DC Universe Classics Figure Frustration

[BHT]

I thought this was really interesting. This is from Boy Wonder over at action figure insider.

Over the last few months, I've noticed a lot of commentary about the mixes on the DCH line. Now that we are 1/2 through the year, we've been able to look at what has worked and what hasn't.

First, you guys need to realize how difficult 07 is for us given the competitive landscape. We did not have a movie line, and the BMA entertainment was old. Therefore, DCH had to be everything to everyone, which is a difficult strategy to execute. I feel that that from a revenue standpoint, the strategy is working, but it leaves a very confusing message to the consumer (as seen on the boards)

In anticipating this difficult year, we decided to take a very conservative approach on the mixes for 2007. Therefore, you see heavily packed DCH case packs with Superman and Batman in the you aisle. Secondly, we had just changed our management in the Male Action Group, so I had a lot of pressure from my new managers to take a more conservative approach with regards to character selection. Remember- the DCH line just came out at that point and was unproven. In addition, the collector strategy with JLU was still fairly new and also unproven. As a result, I was told that if I have a mix issue, it better be with Superman or Batman because that's what the retailers want.

As we are looking at 2008, we don't feel that the mixes we had this year are appropriate for next year because the strategy will truely be about giving the collector what they want. Since Mattel will own the new entertainment next year, we can afford to be more aggressive with our mixes, which will mean less Batman/Superman and more villains/females for this line.

As for 2007, flowing the product has been very difficult. We are working on getting the fall figures out ASAP. I'm also committed to getting out a few figures this fall that we will be announcing shortly. Stay tuned for the next few weeks as we announce a bunch of news in anticipating of Comicon.

Hope this really happens

[Sir Reilly]

Its not just the UK then?


I can't believe the lack of retailer support these things seem to have got compared to Marvel Legends. I mean, you'd think Superman and Batman would be names stores would feel to be a guaranteed seller, especially with the recent movies

I wonder if it's really because of the retailers. Mattel still hasn't released any DC Superheroes stuff over here. Apparently, they ain't giving the line much of a chance here, maybe it's similar in the UK?

[Sword-of-Grayskull]

For BoyWonder to say the conservative approach didn't work is the understatement of the year. In January my local Walmart got in 21 Supermen; only 9 of those sold, and the remaining 12 are on clearance at $5 each. Once again, Mattel management screws everything up with crazy case ratios.

Meanwhile, I was at Wizard World Philadelphia for the entire three days last weekend, and the availability of DCH is equally incredible. Of all the vendors, no one had Kara Zor-El for sale, no one had Mr. Freeze, no one had Azrael, there was only 1 wave three Batman for sale, only 1 wave four Darkseid (blue version) for sale, only 1 black and silver Superman for sale, only 1 Mongul for sale, only 1 Kal-El for sale, and only 3 chrome variant Steels for sale. In other words, not even scalpers can find this line. I still say it's a miracle I found Kara and Azrael at retail, both being left on shelves without any sign of the rest of their cases.

So says the Sword.

[Drunken Fist]

Thing is, the Batman figures actually do sell well. When wave 3 hit, I saw Azrael before I ever saw that wave's Batman(although I only saw both figures once). It's the Superman figures that always clog the pegs here. Having 2-3 Superman waves in a row certainly hasn't helped that situation.

[Skullface]

Found the Knight Shadow Batman at TRU last night. REALLY cool, for a Bat-variant.....

EDIT: And I ended up coming across the Camo Bane today as well..... no signs of Batgirl or Two-Face yet.....

[Hordak Alpha]

Is it just me or is the DCSH line just a very bad, stale rerun on how the MOTU line was mishandled back in 2004???? But, it doesn't matter considering I've quit hunting for the blue costume Supergirl and more than likely won't buy another Mattel product for a long time to come. Such a disappointing company.

[Zodach]

I think Mattel has a better effort in the DCSH line then they did with MOTU. Unfortunately, I think it took the MOTU screw-ups for Mattel to learn what they could have done better. With DCSH, Mattel is paying a lot of money for the rights to make the DC toys, so I imagine they are in this for the long haul.

