1. Since we were told that a specific line of figures wasn’t developed in time for Justice League:Crisis on Two Earths, and we’re seeing Brave and the Bold headliners feature in the latest JLU showings: what is the possibility of the characters being incorporated into the JLU style?

Yes, we could incorporate characters from Crisis on Earth Two into the JLU line but there are no plans right now.

2. Many fans are getting nervous that JLU previously seen in Mattel showings are getting skipped over. Did any figures ‘fall through the cracks’? Can we still say that there are no JLU figures we’ve seen so far that will not see the light of day?

Some figures may get shuffled around a bit, but ideally all the figures announced will get released at some point!

3. Given how Mattel has found a way to release Lobo, through Matty Collector, is this any indication that other characters previously thought of as ‘impossible’ to make can be released in a similar manner, given fan demand?

All characters are handled on a character by character basis with WB and DC Comics. So there is no universal answer. We definitely worked hard with our licensing partners to find the right venue to finally bring Lobo out in JLU style!

4. Can you shed a little light on how Mattel’s attempting to space and sort demanded show characters, comic-inspired characters, new repaints and color-corrected figures into waves? (given how new character ’sources’ are being accessed like other shows and comics)

It’s pretty much just as you asked actually. We do our best to include some of each of these categories in each wave. It does not always work out perfect, but we do our best!

5. Given how He-man and She-Ra both have trademark poses holding ‘aloft’ their swords, is Mattel considering the possibility of an improved wrist joint? (as seen in the wrist joints with DCUC Green Arrow, albeit going a different direction.)

Yes, this is something we are looking into, but no plans to announce quite yet.

Ask more questions here at our Custom Justice forums

As many of you know, Mattel will soon be releasing a 3-pack featuring Batgirl, Nightwing and The Penguin. When I first read this news on a leaked lists many weeks ago I was ecstatic! I couldn’t believe that Mattel was finally going to give the Batman characters some JLU love. Almost any and every character from Batman: The Animated Series has received a figure in the past, but not for JLU. In the actual JLU line we still do not have Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Alfred, Commissioner  Gordon, Two-Face, Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Clayface and many others. In fact until the Gotham Criminals 4-pack, the only major Bat characters we had were Batman and Joker and that is just criminal.

Photo courtesy of Comic Book Resources

These sculpts were from an old line Mattel did of Batman figures. You can see that Batgirl has a huge head, no cape and a slightly offset pose. The head is the biggest concern for her. It will be twice or maybe three times as big as other JLU heads and will look funny. Penguin is the same way. The sculpt itself is really pretty fantastic but the proportions is off for JLU. For comparison, his head is about the same size as Doomsday and his stomach is too. However, the biggest stand out is Nightwing. His dynamic pose could not be any farther from the other JLU figures. He will stick out like a sore thumb unless you hide him in the back but hey, if you dont have him currently then this is the best way to get it.

Why not give us true JLU sculpts of these figures?  These sculpts were not made with the JLU line in mind and the fact that they could be so much better. Take a look at all of the following figures that were done before in animated style that have now been updated for JLU. The JLU figures will be on the right. Disclaimer!!! – I realize these were not all done by Mattel but the point of these pictures is to show you what could have been shoe horned into the JLU line and the styles of figures that could be shoe horned into the line in the future. Also to show just how superior JLU is compared to previous animated lines.

Can anyone honestly tell me they would rather have the figures on the left in their JLU collection compared to the ones on the right? I think these are all fantastic examples of what JLU figures can be and in the end, that’s what we JLU collectors all want. We love JLU and we want the best for it so I hope that this is the only time they take the cheap way out and give us old sculpts and maybe if we’re lucky we will get real versions of these characters one day along with all of the other characters from BTAS and STAS who deserve new figures. Mattel, the idea was good though.

Photos (with the exception of JLU Metallo) courtesy of Ham Salad’s Photo Collection

You can discuss this right here in our forums!

