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DC Comics Says Goodbye Mattel And Hello McFarlane Toys


JayC

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Well we have been wondering what would happen with DC Collector oriented action figures once the news broke last month that Spin Master was taking over a large chunk of the DC license in 2020. Would Mattel continue on with things like DC Multiverse in conjunction with Spin Master doing the more kid-friendly oriented stuff???

The answer seems to be no because today via IGN, McFarlane Toys has announced they have entered into a licensing agreement with Warner Bros to do 6"-12" ultra-posable action figures based on the DC Comics library of characters.

Now this doesn't necessarily exclude Mattel from continuing their own figures, and Mattel has yet to make any kind of formal announcement about this, but I think the writing is on the wall now.

McFarlane Toys figures generally are not known for articulation, however if you have checked out their recent Fortnite figures (see a review here), then you know the company has been making improvements on that front so we will have to see how they do on that front, and will Todd McFalrane, the man behind the company who is a comic book artist great, how much influence will he have on the actual designs? Would Todd McFarlane inspired DC figures interest you?

McFarlane won't be taking over until 2020 so don't expect any reveals from them this year at Toy Fair on the DC front, but SDCC will probably be an interesting time for DC fans. We will be interviewing Todd himself this weekend so you better believe this will be topic of discussion #1 for us when we do.
 

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LOL, I can see the comments now. WHY DIDN'T NECA get the license???

The answer I would guess is McFarlane is a bigger company with bigger pockets and better distribution channels into the major retailers than NECA.

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Ok I agree, however in that regard, maybe Diamond would be a better choice. DC Select wouldn't sound bad. 

 

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While we don't expect McFarlane Toys to have any DC product on hand this weekend at Toy Fair, we will be interviewing Todd himself there, and you better believe this will be topic #1 for us when we talk to him.

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2 minutes ago, JayC said:

I would have to totally disagree with that.

Like I told you my experiences with McFarlane toys are very bad. The articulation is minimum and the overall quality is not that good. I didn't come in contact with the newer stuff like Fortnite. Only saw in reviews

Trust me I want to be wrong.  I want to be the best action figures that they ever made. 

 

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2 minutes ago, FASVB said:

Like I told you my experiences with McFarlane toys are very bad. The articulation is minimum and the overall quality is not that good. I didn't come in contact with the newer stuff like Fortnite. Only saw in reviews

Trust me I want to be wrong.  I want to be the best action figures that they ever made. 

 

I agree, pre-Fortnite I would have been horrified by the news of McFarlane taking over a line like DC Comics, and we will have to wait and see, but I have hope at least that this could be good.

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5 minutes ago, GojiBill said:

Very interesting, I wonder if McFarlane will cater to both markets; producing both articulated and statuesque figures. Could be a great partnership.

It's said they will be doing both 6" and 12" figures so the 12" I could see being more statuesque. I could also see them doing high end role-play/replica stuff, but that might impede on DC Collectibles territory so IDK.

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McFarlane Toys has had quite the journey over their time as a toy company. They (Todd) came in and changed the market in the same way Todd did with his art in the late 80's/early 90's. When they first hit the scene, every other toy company-- including the big ones like Hasbro-- tried to play catch up to what Todd had done. Even NECA was born out of the hyper-detailed toy market that Todd created. Then.... Everyone surpassed McFarlane Toys and in recent years, they seemed to be the ones playing catch up.

Luckily their sports line kept them alive for a long time-- and it was clear that the quality of the sculpts was never in question-- but Todd's personal aversion to adding articulation to their figures caused them the fall behind what collectors are looking for in today's market. Luckily, someone, somewhere, must have convinced Todd to relent on his stance on the articulation-- or maybe showed him how you could maintain the integrity of the sculpt while still having good articulation (like NECA did years ago).

I used to buy EVERY McFarlane figure for years and years when they first hit the scene, now I barely pick up a figure here or there. (The last one I bought was the Star Trek Captain Kirk-- which I love!)

My nostalgia and respect for McFarlane Toys has me rooting for them with the DC license. I hope they knock it out of the park. And while I'm not a DC collector, I want McFarlane Toys to be successful! I want all the toy companies to be successful, because then we all can continue to get an amazing variety of awesome product!

It will be interesting to see what McFarlane does with the DC license (and it would be really cool to see Todd do the box art!!) I hope this will be the license that puts them back in the toy isle with the "bog boys"-- and maybe even showing them how it's done all over again!

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2 hours ago, GrenadierStinny said:

McFarlane Toys has had quite the journey over their time as a toy company. They (Todd) came in and changed the market in the same way Todd did with his art in the late 80's/early 90's. When they first hit the scene, every other toy company-- including the big ones like Hasbro-- tried to play catch up to what Todd had done. Even NECA was born out of the hyper-detailed toy market that Todd created. Then.... Everyone surpassed McFarlane Toys and in recent years, they seemed to be the ones playing catch up.

Luckily their sports line kept them alive for a long time-- and it was clear that the quality of the sculpts was never in question-- but Todd's personal aversion to adding articulation to their figures caused them the fall behind what collectors are looking for in today's market. Luckily, someone, somewhere, must have convinced Todd to relent on his stance on the articulation-- or maybe showed him how you could maintain the integrity of the sculpt while still having good articulation (like NECA did years ago).