I hope to see some really cool stuff at SDCC this year. I think Mattel will have a better year next year with this line.

[Sir Reilly]

Frankly, I wonder if Mattel just keeps going on with that line because they already messed up with other DC lines and wanna show they're capable of handling such a licence. It woulde be horrible publicity for them if they failed with two Batman lines while Kenner and Hasbro were sucessfull for more than a decade.

[Havoc]

I think Mattel has a better effort in the DCSH line then they did with MOTU.

Heh.
Funny that. Here in the UK we got ALL the MOTU stuff except for exclusive send offs, and bizarrely, never got Teela. Apart from that, MOTU was handled very well in the UK and it was very easy to get every figure as they came out (eventually)

DC heroes though... we had wave 1. There could have been limited releases of wave 2, but big stores like Woolworths and Toys R us never stocked them atall.
I was really looking forward to snagging up all the bat girls I could find for customs, but it looks like the line is done for us before we even got that far

Could be Mattel not pushing the product hard enough, or could be retailers feeling they screwed up enough giving support to movie lines that just sat on the shelves.
Seems like before Mattel landed the licence, Batman was a surefire seller, even with all the insane variants he's always had.. It seems strange he should start to fail in the market so suddenly.

My feeling is that it was the price point..
£9.99 is TOO much for a retail figure. Hasbros marvel legends are going to suffer the same fate if they don't cut the price for retailers.

[Eamon]

Yeah! I was wondering the regular stores didn't get them in either.
I end up getting them via ebay or Forbidden Planet.

Tesco's did/does have them though. But I don't shop at Tescos!

[Havoc]

I think besides the import shops (which LC toys for example, were charging LESS for the imports!) Tesco was the only store I ever saw them in. I thought £9.99 was a mistake when I first saw it, or they were going to mark them down very quickly to make it look like they were a better deal, but that never happened

[Eamon]

For the life of me, I cannot find any info on the DCSH wave with Two Face in. Can anybody help a brother out here?!

I only collect the DCSH for the Batman characters as a continuation of the comic line.
Is anybody else doing the same?

[Skullface]

For the life of me, I cannot find any info on the DCSH wave with Two Face in. Can anybody help a brother out here?!

I only collect the DCSH for the Batman characters as a continuation of the comic line.
Is anybody else doing the same?

In the US, the wave is:

Knight Shadow Batman
Batgirl (Cassandra Cain)
Bane (Camo pants repaint)
Two-Face

also listed on the cardback but shipping later are:
Mr. Freeze (no word yet if repaint, re-tool or re-pack)
Man-Bat
Clayface

[Zodach]

For the life of me, I cannot find any info on the DCSH wave with Two Face in. Can anybody help a brother out here?!

Pig Boy - You should check out the following feature from Action Figure Insider. It has a quick review and some good pictures of the Two-Face/Batgirl wave...
DCSH wave 6 feature

This wave is currently being found in TRU stores only. I haven't heard of any reports from Walmart or Target, but it's only a matter of time.

If you are looking for more info on the DCSH line or a forum with more information, Action Figure Insider (AFI) and the Fwoosh are both great places to discuss the line.

Action Figure Insider forum

Fwooshnet.com forum

[Eamon]

Excellent fella's thanks!

Some of the repaints like Mister Freeze and Robin aren't really worth getting I think as they aren't that much different from the Comic Line.
Killer Croc is a decent enough rehash.

I will certainly be getting all that Two-Face wave!

[Sir Reilly]

My feeling is that it was the price point..
£9.99 is TOO much for a retail figure. Hasbros marvel legends are going to suffer the same fate if they don't cut the price for retailers.

Good point. While it's common business that stuff gets more expensive through the years, they're almost ripping your off in certain categories nowadays. In the 90s, you paid more after a few years, but still got a decent amount of stuff along with your figure. Today, you pay more but you're lucky if a figure has one small accessoire and some cardboard display stand. I bet that we end up with less stuff for more money because Hasbro and Mattel need to save on costs and gain "profit" to pay for the licences. F.e., I'm sure that if the DCSH line was a Mattel inhouse brand like MotU, they wouldn't have canned the plastic dioramas; and Hasbro could afford producing 16" BAFs if ML was their inhouse brand.

