will be true of DC merch.

Watch them release 10-12 figures (which btw will probably take up to 3-4 years just to make it that far in. )And they’ll fumble the ball time after time. Probably even barely making it out of the bat family. And when we get tired of their antics they’ll just release figures for kids and relegate themselves to a “love it or leave it, losers.” marketing strategy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Maybe I’m dense, but can’t Mattel see what Hasbro has accomplished by engaging with the collector end of the market? It’s almost counterintuitive for them to bomb the kids end and ignore us. I don’t get it.

Besides, wasn’t there some vague inside intel that suggested Mattel had an impressive, comprehensive proposal for the DC license? Always down range of course.
 
I dunno about toys, but the video game and movie industry love to talk about impressive, comprehensive, amazing, blah blah and it's just boardroom self fellating.

It's all theory crafting right now.
 
On my end, my ability to stomach those higher cost high-end figures all depends on whether or not they are those hyper-specific characters I like and actually suit my needs. My love of these IPs almost always hinge around those characters... Casey, Adam Warlock, Azrael, Ben Reilly, etc. I'd pay basically anything for those characters (and embarrassingly, have), but until I have those guys, the evergreen characters and anyone else that gets released are barely even justifiable at $25-$30 unless it's just that good of a toy. They can be justifiable at a higher price if my faves exist and can be part of the same display, though.

Mafex Marvel has given me bits of what I want with Ben (twice), but Mafex DC is a step away from doing what I want at all times. Their Batfamily roster is just missing Alfred, Cass, and Jean. Knightfall very easily could dip into Catwoman, Huntress, Azrael, and Nightwing any time now. They just haven't, at least so far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top