I used to buy EVERY McFarlane figure for years and years when they first hit the scene, now I barely pick up a figure here or there. (The last one I bought was the Star Trek Captain Kirk-- which I love!)

My nostalgia and respect for McFarlane Toys has me rooting for them with the DC license. I hope they knock it out of the park. And while I'm not a DC collector, I want McFarlane Toys to be successful! I want all the toy companies to be successful, because then we all can continue to get an amazing variety of awesome product!

It will be interesting to see what McFarlane does with the DC license (and it would be really cool to see Todd do the box art!!) I hope this will be the license that puts them back in the toy isle with the "bog boys"-- and maybe even showing them how it's done all over again!

I agree with everything you said their except for that Captain Kirk figure being good. I thought both their Trek figures missed the mark which was very disappointing.

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Two words; Fornite Figures... For that simple reason alone — the quality and articulation on McFarlane’s Fortnite figure series — this has me pretty stoked. Nuff said.

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So a company which up until recently was known for its LACK of articulation and shoddy QC is getting the DC adult collector license . . . and we're calling it a GOOD thing!?!?

This could be fun.

Much like MattyCollector and the Subscription service, I won't buy from MacFarlane, but I will enjoy sitting back and watching the smoke rise.

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I have very similar feelings about McFarlane Toys as you @GrenadierStinny. There was a time where I was pretty much only buying McF figs and at the time was not much of an articulation guy because just about every figure that had it, lost alot of sculpt detail and just looked segmented and like a michael bay transformer; ugly. But nowadays Im a huuuge articulation guy and havent bought a McF figure since probably before they stopped doing spawn products outside of a one shot or two. They did some articulation before that was pretty comparable to marvel toys at the time but only up until when they got TWD license did they start adding more in a very NECA style for that time. Ive seen them really change their style to be less statuesque so I see this as a possible good thing and hopefully a change in that company for the better. Hell maybe this means I ll get an ultra articulated Violator out of it if the DC license gets that kind of treatment from them. At least I know they wont have stupid white goop come off its plastic after a few months like Mattel had. 

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Darn it! I thought Neca might have had something up their sleeve when Randy was being coy about those DC figures they showed a couple of years ago.

I want to be optimistic but I don’t think Todd really “gets” articulation. I watched an interview with him a couple of years ago and he still seems to prefer statues. I believe Fortnite figures are the exception because its popular with kids and hes targeting them. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.

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5 hours ago, JayC said:

I agree with everything you said their except for that Captain Kirk figure being good. I thought both their Trek figures missed the mark which was very disappointing.

Aw, man! I love that Kirk! But, I do agree with what you said in your review about the Delta shield sticking so far up off the uniform. The Picard just didn't hit the mark for me. His face looked too weird, so I passed on him. I'm not sure how these two did at retail, but hopefully well enough to at LEAST get that Spock in wave 2! Trek never gets the love it deserves!

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4 hours ago, EvilHayato said:

I have very similar feelings about McFarlane Toys as you @GrenadierStinny. There was a time where I was pretty much only buying McF figs and at the time was not much of an articulation guy because just about every figure that had it, lost alot of sculpt detail and just looked segmented and like a michael bay transformer; ugly. But nowadays Im a huuuge articulation guy and havent bought a McF figure since probably before they stopped doing spawn products outside of a one shot or two. They did some articulation before that was pretty comparable to marvel toys at the time but only up until when they got TWD license did they start adding more in a very NECA style for that time. Ive seen them really change their style to be less statuesque so I see this as a possible good thing and hopefully a change in that company for the better. Hell maybe this means I ll get an ultra articulated Violator out of it if the DC license gets that kind of treatment from them. At least I know they wont have stupid white goop come off its plastic after a few months like Mattel had. 

They have definitely been stepping up their articulation game lately, although I still find some of their articulation choices a little hit or miss. And, I'm not a fan of the t-crotch type articulation that they sometimes use. Honestly, at a $20 price point (meaning not Japanese figures like Revoltech), Hasbro's Marvel Legends line is pretty much the gold standard for me. But, who knows? Maybe McFarlane Toys will go absolutely nuts and bring back the days of what Toy biz used to do and give us figures with articulated fingers and toes! Okay.... probably not.

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44 minutes ago, GrenadierStinny said:

They have definitely been stepping up their articulation game lately, although I still find some of their articulation choices a little hit or miss. And, I'm not a fan of the t-crotch type articulation that they sometimes use. Honestly, at a $20 price point (meaning not Japanese figures like Revoltech), Hasbro's Marvel Legends line is pretty much the gold standard for me. But, who knows? Maybe McFarlane Toys will go absolutely nuts and bring back the days of what Toy biz used to do and give us figures with articulated fingers and toes! Okay.... probably not.

Ive not grabbed any articulated McF stuff but since Ive seen them even adding them so I looked at that as a step up from what they used to offer. I agree Hasbros Legends line is pretty much the premier way of handling a $20 articulated toy line. If McFarlane can get anywhere near that same amount of quality and design, they are set. 

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Depending on your tastes this might be either a good thing or bad. I have gotten Mcfarlane figures in the past and they are capable of some great sculpting but it's been a while since I bought from them so I don't know how they measure up to modern lines. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

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