Fwoosh: …Then we’ve also got our big articulation fans who want double knees, double elbows, all that. Do you think that that is an evolutionary process, a case by case basis as the parts become available, does it go by character?
Treadaway: It’s case by case. Sometimes it’s a matter of what tools are available when you’re doing a particular wave. Character selection is a huge, huge part of it.
Some of you might recall a little article I did the first of 2010, talking about DC Universe Classics and what was at the time heralded as the arrival of its double-jointed action figures in the form of Blue Beetle.
Well, here we are, two years later, and things have changed, just maybe not quite like I had expected. We’ve got a ton of figures since then, even some with new double elbows and knees, but I’d have to say the “big picture” of where this fits in for DC and Mattel is….well….pretty inconsistent.
Some of you are no doubt already rolling your eyes at this, but hear me out: There are a lot of reasons that old articulation junkies like me have been howling for this kind of thing, and it goes a lot further than just cool poses. I think now, more so than a couple years ago, the time is even more right, and the stakes even higher. So, I brought some more eye candy, and some fellow old-time Fwooshers- Like Colirio, Prodigy, and Industrial– to help me explain why this is one of those conversations that just won’t die.
Mattel has built one fearsome DC universe in the last 5 years. There’s truly no denying or short-changing that. I certainly am not here to Monday morning quarterback their business model; I’d prefer to lean on the future than analyze the past.. Going into All-Stars, we have a very eclectic group of super-poseable figures: Blue Beetle, Robin, Mercury, Azrael Batman, Creeper, Black Hand, Manhunter, Abin Sur, SC Scarecrow, Captain Boomerang, Toyman and Nekron. When you’re talking numbers, that’s actually not bad. That’s 11 regular figures out of 57- you could call it about 1 in 6 starting with series 13. Character selection’s a little dubious on some, but it would look like a good start.
All-Stars has shown us 1 (Larfleeze) out of 8 figures so far, which doesn’t really bode well for seeing improvement. With fewer figures per assortment, no build-a-figure, and less variety in characters, All-Stars is in a poor position to take on all the newcomers, let alone fan favorite Marvel Legends…
I am every bit as much a DC fan as I am a figure fan in general. When I see my favorite brand heading into uncertain territory, I get a little worried. I see prices going up, and perceived value going down. I see competition coming out of the woodwork all over the place, staking their claim on ever-dwindling shelf-space. Worse, I see them leading into this with a conflicted and at times unimpressive lineup that feels like a faint echo of the line we knew. Frankly, I’m not sure where else there is to go; something’s got to give.
The truth is, Mattel need look no further than their own backyard to see one of DC’s biggest rivals- the very formidable WWE Elites line. In similar scale and price point, these figures continue to exceed expectations, making me wish very much I was a wrestling fan.
Mattel’s biggest ace-in-the-hole has always been a very effective system of interchangeable bodies and parts. That means for the average figure, it’s a matter of adding a new head, belt, etc on the right match of parts to get the desired figure. Same is true of articulation- for the average DCUC figure to get some more movement, it really only requires new parts from the thigh-swivel and bicep cut down. Some, double elbows aside, could be done just from the knee-down, like my lazy customs here.
From there, it’s just a matter of doing things where they make sense. My favorite example of late has become the design of the New 52 Batman. In a DCUC model sense, this is a figure that’s going to require new tooling. One look at that Batman, and you can see lots of seam lines and armor gaps that are just begging to be used for articulation. I figure. It’s going to need to be new anyway, why not go for it? Hell, the guy has independent bat-shaped knee-pads! You would have to go completely out of your way to not use that design organically to add that extra knee- otherwise, the joint cut would split that pad in half…
Simply put, in a more competitive arena where everybody’s looking for more bang for their buck, this is a great way to add more to a figure itself without crutches like build-a-figures or lots of accessories/ display bases.
What is it that brings each of us to this Fwoosh website? We spend hours, to days, to weeks, to years investing our time, money, and thought processes to these toys. Why? I dare say that it’s because there is a part of each of us that gets more than a little excited by these action figures. We have come to enjoy the thrill of the hunt, the posing in various action poses, the replaying of movie, comic, and cartoon scenes in our minds as we play with our “hand candy” as the term has been coined.
More than anything, I dare say that each of us are reliving some part of our childhood. Many of us today collect the characters that we grew up loving and even emulating. We sought to mimic their actions, their careers, and even their morals in many cases. We grew up dedicating our lives to their causes and ideals. Who here would claim that they are not a little more heroic (or perhaps a little more dastardly!) because of the action hero properties they enjoyed as a child?
That brings me to 4 year old…let’s call him Elijah. Elijah enjoys playing action figures with his daddy more than anything else. They spend hours both defending and attacking the Mattel Castle Greyskull playset with their favorite figures. For quite some time, Elijah has been somewhat of a Batman fanatic. He loves the cartoons, movies, comics, stories, jammies, etc…everything Batman related, like only a 4 year old truly can.
However, there is one point of frustration to Elijah. During the course of playtime, he has come to discover that Batman simply does not pose as well as other figures. Now, this might not seem like a big deal to others, but, for him it is HUGE. He enjoys having his favorite figures with him while watching those cartoons and reading his books. He re-enacts scenes by posing his figures in similar dramatic fashion. It has become a source of great pride, and somewhat tiring to his father, to show how “neat” the pose is that has been executed.
