DC Superheroes by Mattel




Holy crow, I'm actually impressed with a Mattel product. The universe should be collapsing about now.

I just received the second wave of these today from BBTS. Buy from them. They're awesome. This wave features all Superman characters- Supergirl, Bizarro, Doomsday, and Superman himself.

The point of the DC Superheroes line is to capitalize on the high interest in superheroes right now, plus to get a line of DC characters out that can compete with Marvel Legends.
Well, they don't really come close, and yet I find them better in some ways than the great ML line.

I own nearly every figure that Toy Biz has made in the Marvel Legends line. I love that line, and it's easily one of the greatest toylines in geek history. But I do find the figures overarticulated, and a lot of the earlier figures had entirely too much paint wash. (This problem is very apparent on series 10's Cyclops.) The DC Superheroes don't have any of those problems. While they aren't nearly as articulated as Ml figures, the articulation they do have allows for a good number of poses and freedom from worry if the figure will fall apart if you look at it wrong. I'll take Superman for example. You can get him into any pose you can think of, and he's nice and sturdy. I just bought the Wal-Mart exclusive wave of ML recently, and about half of those figures have multiple loose joints. I don't have any of that with any of the DC Superheroes that I own.

I question the inclusion of Doomsday in this wave. Sure, it's true he killed Superman, but I would have thought that Lex Luthor would be one of the first villains out. (He'll be in one of the next series, in his green Kryptonite armor.)
Mattel apparently did too, so he's only one per case. Better get him if you want him. Don't let sellers on ebay trick into thinking Supergirl is the shortpack.
There's also a variant of Supergirl, which I assume will be a blue-shirted version. I've not seen it yet, and I don't think anyone really has.

These are just like every Mattel product I've ever purchased- sturdy, so you can kick them across the room and not hurt the figure. You can give these to a kid and he won't break them even with his best efforts. (Why do you think there's so many vintage Masters of the Universe figures still out there? Mattel builds their toys to last.)

These don't have near the paint wash that ML figures do, but Mattel isn't going after the collector market exclusively. They're trying to tread the line between kid buyers (and their parents) and fans. They give kids the bright colors, and the collectors get serviceable articulation. It's a decent compromise, and one Mattel should have considered for the Batman Begins and Superman Returns movie lines, both of which SUCK.

There's a good chance this line could be the next Marvel Legends, if the fans want it to. Marvel Legends didn't get hugely popular until series 3 and 4, and DCSH is on series 2, so now would be the ideal time to jump on board. Series 1 featured Batman and some of his Rogues Gallery. This series wasn't so great. Sure, us US fans finally got our hands on the Four Horsemen-sculpted Bane and Scarecrow, but the super-articulated Batman and Killer Croc were a little lame to me. But I think everyone else thought Bane and Scarecrow were lame.
At this time, I could find every figure from both series at brick-and mortar stores like Toys R' Us, Target, and Wal-Mart. WM is the only store I've seen wave 2 at, so if you don't buy online, they're your best bet.

As much as I'd like to see this line continue, I doubt it'll get much further. Not by anything Mattel's doing, just by virtue of them being so expensive. The DC license isn't cheap, and it shows by the average price of $10 per figure. That's a lot of money for a mass market line, but I'm sure Marvel Legends would cost that much if Toy Biz and Marvel weren't the same company. ML's price is close at $8-9, so they aren't much cheaper. I'd really like to see this line continue so I can get my hands on a Four Horsemen-sculpted Two-Face and Darkseid, so for the time being, Mattel's got my money. I just hope they don't fall into the trap they did with the modern Masters of the Universe line.

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