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02-19-2010, 12:34 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 87
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I am an addict, there I said it its out in the open. I have spent more money over the years on action figures than most people spend on their car.
All total I have well over 1,000 figures, ranging from vintage Joes to designer Vinyls. About a year ago I said enough, its time to cut back , you've gotten out of hand and hobby has became obsession, so instead of going cold turkey I cut back. Considerably I stopped my Starwars collecting, resigned myself to Bandai never bring Gundam back to the US, gave up on Mezco completely after they canceled any further Hellboy Comic figs and forswore high end Japanese toys. I was going to only collect Cobra figures and vehicles, and most importantly DC Universe Classics. For a while I was happy in my new mode, the DC figures continued to delight me and I, as any good collector I bought every single figure released, even variants. which I actually hate the mere concept of. I loved the sculpts , the articulation, the vibrant comic colors, the character choices and even the C&C Figure which until this line was also a concept I was vehemently against. In fact Grundy was my first C&C. ( I had problems finding Orion initially for some reason.) I looked forward to news articles showing my new plastic lovelies and scoured web pages and blogs for rumors and pics. I was hooked. I diligently bought every wave without fail, even wave 5 which I fortunately had no problem finding. I loved my weekly toy hunt , an aspect of the hobby which I truly truly enjoy. The figures marched along filling my shelves with plasticy goodness, and awesome comic visage. I heard complaints from some collectors on QC, bad paint apps, and sticky breaking joints, the endless screaming about wave 5. I ignored it all and continued in my happy consumerism. And then it slowly started , around wave 6. the figures were harder to find, sporadically showing up here and there, I started finding wave 6 at places like Kroger, which was fine by me actually because I shop for groceries there. Then wave 7, again mostly bought at Kroger. Then the bottom fell out. Wave 8, the disaster. You see my friends I actually am a delivery driver, so I travel all over my state and stop almost every day at retail outlets, a job which has helped me with my hobby greatly. I was dumbfounded as to why I could not find my toys! It really seemed that when Mattel changed the way they packaged the figures in new case allotments ( which really messed with Etailers) and went from a 5 piece to a 7 piece C&C is when the troubles began, Now again Wave 7 wasn't that bad, though it did seem like a long time betwen figure finds , but wave 8 wasn't there, at all. The west coast was apparently getting these guys but us east coasters were very dry. All we were getting was Worlds Greatest Super Heroes waves with the terrible Mattel stands, and left overs from wave 6 & 7. I broke down and did something I really dislike, I bought some of the figs online. I went to my favorite blogs and news feeds to try and find out why, and there were spurious stories of under produced figures and Wave 9 being sold out everywhere.. Wave 9?! where was wave 8?! Time went on and I finally found a wave 8 figure in an entirely different state at retail, Vigilante! My hopes swelled! Dreams of Giganta and Gentleman Ghost and Hawk Girl filled my little head and I went back to looking at retailer outlets, eschewing the online sellers hoping I would find my plastic joy on a toy run. Wow what a mistake I completed wave 9, no problems, wave 10 , easily procured. even Public enemies fell into my clutches, but wave 8 still eluded me. Now since then I have finally at least completed Giganta, a great guy on here from the UK hooked me up with a Gentleman Ghost MOC. Needless to say I was a little annoyed and concerned. What happened? I posted questions on Mattel's Matty Facebook and all that was ever said was it was the retailers fault. Really? Really? It was during a custom on a Cobra Snake armor that it struck me.. "Wow this white paint job sure is a pain in the.... hey, wait a minute!! If Mattel is having QC issues the white paint job on GG must be a nightmare!" I went to my computer and voiced this theory on Matty's Facespace, and simply asked " Hey is it possible the rarity of this fig is because of Poor QC? As a customizer I know White paint jobs sure gives me fits". Less than 5 minutes later my post was removed.. "HMM" I mused, "interesting". Then as if by magic wave 8 began to appear in case assortments , a little here , a little there. but still no GG. It was if as the rest of the line, held back by the possible problems with GG was being snuck into retail, Then Mattel states. "There is not enough fan demand to re issue this figure." Excuse me? He's available in The JLU, Brave and Bold and the cutsey little guys, and he's not popular enough?! I then begin to slowly realize Mattel is in fact a Mega Corporation and Evil. And then the prices started to rise.... In my honest opinion on this line the recent hike in price is due to two factors. Poor sales of Avatar toys and the trashing of countless GG's due to poor quality. Now I may be way off base on this but the Joke of a "Survey" that Mattel posted about our collecting habits really glaringly points to this, I mean come on, they directly ask. "You Indicated that you don't collect the Avatar movie figure, why is this?" I answered honestly, "they have poor sculpts, the articulation is so so, the scale is totally off and the price point is way to high." Now many people of course said things like they are terrible or they suck, but that's not what a market analysis wants to hear, and really I would LOVE to answer multiple questionnaires on toy lines. But back to DCUC. The distribution problems that Mattel is famous for are apparently not really that exaggerated, but whats the real reason behind this? Why cant they give us just an honest adult answer? In short, much like the U.S.A. in that I love my country, but I hate my government, I love the DCUC but I am growing to hate Mattel. Will I continue to collect this line? Yes. Will I hate the price point and distribution? Yes. Will I continue to scour places like this for news and rumors? Yes! Am I excited about new figs! Heck Yes! All In all I love my DC figures, and I won't give up on something I love. Otto Destruct Coming soon! A wave by wave review! Oh, and don't even get me started on Gleek.............
