Dammit, man, It was supposed to be a secret! :)

And I'll say it's a transformable Clark-Kent-to-Superman, something like last year's Batman. Since this is Superman's movie year. And if we're lucky, the box will be a phone booth.

Here's my issues with the BATMAN thing if I want Batman I can go to Target, Walmart, Kmart and not waste time going to SDCC so guess what Mattel "NOT EXCLUSIVE!!!!!!"

And if it's Superman it wont be that Exclusive either

Aren't those figures all in an assortment and have the same barcodes?

... or *GASP!* A Clark Kent to Superman with a spare Batman costume!

Or better yet. A *GASP!* Superman figure with interchangeable heads! A Clark Kent Head, and a *GASP!* Bruce Wayne/Batman head!

... BATMAN.

Hey I would second Jetty's question I have had Figures with Inter alternate heads, and hands break at the peg points points (Skullock/Nite-Lik (Head) and Mercury (Hand) the few Marvel legends I have The head pop off if I look at them wrong and the peg doesn't break.

I'm surprised we got an actual answer regarding sales data for individual characters. So while the retailers may not keep track of them, the manufacturers apparently do keep track.

I guess everyone really does love Bumblebee.

Of course, there's still the possibility that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy: if a toy line has 90% Batman and 10% every other figure, then yeah Batman's eventually going to sell more in the long run simply because there's more of him. But like the great Tootsie Roll Pop mystery, the world may never know.

I think it's a bit of both, honestly. It logically and undoubtedly is the star characters (The four turtles, Optimus & 'bee, Batman and Superman, Ironman) who sell best to kids. Anyone who doubts that really has no clue how a child's mind works. But it also is a self fullfilled prophecy that when the ratios are 90 to 10, it only compounds that.

When Hasbro/Kenner was doing the Batman: TAS line, there would be four, five waves in a row that was literally nothing but batman variants before we'd get a robin, or a villain. So of course Batman will outsell everything when there literally is no other option.

But this mindset also comes to a detrement to the kids, as well. Sure, the one off kid who just wants a cool toy will only want spiderman and not give two shakes about anything else. But the kid who truly loves Spiderman will not only want Spiderman, but he's also going to want Peter parker (Preferably just parker, with no odd costume change gimmick, or Spidey unmasked), J. Jonah Jameson, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Eddie Brock, Flash Tompson, Norman and Harry Osborn... and every single villain in his rogues gallery. Because he can never really play out his own spiderman adventures without all those important supporting characters.
It's even worse for Superman, as Supes doesn't really have many memorable rogues, and 85% of who and what he is revolves around Clark Kent, and the men and women in his life.

It's always a given that any toyline outside of Star Wars is going to scew to the heavy hitters (Where as Star Wars, even aliens that were on screen for three seconds and never seen again in any other source of fiction are still guarenteed to get a toy if you wait long enough), even kids accept that fact (I know I did). But superhero lines seem even worse about it.

I don't even know what I'm trying to say anymore.
I think it's both. The big names sell better naturally, but they're also digging themselves into a pit when they offer no alternatives.

I am not convinced that the system they are using includes all retailers in their system.

If Target can't tell you how many of each SKU they've sold at their own registers, how is some outside firm going to report that data without making a whole lot of assumptions and projections?

Info about the service is available here: https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/u...tail-tracking/

Yeah the systems stores use is massively flawed, there can be a figure torn out of a case in shipping or some other way but on the truck manifest it will still look like they are 6 figures, then when the 5 make it in the store, but when stocked the people counting the figures usually just accept the number the computer has since they have to have them all done by a certain time and get in trouble if they don't.

So you have 5 figures, that look like 6 in the computer then some one buys all 5, then the computer won't order anymore because it still thinks you have 1, this figure will never be accounted for and has for all purposes disappeared, even if it made it in the store it could have got stuck behind some dog food under a shelf, could be anywhere.

I don't know how bad sales have to be effected to make large toy companies realize the stores on an individual level need some kind of rep to come out and check stock.

