DC Universe

San Diego Comic Con is something of a mecca for anyone remotely interested in pop culture, and it’s again come and gone, and I’ve again remained firmly nestled in the green crevices of the Hudson Valley. And that’s okay. Crowds give me the screamies.

I skimmed the reports from the safety of a computer in an air conditioned room, which is a far more ideal situation than being undulated against by a tightening, after-lunch-burbling nerd crowd. While newsbits filtered in about upcoming movies and toy lines and comic stories, I was really only interested in one thing : exclusive toys. Those magical and elusive things that can usually only be obtained if you’re in attendance – rewards for making the journey and standing on long lines – and up until recently, there were only three options to get these things : go to the convention, pay a premium on eBay, or have a friend on the inside.

Alas, this collecting hassle resulted in an enormous toy collector upheaval and a surge of complaints. Unable to complete their toy collections with these rare (but important) pieces, collectors would quit their collections. Making something ‘exclusive’ would be certainly special for those who obtained it, but aggravating to those who could not, and with conventions spread across the US, someone was always going to be unsatisfied folks. Toy companies heard the collective moan, and responded using the wonders of the digital age.

There were about 300 different ‘exclusive’ items at this year’s SDCC, from comics to posters to toys and dolls and variations on existing things. Fortunately, almost every ‘exclusive’ toy that I coveted was offered up for sale on the internet by the very companies who were distributing them, and very soon after the convention wound down. Buying company-direct always a more reliable, less expensive option than eBay. Here’s what I scored online from SDCC, and how I got it.

Sideshow Collectibles was offering a miniature, metal Iron Man helmet that I needed to have. Don’t question it. Sideshow has dealt with collector demand by offering a ‘Priority Pre-Order’ system on their website, weeks prior to these events. Comic Con attendees place their orders for the limited items via the Sideshow website and pick them up on the day of the Con. However, Sideshow also opens up online orders to non-attendees at a very specific time and date, and for about five dollars more. The website shuts down except for an order page, people swarm to the site, and orders come in by the hundreds. After a few server crashes and website deaths early on, Sideshow has adjusted their technology to reflect the demand for these items, and the ordering process is a pleasure – just make sure you’re signed up for their newsletter 24 hours ahead of time, or else you’ll be booted from the pre-order line. Sideshow send my helmet, and I’m the proud owner of #100 out of 2000 produced.

Other exclusives offered by Sideshow included a Star Wars Jedi Aayla Secura in 12” scale. No, she’s not original trilogy, but she’s a Jedi AND a Twi’lek – two of my favorite parts of Star Wars, post-Lucas Insanity or not. Also, be sure to check out the Diane Kamahele Memorial Auctions being run by Sideshow this week, which include incredibly rare original sculptures, prototypes, and signed items. As someone who knew the awesome Diane Kamahele from many Toy Fairs, these annual auctions are an excellent thing that Sideshow does to help support her family after her untimely death.

Mezco also offered some exclusives via their website, among them ‘Future Hiro‘ from their Heroes series of toys, and a clear, blue version of Hellboy II’s Liz Sherman. These have not yet shipped, but were available through Mezco’s website, with absolutely no ordering hassles at all. NBC’s booth (and website) offered an exclusive ‘Painter’ Sylar figure from Heroes.

The Four Horsemen’s ‘Time Keepers‘ mini figures were available at the convention, but have yet to arrive on their website for the ol’ post-SDCC shopping rush. They’re creepy little skull-faced guys, so of course, I’m all up on that.

Of all of the summer toy exclusives, Hasbro’s and Mattel’s were the most coveted. Hasbro offered, among other things, an exclusive My Little Pony, a GI Joe Cobra Commander with a COBRA podium (in both blue and black), Mighty Muggs featuring an Indiana Jones fertility idol and a movie-based Iron Man, and an excellent Marvel Legends set based on The Savage Land, featuring Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil and the tiger Zabu. Also offered was a large boxed set of eight Hulk action figures and the mighty Fin Fang Foom, as well as a small Star Wars diorama of Darth Vader talking to a giant holographic Emperor. There was a lot to take in, and a lot to hunt for, and Hasbro never seemed to give a clear answer about whether or not they’d sell these from their website, post-Con.

