Comics to Toys
DC Direct Action Figures Creates Their own Competition
By Randy Herkowitz
March 12, 2008 - 09:01




For most comic book readers, there is nothing better than accompanying your comic book collection with action figures of your favorite superheroes and villains.  Since the very beginning of the advent of action figures, comic book characters have been an integral part of the industry, especially the most popular superheroes such as Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and Wonder-Woman.  

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Since 1998, DC comic books (owned by Warner Brothers Entertainment since 1969) started their own company to produce action figures, prop replicas and statues of superheroes and villains from their vast catalog of characters.

However, DC Direct action figures and products cannot be found at your local toy store such as Toys R’ Us.  You have to rely on your local comic book shop, comic book conventions or order online through websites that specialize in collector based action figures and merchandise.

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DC Direct has earned a distinguished reputation of making some very fine action figures that are well sculpted and painted but they do have their shortcomings such as the high price of each action figure.  Retailing at approximately sixteen dollars (US), it seems about six dollars too high compared to other six to seven inch action figures in the current market.  There is no doubt that action figure prices in general have become greatly inflated over the last couple of years but sixteen dollars (US) retail for a six inch action figure?  Unless perhaps, they were made out of precious metals or jewels or maybe the toy could be opened up with the chance of finding a genuine black pearl?  

 Another criticism is the lack of articulation.  Articulation is important to most current collectors because it allows the consumer, to position the comic book character in a variety of poses and adds overall increased play value to the toy.  It’s not that DC Direct action figures are as stiff as say, the old Star Wars action figures are.  They only had moveable joints at the shoulders, neck and legs but compared with Toybiz’ (now Hasbro’s) Marvel Legends series (Marvel comic books successful series of action figures), for less then ten bucks you get a similar sized action figure with anywhere from 18-23 points of articulation!

Warner Brothers, owner of both DC comic books & DC Direct appear to have had a change of mind regarding the handlings of the DC comic book universe of characters and how to market them to the mainstream consumer.  Perhaps realizing it was time to open up the vault of almost their entire catalog of heroes and villains to a toy company with greater distribution.

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Major toy company Mattel Toys, best known as the makers of Barbie dolls & Hot Wheels cars, were fortunately awarded the massive universe of DC comic book superheroes in June 2007. Mattel Toys has enlisted a group of some of today’s most respected toy designers to take on this new series of DC superheroes & villains beyond just Superman and Batman.  This team of toy designers call themselves “The Four Horsemen”.  The Four Horsemen earned the respect of the action figure community with their revamped He-Man and the Masters of the Universe action figures released early this century and other assorted projects working with McFarlane Toys of the Spawn comic book fame.  Their style and quality is nothing short of spectacular!  Their goal is to bring the DC comic book universe to the mainstream at a more competitive price and still offer great sculpting with increased articulation.

As of writing, Mattel Toys has released the first assortment of the DC Universe action figures including such characters as Batman, Red Tornado, The Penguin, Orion and Etrigan the Demon.  A great bonus for this action figure series is each figure comes with a piece of another character, whether it’s an arm, leg or head and torso.  When you purchase the entire wave you can put together all the limbs and it forms an extra action figure to add to the collection.  For the first assortment this “Build-a-Figure” is Rex Mason the Element Man.  This popular concept, already used by other leading action figure lines, gives Mattel Toys an opportunity to produce some of the lesser known or larger scaled characters that the diehard fans will greatly appreciate.

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Mattel Toys’ DC Universe superheroes have some major advantages to the expansive line of the well established and respected DC Direct action figures.  First, they are available at most big box retail chain stores making them easier to locate for the general consumer.  Second, they are about five to six dollars cheaper then DC Direct action figures and third, there is a substantial increase of articulation to help provide more dynamic poses for added play value.

Mattel Toys and the Four Horsemen have done a wonderful job thus far on the overall sculpting of each figure.  The detail is great as expected and comparable and more consistent then the action figures DC Direct are putting out.  Mattel Toys have released pictures of the second and third series and they look to be even better then the first wave.  

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The only flaws I’ve found with Mattel’s first wave of DC comic book superheroes are some of the paint jobs can be sloppy.  So, if you have the chance to look over a few action figures to choose the best painted one, I highly recommend it.  However, seeing that this is just the first series, expect Mattel Toys to improve the quality with future waves.

However, Mattel Toys acquisition for the use of the DC universe characters won’t stop DC Direct from continuing their lines of action figures.  They have put most of their focus lately on designing their superheroes to look like they have jumped right off the pages of your favorite comic book by designing their action figures directly from the drawing styles of today’s and yesterday’s most popular comic book artists appealing to the avid comic book readers.  Perhaps, this change in DC Directs focus opened the door for Warner Brother’s decision to allow Mattel Toys the rights to most of the DC comic book characters.  DC Direct will continue to produce high end prop replicas and statues as well.

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I personally prefer the DC action figures Mattel Toys are putting out to DC Directs approach to their action figures.  I feel you get more for your money and I like the consistency of the series.  However, that does not mean that the DC Direct figures are not worth collecting in the competitive world of action figures. Mattel Toys intends on producing a large array of characters for this new and wonderful series of DC comic book superhero action figures but there are still some action figures that you will never see made by Mattel Toys.  This includes DC Comics more violent comic book characters. Also, as I mentioned earlier DC Direct has focused a lot of their attention on designing their action figures based on the drawing style of famous comic book artists.  This is a very desirable attribute with today’s collector.

Therefore, I would say there is definitely a place in the vast action figure market for both Mattel Toys and DC Direct to produce DC comic book action figures.  It’s just a matter of preference and I believe many DC comic book fans will enjoy both for their distinct differences and variety.



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