[Crazy Jetty]

Great thread, Shinny!

First, you have to look at what killed the line, in order to know how to save it. hrothgars is absolutely right that hindsight is 20/20.

Here's what I believe killed the line.
Poor character selection- this has not effected the line as baddly as some people are saying. But it is a factor. The superfriends wave was a joke, yes. wave 13, while being my favorite one to date, also failed pretty hard. It's easy to say "We need an a-list character every wave." But that's easier said than done. It's very debatable who's an a-lister and who isn't. When Toybiz was at it's height, Captain America, Thor, and Ironman were considered B-List, because they weren't X-Men or Spiderman. Really obscure godaweful X-Force villains had better odds of getting made into toys than Thor, and Cap.
Now we're flooded with them (even before there were movies), and not a Rogue in sight.
And when Wave 13 came out, John Stewart was the best known Green Lantern. (One of the biggest complaints I heard about the casting of Ryan Renolds in the GL movie was "Awe man, they made the only black superhero into a white guy!" Which is just wrong on so many levels)
So, that's easily easier said than done.

Lack of Rogues- DC genuinely does not have as many well known villains as Marvel. When you get passed Batman's gallery, Lex Luthor, and Doomsday (And I believe Sinestro is now extremly close to joining this list), DC villains are either not well known, or thought of as bad jokes (The non-DC fan really doesn't get the joke behind Flash's rogues gallery. Yes, they are lame. But they're the fun kind of lame. Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Mirrormaster, Gorilla Grodd... they're ment to be dopey.
Anyway, DC doesn't have many marketable villains, and most toy companies really don't exploit "evil" characters to begin with.

Price- I agree with Jmacq1:

Quote:

I'm not sure there was any way short of a drastic price drop to save DCUC.

They reached an unsustainable high price, combined with every decreasing quality of plastic.
They dropped the BAF too little, too late. And the prices didn't go down, we didn't get a bump up in accessories, and we got a crappy little mini-poster in it's place. Often with what isn't among the better pieces of art for that character (The ones I got are nothing I care to proudly display)
Mattel's struggle with the best 6" comic figures on the market, as well as Toybiz' and Hasbro's past struggle with ML, really makes me scratch my head as to why Hasbro thought it's a good idea to resurrect that line. The market isn't there for this class of figure, anymore.
Accessories- Some figures got great accessories. Some got none.
Sure, Superman... who cares if he doesn't get an accessory? He really doesn't need one, because he doesn't use any. Batman though is the gadget king. Anytime he doesn't get at least a batarang, it just ain't right. Every GL figure deserved at least one construct. Black Hand is not complete in my mind without Bruce's skull to carry around. And releasing Nekron without his scythe is just...an aweful idea.

And here's the number one reason:
Distribution- Everyone blaims Mattel for this, but really there's only so much they can do. Once it leaves them and heads to retail DCs, it's out of Mattel's hands.
All major retailers now use a computer system that monitors what goes across the registers, and orders automatically. It does not track individual characters, and does not understand there is a difference between "TF Revealers Bumblebee" and "TF Revealers Soundwave." It just sees a transformer cross it, and that there are still 12 more sitting on the shelf, not caring that they're all the same thing, so it does not order until those reach a minimum of 6 (or so).
Every single toyline struggles with this problem. This has been the worst thing to happen to the toy isle since scalpers. And very few employees understand that many toys, this day and age actually have a shelf life, just like produce. This has killed many popular lines that actually could have stood a chance without it, like Transformers Alternators.
And coming from working at walmart, I tell you it takes a virtual act of god to be able to override this system. When a wave comes out, like the Superfriends wave, that just does not sell at all, it's a line killer, because many stock clerks are no longer knowledgable in the areas they work in to handle it appropriately, and even if they were, they wouldn't have the authority to do anything about it.

Limited resources- While I do like the uniform "buck" system (I dispise that term. Just sounds stupid), and feel they used it well and did not limit themselves to it the way Hasbro seems to (IE, they're willing to swap out parts to sculpt in details that aren't 100% nessisary, like the stitching and wringles in Black Hand's costume), they do limit themselves to like, four... maybe five different types, and shoehorn every single one into these types. They don't care it Wonderwoman is smaller than golden age Atom (Or anyone else for that matter)

Club Infinite Earths- Great idea, great in concept. But it's been promoted very poorly. It's obvious that it's a last ditch effort to save DCUC, and was pieced together as best they could. And not only was it promoted very poorly, they also weren't bold enough when trying to inspire people to join.

