Looking through the toy aisles at Target and Wal-Mart can be a little depressing. If we’re lucky, there’s two and a half aisles of action figures to navigate. One of those is largely dominated by whatever Marvel Studios film is hot at the moment and various Marvel Legends lines. After the excitement of Avengers: Infinity War, it’s easy to see why that’s the case. But for DC fans? The options seem pretty much stuck in 2017.
There’s Wonder Woman movie figures and the random Super Friends DC Multiverse figures. Maybe you’ll really be in for a shock and see a Wonder Girl on the shelves. But where is the DC product?
While DC is thoroughly getting waxed by Marvel at the movie theaters, the comic book stands are a different matter entirely. DC Rebirth has been amazing and has delivered on its promise to make DC fun again for its readers. But while DC Rebirth is now heading to its third year, there hasn’t been a mass output of figures for collectors eager for a more modern take on their favorites.
Under their amazing mishandling of the DC Icons line, DC Collectibles managed to crank out a handful of Rebirth figures in the Justice League set, Robin & Superboy, Nightwing and Supergirl. Not really enough to fully capture the momentum on the line and increased interest in DC Comics. DCC is going to try it again with DC Essentials, which looks somewhat promising, but given DCC’s track record it’s understandable that a lot of collectors are taking the wait and see approach. Or at least a wait and see if all the solicited figures get released.
Mattel seems just as non-committal about tapping into Rebirth excitement. Their Multiverse line has been revised with better articulation for new figures — Rebirth Superman, Batwoman, Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. I was skeptical, but after posing Superman around for awhile, I’m excited about adding more Rebirth era figures to my DC collection. But Mattel doesn’t seem nearly as excited as me.
Exactly one wave has been revealed, which includes Vixen, Simon Baz, Wonder Woman, Ray, Bizarro, Gotham by Gaslight Batman and a Collect and Connect Lex Luthor. Toys R Us exclusives Beast Boy and Kid Flash were also revealed, but you know the deal with Toys R Us so they’re now looking for a home. Wal-Mart has an exclusive Spoiler and Harley Quinn set for later this year, but two waves a year isn’t hardly enough to keep fan interest.
Compare that to Marvel Legends where some of us are begging Hasbro to slow down and stop releasing new waves every other week. Of the two, I’d much rather have the problem of having too much product than not enough.
Another issue with Mattel is the lack of focus with the Multiverse line. Maybe instead of trying to shoehorn movie and TV characters into a predominantly comic book-based line, make every other assortment a TV/movie line. Assuming of course we could get somewhere in the neighborhood of eight waves a year.
As a DC (and Marvel) fan, I want that same excitement looking over at the DC figures section as I do the Marvel wing. DC doesn’t have to have a hot movie with evergreen iconic characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman to anchor waves. It’s just time for somebody over there to make it more than a side hobby.
What do you think? Does DC need better figure representation in stores or is it simply a lost cause?
Photo Credit: DC Comics