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Mattel’s New DC Total Heroes and DC Comics Multiverse Lines for Retail are Up for Pre-Order

I foolishly skipped Mattel’s DC panel at SDCC this year. In my defense, in years past, it was usually a rehash of the DC portion of the Mattypalooza panel with some kid-oriented toys on top of that. I had no idea that this year they’d be announcing the demise of the spiritual successors of DC Universe Classics at retail, the Batman Unlimited and DC Unlimited lines, and that they’d be launching two new retail lines in 2014. Now that online retailers have put up their pre-orders for them, I’m getting my first real look at DC Total Heroes and DC Comics Multiverse.

DC Total Heroes is Mattel’s re-envisioning of 6-inch action figures for retail. Each of the four figures (Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Sinestro) from the first wave sports their New 52 looks, but veers from the DC Universe Classics aesthetic to a new, somewhat animated look. With a reduction in articulation and paint apps, Mattel was able to reduce the price point, with online retailers charging $12.99 per figure. That seems to be one of the key selling points of the new line.

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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!

Masters of the Universe Classics Battle Cat-Man by Joe Amato

Joe Amato sent over pics of his latest custom, the Masters of the Universe Classics Battle Cat-Man. Hey, if Castle Grayskull can be transformed into Castle Grayskullman, then I can see how Battle Cat could become Battle Cat-Man, given all those times He-Man pointed his power sword at him to give him a dose of the Power of Grayskull. Joe’s gone all out with custom packaging and a fully sculpted removable helmet for the man-sized tiger head.

Battle Cat-Man is available on eBay if you want a shot at this one of a kind Masters figure – but I think you’ll have a lot of competition for him. The auction ends Saturday afternoon.

Soapbox Sunday: Could Hasbro Revitalize the G.I. JOE Brand with a 6-Inch Figure Line?

I’m not a good G.I. JOE fan. When I was a kid, I had a lot of the original 3.75-inch Joes from the mid-80s. I watched the cartoon whenever I could, and I’d wage a lot of war against Cobra on the floor of my bedroom. But as an adult collector, I don’t buy a lot of G.I. JOEs anymore. And although the Hasbro brand has seen some resurgence after a lackluster first live action movie outing with a better received sequel in G.I. JOE: Retaliation, that hasn’t exactly translated into better sales in the toy aisles to kids and their moms either. With the brand losing shelf space at retail, it’s looking rather bleak for the toy line for 2014.

A couple years ago, I picked up a bootleg Snake Eyes in the 6-inch scale. I don’t know the origin of the toy, but it holds together like something made in a factory. It’s got the articulation setup of the 25th Anniversary Joes. And it’s got almost everything that I’d want to see in a G.I. JOE toy line for the adult me.

That leads me to my topic today – could Hasbro breathe life into G.I. JOE with a new six-inch action figure line?

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