This time we’re getting the black/grey bat symbol, capsule belt version

http://www.itsalltrue.net/?p=4005

Comic Book Resources has posted images of many of the figures from the New York Toy Fair. The images include DC Universe Classics Wave 13 and Wave 14’s Ultra-Humanite, Justice League Unlimited’s all new figures, re-defined figures as well as package images, Masters of the Universe new figures and alternate heads, DC Retro Action f-goods clothed figures as well as the first two DC Universe vs Masters of the Universe Classics toylines. Click here to view.

First off let me say I really appreciate Mattel’s take in updating Green Arrow. You can see they really paid more attention to it that last time.

This is definitely replacing the G.A. on my shelf.

The problem is~ to a few this may not be enough, and light can really do a number on colors. When the ebay photo leaked, it was a pic that didnt justify the paint job and a few recognized that while this may be an attempt at show-accuracy, it still isn’t quite ‘there’ yet. The new image shows the colors better, but a simple hue shift of all the greens in the figure to something a tad more blue gets us this…

Of course, the black parts simply can’t be black (cuz that’ll negate the whole ‘Green Arrow’ thing)
If Mattel still has time, which I doubt, perhaps they can attempt an even closer paint job, but nevertheless, the efforts are commendable.

Or you could be like a certain number of collectors who’re happy with the change and that’s it.

WOW, what a weekend for Mattel! Let’s dive right into their reveals for their DC properties!

Retro-Action DC Super Heroes

Four new figures were revealed for the line that lives like it’s 1979! Batman (with removable mask), Two Face, Aquaman and Black Manta were announced. These figures are following up the Matty Collector exclusive Green Arrow that was on sale a few months ago but these will be available at Toys R Us and Online Retailers. Green Arrow, Superman, Lex Luthor, Sinestro and Green Lantern were also on display. Looks like good things to come for fans of the line.

DC Infinite Heroes

The news was not quite as encouraging for fans of DC Infinite Heroes. There were some new reveals, including Parallax Kyle Rayner, SC Sinestro, Deathstroke, Mr. Terrific, Heatwave, Trickster, and a few others. Unfortunately, there were also many re-releases included like Robin and Guy Gardener and some others like Black Canary who feature new articulation but no other changes. Very little info at all was given about the line and Mattel actually left the line off their lists of updates they posted in the Matty Collector news section. It looks like 2010 could be either the future or the end of this line.

Pictures for DCIH can be seen here at Action Figure Insider or here at Cool Toy Review

DC Universe Classics

DC Universe Classics continues to roll along full steam ahead! Wave 14 was revealed a week early thanks to Toy Fare magazine but the 2 Ups shown at Toy Fair were still blowing collectors away. Wave 14 will be the Walmart exclusive wave for 2010 and includes Zatanna, Gold, Tyr, Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, Obsidian, Kamandi and Golden Age Hourman with CnC Ultra Humanite. Walmart will also be receiving another exclusive 5-pack. As a follow up to the Gotham City 5 pack, Mattel is giving us a Green Lantern 5-pack including Guy Gardener, Tomar Re, Hal Jordan (with gray temples), John Stewart (in Mosaic costume), and Sinestro as a GL (Sinestro head on a Hal Jordan body). You can see wave 14, Guy and Tomar here and keep in mind that Ultra Humanite is not a 2-up so that is why he looks small. It was also revealed that there will be no other exclusive waves (there was a rumor going around that wave 15 would be exclusive to Target), but we may see more exclusive 2-packs and 5-packs at other retailers.

Two upcoming Walmart exclusive 2-packs were also on display at the show. Undersea Assault features Aquaman in a shiny almost gold looking deco and Black Manta in a blue deco and the Dynamic Duo pack features Batman in light gray and black deco with the plain bat logo and Robin in his red, yellow, and green deco.

Wave 13 was also on display, and showcased a new look for Modern Cheetah and some amazing accessories for Blue Beetle. We also discovered that the Negative Man variant has a skull you can see through his face. Well done Four Horsemen! Wonder Girl is rocking a new teen female buck and the paint errors on Superboy were corrected. The fact that Trigon has a cloth cape is bothering many collectors but is more than likely too far along to be changed. Wave 13 should be hitting stores sometime in March to the delight of Teen Titans fans everywhere.

