Justice League Toy Line

[Karkull]

Based on the reports posted on the news page, I think that it's a safe bet that the Justice League toy line will happen. Hasbro will produce it (they still own the rights to Batman) with DC Comics/DC Direct "loaning" them the rights to whoever else they want to use. In fact, I'll bet we'll start seeing prototypes this February at the 2002 Toy Fair.

However, I can't help but wonder exactly how they'll be releasing them.

I'll go out on a limb and say that the reign of Batman repaints is over--after all, Batman's not the only headliner on this show. I'll also predict that Green Lantern will be a heavily released figure--second only to Batman, of course--because it will be the first minority figure in any of the DC Animated toy lines (Steel didn't make the cut, Killer Croc doesn't count). If they don't make him immediately Hasbro could get really bad PR. However, on the other end of the spectrum, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl are a question mark--will they be short-packed like other female figures before them?

In additon, will they release all seven of them in the first wave or break them up into two different waves? Recently they've been releasing them in waves of four. And what about the villains? We can't have our seven League members standing around looking stupid! This toyline will be quite interesting...especially since it's all about the diversity of the characters.

Any thoughts? Predictions? Worries? An overwhelming desire to tell me to shove it?

[CarterHall]

I think Hasbro/Kenner needs to reaalllly think on this subject.

I don't think that all seven should be released at once in the mass market. If they do that, then no one will even think of looking at consequent waves. They should release 2 or 3 heroes at a time, with a few villains. This way, people would actually take the time and look at the other figures in the waves.

I DO believe, however, that Hasbro should release a gift set of the 7 members to the direct market. This way, die hard fans could get all of the heroes at once. But, I think that Hasbro will really screw up and over produce some figures (like Batman and Superman) and severely underproduce others (Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Martian manhunter).

[Beyond Batman]

Ohhhhhhh Nooooooooo, Hasbro has it? hehehe, actually, I'm not surprised. I was expecting it. You know, I really don't mind them flooding the market. What I do mind is making stupid variences of the same model in a rainbow of ugly colors. So long as they keep the characters in their true form and color, I'll be happy. Having some rare figures would be cool too. But I don't really expect that to happen with Hasbro.

[Tim Drake]

Ya know I have a little more faith in Hasbro now. I know they've been piling on the Batman repaints lately, but they've done some good things. The sculpts for almost all of BTAS were great. Robin was pathetic though. Between TNBA and BTAS toys were got almost all the characters we wanted. I'm looking at my collection right now and I see I have both Insect Body Mr. Freeze and Mr. Freeze which both look great. True we never got a good Batgirl. But we do have a good Alfred and a decent Comissioner Gordon. DC Direct never did either of them.
The STAS line on the other hand throughouly sucked. Only a few characters and everyone is off model. Except Braniac and Metallo.
And Lois Lane was a good idea but she doesn't look right. But no one bought the toys. So they didn't really care.
The reason why we haven't seen any new villains or characters recently is that both STAS and BTAS aren't on the air right now. So kids aren't going to buy Batman villains that haven't been on TV in two years. But Batman still sells because he's Batman.

Anywho my point. If JL has the popularity that BTAS did then we'll get toys along the quality of BTAS. Which isn't too bad really. We might even get a TNBA batplane out of this. As much as I don't like Dragon Ball the toyline has all the major and minor characters because the show is so popular.

So let's hope for high popularity!!

[Karkull]

Originally posted by Tim Drake
The STAS line on the other hand throughouly sucked. Only a few characters and everyone is off model. Except Braniac and Metallo. And Lois Lane was a good idea but she doesn't look right.

I thought that they did a great job. Superman, Brainiac, Bizzaro, and Darkseid all were superb. The problem was that they had one good wave of figures that did sell well, but then every wave following was half Superman variants and half wave one reissues. There was nothing wrong with the property...Hasbro f***ed themselves.

They did have their problems, I'll give you that. I didn't care for Metallo--I wanted the full-Terminator version from Action Figures. And Supergirl's arms were screwed up. And Lois Lane's head looks like a monkey's. And no business suit Lex.


:eek:

Gee, maybe you're right.

[Tim Drake]

You liked the Superman Sculpt?? I thought he was way too muscular and not angular like the animated series portrays him. If you ask me his head would have made more sense on a repainted TNBA Batman with slight alterations.

