Daniel Pickett from AFI returns! A guru of toy journalism, Pickett from ActionFigureInsider.com came back on January 13th to record another episode of my DC Collecticast podcast.
Within the past week alone, DC collectors have discovered some great new toy lines from both McFarlane and Spinmaster; just to have them pulled off shelves until further notice. The other night, I personally saw in store the Target exclusive Spinmaster Batman ‘Caped Crusader’ 4″ line: including a Batman figure, a King Shark, Clayface/Batman 2-Pack with Batcycle, as well as a Batmobile.
The next day: Jurassic Park. Batman was completely gone.
Something told me there was more to the story. How did all these brand new DC toys disappear overnight? It was hard to believe that much product could have been moved that fast. Turns out, I was right.
From my DC Collecticast interview with ActionFigureInsider.com:
AFI: This goes for both McFarlane and Spinmaster, because I’ve talked to reps from both of them. There’s something kind of weird going on with how this [new wave of McFarlane and Spinmaster DC] was rolled out. Initially, Entertainment Earth came out and said, Hey, here’s the preview of a bunch of this stuff. Pre-order it now. And, then this stuff started leaking. And, a lot of Targets now, both the Spinmaster and McFarlane stuff are locked out of the register until the 19th.
BD: Yea, talk about that. I don’t understand what’s going on with this. What does all that mean?
AFI: I was told [by reps from both McFarlane and Spinmaster] that they were both cleared, day and date, to announce and start selling on January 1st. And, apparently, Entertainment Earth and everyone else went ahead and put their pre-orders up. Amazon put their pre-orders up, but said the stuff was shipping, I think the 19th. That kind of caused a ripple effect. Because, you went and bought some of the Spinmaster stuff, right? You have some in hand?
BD: No, I didn’t actually get them. I was going to wait, and then I go back [to Target] the next day, and everything was gone and replaced by Jurassic Park…I didn’t even expect them [Batman Spinmaster toys]. I was like, oh, great, this is a new thing I’ll be seeing. And, then, they were gone!
AFI: So, they haven’t even officially been announced. Spinmaster has not put out a press release saying, Hey, these are available now. Here’s what you get. They don’t even have anything about them on their website, like a category of a license. So, I think they’re waiting until the 19th (laughs) to sort of make this big roll out, even though almost everyone on planet Earth has found them! It’s like the worst kept secret in the world.
AFI (continued): It’s been sort of interesting, because, they’re [Spinmaster] launching a pretty hefty line themselves. There’s two-packs, and there’s store exclusives, and there’s larger figures. Just for all that stuff to be in stores, and especially the two largest retailers. And, the manufacturer’s still like, Well, we’re not going to talk about it. It just seems a little clumsy with this whole roll out. I don’t know if that’s partially due to–there were some pretty significant layoffs that happened at the end of the year within Warner Bros. consumer products, and some of the people that put these deals together aren’t at WB anymore or are in a different role now. I don’t know if that sort of messed things up, but it just seems clumsy and weird for both companies. McFarlane at least put out a press release and a lot of pictures and some information. But, they were surprised that Target is holding this stuff back too. So, I don’t know, it’s kind of messy and weird, and I was a little surprised by that.
BD: Yea, especially when there’s a peg that’s been there–so, it’s been 11 days since these [McFarlane Multiverse figures] came out. I don’t think I’ve missed a day of going, and there has been a peg with the McFarlane thing hanging over it and no McFarlane, and I’m like what is going on? And, it’s one peg, it’s the biggest tease.
Here are some pics from my @dccollecticast Instagram, documenting my Spinmaster Batman toy finds at Target.
Again, you can find my full interview with Daniel from AFI on our upcoming episode of DC Collecticast. Be sure to follow ActionFigureInsider.com for more news on Spinmaster Batman and the McFarlane DC Multiverse!
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