Lets go back in time...discussion and pics.
Having a bittersweet moment lately. There was a point in time where my collection was Marvel Legends on one side, DCUC on the other and I was in heaven. Growing up a big time comics kid you couldn't get any better. Then DCUC morphed into the whole Matty online subscription thing and the DC Comics Multiverse. I think too much focus on the live action properties and switching the sculptors from Four Horsemen Studios to in-house, really made the line a disappointment. Not to mention where I lived at the time, no stores carried any of them even if I wanted to pick them up. The last few waves under Mattel seemed to be much better (the Nitewing from the Killer Croc? wave is by far my fav DC figure ever) and I was really hoping it would come back with a bang, but again, my area barely carried them. Then McFarland took over and I just couldn't dive in that pool.
I started collecting other lines, just moved to a much bigger house, but I realized I really need to cut back. Who knew collecting since 2001 would leave me with so much clutter? So I've downsizing and selling off my collection little by little. I hit my DC boxes the other day. I felt almost wrong having to decide which ones and I absolutly keeping and which ones gotta go. I could keep Captain Marvel and the Marvel family, and probably all of my Reign of the Supermen, but that probably means no Vigilante, Lightray and a few less Green Lanterns. Do I keep the Metal Men or Justice Society? Do the blue and red electric Superman go away so I can keep Hawk and Dove.
Tough Stuff.
You keep the Metal Men and the JSA.
DCUC was, and remains, a pretty stellar line. Such a good character selection through the years- I still have many of them in my display. Of course suffered from the limitations of reusing body molds and such, but that's nothing exclusive to just this line. So many of them hold up quite well, too. Joker, Man-Bat, Gentleman Ghost (one of my favorite figures of the whole line), Parademons, etc.
Next to Batman, Green Lantern is one of my favorite properties, and they gave so many good Lantern figures through the years. 2 dedicated waves to round out some of the rosters and Deputy Lanterns is something that just wouldn't happen nowadays. Between Bats and GL, I ate well when it came to figures.
I was even part of the Matty Collector subscription line, which I loved and wish went on longer than it did.
I love what Todd has done with the line, as focused and limited as a lot of it has been. But DCUC will always hold a special place in my heart.
Yeah.... DCUC was the pinnacle of DC Action Figure collecting for me. I still have one wall of my room proudly displaying my DCUC collection - augmented with the occastional DC Direct figure and a minimal smattering of McFarlane oversized characters. At this rate I can't see myself replacing it. I love the aesthetic, I love the scale and the breadth of the collection is hard to match.
At this stage I just periodically pick up loose DCUC figures if I find them at a garage sale or something and use them to customize the characters Mattel didn't get to. The uniformity of base body sculpts makes customizing easier and there were so many characters I still wanted from the line.
On the plus side - without an active DC figure line that I want to buy I have money to spend on other action figure priorities (6" GI Joe!!!)
On the plus side - without an active DC figure line that I want to buy I have money to spend on other action figure priorities (6" GI Joe!!!)
That's literally the story for me! I've been a die hard Joe fan since ARAH was new, but never had a chance as a kid to get many, I had like 4 dudes. I even went all in on Sigma 6. But Classified is 100% wish fulfillment at this point.
You keep the Metal Men and the JSA.
Word. And Killer Moth.
I didn't enter my second childhood until after the line had ended, but I've spent a lot of time wishing about it. Exactly the character looks I'd want and a clean design that works for me in all the ways McFarlane doesn't.
DCUC was one of the best lines EVER made.
Still have a ton of mine displayed. My favorite representation in action figure form of these characters.
Having a bittersweet moment lately. There was a point in time where my collection was Marvel Legends on one side, DCUC on the other and I was in heaven. Growing up a big time comics kid you couldn't get any better. Then DCUC morphed into the whole Matty online subscription thing and the DC Comics Multiverse. I think too much focus on the live action properties and switching the sculptors from Four Horsemen Studios to in-house, really made the line a disappointment. Not to mention where I lived at the time, no stores carried any of them even if I wanted to pick them up. The last few waves under Mattel seemed to be much better (the Nitewing from the Killer Croc? wave is by far my fav DC figure ever) and I was really hoping it would come back with a bang, but again, my area barely carried them. Then McFarland took over and I just couldn't dive in that pool.
I started collecting other lines, just moved to a much bigger house, but I realized I really need to cut back. Who knew collecting since 2001 would leave me with so much clutter? So I've downsizing and selling off my collection little by little. I hit my DC boxes the other day. I felt almost wrong having to decide which ones and I absolutly keeping and which ones gotta go. I could keep Captain Marvel and the Marvel family, and probably all of my Reign of the Supermen, but that probably means no Vigilante, Lightray and a few less Green Lanterns. Do I keep the Metal Men or Justice Society? Do the blue and red electric Superman go away so I can keep Hawk and Dove.
Tough Stuff.
I too have cut my DCUC collection in half in recent years just because of space issues. I let go of some key pieces just because I have no connection to them (complete Giganta, Wonder Twins with Gleek), but I kept a lot of good stuff too (SDCC Plastic Man, SDCC Lobo, BAF Bane). My basement flodded a few years back and the figure room needed a complete overhaul. Pre-flood, I had a whole DCUC shelf, post-flood they have yet to come back on display. It might be time.
I told myself that when DCUC ended that my DC collecting days would be over and I’ve stuck to it. Those are still what I have up on my shelves right next to my Marvel Legends.
Some still look great, some don’t. The line was frustrating as hell at times with bizarre design choices (“We can make another one later!”) and there was a stretch of waves where every figure would have fused hip joints, but overall it was a great line to collect. Even now compared to Legends, I like how focused waves were in terms of team building.
That Mattel line is by far and away still my favorite DC stuff. I've got 3 full 5-shelf bookcases each for DC and Marvel. I've got at least one version of every character ever made in the 6-7" scale for each company going back to the late 90's. My DC stuff is primarily Mattel with DC Direct and McFarlane mixed in. While I really like a lot of what McFarlane has done (Frankenstein is phenomenal!!), his stuff will never replace my Mattel collection.
Despite the characters I wanted and never got, like Parallax Hal Jordan and Hourman android, this line was my DC "Marvel Legends". I stuck around through the Multiverse rebrand and got a few great characters out of it but when McFarlane got the license I knew it was over. Not everything he's done looks bad but its all out of scale with my collection. His Parallax has better articulation than the DC direct but its lacking some details and has a pin head. Same thing with his John Stewart. His upcoming Firestorm and Captain Atom look pretty good and I will be the first person to waste $80 on the awful Batman and Robin designs to get that Arnold Mr Freeze, but this line is off the mark for me and I don't love it like I did DCUC. In other news.... I got to thank Eric Mayse for the work their team did on this line, MOTUC and what they have done since. You guys downsizing have a DCUC Wildfire I can take off your hands?
My bad, I have to give credit for this one, His Anti-Monitor looks amazing and the larger size works for him. Definite must buy probably sometime during the Black Friday season.
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