A friend sought my opinion on what I thought the DC toy community needed. Well of course, that’s a difficult question to answer considering we have had many, many figure lines over the decades. The popularity of the late 60s Batmania brought about a plethora of Batman merchandise.
Ideal Toys added costumes and masks to their unique Captain Action figure line including Batman, Robin, Superman, Superboy, Aquaman and Aqualad.
Ideal Toys even featured Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl and Mera in their very rare, similarly themed Super Queens line of dolls.
The history of DC comic book superhero action figures truly started to gain traction with the MEGO World’s Greatest Super Heroes followed by the renowned Kenner Super Powers collection. After a brief stint with TOY BIZ in 1989, the film Batman Returns brought about Batman’s return to Kenner toys with an absolute onslaught of action figures, vehicles, collectibles.
The children of the 1970s became young men of the 1990s. 20 year-old men have not only become nostalgic for the MEGO and Kenner action figures that they grew up with, they have become excited about new action figures lines being created and marketed to a new generation of children. Young fathers buying Batman and DC character action figures for their children… but mostly for themselves.
What do I feel the toy community needs right now? I feel it needs to embrace the nostalgic love for the 70s and 80s Bronze Age character interpretations. It has become quite evident, especially with McFarlane Toys, that the Bronze Age character iterations are much more coveted.
McFarlane will create figures based on storylines of the last 20 years, but when it comes to depictions of Bronze Age era designs, and even some Silver and Golden Age iterations, excitement builds, and FOMO builds. Pre-orders are sold out within minutes. As simplified as these designs are, they are still more sought after than the modern designs, using more distinct molds and paint applications. Silver and Bronze designs are so simple looking, characters can easily share body bucks and reuse tooling. Even though many complain about reuse and repaints, there’s something about those simple nostalgic character designs that bring comfort to a collectors eye posed on a shelf. This is definitely something Mattel should not ignore or sleep on.
Now nearing the end of its partnership with DC, McFarlane Toys has come to realize the toy community has a great desire for these classic designs. McFarlane Toys is dusting off those old designs and cranking out the classic plastic at an impressive pace.
Soon I’ll have to write about some of my favorite classic style DC creations from McFarlane Toys. They have certainly made some pretty cool figures lately, and a few more yet to come before the year is done.
