With Mattel getting DC toy license, McFarlane toys is not in the picture…or is it? investigation.
Last week, some bombshell news was released: Mattel, the second largest toy company in the United States, regained a global license to “action characters, drama characters, accessories, role-playing products and adult collections” themed on the full series of DC comics. Mattel has had a DC license for years throughout the 2000s and 10s and has produced many beloved lines, including the DC Superhero Line since 2006. Marvel firmly embeds Mattel in Hasbro, DC, and Mattel in Mattel, a long series of toys. Then in 2019, it was a shocking development: Mattel threw the DC license to Spinmasters, another toy company known for Paw Patrol. McFarlane Toys then poured in and announced that they would take over the DC Multiverse series, which aims to mix adults in movies, comics and TV versions. (Every company will also produce different size numbers, but I’ll leave it to the toyman’s details.) McFarlane also took over DC Direct Line
McFarlane Toys completely changed the toy game when it was launched in 1994, bringing crazy details to collectors’ data. The DC series is no exception, bringing the McFarlane style to DC action characters/collections.
As Mattel begins to resume global licenses from mid-2026, everyone believes McFarlane Toys will exit DC business. But can there be a carving?
Yesterday, Beat Team was touring live at McFarlane Toys Booth at Toy Fair, Todd-Father himself (founder) Todd McFarlane) was there too, busy with meetings. We did ask the guide on the DC license and he pointed out that the discussion was in progress, but that’s all he could say. However, to our knowledge, the McFarlane toy does not seem to be completely out of the picture. To say the least, Todd didn’t lie down.
All of this may be toy fair chat, but it can be said that Mattel makes great toys for the kids, but they don’t make adult characters at the level of TMP, despite their great progress. With Mattel getting a “Adult Collection” license, they will have to improve their games. Just walking around at the Toy Fair, you’re everywhere, now introduces the details, accessories and imagination of collector numbers and has been more competitive in the competition.
Can McFarlane toys still fill in the role of a tough collector, which they are very successful? Or can there be some specific size or distribution license that can keep the DC at TMP? Again, all guesses, but probably the topic of discussion.
Or, for more speculative purposes, some Marvel licenses will appear in 2026, and maybe TMP will go deeper into the world.
Just to compensate for my anger, all of the above is based on my knowledge of toys and comic licensing, which is…average. I’m not an expert in the toy business, nor a collector’s problem. Indeed, if you want to find highly specific complaints and comments, you just need to turn to Reddit, as Google requires us to do it every day. In a thread on McFarlane Toys Subreddit, all of the above was discussed, and some collectors mocked Mattel’s quality, such as this comment: “Just seeing Mattel switch to single inghe elbow on female Motu figs on 7-inch lines. Well.”
So, be clear about yourself: I don’t know why single elbows are not satisfying, but I respect those who find it. The level of high technical issues regarding the number of people gathering operations is indeed very technical. I do know what action numbers I want to have most on my desk because they look cool, and that’s all.
To sum up, some photos from our McFarlane Toys Tour. That storm character is great, and the clown toys that come with the Robert Deniro character is great. Sorry, my photos are so bad.
