This San Diego Comic Con seems like a pretty important one for DC fans. Not just for the reveals of Wonder Woman 1984, Aquaman and Shazam, but on the figure front too. While Hasbro is rolling around at a breakneck pace with its Marvel Legends line, DC collectors are not so patiently waiting for one line to emerge as the go to source for their 6- to 7-inch figure needs.
Last year, DC Collectibles revealed its DC Essentials line. Back at the 7-inch scale that the company has used for years, DC Essentials seems to address the two biggest complaints of the DC Icons line — better articulation and scale. So far the early reveals of the Essentials line has been promising. Superman and Flash look iconic, Batman can pull off a full range of movement and the addition of comic accurate Watchmen characters is another major draw.
But of course, this is DC Collectibles. After a slew of tantalizing prototypes with the DC Icons line two years ago at SDCC, only a portion of those ever made it to shelves. Who knows if what was shown will actually get delivered or if the line will sustain beyond the regular main characters?
At least DC Essentials features a smarter release rollout meaning heroes have a villain to immediately square off against. Batman can fight Deathstroke, Flash has Reverse Flash, Superman has Brainiac, Shazam/Captain Marvel has Black Adam. A strong showing at SDCC could really tip the scales for DC Essentials especially if they feature second tier characters like Teen Titans, Justice Society, Doom Patrol or Legion characters.
The other main competitor is Mattel’s mass market DC Multiverse line. The line got a soft reboot with the Collect and Connect Clayface wave, but in true Mattel fashion, the line already feels like an afterthought. I was pretty impressed with the DC Rebirth Superman and Jessica Cruz, but the wave has barely made it into retail. Mattel showed another wave last year at New York Comic Con featuring a CAC Lex Luthor that has only just now been solicited for pre-order. Tying the waves to current events in the comics might not have been a smart move as Luthor has long ago abandoned his Superman homage armor and The Ray and Vixen haven’t been prominently featured in months.
For DC Classics collectors, Multiverse figures are slightly out of scale with Mattel’s previous effort. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if Mattel did a better job of releasing more of the Multiverse product. Or made them more widely available to customers.
But with a concerted showing at SDCC with a strong rollout of 2-3 new waves, Multiverse could quickly regain some much needed momentum. The SDCC Aquaman exclusive set is a step in the right direction especially with the classic versions of characters like Black Manta and Ocean Master. If Mattel opts to not just make Multiverse the modern figure line, it could stoke more interest from collectors.
If I’ve gotta put money on one line over the other I think DC Essentials is the one to bank on. Mattel seems content slowly rolling out movie crossover figures on a smaller, less articulated scale than keeping collectors coming to the DC side of the action figure aisle.
DC Collectibles isn’t the most reliable, but even with they’re smaller waves, they’ve typically been good for at least cranking out 4-5 waves of their new lines.
So who’s going to come out the big DC figure winner for SDCC? I’ve got my popcorn ready and eager to see how much of my Marvel Legends’ money will be diverted toward DC figures come the next year.
Photo Credit: DC Collectibles