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Before all else, be armed. Niccolo Machiavelli |
02-19-2010, 09:34 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 495
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I certainly do think a lot of the stuff that Mattel does is intentional to fan the flames of collector interest more or less. Think about it, the hardcore fans are going to say to each other those figures are great but I had a hard time finding this or that one and evil employee scalpers who catch wind of this are going to grab them up before they even hit the shelves to sell on Ebay to pad their petty incomes. Which makes these figures that much more elusive.
As a lifelong DC Comics fan, I am really agitated by how this company chooses to handle one of the biggest toy licenses out there today. |
02-19-2010, 10:03 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 87
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That's why I'm here Jimster, to get to the bottom of this, and maybe make Mattel realize that the current business model is hard on us, the collectors. We ultimately want this line to continue and thrive so we can get figures like Martin Manhunter, and maybe eventually even Legion figures.. (which are rumored btw!!!) I want the line to flourish, sub sets and exclusives.
I am a DIEHARD DC fan, I love this line , I want more... I just want a little less smugness from Mattel about my hobby.
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Before all else, be armed. Niccolo Machiavelli Last edited by OttoDestruct; 02-19-2010 at 10:09 AM.. |
02-19-2010, 11:20 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: New Madrid, Missouri
Posts: 43
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I feel your pain. I am collector of many, especially DC Universe. It terrifies me to see that the prices going up like this but I don't think I can stop buying them. I swore to myself that after I got a few poor quality figures from Wave 9 (mainly Black Adam and Wildcat) that I wouldn't buy anymore in protest of the figures that mattel had been putting out at the time. But when I saw wave 10, I gave in. Then Wave 11. These things are like crack. Once you see them you just got to have them.
Luckily though Wave 13 is a junk wave. That should help...until 14. |
02-19-2010, 12:52 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 87
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Yeah I'm underwhelmed by both 13 and 14. I'm really glad Cyclotron has a base, and not a C&C piece as I really don't care for the Superpowers figures.
Wave 13 I really want Blue Devil , Cheetah and Negative man. I can live without the rest, and Trigon is kind of a weak C&C figure, I would much rather seen and Atrocius sp? or (Dream of Dreams) a Swamp Thing. Wave 14 is the constipated and angry wave, But WOWEE I needs me an Ultrahumanite. The Gems in that wave are Kamandi, Hourman and Gold. Zatanna is ho hum. and has the extremely aggravating Black Canary fishnets. All in all My wallet will love the break on wave 13 but likely Ill end up with them all anyway, I'm that type of collector. Oh and for the record, Unless I buy them for fodder for customs. I buy one fig, and I open and display it.
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Before all else, be armed. Niccolo Machiavelli |
02-19-2010, 01:18 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 495
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Not sure what your plan of attack is to get Mattel to change their ways many collectors have voiced their concerns during those Q and A sessions and their answer is always the same, we are looking at different ways to satisfy both collector demand and retailer orders. O.K. so now online stores and speciality retailers can order whole cases of just 1 figure, but what the about the uneven way they are now dividing the assortments that do get sent to big box retailers? I would like to see this line thrive as well but not ,as you said, with the same business model. I said this in another post that both Super Powers and DC Direct get blown out of the water by DCUC. I had heard Mattel has the master toy license for DC Comics until 2014 and within that time frame I am confident we will see a bunch of obscure characters and as well as the A - Listers. Legion would be great and I am pretty sure they are going to go through with producing those figures, I mean Mattel did give us The Wonder Twins and, one of my all time favorites from the 1980's, the first ever Adrian Chase Vigilante figure.
