As opposed to Wednesday’s Toy Fair 2006 update, the visit to Mattel’s showrooms reflects the flipside of the superhero universe. Whereas ToyBiz deals exclusively in Marvel characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk and Captain America, Mattel deals in DC Comics action figures, which includes characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It also includes ‘Infectious Lass’, but I won’t hold that against them.

It’s not unusual for the average person to never distinguish between the two universes, but for comic geeks such as myself, they’re very distinct places, never to touch, just as your peas should never, ever touch your mashed potatoes on your delicious dinner plate. Sure, they’re both delicious, and the two comic universes cross over into each other from time to time, leaving everyone bewildered and playing into the ‘multiple universe’ theories that seem to be the catch-all for anytime something doesn’t make sense within a comic, but usually, like boys and girls at a school dance, like opposing magnetic polls, like Danielle Steel and intelligent fiction, the two have a tenuous interaction at best, often sensibly repelled from each other.

Within my own collecting, I’ve subconsciously ushered all of my Marvel figures into one half of the room, while the DC Comics figures have found their way into a completely different section. Occasionally they’re allowed to integrate around the neutral ground that is my Mac Mini, but that place is anything goes. Seriously. They’ll often meet DEVO pins from 1980 and long-forgotten snacks which have become entirely different kinds of snacks over time.

The Mattel showrooms didn’t have anything very unexpected to show by way of action figures. The current ‘big deal’ in DC action figure collecting is the DC Superheroes line, which marks the first time that we’re getting mass-retail, articulated, 7” versions of a few interesting and traditional DC characters. The first wave of these had hit retail a few weeks back, and consisted of Batman, Killer Croc, Bane and Scarecrow. Interestingly, Bane and Scarecrow were initially part of a different Batman line entirely, and due to a sudden cancellation of the line, they were only distributed in Australia. They’ve been slightly retooled for this US release.

As far as variants of the figures go, none are intentional, but there are two running production changes. The first variation are the pegs in Batman’s knees. Initially blue, they’ve recently become grey to match his costume. The second change is with the Bane figure. Early figures were packed without his teddy bear, while later figures include it. Nothing major, but it’s something to look for.

On display were pieces from the next three waves of figures, which alternate between Superman and Batman mythologies. One of the best parts about Toy Fair is that companies will often display ‘two-ups’, or double-sized figures from which the smaller figures are perfected and altered. These are often finely painted, one-of-a-kind, sculptural pieces. Check out this mini gallery to see these huge figures, as well as the next wave of figures in actual size.

Wave two of these will include Superman, Supergirl, Doomsday and Bizarro. Wave three will include another Batman, Robin, Azrael, and a repackaged and slightly altered Mr. Freeze, who was also included in the aforementioned original Batman line. This will be followed by another Batman wave, including yet another Batman, the Joker, Two-Face, and a new, black-and-stitches clad Batgirl. While the first wave of these figures shows promise, they’re still not perfect, having a plastic shine and lacking some detail, but they show a lot of promise.

The other major DC wave focuses on the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, based around the artwork of Bruce Timm. These are smaller, 4” scale figures with minimal articulation and exceptionally simple designs, but therein lies their charm. These have appeal on character recognition alone. The cartoon itself makes an effort to include every superhero and villain that the DC Universe can offer, and as such, there’s a large array of possible figures, from popular to obscure. Mattel tends to repackage the heavy hitters, like Superman and Batman, many, many times over, often throwing a single new figure into a three pack, or adding a huge, ridiculous action feature, but the JLU line is shying away from this, recently offering new characters without the necessity of repurchasing figures that you might already have.

New JLU figures will include Zatanna (recently made into a major DC character after the Identity Crisis storyline), Etrigan the Demon, Huntress, Zoom, and three new Green Lanterns, which will make a great addition to your Green Lantern Corps display.

See, here’s the thing about Green Lantern - there’s about a thousand heroes who go by the name ‘Green Lantern’ throughout the DC Universe. There’s these little blue guys called the Guardians, and they give out rings. To everyone. So, as it stands in the action figure world, you can paint a Green Lantern logo on just about anything and there’s PROBABLY a Green Lantern somewhere out there, somewhere in the universe, that looks exactly like whatever you’ve just made. You can take a green marker and draw the GL sign on your donut and it would be comic-accurate. He’d be Tastee from the planet Krispeekreemulon. They gave a ring to a squirrel. They gave a ring to a developmentally challenged dog. They gave a ring to a planet. They’ll give a ring to a donut. And this is why I love comics.

The third line that Mattel showed off was the Superman Returns movie line of figures, which is not geared towards collectors, but instead [GASP!] kids. Rife with action features, with many variations on Superman and an occasional goon to battle, I don’t believe this to be a line that will be highly collected. Movie lines usually don’t fare too hot, the exceptions being Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, but even lines as strong as those leave many leftover figures warming the pegs.

Stay tuned for more Toy Fair goodness as we visit the Sideshow Collectibles booth.

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Article Tags: 2006, action figures, convention, DC, Javitz, Justice League, Mattel, NYC, Superman, Toy Fair, ToyFair

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