Believe it or not….i have the damn monkey.lol.

guessing we will find out more at toy fair. I kinda wish Mcfarlane would do a press release today just saying if he still will be apart of DC or not.

As a Dc fan I said I wouldn't buy Mcfarlane stuff but I have. I already have a good deal of dcuc stuff. Total heroes stuff. I'm to big a fan not to at least cherry pick or go all in on whatever they decide to push to market. I'm somewhat excited to see.

I'm not sure how I feel about the Mattel news. On one hand:

1. Mattel's MOTU Masterverse line has been decent. I'm not a big MOTU fan so the figures aren't favorites of mine. But they are good figures.
2. Scott Neitlich is no longer working for Mattel.
3. McFarlane's character selection has become very stunted.

On the other hand, I also lived through DCUC.

1. The figures were outdated when compared to figures in contemporary lines (at the time).
2. There were a lot of QC issues in the early days.
3. Mattel's 6 inch line never recovered after they canceled DCUC. Their DC Multiverse line had flashes of greatness, but never really came together.
4. There was a bloat of Mattel DC Multiverse peg warmers at Walmart for the last few years that Mattel had the license.
5. McFarlane has delivered many things that Mattel/Scott Neitlich refused for so many years. Double jointed elbows and knees, fabric capes that are actually good, Michael Keaton Batman, Christopher Reeves Superman, swappable hands (on some figures), vehicles, etc.
6. McFarlane has made some of their best figures in the last year.

If Mattel is going to make a DC line that is similar to MOTU Masterverse, then I'll at least be paying attention to what they put out. But if they're bringing back their old DC Multiverse line from 2016-2019, then I'm out. I assume we'll find out at Toy Fair 2026.

In the mean time, I'm still going to pick up some of McFarlane's upcoming figures. I've enjoyed their figures and could be content to sit out from Mattel. And as you can see from my list, I wasn't thrilled with their first run with the DC license.

With all the Batman variants Todd made, he still hasn't done the one from Gotham's series finale.

makes sense that was a terrible looking Batman and I am pretty sure almost nobody wants that one

I knew I wouldn't find either Scarecrow or Demon Batman at retail, so I resigned to having to use ebay or Mercari. What I find interesting is, the supposedly rarer platinum edition Scarecrow is more plentiful and reasonably priced on the secondary market. I got one with relative ease. The Fear Toxin Demon variant, however, is going for more ridiculous prices, and there seem to be very few available by comparison. I wonder if this is by design.

If not McFarlane, I was hoping NECA got at least the license to do certain DC action figures, like from Batman Returns and The Dark Knight Trilogy. I still have Bale Batman in the 7" scale. One of my faves from them.

Interesting timing given DC Studios is about to take off. I wonder if Todd will be able to push through some Superman figures right before Mattel takes over.

Maybe now all the characters people want won't sell out instantly. Looking at you shazam

Lost in all of this was the blurb from earlier in the week about the fan fest thing. I wonder if mctoys was aware they were about to lose the license. I mean, the reacquisition of the license by Mattel couldn't have been the big news, right? Or maybe it's just Spawn news or some other license.

McFarlane had no hand in the news about Mattel so it's definitely not the fan fest announcement.

I am surprised Todd and CO haven't put out a press release regarding Mattel to let fans what the deal is.

Next thought…Mattel’s Masterverse is 7” scale. I wonder if Mattel will go with 7”?

Fantastic news. Mattel have more or less got their shit together, if any new DC line is modeled on Masterverse then it could be incredible.

As it is, I'm happy with the McFarlane figures I got so I'm not really bummed. I do hope he keeps making figures from Spawn and other properties outside of DC.

Now if Mattel puts out anything close to the quality of their Masterverse line then I'm in, but we'll see.

While I have overall quite enjoyed McFarlane's Multiverse line there are definitely some big criticisms I still have against it, chiefly the platinum chase system. That said some of my favorite elements are things I'm worried Mattel won't do, megafigs being the first to come to mind. I'm also skeptical about Mattel's willingness to venture into DC's far reaches. McFarlane dug into decade-plus old video games, R-rated source material, niche stories, and truly deep-cut characters (albeit this last one can easily be seen as a flaw of the line). There's also the potential Mattel will choose to make this a clean slate starting point so we'll have to deal with even more of the usual suspects getting figures.

I’m personally not opposed to a clean slate, as there are a lot of characters that McFarlane never got to. The fact that the line will very likely end with us having gotten figures of characters like Abyss, Nightmaster and Effigy but not a comic Poison Ivy or ANY iteration of Black Canary or Zatanna speaks volumes of what I hated about Todd’s approach to character selection.

Seeing what Mattel is doing with Masterverse makes me excited for this. I've never enjoyed the direction McFarlane took with the line, character or aesthetic wise. BUT! The niche things that he did do, I very much love. My Batman Forever and Batman & Robin lines and vehicles I'll always be forever grateful for. I don't think I would have gotten those anywhere else.

But even from the beginning, his super focus on Batman made it hard to invest overall into the line for me.

Really stoked about this. We just might be getting the ultimate versions of classic characters in the 1/12 scale.

Maybe this will be a wake up call for Todd to stop chasing the "premium" rainbow and start making good toys that fit with the competition. If he even has any meaningful licenses after this.

I'll be disappointed if McFarlane doesn't keep the license as well as Mattel. Not everything is a hit, but it's great that McFarlane has given us SOOOOOO much product on a regular basis. I've particularly enjoyed collecting his movie figure line, including figures from the Snyderverse Justice League and the Suicide Squad. The Batmobiles have been awesome.

I know not everyone agrees, but I would greatly miss the line.

Good riddance. McFarlane’s run on DC figures has been mostly garbage. Looking forward to Mattel taking back the license.

Well said. I also wonder if Mattel will be able to include gun accessories with the figures. Lots of people gripe about the massive amounts of Batman figures, but I would say:
1- Lots of them were outstanding, like Knightfall
2- Batman is the #1 superhero in popularity, so Todd was likely following that

They will never be as sexy.

Nothing DC related at this fan fest. Just Mortal Kombat Classics Spawn stuff and their new TMNT Page Punchers in the 5 inch line