Mattel: DC Universe Classics

[S. Griffin]

Ivy was supposedly bumped out of Wave 16 when they went from seven figures to six, and then of course...they had to make those deputy lanterns and those ____ing Hanna Barberra figures.

 

[buzzybean]

The whole Lantern this/Lantern that thing boggles the mind. DC Direct went apes**t over the whole Lantern thing too. My God...enough of the Green Lantern stuff. ToysRUs is overflowing with Lantern crap nobody wants. In brightest day in darkest night my ass!

BB

 

[RyanSD]

Ivy was supposedly bumped out of Wave 16 when they went from seven figures to six, and then of course...they had to make those deputy lanterns and those ____ing Hanna Barberra figures.

Which pisses me off beyond belief. I quit collecting most of DCUC around 10 or 11, when they started releasing characters I had never heard of. I still grabbed all the Bat figures though.

I'm soooo glad we got a whole wave of characters that appeared in all of 2 pages of an 'event book' while major Bat villains that have appeared in various media over the past 50+ years haven't been made.

I realize Batman isn't the end all be all of DC and DCUC, but characters like Ras and Ivy and Killer Croc would sell a helluva lot better than Indigo Atom and the Super-sterotype wave.

I really hope the sub goes through, so I can at least get an Ivy, but if it doesn't, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Here's hoping the Batman Legacy lasts at least a few waves and gives us something decent in terms of character selection. They'd be down right stupid to not have multiple Batman lines on the shelves for next year.

 

[comiclover47]

I stopped cold turkey right after wave 15. Now I dont know if I do want to complete the rest or try to sell them off

 

[luthor1940]

There was no need for all the Blackest Night figures but to say The Superfriends figures were not needed is not correct. There a many of people who got into DC Comics in the first place because of The Superfriends and have wanted these figures for over 30 years. The figures are flying off the shelves at Walmart from what I keep hearing so Yes they were needed and much welcomed.

 

[karamazov80]

I think the obscure characters are great, and I think it's cool that they exist. But they really have no place being sold in mass market stores like Wal-Mart. That Superfriends type stuff belongs in comic shops and online IMO. I think someone else noted here that DC Direct seems to cater to more general audiences with their over-abundance of Batman and Superman figures while DCUC was pretty frequently filled with obscure (except to the reasonably hardcore comic collector) characters. Crime Syndicate as a Wal-Mart exclusives? WTF?

The Green Lantern movie fiasco just hurts DC across the board, unfortunately, as those figures seem to be clogging pegs everywhere I go.

 

[S. Griffin]

The podcast is really worth a listen.
https://www.actionfigureinsider.com/main/case-for-the-dcuc-club-infinite-earths-sub

 

[Lee in MI]

If you don't want the obscure characters, then what do you want? Constant remakes of Batman & Superman as DC Direct has turned into?

The obscure characters is what makes this line fun...even with all the Lantern stuff. The only problem I had with the lantern stuff was Mattel probably held that bet too long so they could coordinate their release with the GL movie...bad move. As collectors had moved on from their love affair with the Sinestro Corp War & Blackest Night. They waited wayyyyy to long.


That interview is just a couple of fans jaw jacking about how this whole sub failure will be the fault of the fans if it doesn't go through...that's BS!!!

 

[karamazov80]

Don't know if you are referring to my post or not. . .since I'm obviously a fan of obscure characters as I said in the first sentence of my previous post. . .but it isn't a question of whether or not obscure characters should be released, but of where, how, and in what numbers obscure characters should be released for the purpose of having a successful line. Mattel just isn't gonna maximize its profits cranking out 20,000 Cyclotrons for Wal-Mart to sell.

 

[S. Griffin]

If you don't want the obscure characters, then what do you want? Constant remakes of Batman & Superman as DC Direct has turned into?

The obscure characters is what makes this line fun...even with all the Lantern stuff. The only problem I had with the lantern stuff was Mattel probably held that bet too long so they could coordinate their release with the GL movie...bad move. As collectors had moved on from their love affair with the Sinestro Corp War & Blackest Night. They waited wayyyyy to long.


That interview is just a couple of fans jaw jacking about how this whole sub failure will be the fault of the fans if it doesn't go through...that's BS!!!

