The always reliable Toy Guru is back for another round of answers to your questions. Hmm… we are getting close to Toy Fair. Maybe he might spill a little something just before? There is only one way to find out.
Question: A lot of fans are wondering about sculpt/body reuse from figure to figure in waves 2 and 3. Can you shed any light on what body each of these characters utilize? How are they different from the series 1 body (slimmer/etc.)? Do any of them use the Batman/Orion/Red Tornado body from series one?
- Superman Blue
- Green Lantern (Hal)
- Nightwing
- Sinestro
- Black Manta
Many of the characters from the DCUC line will reuse body parts or what we call a “buck” (a generic body type). This allows us to maximize the number of characters we do. Several bucks were created for the DCUC line. It is up to fans to review each figure and determine which character share certain parts! We will continue to have fully sculpted unique figures in the line as well. But when it makes logical sense for characters to share parts, this will be a strategy used throughout the line.
Question: Is there an a plan for making the exclusives at Wizard World Chicago and SDCC available to people who are not able to attend the conventions? If so, what is it?
The convention exclusives are specifically designed to reward fans who trek out to each show. If we made all of our exclusives available at retail it would diminish the unique collectibility of these figures. Currently the plan is for these figures to be available only at San Diego Comic Con this year. (Wizard World and NY will share some other repaint and re-release exclusives which will be announced soon).
Question: Most fans are quite pleased with the handling of "unique character" variants and how Mattel is making them more readily available to fans than say, just an "unmasked" variant. Moving forward can we count on unique character (like Ronnie and Jason Firestorm) variants being evenly/nearly even shipped so fans can get all of the unique characters?
We are still working out a lot of these logistics, but for the most part, variants with unique heads will be evenly shipped while paint deco changes will be more of a chase figure packed in smaller quantities.
Question: What information and trends do you take from fan polls and Top Ten lists when deciding on a series/year line up of characters? Do you take fan input from those into serious consideration? In the past (even with other collector driven lines) these lists seem like good indicators as to what the fanbase wants, can characters be "helped along" with strong support in these polls?
We absolutely look at online fan polls when deciding which figures we want to make. But not every figure on fan’s lists necessarily works for the every line. We work closely with our licensing partners at Warner Brothers and DC Comics to help choose the most appropriate figures for each of our DC toy lines. We have tried to reserve one slot in each wave for a “fan request” which we pull directly from online polls.
Question: Are there any updates to give about the availability of the Charlton Characters? A lot of those seem to be REALLY popular right now and would be hits with the fans.
This is something we are working on and hope to have an announcement soon. (perhaps at Toy Fair next month…)
Question: What is the current ETA for Series 2 and 3?
Wave 2 of DCUC should be out by March with Wave 3 following in May.
Again, thanks to Toy Guru and we all look forward to what is coming down the pipe for Toy Fair and the rest of the year!
Additional Links