And, to revolutionize the market they need a figure that is 2 figures made back to back with Batman on one side and Superman painted on the back, kind of like those circus lady/men but front and back.

well I can answer for Quality Control things actually. I work in a Warehouse (Groceries) many times Warehouses have policies that a case damaged no matter how minor it should/must be either repacked or returned to the Place of Origin. Many times that includes Items that touch those that are damaged because they have a spill of some kind on them sometimes this happens in the Warehouse others in the Store. In Store incidents (this includes Truck damages) Product is returned to the warehouse at times full loads if on the truck a case is broken it will not touch the shelves that depends on Policy of the store some stores do not differentiate between food, clothing, electronics, or toys.

Well, considering that's all that is available, it's a self fulfilling statement. Series 1 Batman has 6 different Batman in different costumes toys.
Series 1 Spider-Man 6 different Spideys in different costumes.
Series 1 Ironman has 9 different colors of Ironman armor.

Kinda makes the hero figure top seller by default, ya know? I think a better assortment would be ONE style of the Hero (which ever is featured) 4 to a box, ONE style of the main villain 4 to a box, and then the collector chaser figures in another assortment 2 per chaser per box. That way stores can keep the main characters on the shelf for the kid who just wants Batman, but the collector can find his toys without having to pay ebay prices.

I agree. One of my biggest peeves is for long lasting lines like Transformers Classics/Generations or Marvel Legends, if you weren't in it from the start, it's very hard to get some of the core characters. When I was a kid, I loved TMNT toys. Every year they had a new wave of toys, but they also still made the first wave of "core" figures. Mattel does that with it's MOTUC line too. You get new figures every month, but newbies can still get Skeletor and He-Man.

More toy companies should do that. Keep the standard bearers in constant production (Megatron, Prime, "normal" Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Ironman, etc) and keep the limited productions to each wave for the more obscure characters. If I can't find Bludgeon or Paste-Pot-Pete for my kid, that's no biggie, but if I can't find Megatron, Doc Octopus, or the Joker, that's ridiculous. Or better yet, Release the characters in the obscenely limited way they do now, but then AFTER that wave leaves store shelves, sell it online via the website for completists or latecomers.

Case in point... My oldest son LOVES Spider-Man toys... all we could find was Spider-man in various costumes (most appearing ONCE in the comics) as well as costumes that never existed. NEVER could find Venom. NEVER could find Carnage. Not unless I wanted to pay $25 to $35 on eBay before shipping. Sorry, Hasbro, but Spider-Man should only have two costumes: Red/blue and black/white... MAYBE the Ironspider costume for a chaser. So guess who Spider-Man had to fight, since his bad guys weren't around? The only other figure clogging the shelves... one of the 300 variants of Wolverine.

That might work for grocery stores, but as someone who worked at a major electronics store, kitchenware store, and my ex was a manager of a now extinct toystore, I can honestly say those places don't give a hoot about the shipping box's condition. Long as the packaged item can sit on a store shelf, it's good to sell. It's up to the customer to find out if it's damaged or not.

As someone who chronicles the 6" scale line, I can tell you that there has not been a year since the creation of Spidey Classics over 13 years ago where there was not at least one classic costume or one symbiote style costume on the shelves in some form or another. Not to say that you missed one when you were looking, they might have sold out. But the Spidey Classics line kept these things out their non stop. Now any other character, and you have an argument. Even Wolverine has had a year when you didn't get a classic colors Wolvie, and Iron Man has had years where you didn't get a normal sized classic red and gold. But the big three get pretty well represented.

I never said there wasn't a classic costume or black costume on the shelf... what I said was there was nothing but Spider-Man on the shelf. Hydroshooter Spider-man in a wetsuit. Hang-gliding Spider-Man with silly goggles and a backpack. Zip-Line Spider-Man with another gimmick. No Venom. No Carnage. No Doc Ock. No Green Goblin. Nothing but Spider-Man. Once I even went to TRU as they were stocking the figures, and a freshly opened box was... you guessed it... nothing but Spider-Mans.

My point is there doesn't need to be 30 different Spider-Man toys. Three at most. Instead of the 30 version of Spider-Man, use that energy and money to make Venom, Carnage, Doc Ock, Black Cat, JJ, etc.

