I just wish NECA could make 6 inch movie figures. Oh well another few years of Mattel sitting on the license. Maybe they will finally get around to rereleasing the 1:50 scale 1989 Batmobile.

While that all sounds like a neat excuse... I doubt it highly the selling of a toy line has anything to do with people watching a TV series.. Both are done on Different systems a TV series is done on ratings, While a Toy Line would be sales. If that was the case Why would any toy line or TV series last beyond a year or two. Heck Transformers, MOTU, Ghostbuster, Pokemon, Ben 10, DC, Marvel, Star Wars, MMPR, Ninja Turtles, Voltron, or Thunder Cats none of these would have shows or toy lines if that was the case. Most likely it was the other way around

It's not just CN:

Greg Weisman talked about the merchandising sinking Young Justice on his own website/blog several times.

Paul Dini did a podcast with Kevin Smith where he went on for about forty minutes talking about the poor decisions and marketing "goals" that exist now to keep cartoons airing.

Bruce Timm in several interviews talks about the Green Lantern movie failures doomed GL before it even aired the pilot and even mentions the no-go toyline.

So yeah, I'll take the word of the show creators as what happened as being what actually happened.


I thought this was well known, the toyline buy in to make figures helps pay for the show. Low ratings means less advertising revenue which makes them more dependant on merchandising license fees. No merchandising fees, a show on the bubble gets cancelled.

At no point did I question the creative teams for either show. I questioned the motives of the network itself. Even you mention how the creative teams for both shows lamented upper management's decisions and unrealistic goals.

I still maintain that you cannot say for certain that CN would have continued airing GL, had there been a toy line for it. Neither can the creative team. We were never given a chance to find out.

This is sad news indeed especially how they miss-handled the DC property the last few years. A good part of the declining sales with the DCUC line in my opinion was their constant push to try and make it a Super Powers 2.0 with putting characters that hadn't been relevant in decades in the line and costumes that characters haven't worn in decades either.

I'm in my thirties and I barely remember the Super Powers line and the same with the Super Friends cartoon. Of course at that time I was more into Transformers during the time the Super Powers toyline was made. I didn't really get into superheroes and comics until the 90's starting with the death of Superman and the Incredible Hulk. So just speaking for myself I had little to know interest in characters that I didn't recognize, and I thought that would be a little hard to do since I have 1,965 DC comics. But when the rare 90's themed character showed up it was the figure figure I had to get.

Even when they tried to do Batman themed lines they even screwed those up. Take the Batman Unlimited line for instance instead of having one Batman per wave and the rest be other Bat-Family characters and members of his rogues gallery which would have made since they made entire waves different variations of Batman... I don't see little Timmy asking Mommy & Daddy if they would buy him all these different versions of Batman, but Batman plus Villains to fight against that would have worked.

As for their DC Total heroes line I don't care what they say it is not an Adult collector line. Some of them look okay, but they are clearly meant to made for younger kids.

It would be nice to have the DCUC line start back, but I would also like to the DC division partner up with Mattel's WWE toyline division. The body sculpts and the range of articulation on those WWE Elite figures are so much better than the DCUC line ever was. Those figures lend themselves for some great custom figures. Not only do those WWE elite bodies look better it would also cut down the cost of tooling new bodies. I could so see myself buying new figure based on those elite WWE base figures. I know it wouldn't ever happen, but either that or bringing back the DCUC style of figures back would be the only thing that would bring me back to buying anything DC related from Mattel.

Here are a few examples of WWE elite based customs:
http://www.rife-family.com/sjrife/misc/57311-1.jpg
http://www.rife-family.com/sjrife/misc/56215-1.jpg
http://www.rife-family.com/sjrife/misc/58826-1.jpg
http://www.rife-family.com/sjrife/misc/54099-1.jpg

Here is a list of the different WWE body types:
http://forum.wrestlingfigs.com/threa...s-list-updated