What are they smoking?

[supreme-d]

Mattel is really effing up, both at retail and with their subscription plan. I think we can all agree on this. But why? What's causing this? Do they no longer wish to support a collector oriented line? Do they not want our money? Has Mattel grown lax since their relative success and lack of competition?

 

A few key points we can discuss:

Generally nonsensical formation of figures, usually involving a cheap or illogical reuse of parts where a better alternative part was available. For evidence, see Damian Robin's massive biceps and triceps.

 

Crappy character selection or costume choice, including but not limited to the Red Hood debacle and the Nu 52 Shazam incident.

 

The retail lines ability to pump out the 30 different kinds of Batman, Hal Jordan, and Superman without giving us actual meaningful variants (ie Injustice Batman before Dick Grayson Batman, shiny Nu 52 superman instead of Action Comics Nu 52 Superman)

 

Discuss

[shokker]

yeah i dont really know whats up at mattel either. i got red hood today but come on it should be clear what red hood we want. that they want to sell hundreds of supermans and batmans is sort of a given but as you say give us the ones people want. what i dont get is that figures like injustice get whole new sculpts. i mean come one arent we long time collectors worth that anymore. worst thing is that they cant even reuse these sculpts for anything except that character while we get told every month that the sculpting budget isnt there, lol. we can be happy to get a new head.

[supreme-d]

Here's the even more mind boggling part about the new red hood; even if Mattel was unsure whether fans wanted the Biker Jason Todd, or the classic red hood, or that costume he wore for all of a month, Red Hood should be in the Batman unlimited line! Isn't that why that line exists? Jason's Nu52 costume is basically the same, isn't it?

 

And the fact that they have yet to make a tshirt and jeans Nu52 Superman is weird, considering they have all the parts and could even reuse the formula for a Teen Titans Superboy.

[shokker]

Allthough i love the deputy lanterns but in the end it feels like this again. They say that everything is possible and then boum its over with dcuc. That was so lame of them. So manny awesome lantern characters are missing now and no one knows if we ever get more then 2 figures a year.

[JayCueBatman]

Cornboy from the 4 Horsemen has gone on record that the Red Hood we got in the Sub came from the WB excecs...the one they designed was the Biker version. What gets me confused is they pumped out a TON of DC Unlimited figs for the Injustice Game and sorta skipped on the Batman Unlimited. We know that we are getting GL Injustice to the DC Unlimited and Damian for the Batman Unlimited....but until SDCC we will not know the future. I agree that the product we have been getting has been sub par but that has been the trend in all action figs at the moment. I forsee a licence shift in the near future.

[RobbieDigital]

People keep paying for it.......thats whats up....they keep falling for Mattel's ways.

[Buzzchuck KJ]

I just got my Club Infinite Earth Red Hood. I posted a review of him online. He's cool, but I would have loved the Biker Version.

 

http://youtu.be/yqHg65Kypjs

[yojoebro82]

People keep paying for it.......thats whats up....they keep falling for Mattel's ways.

 

Then, now, and in the future, this will ALWAYS be the answer to questions like this.

 

Injustice stuff gets new sculpts because it's a marketing tie in with a game. Those toys are made to promote it just like movie masters are made to promote the latest movie.

 

That Damian Robin is an absolute joke and shows Mattel is more worried about slapping something together than doing it accurately. This figure reminds me of the original Pink Power Ranger figure. The one that was shaped like a man? Bandi didn't want to spend money on a new mold and that's what you got. She was a chick, Damian is a 12 year old boy, both toy companies just wanted a quick buck. I'm fine because I have the DCD Damian. Even if I didn't this figure would not be on my radar.

[JoeRhyno]

Yeah, but the original stunt actor for the pink ranger was a guy, lol so they technically got it right :-P