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02-19-2010, 01:36 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 87
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So what exactly does Master License mean?
I originally heard it was anything Dc produced. that seems a tad over blown, what are considered DC titles Proper. JLU, JSU, JLA, JSA? Batman, Superman etc. Legion? Elseworlds? Vertigo? Now the Toy Guru guy (who had no idea what he was talking about) said it was for only main line DC , Which wouldn't that NOT include Superpowers, Kingdom come ( Capt.Atom) or possibly even any of the Harvey characters like Blue Beetle or the Question.... That kind of response is why I wish they wouldn't even answer questions sometimes. Otto
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Before all else, be armed. Niccolo Machiavelli |
02-19-2010, 01:49 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 495
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From what I understand the master toy license encompasses all DC related characters from film, T.V., and literature I do believe that does include Vertigo. There are a few exceptions like producing actual figures based off the Adam West Batman t.v. series which will probably be in likeness and ownership rights purgatory forever. Mattel can however release a line of Tim Burton Batman figures if they so choose.
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02-19-2010, 02:11 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 495
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Sort of like what they did with the 12" Movie Masters General Zod.
Last edited by jimster2010; 02-19-2010 at 02:43 PM.. |
02-21-2010, 08:12 AM | #10 |
Dark Lord of the 'Ark
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 8,224
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Figures that have likenesses to actual people (i.e. any movie/TV versions) have separate rights issues. Back in the 60's no one really thought about toys looking exactly like the actors who portrayed those characters. Of course, Star Wars changed everything. Once people realized the amount of money that could be made from movie-related toys, merchandizing deals became standard practice and were usually written into an actor's contract.
As far as a "master license" is concerned, it doesn't necessarily mean that Mattel can do whatever they want with whoever they choose. There are always certain limitations, be it character-, series-, or format-related. And just because Mattel may have the so-called master license, doesn't mean that only Mattel can produce DC toys and products. DC can and will make deals with other companies for products that Mattel may not even be able to produce (let alone want to). Good examples would be Hot Toys, Sideshow and NECA. All three are able to make DC-related toys without violating the deal that Mattel has with DC. Basically "Master License" is a bit of a misnomer without knowing the exact details of the agreement. It does mean that whoever gets a license like that usually has the ability to produce a very wide range of products. But it never means they are the only ones legally allowed to make products for a given property.
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02-21-2010, 07:36 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 87
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But given that, we should be able to see characters like Magog, Swamp thing, John Constantine, and Jonah Hex. In all their comic glory. Its possible some artists have license over looks or styles (Alex Ross for Kingdom come) but given that we've seen them in Dc direct I doubt it.
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Before all else, be armed. Niccolo Machiavelli |
02-22-2010, 08:50 AM | #12 |
Dark Lord of the 'Ark
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Ohio
Posts: 8,224
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The only way I can see an artist having sole rights over a look or style is if they had rights for the character as well (i.e. creator-owned stuff). Ross obviously doesn't have the rights to Superman and co., so he doesn't have a say on toys of Kal-El done in the Kingdom Come style, but he might get a kickback or something depending on his deal with DC.
As for why we haven't seen the characters you've mentioned yet, the short answer could be a couple possibilities: 1. They aren't as popular for the design team as other character. In other words, no one is pushing them to be made at Mattel. 2. DC is pushing other characters to be made first, either to promote current story arcs (Blackest Night), future projects (aftermath of BN) or past successes (Kingdom Come, Crisis, etc). 3. DC specified in the master license agreement that certain characters would not be part of the deal, including the ones you mentioned, most likely because they have other plans for the character or they are having rights issues of their own.
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02-22-2010, 09:30 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 495
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Exactly, Mattel has the master toy license and not the sole rights to be the only company that produces DC related toys.
I think the main purpose behind the DCUC line is to give collectors a general representation of the characters while not staying true to just 1 particulary artist's style. Like the Super Powers Collection, which seems to be the clear inspiration for this line, there are hints of a different styles, BATMAN from wave #1 could be Carmine Infantino or could be a Gil Kane, even a Neal Adams version of that character. Also, DC Direct did 3 series based off of SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES and Mattel did 2 series based off the work and yes I know Mattel's are based off of the DVD. Still, it is a prime example of not ruling anything out just because DC Direct did it first. |
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