Here's what Mattel did well with this line:
Themed Waves- Any and every time a wave sold well, it had a strong theme that did not dominate the entire wave. I'm thinking of the Atom Smasher wave, which had a strong Flash theme, and had both Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold (Who always need to be released as a pair), and a few figures that were pretty unrelated.
Anytime the line floundered, is when it was a solid theme all the way through (Rainbow Lanterns, JSA, Superfriends), or when it had no theme at all, and was a total hodgepodge (Sutch as the Ultra Humanite wave). So consistant strong themes that do not dominate the entire wave seems to be the ideal.

Quality- Quality in the sculpt, and quality in their articulation style. DCUC genuinely blows Marvel Legends out of the water, coming up with a superior joint system that gets equal range, without ball joints that kill the appearence of a sculpt. Plus, generally much better paint details, and better quality control over paint masks than Hasbro (All this is true in the earlier to middle waves, before Mattel started cost cutting towards the end).

Innovation- This is really specific. In the Green Lantern Corps line, they came up with a really brilliant idea to move "generic" lanterns. Low/Maash, Naut Ki Loi/Medphille, Nite Lik/Skallax (Probably screwed up a few names), all coming with one common body, and two sets of heads and hands. That really is a genious move, and could have been incorporated into the mainline. Would have been harder to use, but there are some places it could be used. Maybe some Unmasked heroes (Batman, Flash, Jordan?)

Accessories- When Mattel did accessories, they really knocked them out of the park. When they did Lantern constructs, they were fantastic (Katma Tui, John Stewert). Same with the Metal Men.
Unfortunately, those are really about the only instances.

Now, what could be done to save it? Not much, I'm afraid. I think they've done almost all they could, but not as early enough as they should have. I think the CIE Subscription was a good idea, but employed too late. A year ago, maybe even two is when they should have launched it, and heavily cross-promoted it on the retail toys. "Subscribe for exclusive DCU figures, this fall on Matty Collector!" or some such.
They also cut the waves down to just four figures, which I also think is a good idea.

Now, to save DCUC.. like I said, I'm not sure it can be saved so long as retail distribution remains under POS control, and the price remains at almost $20 per figure.

But I would follow along with what they're doing as a baseline, but I'd get more specific.
I would go ahead and try to fill up the rest of this year's CIE subscription with popular characters that don't fully fit in retail. New 52 Aquaman, Red Lantern Mera. And I'd start driving up excitement for NEXT year's Subscription, with polls for the exclusive oversized figure (And maybe a second, mid year normal sized exclusive figure).
I would also cross-promote the club on the retail line. Maybe a "Look what you may have missed out on! Be sure to sign up for our next term so you don't miss any more exciting exclusive figures!"
For the retail line, I would continue with "DC Universe All-Stars" as the banner title.
However, being knocked down to four figures, I would subline each wave. Get rid of Batman Legacy, and place it under the DCAS banner.
Each wave featuring characters related to the headlining character.
Wave 1- with a bright big Justice League logo on it, featuring New 52 JLA figures. Superman, Flash, Wonderwoman, Hawkman.
Wave 2- Green Lantern, with New 52 Hal Jordan, Larfleeze, Saint Walker, Razor (The last two to help tie into the new GL:TAS)
Wave 3- Batman, with New 52 Batman, Penguin, Mad Hatter, and Red Robin.

Basically, like that. I'd also limit each case to four pieces, one of each figure. That's the closest they could get thwarting the POS system.
I would also capticalize on figures that have never been made before, the way Hasbro does with Star Wars. Catman would have been a great place to start.

But, I don't think that can do it.

What the line needs, is a complete makeover, from scratch.
I fully agree aping Hasbro's MU, with DCUC quality and style is the best way to go. But, I'm not sure how well the hip system would work that small. If it does, then by all means, shrink the standard DCUC articulation down to the 3.3/4" scale exactly. If not, the 4".
And if they're going to charge us out the wazzoo, then make it worth the money.
So, here's what I would do.

Scale the core figure down to as small as the structural integrity of the DCUC articulation style will allow.
Package them with meaningful accessories, when the character warrents it (Lanterns with constructs, Batman with an assortment of small gadets). Use the budget from figures who don't need one (Like Superman and Flash) to cover those that do.
Package them with reprints of comics that have meaning to the character, to let kids and collectors know who this dude is (Along with promotional material for DC Comics. DC may do a lot of this in terms of reprints for discount, if they can really promote themselves).
I would keep the CIE, and redirected for the promotion of this line.
Would try to keep a larger wave theme, but still break it up with side figures to have something for people who may not like the theme.