Club Infinite Earths Archives - Page 4 of 16

Soapbox Sunday: What’s Wrong with Mattel’s New DC Retail Lines?

A couple of weeks ago, I posed the question if Hasbro could revitalize the G.I. JOE brand by launching a new 6-inch action figure line. I reasoned that if the Star Wars team could make it work with the Black Series and the Marvel team could go the other way (from 6-inch to 4-inch) with Marvel Universe, then it could work for Joes too.

DC Total Heroes Superman (6-inch scale) and DC Comics Multiverse Deadshot (3.75-inch scale)

This past week I got my first look at Mattel’s attempt to breathe new life into their DC Comics license at retail with the DC Total Heroes and DC Comics Multiverse lines as pre-orders went live online. And good Grodd – I dislike them so much I want them to fail. Now I’m left wondering – are my feelings unfounded, making me a hypocrite? Why should I want to see this happen for G.I. JOE when I can’t stand Mattel’s attempt to do the same?

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Ask Matty Q&A for 9/15 (a Couple Days Early!)

Once again, Toy Guru and team are a few days early with their responses for the latest Ask Matty Q&A. Thanks!

1. A lot of collectors still want to get the unleashed version of Doomsday. Is it possible to offer him individually on Mattycollector, or even as the SDCC exclusive in 2014?

No. Doomsday was only possible when banked along with 12 partial tool’d figures at tier 2 production quotas. It is not possible to just do Doomsday by himself. His production was tied directly to producing a full year of partially tool’d basic figures at the higher tier 2 quota. After not even hitting tier 1, it becomes that much more difficult to get to this “bigger” more tooling intensive version of Doomsday. We hope this was made clear during the sub-in period.

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Masters of the Universe Classics Jet Sled, DC Universe Classics Huntress and Comedian Headline Mattycollector September Sale

For a month with the regular Club Eternia figure pushed out by a month (October will have Lord Dactus and Mantenna doubled up), it still feels like there’s a lot to buy. That’s because the Jet Sled vehicle, potentially the front half to a Battle Ram, is on sale with a pilot called Sky High. The Jet Sled and pilot cost $50, raising the question of why include another random figure. Sure, there were palace guards that rode the Jet Sleds during the original cartoon, but things really got exciting when Teela, Man-at-Arms, or He-Man jumped on one to go chase some Evil Warriors. I think Mattel missed out on a potential army builder vehicle here.

On the DC front,we’re coming down to the wire on Club Infinite Earths and Watchmen with Huntress and the Comedian. I’m still a little shocked that I’m going from three subs this year down to none in 2014, since I’ve decided to cherry-pick Masters of the Universe Classics (when Mattel offers day of sale) and DC was canceled.

Early Access starts Thursday at 8AM PST and will run for a day. Kudos to Mattel – even though their announcement makes no mention of it, the Jet Sled will be available, joining DCUC Poison Ivy and MOTUC Stratos. For convenience, here’s the link to Early Access. The regular sale starts on Monday at 9AM PST.

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Soapbox Sunday: DC’s Deserving – a Guest Post by Cliff Francis

It’s been some time since we’ve heard from Cliff Francis, Publisher Emeritus of Costume Contumely. It took the cancellation of Mattel’s Club Infinite Earths DC subscription to bring him back for this special guest edition of Soapbox Sunday. Read on, as Cliff employs the latest in computer technology to reveal how Mattel could have saved Club Infinite Earths. You can read more from Cliff at Costume Contumely as well as a couple of pieces Cliff has contributed here at AFP. Excelsior!

MattyCollector’s Club Infinite Earths subscription has died, and with it, the entire existence of 6″ DC Universe Classics action figures has been wiped out as if swept away by a crackling, white Crisis wall.

I confess that I feel tremendous schadenfreude over this. Mattel ran this property into the ground from the very beginning and only managed to produce a measly 200-something figures over the span of six years. I have a personal theory that Mattel wanted this line to fail from the start, and was willing to lose money along the way in order to save money in the end by having the line die. But that’s not what this article is about.

This article is about the central problem with Mattel’s 6″ DC line. The fault that engineered the line’s downfall. The “reason for the treason,” if you will. So what is it?

Character selection. Pure and simple.

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You Must Check Out the First Issue of Philip Reed’s BattleGrip Magazine

If you’re not familiar with Philip Reed and his site, BattleGrip, you should check it out. When I started AFP, somehow Philip found the site, and he’s been a really great supporter from our early days – and he’s just that way in the collecting community – a terrific guy.

Earlier this year, Philip published a Kickstarter-funded book about 3rd-party Transformers called Transforming Collections. (There are a couple of copies of Transforming Collections available on Amazon.) I guess that massive effort kept him hooked on publishing, because his latest endeavor is a free downloadable magazine. I’m re-hosting BattleGrip – issue 1 here (click to download – 70MB) to help get the issue out there. If you’re an old-timer like me and miss the days when you could go to a magazine store to pick up one related to toys (or if you just want to know what that was like, in this increasingly online world), then you’ll love this.

A couple of tips – you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader or an alternative PDF reader, and the best way to read this magazine is to set it up in 2-page view (View -> Page Display -> Two Page View) and select the option to show the cover page on its own (View -> Page Display -> Show Cover Page in Two Page View). This will let you see some of the beautiful 2-page spreads, like the Predator Trophy Case above, in all their glory.

Great start to the magazine, Philip, and thanks for the link to my moot-fake-rant about the Club Infinite Earths Doomsday. Can’t wait for issue 2!