Ah I see, I thought you meant all you could find was gimic spidey instead of normal suit spidey. The Spidey Classics line is not designed for collectors in mind. They've done fairly well for themselves with the gimick spidey concept at retail among kids. It promotes playability over character variety and doesn't expect a kid to try and want them all, they want the kids who are going to get just one or two from the line. Statistically 20% of a wave will have a non-Spidey character in it (I say 20% because sometimes a wave of 4 will give us a collector type spidey like Iron Spider and not actually a new character)

As a collector I've never much had a problem with it because it's really a bonus line. We have the Legends line as the core, and every now and then we get a nice figure out of the Spidey lines. Now I agree over the last couple of years there hasn't been many non-spidey characters (Tarantula, Gargan Venom, Green Goblin, Lizard), but there has also not been very many waves either over the last couple of years. Because it's a kid based line they can continue to throw the same wave or a slightly mixed up wave over and over again to get the casual customer.

Being a kids line is no excuse. He-Man was a kids line, and there were only two or three He-Man toys in the entire run. The rest were his friends and enemies. There should be Classic Spider-Man, Symbiote Spider-Man, and then the supporting cast, Green Goblin, Shocker, Rhino, Lizard, Venom, Doc Ock, Mysterio, Kraven, Black Cat, JJ, Gwen Stacy (hate MJ), and a Daily Bugle and ESU playsets. THAT, to me, is a quality Spider-Man line. Then for Series 2, again have the classic suit and black suit, but then have Hobgoblin, Alastair Smythe, Electro, Styx & Stone, Paste-Pot Pete, Aunt May, Ghost Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben, Flash, Peter Parker, Dr. Conners.

BOOYA! I'd buy 2 of each of those ... one for my kids, one for myself, if Hasbro did a stellar line like that!

Actually, during the original run of MOTU, there were five different versions of He-Man (not counting Price Adam). Skeletor also had five versions.

And do you realize how ridiculously expensive that Spider-Man line would be at retail? It sounds amazing, but it's really a fantasy.

Ok... 5 versions in 3 or 4 years of a product line... compared to 6 versions in 1 series of a product line... Why is it a fantasy? The 1992 Spider-Man line, based on the cartoon, had a decent variety of characters. It CAN be done.

Oh, I'm not saying it can't be done. I just don't think in today's market with material costs being what they are, that it is economically feasible at mass retail. Couple that with the idea that "the main character drives the sales" that is so ingrained with toy companies' marketing strategies, and it's easy to see why no one really does what you're suggesting anymore.

Or it could be that after three decades of toy collecting, I'm too jaded. Considering how many years that I've seen requests for "more villains, more supporting characters, etc.", if it could be done that way I have to believe someone would have done it by now.

And I guess you missed the "Amazing Fantasy" joke. I was trying to be clever and failed, apparently. :p

Yes and sadly I have met those reps and they don't know jack squat of what is supposed to be on the shelves.

I remember when I was a Kid and had the Original He-man figures I had them All be it He-man, Tela, Man at Arms, Skeletor, Hordac, and many many others not just He-Man and Skeletor.

Now for a question to Mattel.

We have recently seen a Line for the 1966 Batman TV series is there a plan to continue this Line with additional Hero and Villains or will they stop with just the first set? Also are there Plans to add in other DC Hero Classics like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Shazam! who also had TV series (like Smallville, Lois & Clark, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Shazam!)?

OMG... You just hit on something there... I would give Batman's left testicle if they would make a George Reeves Superman figure. I would buy that in an instant, as long as it was in gray tones. I'm sure Reeves' estate would be more than willing.

I agree that would be kinda cool if the classic Batman line was expanded to other DC live action shows.
Though I don't think Smallville would interest them as much, since there's virtually no costumes. At least not for Clark.
But while I'd prefer George Reeves Superman, I think they'd jump on Christopher Reeves Supes, Michael Keaton Batman (DO NOT WANT), and Arrow (Since it's the most relevent of them all, currently)

I also want to include Wonder Woman (A Linda Carter WW). Yeah Arrow horrendous TV Show needs horrendous figures watched 2 weeks then lost interest. For Smallville I would I think it would be nice to have the more of the Other characters not so much Clark but Lois, Chloe, Jimmy, Tess, Lana, Zod, Doomsday and LEX, For Clark doing the Trench Coat version.


Hey every once in a while I do have a good Idea I even surprise my self