Darkseid? He looks like he's constipated. He's in a slight crouching stance like he really needs to go and he can't stand straight. Also his eyes look like slits. I think Darkseid is going blind.

I didn't see any problems with my Supergirl. And now that the evil maniac Lex is in JL this figure looks pretty darn accurate. But I put my Lex head on a Two Face figure anyway.

Anywho that's what I thought about those figures.

[Luminous]

Does anyone know if these figures will be "true" to the show representation of these characters? I just don't like it when they put these stupid little add-on's to the character, like when Superman had a net and the figure itself didn't look like the animated image. I think I know why they do that, but what about us "mature" fans who want something to just display and enjoy to look at without all the doo-mah-hickies? Where do we get those at??

I'm REALLY looking forward to the maquettes <sp?> Anyone know where they will be available and when??

Thanks,

-- Luminous

[Samhaine]

Originally posted by Luminous
I'm REALLY looking forward to the maquettes <sp?> Anyone know where they will be available and when??
Comic book stores, and Wonder Woman comes out in March. Then Manhunter in April, Superman in May.

I'm not sure who's next, but I'd assume Batman. Of course, I have no real proof of this.

[The Guard]

My prediction?

WAVE ONE:

Fractal Eyes Superman with Shield Launcher

Battle Launcher Batman with firing Batwing Device

Wonder Woman with firing Lasso Cannon

Lex Luthor with Orange and Pink Battle Suit

Mongul (Darkseid repaint) with Power Slam action

WAVE TWO:

J'onn Jonnz with Power Slam action

Hyper Flash with Cosmic Skateboard

Galaxial Guardian Green Lantern with Solid Light Image Launcher

Aqua-Power Hawkgirl with Water Blaster

Joker (crappy BTAS repaint) with Laughing Gas Gun

The JL conversion coupe (Crappy repaint of the Bruce Wayne Coupe)

The Justice Jogger (Super Powers repaint)

The Watchtower (Crappy Hall of Justice repaint with more weapons...)

[kid_flash]

Ya know, I really wouldn't mind if the JL toys were released the same way the BTAS and even the TNBA figures were. As long as I get the 7 JLers, most of the villains, and a cool vehicle or two all in true animated form, then I don't care how many crappy repaints they do.

[virtual_alfred]

Bring on the repaints!

I used to be pretty unhappy about the Hasbro line, but then one day I stepped back and took a look at my collection.

Catwoman, Ivy, Freeze, Alfred, Clayface, Manbat, Two-face, Harley, Croc, Mad Hatter, Bane, Gordon, Robin (both of 'em), Nightwing, BTAS Batman, TNBA Batman, Batgirl, Phantasm... That's a frellin' great lineup.

Who here wouldn't pay $12 instead of $6 to get these figures? Buying a four-pack and throwing away the gadgets and crappy repaints is a small price to pay for getting the good figures.

And as it turns out, I have a son (4 years old) and some young friends who are all too happy to have "I wear red so I'm easier to shoot at night" Batman as long as he comes with a new "batwing water power slam" gadget. So nothing goes to waste.

I think it's a good formula -- they milk a few extra bucks from the collectors, and make a lot of bucks from the kids who just want a Batman toy with a cool gadget. This has allowed the Batman toy line to become pretty wide and deep over time. It's the only reason we can hope to someday see other "minor" characters like we got with Alfred & Gordon.

Okay... I do have one complaint. Where's the articulation? I want posable figures!

[Beyond Batman]

The original BTAS line up was the best they had. True form, color, and more realistic accessories. But Virtual_Alfred, I have to disagree about your perspective on it being "okay to milk a few extra bucks from collectors." That is exactly what Hasbro wants us to do.

If you think about it, that's kinda like saying you'd buy a hamburger, throw away the bun, lettuce, tomato, onions, ketchup, mustard, or pickles and just eat the meat patty. Buying a $19.99+tax four pack is cool, but buying it for just one figure is almost a waste. You realize they are doing these four packs because Hasbro knows people will buy other useless figures, that you may already have, to sell the exclusive one. In essence, you're paying for the same figures (or repaints) and a different box, just for one new figure. Hasbro knows if the Commisioner Gordon 4-pack was made into single carded figures, people would relatively ignore the others, and just buy Commisioner Gordon, making Hasbro lose money. It seems now-a-days, when they make a new figure it HAS to come in a 4-pack. I can't remember the last time they made a new, single-carded Bat figure.

