The DC/McFarlane thread.

[Gardner Grayle]

This is happening.  Just when it looked like Mattel was turning a corner, they're done.  Seventeen years.  Hundreds of figures.  And now they're done for the foreseeable future.  Rumor is they wanted out of the deal with DC.  Rumor is, Todd was the only company that wanted the DC license.  He received it by default.  Rumors.  If it's true and Mattel wanted out, didn't they know stock price would take a hit?  They seemed surprised and upset.  Dunno what to believe. 

What I do know is things are about to get interesting.  And I don't even know if I'll be buying these or not.  Todd has a pretty narrow path to my business. 

1) Todd is the innovator of the six inch scale for collectors starting with Spawn wave 2 way back in the mid 90's.  Years before DCD existed or Toy Biz did any six inch figures.  Hasbro actually did do a handful around the same time. 

2) Todd produced over 40 waves of Spawn.  Maybe closer to 50 all in.  More waves than DCUC.  He has the capacity to do this if he wants to.  Six waves a year.  To open. 

3) His strength is not with the superhero crowd, but with everything else.  All that stuff in the DCU that's kinda to the side.  Todd loves monsters, warriors, aliens, and freaks.  His influences are Sci-Fi, Mythology, Horror, Fantasy/Sword and Sorcery, etc.  I can't wait to see stuff like Man-Bat, Solomon Grundy. Swamp Thing, Warlord and many others.   

 

[Chooch]

https://www.cbr.com/todd-mcfarlane-greg-capullo-unknown-project/

[Gardner Grayle]

Saw that.  Makes me wonder when?  After Last Knight, Capullo is supposedly doing a Netflix comic with Mark Millar for $$$$.  After that, there is speculation about Metal II. 

I wonder if Todd would do Metal II figures off Greg’s art?

[Chooch]

I figured it amounted to McFarlane doing Capullo figures of some kind.

[Gardner Grayle]

I thought it was a comic.  At first. 

Maybe it’s package art?

[Gardner Grayle]

Back on point.  I was trying to write all this last night.  I was tired and it didn't all come out as coherent as I wanted it to.  I believe that there are general reasons to be both optimistic and more realistic about Todd and the direction of this line. 

Optimistic:  Almost everything Todd does looks cool.

Realistic:  Does 22+ POA make a figure look too cut up like old school Marvel legends?  Can Todd effectively compensate for it?  What is the scale?  What will the style be like?  Generic or stylized? 

Realistic:  DC/WBCPD seems to want merchandise to go in another direction.  Will Todd even get the green light to do much in comic accurate form?  DC has four live action movies coming out in 2020.  One of them is Birds of Prey and Mattel might actually make those as it has a release date of Feb 15th.  The other three, Wonder Woman 1984 included, are all Todd.  Two of those movies haven't been announced yet.  Odds are, one of them is the New Gods.  Along with the movies, we get a new CW show centered around Batwoman.  It's gotten a pilot order, but I have no doubt it'll get a production order.  Especially since the Flagship show, Arrow, is ending in December of 2019.  At the point where Todd comes onboard, there will be twelve live action DC TV shows on various networks.  Mostly CW and DC Universe.  With at least one more in development.  There are two DC video games in development.  Todd has had pretty good success there.  As for animated, Todd can't do Superhero Girls.  Doubt he'd touch Young Justice or Teen Titans Go !, but Harley has a cartoon coming up which would be a great excuse to go back and do some more Timm style figures.  This is what we know now.  Imagine what other media stuff will be in the hopper by the end of the year.  On top of all of that, I think Todd keeps the Signature Series going to continue mining older movies and TV shows.

Realistic:  Todd is an old school comic guy.  Maybe the first true comic mogul, aside from Eisner, despite some setbacks.  He loves the medium or he'd be out of it by now.  As for scale, that's something we can guess at.  Does he see this new line as a spiritual successor to DCUC and Multiverse?  Or does Todd go his own way?  The 4H are out after fourteen years.  So I imagine the spirit of Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and his style guide is too.  BTW, Tim Bruckner was using that since 2000 in DCD.

Todd brings great energy and passion to everything he does.  But three years isn't even time to team build.  I want a comic accurate line deeper and wider than DCUC.  I'd say Heroclix deep.  But that won't happen.  It should, but won't.   Besides, that's crazy talk. 

Realistic:  If we do get a significant number of comic accurate figures, I would imagine it will be a reflection of current publishing.  Rebirth forward.  Plus events and probably current Multiverse.  Mind you, I don't have a problem with this, but I know a lot of people will.  I just can't get behind the attitude of "If it ain't classic, why bother?".  YMMV.  This is where Capullo comes in.  Batman Who Laughs is a figure begging to get made.  Plus a whole bunch more.  More later.       

[Gardner Grayle]

As a "comic only" action figure buyer, I know the number of comic accurate figures being made is going to go down as DC's media presence, on all platforms, increases.  I guess I'm OK with that.  It may be time for me to hang this hobby up anyway.  I can hope Todd will focus some of his seemingly boundless energy on comic characters, but is that what the people who gave him this license want?  Dan DiDio and Jim Lee might.  But is that what their new boss and the rest of the WBCPD want?  Interesting question that I'm not sure I want the answer to.

Has Todd addressed his QC problems?  What will the price point be?  North of 25 bucks makes me a cherry picker automatically.  And that is only if the overall scale lines up with DCUC/Multiverse. 

So if all of that ends up coming together, Todd needs to do one more critical thing to earn my business...make something I want.  Something that hasn't been done in six inch scale.  At least not by Mattel.  A fair amount of "never been done" figures would be nice.  New iterations of all of DC's top dogs won't fly with me at this point in my figure collecting career.  A good Earth-2 Robin in the Adams costume would be awesome.  Warlord, Frankenstein, Shining Knight (either/both), Vigilante (Cowboy), Amethyst, Rip Hunter, Rick Flagg, and literally dozens (hundreds) more come to mind.  Will Todd go deep?  When you talk about media figures, it's fairly well defined and finite.  A comic line can go on forever.  Kinda like me.      

