The DC Universe Classics Figures Are Doomed

?DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMED.

One of the toys news items from SDCC I failed to mention is that Mattel was stopping their popular DC Universe Classics line and turning it into a subscription on MattyCollector.com called Club Infinite Earths. That’s not to say they’re stopping DC figures altogether; it’s just that the retail DC figures will now consist mainly of heavy hitters like Superman and Batman and the newer comics incarnations, while the Mattel subscription will contain the side characters that hardcore DC fans want, like the various Metal Men and Doom Patrol members that haven’t been made yet. I didn’t report this because I assumed it wasn’t a big deal.

Of course, that was until I saw that four days after SDCC ended, the necessary subscriptions for Mattel to even do the DC Collector’s Club series is less than 20%. I think we can safely pronounce the DC Universe Classics line D.O.A. at this point. You know, it was always kind of weird to me that DC Direct was making toys based on its hit series, including a lot of Batmen and Supermen, while Mattel was making characters like Iron and Blue Devil and Kamandi (hey, I love Kamandi, but it’s insane that I could theoretically buy a Kamandi figure at Target). I wonder if now that Mattel is back to focusing on DC’s big guns, if DC Direct will go back, at least partially, to filling out the rest of the DC universe. Hmm. (Via Poe Ghostal)