At noon, on the day after the convention ended, the items appeared on the website, and hundreds of collectors descended like plastic-hungry locusts. The site was brought to a stuttering crawl, and by the end of it, after many ‘page cannot be found’ notices, I emerged with my Savage Land Set and the two Mighty Muggs. I didn’t suffer the same woes as other collectors, whose items sold out just as they were trying to get the checkout page to function properly. I commend Hasbro for making these things available, but their servers need to be able to handle the frantic refreshing of pages by their fans.

Plus, I kinda need a fertility idol. I’ve been lonely.

Mattel has offered convention exclusives in the past, but has never offered them online until this year. Responding to fan inquiries (and protests, whinings, frothings, and the occasional body part sent through the mail), they whipped up the brand-new MattyCollector.com, announced the launch date and time, and in a Hasbro-esque feat of internet power, collectors converged and pushed the site to a crawl. Mattel offered four exclusives : a He-Man figure of The King of Greyskull, A DC Universe Classics Lobo, a Justice League Unlimited Giganta, and a Pixar’s Cars ‘Lightning McQueen‘ car. It seems that everyone who was present at the launch emerged with exactly what they wanted – and MattyCollector only promises to expand. They’ve already announced a site-exclusive set of He-Man toys that’ll be produced at a rate of one per month, and more DC Universe Classics, including Adam Strange and Starfire. For a first effort at a storefront for such a popular company, it looks very exciting.

So, SDCC was just as exciting for us at home, and I’m going to keep on telling myself that. I got the stuff I wanted, got to buy it while wearing nothing but my underpants, and no one was the wiser. They weren’t so thrilled when I tried that at Target.

As a collector who often seeks to complete ongoing collections, I can appreciate what Scott Beatty is going for in his 200-page tome, The DC Comics Action Figure Archive. Indeed, I’ve learned to love the process of archiving things both as a librarian and as an overactive collector who needs to keep things organized lest they ultimately serve as the seeds of my destruction.

The DCCAFA is full of great photographs of toys, cut out arranged in a familiar ‘DK Guide’ style against white backgrounds, with clear labels and brief descriptions that include information about the year of production, the company of origin and accessories that each figure came with. The figures in the book (all, obviously, based on DC Comics characters, so no Spider-Men here), range from companies like the now-defunct Mego, Kenner, and ToyBiz, to Hasbro, DC Direct, and Mattel – all of whom have produced DC toys at some point and get equal time on the pages. This collection of toys displayed next to each other, especially in the vast Batman section, really shows the evolution of the action figure as both collectible and plaything, while the entire book presents the lowly action figure as a not-so-lowly evolving art form and idea that is somehow granted further validity by putting it all in a big, hardcover book. You know, like when you put pin-ups in hardcovers and suddenly they’re ‘art’ and not ‘perverse’.

The discussion of figure making and figure history is minimal as the author presumes a certain level of previous experience with figures on the part of the reader, with the book’s main focus being on the toy photos peppered throughout the columns of descriptions. It serves as a survey of very basic figure information, and an excellent starting point towards completing your own collection. All of the figures are arranged alphabetically throughout, though by character name, and not the series that they appeared in. Most listings are only a few words, with actual pictures appearing for random figures throughout. While I’d love to see every Lex Luthor standing side by side, this is, again, a ’starting point’.

By the definition of the book, ‘action figure’ includes things like Minimates and Pocket Heroes, but omits statues and static things like Heroclix and pewter figurines.

Despite the thoroughness, the book cuts off in the middle of 2007 – which is one of the perils of paper publishing encyclopedic references, especially in a digital age. Mattel’s DC Universe and JLU lines, and DC Direct’s many line, have made significant additions towards this archive in the short time since publication. The pages aren’t arranged in a format that would be especially welcoming towards an updated edition (though there’s a ton of white space on every page) – so don’t expect an ‘every toy ever’ perspective, but so look forward to the pretty pictures. Page 130 seems to omit the DC Superheroes Mongul figure that was released in early 2007. but I’ll allow that it was probably released on the cusp of when the book was being sent to the publishers. Also note that page 140’s ‘The Penguin’ (in the upper right hand corner) has the wrong image attached to it. The pictured Penguin is actually from ‘The New Batman Adventures’, and is very different from the details listed for ‘The Batman’ Penguin. Page 109 misidentifies two of the Killer Crocs listed on the page. So what I’m saying is ‘proceed with caution, but remain delighted’. This is probably the last point that the entirety of the DC action figure world can be encapsulated in a single book this handsomely.

