Nass
02-17-2002, 02:06 PM
In the next DC Direct report they will supposedly reveal the long awaited Dark Knight 2 PVC set, the first plastic Batman product from the company. Usually the sets contain seven characters, but only Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Catgirl, Lex Luthor and the Atom have been confirmed from someone at the "Toy Buzz" forum.
Many of us were disapointed with the news of no Justice League figures from Hasbro this year, but someone from the DC Direct message board was kind enough to shed some light on the situation:
Ok, for those of you who know me...I am not one to spread rumors...I love to speculate on future assortments, but I have NEVER claimed to be privy to any secret information...UNTIL NOW!!!
First off, let me apologize for not being able to reveal my source, but this could be a touchy issue and I have to not get him in any trouble...but I have facts straight from the source itself...HASBRO...about the future of JL Animated toys...and it isn't good...Hasbro execs are claiming that "There is no way in hell they are doing JL figures." Here are the reasons why...
1. Hasbro is forced to pay DC Comics a licensing fee for every character that is to be made into toy form...theonly exception are Batman and Superman toys...this of course, because they already hold the license to produce these toys...They said that it was going to be very expensive for them to pay for the rights to do all the various members of the JL...Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash etc... and DC Comics has every intention in charging Hasbro this very large fee to produce these characters...which would cost them a huge amount of money...
2. And here is the biggie, so pay attention...the reason WHY they are refusing to shell out the cash to license the other characters is BECAUSE they already OWN the Bat/Superman license which is hugely lucrative. The Hasbro train of thought is that since they already feel like they have the "Superhero" market cornered with their extensive Batman lines...there is no point in spending money on these other licenses. They have made huge sums of money by recycling the Batman and Superman toys for all these years and have not had to spend much in retooling, so the money generated is higher than if they had to create new molds in every assortment. They feel like Batman and Superman ARE the Justice League and they already OWN that license so they feel like paying for the other characters is merely a waste of their capital when they can continue to churn out Batman and Superman variants that will be significantly more popular than "Hawkgirl" figures...
SO...........here's the GOOD news...(sort of) Just because Hasbro refuses to shell out the cash to license the other members of the team...that doesn't mean the toys CAN'T be done...DC Comics and Warner Brothers can license the Justice League to another toy company to produce OR do the toys themselves...with one glaring exception...YEP, YOU GUESSED IT...any assortment produced would not include any of the Hasbro owned Batman or Superman related characters...
If any toy company (DC included) decided to license the Justice League toys, and wanted to include Batman and Superman...Hasbro would have to be compensated for the right to use a character they own the license for,which would be astronomical... and therefore somewhat scary...because let's face facts...Superman and Batman are the ONLY proven sellers, and that could be a very intimidating notion for wary toy companies who could be interested...
So, if I were a betting man, I would say that we will still see these toys, but I bet they come from DC Direct and they will probably be in a different scale than the previous Hasbro animated toys...and I wouldn't hold my breath for Batman and Superman either...unless of course, DC can work out some formal agreement with Hasbro...
I suppose with all the interest that has been brewing about this licensing fiasco, someone from Hasbro could recant, but I have to kind of agree with them...if I shelled out all that cash for the Batman Superman license, I probably wouldn't let anyone NEAR them either...it just sucks that we all get screwed in the deal...
So, there you have it... straight from the source itself...
Many of us were disapointed with the news of no Justice League figures from Hasbro this year, but someone from the DC Direct message board was kind enough to shed some light on the situation:
Ok, for those of you who know me...I am not one to spread rumors...I love to speculate on future assortments, but I have NEVER claimed to be privy to any secret information...UNTIL NOW!!!
First off, let me apologize for not being able to reveal my source, but this could be a touchy issue and I have to not get him in any trouble...but I have facts straight from the source itself...HASBRO...about the future of JL Animated toys...and it isn't good...Hasbro execs are claiming that "There is no way in hell they are doing JL figures." Here are the reasons why...
1. Hasbro is forced to pay DC Comics a licensing fee for every character that is to be made into toy form...theonly exception are Batman and Superman toys...this of course, because they already hold the license to produce these toys...They said that it was going to be very expensive for them to pay for the rights to do all the various members of the JL...Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash etc... and DC Comics has every intention in charging Hasbro this very large fee to produce these characters...which would cost them a huge amount of money...
2. And here is the biggie, so pay attention...the reason WHY they are refusing to shell out the cash to license the other characters is BECAUSE they already OWN the Bat/Superman license which is hugely lucrative. The Hasbro train of thought is that since they already feel like they have the "Superhero" market cornered with their extensive Batman lines...there is no point in spending money on these other licenses. They have made huge sums of money by recycling the Batman and Superman toys for all these years and have not had to spend much in retooling, so the money generated is higher than if they had to create new molds in every assortment. They feel like Batman and Superman ARE the Justice League and they already OWN that license so they feel like paying for the other characters is merely a waste of their capital when they can continue to churn out Batman and Superman variants that will be significantly more popular than "Hawkgirl" figures...
SO...........here's the GOOD news...(sort of) Just because Hasbro refuses to shell out the cash to license the other members of the team...that doesn't mean the toys CAN'T be done...DC Comics and Warner Brothers can license the Justice League to another toy company to produce OR do the toys themselves...with one glaring exception...YEP, YOU GUESSED IT...any assortment produced would not include any of the Hasbro owned Batman or Superman related characters...
If any toy company (DC included) decided to license the Justice League toys, and wanted to include Batman and Superman...Hasbro would have to be compensated for the right to use a character they own the license for,which would be astronomical... and therefore somewhat scary...because let's face facts...Superman and Batman are the ONLY proven sellers, and that could be a very intimidating notion for wary toy companies who could be interested...
So, if I were a betting man, I would say that we will still see these toys, but I bet they come from DC Direct and they will probably be in a different scale than the previous Hasbro animated toys...and I wouldn't hold my breath for Batman and Superman either...unless of course, DC can work out some formal agreement with Hasbro...
I suppose with all the interest that has been brewing about this licensing fiasco, someone from Hasbro could recant, but I have to kind of agree with them...if I shelled out all that cash for the Batman Superman license, I probably wouldn't let anyone NEAR them either...it just sucks that we all get screwed in the deal...
So, there you have it... straight from the source itself...