Why is it BS? Those guys say that Mattel has made mistakes, but when it comes right down to it, fans aren't buying as many subscriptions as Mattel apparently needs to sell to get this thing up and running. ____, there are even people saying that they want to buy a subscription, but they won't because they're afraid the line won't go forward because not enough subscriptions are being sold. Fault is shared between Mattel and fans...unless of course, Mattel set their goal completely unrealistically high because they insidiously don't want this to happen. I refuse to believe Neitlich and McLachlan don't want to see fans get what they want.

 

[Lee in MI]

It's BS because they didn't put those same restrictions & requirements on ANY other subscription they've ever offered...NOT ONE!

So if it fails, it will be because they put a stipulation on it. Not because the fans who feel slighted already due to bad distribution, poor QC and a non-existent marketing push for the sub decided not to buy it.

Btw, I did purchase one but I TOTALLY get why some haven't...and I put it squarly at Mattel's feet for not properly pushing the marketing. Why does their proxies (Julius Marx & Spy Monkey) have to come out and push this sub? Where are the Mattel MBAs? Where is the brand manager? Why did they drop this type of bomb at SDCC?

They have been virtually abscent from the whole topic.

 

[S. Griffin]

Yeah, the lack of almost anything from Mattel about this outside of mattycollector and their fb and twitter pages, and answering only three questions about the sub on their forum definitely pisses me off and is a HUGE mistake IMO. I've also questioned time and again why they have no thermometer for any other subscription. I just don't think that fans have no responsibility if this doesn't go through.
Then again, I don't believe every thing that Marx and the Spy Monkey guys said, either. I just said it was worth a listen.

 

[Lee in MI]

I can agree that's it worth listening to...for the entertainment of it.

But I just can't get onboard with blaming the fans. If you sell a product, in this case the sub, and people don't buy it, is it the customers fault? Or did you just fail to offer them a worthwhile product? Did you market it right? Did you launch it at the right time? What are you offering that fans don't already get? Is there any increased value added...particularly considering the price per fig is going up! $15 bucks, pressumably, with no CnC + shipping is higher per fig even though most fans probably buy online anyway.

That's like a store owner opening up a store and goes belly up. Then says, "I failed cause no one supported me...". But his/her customer service sucked. They barely kept product in stock. Tons of defective product with no real way to exchange it. Offering product that makes no sense like pots with no tops (in Mattel's case, Lantern characters with no lantern).

That's not the customers fault! IT'S MATTEL'S!!!

I say that while still hoping it works out. But at this point, it looks like it's a lost cause.

 

[S. Griffin]

See, and I'm not going to argue, because I don't disagree with you that much. But at least put a little blame on the people who say they want a subscription but they won't buy it because they're afraid it won't go forward because there aren't enough people buying it. That's just ____ing stupid.

 

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

My collection of DC classics.

all together

wonder woman´s section

power girl and atom.

the bat section

superman and supergirl.

superman´s fans

the teen titans.

 

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

and the exclusives.

and plastic man sdcc.

 

[S. Griffin]

And that'll be about it.

 

[amusedjester]

I don't doubt Mattel's choice in figures. I trust them in that. I don't mind paying an extra 30 for oversized figures.

The only thing that is really holding me back from ordering the sub is the added cost of the shipping price. But you know what? IAM willing to pay shipping price; but a shipping price per figure? That adds 5 - 7 dollars per figure price. If Mattel offered a batch shipping, i would do it. I am even willing to wait a year to get my figures and pay ahead if only to save on shipping.

 

[S. Griffin]

I've been cherry picking most of the last 20 lines (some had no figure that I wanted), and I got sick of trying to find these at retail, years ago. I've paid shipping on each of the last four of five figures I've bought, and they were about one per wave. I also saved money on gas when I compared getting them online to hunting for the god damn Wal Mart exclusives.

 

[amusedjester]

See with me, I never did the hunting around, except WM's EX; Too much wasted gas. I ordered whole waves from my Lcs. Loved all the figures and Mattel's choices, however obscure. That's why I don't have any doubts with mattel's choice of characters.
I don't mind the lack of marketing, lack of information or the suddeness of it all. Paying an extra 30 for the old CNC figures sorta sticks for me but if they promise bigger figures, sure why not.

It's the individual shipping costs I can't justify. It's the same reason I started the MOTU figures but in the end stopped after a few figures. It ended up being 31.75 per figure instead of the actual 20.00. Same thing will happen with this sub figures, in the end people will end up paying 23-25 per figure.

Too much for me. I have 30 extra figures that i got for 3/piece and have been saving them up for customs.