[Skullface]

Actually stumbled across a Batgirl & Two Face today, though the TRU employee almost tried to eat me after seeing me grab the box off his stocking cart and head toward the aisle.

Typical Mattel case pack - 5 Knight Shadow Batman, 1 Camo Bane, 1 Batgirl, 1 Two-Face......

[Zodach]

Actually stumbled across a Batgirl & Two Face today, though the TRU employee almost tried to eat me after seeing me grab the box off his stocking cart and head toward the aisle.

Typical Mattel case pack - 5 Knight Shadow Batman, 1 Camo Bane, 1 Batgirl, 1 Two-Face......

Awesome find! The DCSH case packs only consist of 6 figures though. The particular assortment you found should have been 3x KS Batman, 1x Camo Bane, 1x Two-Face, and 1x Batgirl. Still not great, but a little better

[Sword-of-Grayskull]

I just found the new TRU exclusive 12" Batman figure - it's the same as the last one only with the blue replaced by black. On the back of the box is advertised a 12" Cyborg Superman! I suppose this must be coming to shelves at a later date though....

So says the Sword.

[Zodach]

Well, it looks like Mattel has acquired the DC master license. There should be some new characters coming from the DCSH line that are outside of the Batman and Superman families. Check out the great news here...Mattel acquires DC master license

[MOTUfan]

Well, it looks like Mattel has acquired the DC master license. There should be some new characters coming from the DCSH line that are outside of the Batman and Superman families. Check out the great news here...Mattel acquires DC master license

Awesome news

I cannot wait. Now I need to get the rest of what I am missing lets see what do I have lol ummmmmm:

Series 1:

Superman
Doomsday
Bane with Ostito

I THINK thats all LOL.

They might not even be all from series one heh.

Brent

[Jack T. Chance]

I just found the new TRU exclusive 12" Batman figure - it's the same as the last one only with the blue replaced by black. On the back of the box is advertised a 12" Cyborg Superman! I suppose this must be coming to shelves at a later date though....

So says the Sword.

I was in a TRU a couple weeks ago, and finally saw a 12" Batman and Superman on the shelf. First time I've seen them. On the back, they advertised a 12" Mr. Freeze, using that AWESOME 4 Horsemen sculpt first issued as a 6" figure a few years ago (and which I have both variants of!) I WANT THAT 12" MR. FREEZE!!!

I hope it turns up soon. I'm guessing it hasn't been released yet, because there aren't even any on eBay.

[ChemicalChemical]

Well, it looks like Mattel has acquired the DC master license. There should be some new characters coming from the DCSH line that are outside of the Batman and Superman families. Check out the great news here...Mattel acquires DC master license

Woo woo woo!

How many waves of repaints until Mattel can take advantage of it, I wonder?

[bskcase]

This is awesome news. I can finally have a DCSH Justice League. I hope the 4 Horsemen are getting cracking. I want a Wonder Woman ASAP. Batman and Superman just seem incomplete without her.

[Sword-of-Grayskull]

I was in a TRU a couple weeks ago, and finally saw a 12" Batman and Superman on the shelf. First time I've seen them. On the back, they advertised a 12" Mr. Freeze, using that AWESOME 4 Horsemen sculpt first issued as a 6" figure a few years ago (and which I have both variants of!) I WANT THAT 12" MR. FREEZE!!!

I'm sorry to say that I believe you're mistaken. If you're referring to the characters on the back of the box of wave one 12" Batman, those pictures are simply advertising wave three of the 6" line. So far, only Batman (blue) and Superman from wave 1, and Batman (black) and Cyborg Superman from wave 2 have been released.

Wooo, master license! Perhaps this was the big news BoyWonder hinted we'd hear at SDCC....

So says the Sword.