[Snowflakian]

Mattel seems to have been looking for an excuse to axe the line, and never really gave it the push it needed, nor found a decent way to market it better.

The figures were top-notch, the potential was rich, the character library they had within reach was perfect. The added exposure many characters had gotten could have bolstered sales. (Look at how hard it was to find a Deathstroke figure because of his appearances in arrow!)

If only they could have found a way to get the TV show rights for the line too, and even started filtering in expanded media rights like the animated movies besides the classic movies, this line could have done so well.

As it was, you could tell the heart of the line wasn't in it. Nightwing himself could have been an amazing seller as a figure, not to mention Batgirl or Oracle in this scale.

This one is on mattel. They had gold but didn't want to push it right or case assortment pack appropriately. Whether that's because retailers were hesitant, or someone at mattel has a strong distaste for the scale (as we saw with DCIH), they really should give it another chance and do a better push with the material they have. They had sales potential across the board. Even detective mode Bane had sales potential if they reminded fans that this was the closest they could do for Batman Beyond's Blight without actively getting the rights as yet. Which they would have considered if the figures sold well enough.

And they very well could have. If nightwing were done better, he could have easily been a stock buck to reuse for later figures. Initial sales of Red Hood, Arkham Knight, and even Robin were extremely high. Deathstroke was impossible to find on shelves. The ones that peg warmed were the less interesting made designs when it was on major retailer shelves. They should have short packed the oddities like detective modes and other translucent figures while upping the case assortments on the bat-family itself. Potentially made Harley Quinn in more abundance with better articulation instead of Joker. Especially with Suicide Squad coming up and her appearance in Arrow.

And let's not even get started on the sales uproar that could have happened if they'd done Supergirl's show with Martian Manhunter, Kara, and Red Tornado among others. Silver Banshee, and Even the electro whip armor version of her sister. Heck that could have even been a back door into getting a TV flash figure made because of his cameo. And oh the possibilities of then and now boxsets with the classic movies/series and new movies/tv series.

I hope they give 4'' another chance. Especially now that the characters have such a stronger media presence. It's kind of like they wanted it to fail before it even started.

The most difficult thing it seems was the high detail of the sculpts in conjunction to how unique each figure was. But if they can find a better way to cost ratio it and maybe tone down the color swaps on batman and the volume of non-individual batmen, it could have sold better. Az-bats, and Batman Beyond had sales potential. Some of the other costume swaps should have been more short packed. More variants of other characters should have been done like Arkham knight's red hood mask variant.