Is an action figure better if it looks more like a real person when it’s standing still, or is it better when you can position it into a ton of fightin’ action poses? Action figure geeks will debate the point until their fingers are sore and they get called for dinner, but there’s no correct answer. It’s like deciding if their imaginary Canadian girlfriends would be preferable if they were smart OR pretty. Can’t we have both? Or just a little bit of each? At the very least, can we make sure that this next one doesn’t try to stab me?

DC Universe Classics by Mattel answers the call of figure geeks everywhere by finally, at long last, providing collectors with fan favorite characters (instead of a million iterations of Batman and Superman), beautifully sculpted, and stuffed with poseability. Until now, we’ve had the attractive but static figures by DC Direct (owned by DC themselves), and the Batman / Superman centric figures from Mattel. With licensing possibilities opened up for 2008, Mattel now has the rights to do almost any DC character that they want, and they’re re-revolutionizing the superhero figure world. Since Hasbro took over the once-amazing Marvel Legends lines with mediocre results, I’ve very much needed some inspiration to keep on caring – and Mattel has provided it.

The first wave of these figures, due for release in early 2008 but arriving early, includes a classic Batman and The Penguin, along with other characters that the average person with a life wouldn’t recognize : Red Tornado, Etrigan the Demon, and Orion (the latter two being Jack Kirby creations). All five contain pieces of a sixth figure and if you collect them all, you can build Metamorpho, who happens to be one of my favorite characters ever. It’s like getting a figure for free. Even in figure lines as vast as this, the company needs to include one or two very recognizable, anchor figures in each wave, ergo the new Batman.

All of these characters have been made by DC Direct before, and while DC did a pretty good job at creating iconic, statuesque figures, Mattel manages to do that but ALSO make them posable. While some collectors think that these are replacing the older versions entirely, there are enough differences for both versions to remain appealing, and this newer version very much worth collecting.

The line is billed as ‘Classics’ because Mattel’s focus isn’t on the newest appearance of the character, or a very artist-specific vision of the character (which DC Direct has recently placed a strong focus on), but instead they’re going for the most ‘classic’ appearance possible – with the exception of Metamorpho, who is also billed as ‘Rex Mason’ on the figure packaging. This isn’t to be confused as making the character ‘generic’ as possible, but instead ‘iconic’ and ‘timeless’. To these ends, Mattel is releasing two versions of Red Tornado, both with slight costume variations, so as to address two of his most common appearances (and no clear answer as to which one is less common). Mattel has also hinted at another variation among these figures, though they’ve left it a mystery for the fans to discover. It has something to do with a variation of a face, it’s very slight, and it’s not on the Batman figure. This leaves fans to conjecture that it might be an alternate Metamorpho head, or possibly an angry Orion head, though not enough figures have been found just yet to confirm anything.

The very broad array of characters in the first few waves means that we’re probably not going to be able to assemble a basic Justice League for a few years, but the lineup includes some interesting choices : Red and Blue Superman from the late 90s, Aquaman and his archenemy Black Manta, Harley Quinn, Firestorm (both modern and classic versions), Batman sidekicks Nightwing and Robin, Green Lantern (the much desired Hal Jordan version) and his enemy Sinestro, Deathstroke, and finally, two figures that you can assemble from parts included in the other figures : Gorilla Grodd and Solomon Grundy. Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Green Arrow, Hawkman and Hawkgirl are all unannounced, but surely somewhere in Mattel’s plans.

Removing these from the packages was very easy, with minimal twist ties, and I didn’t encounter any serious paint problems, nor did any joint stick or break. Quality control gets an A+. These retail about about $12 each, but can also be bought by the case from various online retailers. Be aware that current cases of 6 include two identical Batman figures.

Take a look through the gallery I’ve provided in our Collectors Community for a deeper view into the excellent sculpting and articulation on these figures, and consider me completely psyched. I don’t say this often, but this is the best thing to happen to figures in a long time. While it can’t be said that this is something completely new, the return to a winning formula like this is long past due. Keep it up, Mattel!