More than once, however, Elijah has questioned as to why Batman does not pose like Spider-Man. Sure, they have multiple DC villains that pose well, but none of the heroes seem to. (All except for Robin, who despite having fantastic colors “fights crime in his underwear” as Elijah says.)
All of this has recently culminated into Batman not being played with nearly as often. Spider-Man has now taken the front seat in Elijah’s world. Spider-Man watches TV with Elijah. Spider-Man sits with him at dinner. Spider-Man rides with him in the car. Spider-Man is on his toothbrush, on his newer t-shirts, his jammies, his bedroom wall, his underwear, his new books, movies, cartoons, and everywhere else. All this because Batman just plain can’t pose nearly as good as Spider-Man.
Where Mattel blew it in my (our) eyes, Batman gets the blame in Elijah’s.
Now, I’m sure there will always be a fondness for Batman, but from here on, and for years to come, articulation has made Elijah Marvel over DC.
Now, do I, as Elijah’s father, really care? Nope. We’ll just take his childhood enthusiasm elsewhere. But, do you think DC cares? Do you suppose this is just an isolated incident?
Kids today are more fickle than my generation as so many more things are marketed towards their age group. There are many other things besides action figures fighting for their attention. If Mattel won’t compete with the standards that have been set in the 1/12th scale market, they certainly will not be able to compete with the other forces that want their attention.
To me, the biggest tragedy is that Mattel won’t look past a pretended budget to see the long term ramifications for the DC property as a whole.
Do I place that much importance on a double jointed standard? Yes, I do.
This whole thing just baffles me. As shown in these pics DisThunder didn’t do anything other than swap parts to make the double joints fit. That easy. And Mattel can’t do this why? That is what frustrates me the most. To see every other company doing six inch stuff up their articulation, and to see DCUC stay the same or in some cases go backwards. Can someone please explain to me why we lost the ball jointed necks? So it made sense to go from a two balled barbell which allowed great neck movement to a three balled barbell that doesn’t? Didn’t that actually use more plastic to make less movement? How is that even an option?
When they have added articulation it’s been inconsistent, too. After wave 16 it looked as if they were heading towards double knees for most characters or just the characters who need them, but that didn’t happen. What did happen was that they sculpted a new slimmer buck with double knees. So every new figure using that buck gets the new articulation. Seems like a strange choice to make it like that or then again were they even paying attention? Because we were told at SDCC 2009 by Mattel reps that they thought double joints were copyrighted. Sheesh.
Why not add them to the medium or bigger bucks too? Why just the slim body? Do you see what I’m saying here by inconsistent? With the new Legends coming out as competition they could’ve made an effort to start using a little more articulation to match up. Just add in the knees and I’d be happy. Hasbro’s basically using more of a buck approach, just like DCUC uses, but their figures will be more articulated to start with, and they seem to have the ability to see more than a year or so ahead of them. So even though they will be reusing bodies they’re going to make new sculpts with the needed articulation now so that they don’t have to add them in later or change up everything they had set up just to add in new joints.
That’s where DCUC messed up. The minute they saw this line was taking off, they should have had the foresight to start adding in new joints on a few of the bucks for characters that needed them. That way they wouldn’t have to make a big deal about it and the articulation would be there when they needed it.
I have to be honest here, I quit buying full waves of DCUC with wave 10.
It was a tough decision, especially since a lot of the BAF choices appealed to me but I decided to become a cherry picker since I’m guilty of being one of those Marvel zombies that wasn’t familiar with a lot of the more obscure characters.
I continued to pick up the figures that I was interested in and occasionally attempted to track down parts from BAF’s that I wanted to complete but were packaged with guys that I was either clueless about or that I just had no desire to own an action figure of.
Then we saw pics of wave 13 and I got psyched for DCUC again. Modern Blue Beetle, a comic that I had read so it was already a character I likely would’ve picked up, was sporting double jointed elbows and knees!
Double jointed elbows and knees were something I’d wanted in this line forever and to see it pop up in the line when my interest was starting to dwindle created triple rainbow levels of happiness in me.
Then came wave 14. No double joints to be seen. Then wave 15. No double joints to be seen.
Then came the wave that I had been hoping for, wave 16. Despite some QC and minor articulation clearance issues this wave was as cool as hell to me and really brings my case to the forefront. Without any doubts I bought Robin, Azrael Bats, and the Creeper… but I also bought Mercury, the first and only member of the Metal Men that I own. I could give 2 craps about the Metal Men, I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything with them in it, but I couldn’t pass up what looked like a really fun and really poseable action figure.
I was and still am, willing to spend my money on more articulated action figures of characters that I know nothing about simply because to me, first and foremost, it is a good toy.
So with this relaunch that will supposedly focus more on the big guns of the DCU comes another chance for Mattel to bring me back into the fold. I mean, I own a modern Captain Boomerang and Black Hand fer chrissake, I’d have to cheat and check wikipedia if you wanted me to tell you anything about either of them beyond what their action figure looks and poses like. So you can only imagine how psyched I’d be to throw my money at Mattel for truly super poseable versions of Superman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Nightwing, Green Arrow, and I mean honestly, can anyone believe that we still haven’t gotten a proper double jointed Batman yet?