The reason Hasbro is making oddly colored Bat figs. is because they were following the "Pokemon" trend.

"Pikachu is yellow and sold like crazy. Maybe a Yellow Batman would do the same?"

A brightly colored Batman figure would be easily spotable on the shelves, I'm sure Hasbro thought. Since Pokemon were naturally colorful and bright, I'm sure they applied the same formula to Batman. At least with Pokemon toys, although brightly colored, you got real colored toys with applicable accessories.

Look at the Simpson toys. They offer true formed and colored figures. No super-special power figures, no electro-magnetic net cage accessories, no extensive multi variances of the same mold... and guess what? They sell like hotcakes. Hasbro is experimenting with there demographic target by making an enourmous array of multivariance colors of the same figure. Bad idea.

For example, a survey was done to see what kind of ketchup people wanted. Heinz made a variety of ketchup. BBQ, sweet and sour, sweet ketchup, etc. It turns out, people just wanted plain ol' ketchup. You know that the #57 on Heinz bottles stands for 57 varieties of Kechup? I don't know about you, but I've never bought any other kind of ketchup but tomato. Sometimes it's best to keep thing simple. Giving people what they want.

But, I do agree with you on the articlation Virtual_Alfred, where's the articulation? I'd love to have a Batman that's fully poseable. Not a doll, but an action figure. If Spiderman can have 30 points of artiulation, why can't Batman?

[Karkull]

Originally posted by Beyond Batman ...where's the articulation? I'd love to have a Batman that's fully poseable. Not a doll, but an action figure. If Spiderman can have 30 points of artiulation, why can't Batman?

I think it's because of how the figures are designed. With Spider-Man you have a great deal of flexability because he's designed in a way that he can have 30 points of articulation--overly muscled and [close to] anatomically correct. With Batman, however, he's designed specifically to look like he does on the simplified, art deco show. If he had thirty points like Spider-Man he couldn't be as streamlined as he is on the show. Plus, the figures would be bigger (to handle all the extra detail) and they'd end up costing double what they currently are.

I may be wrong, but I think that they look more faithful to the source material this way. I like my Batman figures smaller and more simplified.

[kid_flash]

Spidey's 6" tall, has 30 points of articulation, and sells for $7 or $8 at TRU. I don't want that many on Batman, though. I personally really like the basic five points on the animated figures (you get into comic book style, I want more), because they look so darned cool that way. They just look so much more like a representation of Bruce Timm's drawings. But if they can get some goo artciulation-hiding techniques down, I'd love to see that.

As for repaints...I was in Kindergarten when I started getting BTAS figures. And man, I loved them repaints. I know it's hard to understand, but kids really do want their heroes in all different colors. but hey, as long as we collectors get a wide range of characters, who cares?

[Beyond Batman]

"Spidey's 6" tall, has 30 points of articulation, and sells for $7 or $8 at TRU." -kid_flash

$6.99+tax. But if you think about it, you're getting a collectors comic book with a face falue of at least $2.00 in a nice plastic casing, so you don't have to worry about bent cards. So really, you're paying $4.99 for the figure.

BTW, I was refering to having a comic figure of Batman that could be well articulated. Not the animated series style. I agree, the animated style is too streamlined and is best for displaying only simple movements. But could you imagine posing Batman the way he flies through the air with his jump lines? Or even a 30-point articulated Nightwing. So many possiblities! I think that would be awesome.

[kid_flash]

Oh, okay, gotcha. I didn't throw tax in there 'cause I'm from Oregon where we sit sales tax-free! :p

I'd pick up a 30-point Nightwing in a second, but I don't think they should do that much for Batman. While he certainly needs more than he gets, he's not as flexible in the comics as Nightwing or Spidey.

[JusticeLeagueLegion]

Did anybody mention the Javelin 7? I think that would be a cool toy.

[kid_flash]

And reasonable, too. I was orginally going to suggest the Watchtower, but I think it might be a tad complex to make into a toy. Well, they did do the Batcave. Still, the Javelin 7 would be cool. And the Batplane. Yeah.

[Beyond Batman]

Ohhhhhh... a newer version of the batplane! Could you imagine? :D

[Trent Lane]

I wouldn't be surprised to see the "Javelin 7" made, but it probably wouldn't hold all the members. It would at most be a scaled down representation that held one or two figures.... but the Batplane, a must! Only need room for one figure...