Finally, Mattel had another surprise for us…DC vs. MOTUC 2-packs exclusively for Toys R Us! The first two packs will feature Superman vs. He Man and Lex Luthor vs. Skeletor. Both packs will retail for $30 dollars and will also include the original comics from the crossover of the two universes. Some fans seem very pleased by the idea while others are split among their respective favorites and hope that no new figures will come from this partnership that force them to buy these 2-packs. No matter which side you fall on, you can’t argue that the packs look good!

Justice League Unlimited

Last but never least! JLU fans were in for a treat this weekend. One of most requested figures LOBO is finally coming in JLU style! Lobo will be a MattyCollector.com exclusive. He will be released in June, will be single carded and will cost $20 dollars which came as a surprise to many collectors. Most of us were expecting him to cost more but we certainly are not complaining! Hopefully if sales are good we can see other large figures sold in a similar format. Here he is in all his animated glory!

They probably could have stopped there and satisfied most collectors but they had more for us. They revealed 2 new 3-packs featuring highly requested fan figures Despero and Manhunters. The Manhunter 3-pack will come with 2 Manhunters and John Stewart with his original look and the Despero 3-pack will come with a more show accurate Katma Tui and a new metallic deco John Stewart. Also announced but not shown was a 3-pack featuring Superman, Livewire, and Weather Wizard and another featuring Batgirl, Nightwing and Penguin. Livewire and Weather Wizard are both new figures but Batgirl, Nightwing and Penguin are unfortunately re-releases from past Mattel Batman lines. Mattel has yet to respond regarding why these figures were not given a true JLU treatment. These new 3-packs are more than welcome in our collections though!

Mattel also had some long awaited news on single figures. Singles were put on clearance last spring at Target and we have not seen them or heard any news on them since then, but now they’re back! They had several new singles on display for us to see including : STAS Aquaman with trident, show accurate Green Arrow with bow and arrow, show accurate Batman with batarang, Big Barda with mega rod, Star Sapphire with lightning blast, comic accurate Brainiac with gun, show accurate Martian Manhunter with communicator, Ryan Choi Atom with mini atom, Superman with Kandor, and Plastic Man with beam. Whew! That’s a lot of new singles. Also on display were Deadshot with blast, Firestorm with blast, John Stewart with classic costume and classic Batman with batarang. Toyguru himself confirmed that these singles along with the singles we were shown last year will all still appear in the line but their order may be reshuffled. The best news is that they are shipping now and should be arriving back in Targets around the country very soon! The new packaging for singles was also on display. The packages have a nice green border (compared to the blue border on the new DCIH packages) and feature many characters from the show along the outside of the bubble.

It was a very confident showing by Mattel concerning JLU. There were a lot of new figures and a lot of new tooling. It is amazing to think that a few short weeks ago we had no idea if the line was going to continue in 2010 and now it looks as if the line will push right through the year and into 2011!

Overall, it was a great showing for Mattel and this was only their DC offerings! They gave us a lot of new product and announcements and left us all wanting more. It was hard not to feel great about everything with the exception of DCIH fans and collectors are certainly looking forward to finding these products at retail! Don’t forget that Mattel is having a sale tomorrow on MattyCollector.com and you can find all of their February 16th offerings here. Also, don’t forget to come discuss all of this great news in our forums!

You can also find a video of the Mattel Q&A here – Pop Culture Network

Photos courtesy of Action Figure Insider, Comic Book Resources, Matty Collector, and the Matty Collector Facebook Page.

The  DC Universe: The Source Blog has posted an image of the Brightest Day #2 cover and also has a few words from Geoff Johns himself…

“Brightest Day’ is about second chances. I think it’s been obvious from day one that there are major plans for the heroes and villains from Aquaman to take center stage in the DC Universe, among many others, post-Blackest Night. ‘Brightest Day’ is not a banner or a vague catch-all direction for the DC Universe, it is a story. Nor is ‘Brightest Day’ a sign that the DC Universe is going to be all about ‘light and brighty’ superheroes. Some second chances work out…some don’t.”