[Non-Chick Magnet]

I guess my DC figure collecting days are done.  I'm at peace with it.

I would love for Todd to make Warlord and Frankenstein, but DC stands for Disappointing Collectors.  My hope has been laid to rest.  I've been hopeful for the past 5+ years, and it's lead nowhere.

There's other stuff to collect, so it's time to move on.

[Gardner Grayle]

That’s the thing, I haven’t really given up yet.  But I’m trying to manage my expectations, be realistic, and prepare myself for the possible end.  Nothing is set in stone.  These could end up being so cool, I almost have to buy ‘em.

I once dumped DCD for Mattel.  I suppose it could happen again.

[Non-Chick Magnet]

Todd liking Fantasy and Monster type characters is a definite plus, but how many will he get to make?  Will they sell?  Will they be 30 bucks a piece?

At this point, I won't dare hope.  There's no point in a Wish List.  Sure....I have to take some of the blame for having the particular taste that I do, but in the end, figures ain't cheap, and I will buy only what interests me, be it Bronze Age, 90s era, or Modern Age.

If Todd puts out a character or two that I want, of course I would buy them.   There's no question that any plans he has are probably worlds apart from Mattel's.

[Gardner Grayle]

I just hope Todd can do some of what he wants.  A lot of what he does will be things he’s required to do.  Like movies and such.  We really don’t know much at this point so it’s not possible for me to predict my own behavior much less that of the toy buying public in general. 

The only thing I know for certain is that the figures will be great looking.  Whether it’s something I purchase or not.

[Non-Chick Magnet]

Yeah, he'll obviously have a certain quota to fill.  It's what he does with the 'open' slots that interests me.

If I can get a big, chunky, sleeveless marching-band-coat Frankenstein and a Classic Warlord out of this, everything will have been worth it.  The trifecta would include a Camelot 3000 King Arthur, but there's no way in Hell I'm that lucky.

[powersthatbe]

I would like to see his take on characters like the creeper,  swamp thing, man-bat and the demon, but on the other hand I want a basic not overly stylized line(maybe the latter in a deluxe format?)

[Gardner Grayle]

So after a fair amount of realism and pragmatism, I'm now gonna look at the best case (to me) scenario.  Assuming decent QC, a price point that won't break the bank, and a reasonably compatible scale, I'll say we do get a good amount of comic accurate characters as well as a deep-ish dive into the DCU.  Todd was talking about a line of "basic" figures in his first FB post about the DC license from the floor of Toy Fair last month.  I'm going to hope/assume that this is a comic inspired line with a somewhat lower price point that will get refreshed regularly.  Something like the basic WWE line Mattel puts out.  Less articulation, fewer accessories, blister card packaging, etc.  Word is, Mattel wanted to do this with DCUC/Multiverse but DC shut them down.  That sticks in my craw something fierce since I heard about it.. 

Imagine two parallel figure lines, completely compatible with one another.  One for kids, the other for collectors (but not really), and folks going back and forth picking and choosing their favorites.  Think of John Cena and the Rock as Batman and Superman and fill in around them.  My thing has never been articulation.  14-16 POA is fine for me.  I'm more a sculpt guy.  I want a great likeness, proper scaling and a WIDE VARIETY.  I'll never understand the people who follow DCD/DCC and keep buying the same 25 characters over and over again.  Cannot do it.  But imagine 50 or 60 new comic accurate figures a year priced out at around $13.99.  Maybe a pipe dream, but I think it would work. 

Looking at this realistically, I think we get a fair amount of artist inspired figures.  Greg Capullo seems to top a lot of lists for that.  He and Todd are old friends.  I'm also pretty sure Todd will have to skew most comic figures to the post Rebirth DCU.  I'll feel more confident about that when Doomsday Clock concludes.  Which should close out most of the Rebirth storylines.  Maybe.  Thomas Wayne and Jor-El still lurk.  Events in the DCU will continue to unfold and perhaps shape Todd's overall direction.

And this is something I just wanna put out there in case Todd does have some room to maneuver: 

You can just about cut the DCU in half now.  Before 1980 and after 1980.  Specifically DC Comics Presents #26.  The first appearance of the New Teen Titans.  This is the break point for me.  Not any of the Crisis', or even the New 52.  In that 16 page preview, Wolfman and Perez altered the DCU forever.  As much as I love me the GA-BA stuff, I think I'd be happy with the NTT forward. 

And how about a Grell styled Warlord?  Just because.     

[Non-Chick Magnet]

My thing has never been articulation.  14-16 POA is fine for me.  I'm more a sculpt guy.  I want a great likeness, proper scaling and a WIDE VARIETY.  I'll never understand the people who follow DCD/DCC and keep buying the same 25 characters over and over again.  Cannot do it.  But imagine 50 or 60 new comic accurate figures a year priced out at around $13.99.  Maybe a pipe dream, but I think it would work.

I am totally with you on articulation.  Hell....I'm even fine with 9 or 10!  ( Straight legs w/ un-articulated knees ARE a pet peeve, however )  But yes, a line with 12-16 POAs at 15 bucks would be great.  Actually, that's what I would hope for more than anything!

I can totally understand having several figures of the same character, but at the same time, variety is the spice of life!!  Sure, I have several BATMANs, but the true gems of my collection are figures like KILLER MOTH, VIGILANTE, MANHUNTER Paul Kirk, DEADSHOT, and DEATHSTROKE.

And how about a Grell styled Warlord?  Just because.