It feels a bit weird reporting news about news, but the breaking of this particular piece is a funny story.
The big news for DC collectors this past week has been the press release, and subsequent product release, of DC Multiverse action figures from McFarlane Toys. The McFarlane Multiverse takeover from Mattel, that wasn’t the big news. The toy community has known about that transition for awhile. The big news was a matter of when the press release would drop and what the figs would look like.
And, we got our answer to both those questions on January 2nd at about 1:00 AM. Pretty much the first night of the year: Happy New Year, happy new toys!
I interviewed one of the first news outlets to break the story of McFarlane’s new DC Multiverse: KastorsKorner.com. @kastorskorner was also the source of the initial photos that caught my eye on Instagram that first night. Khalil Quotap runs Kastors, a top online news source for action figures and collectibles.
My interview with Khalil from was recorded for C506 as well as my DC Collecticast podcast:
Khalil Quotap: This week is going to be kind of crazy. I think I just lucked out to be the site that was awake at that hour, when the email came through.
Benjamin David: Yea, that’s how it seemed. It seemed literally timely. I mean, McFarlane hadn’t even had it posted, some of the major toy/nerd outlets. It was you, ToyArk.com, and @toyshiz.
KQ: Yea, so I think that some of the images, like Superman and Batman and some of the armored stuff had leaked earlier in the day–for whatever reason. So, nothing had been official. I take the stance with Kastors Korner that we don’t post leaked pictures unless we have permission. We’ve been working with the toy companies for so long that we kind of have that mutual respect. They have a plan for their press releases and I don’t like to step on those.
KQ (continued): And, @toyshiz took the same stance. He was posting on his feed that he wasn’t going to post anything until it was official. And, I happened to just be up playing video games with my girlfriend and saw the email come through. And, I was like, oh my god, I’ve got to look at the date, and it gave us clearance to run them.
Onto the figures themselves:
KQ: It’s not 100% clear how these lines are going to be broken up necessarily. I know that there’s two price points, which is $19.99 and $24.99…I think overall, I think the idea of releasing, like you said, the 14 or 15 things all at once is what’s going to be the really big piece for McFarlane. Because, in the past, at least with McFarlane’s stuff, you get like a couple figures here or there. You got the Kirk for awhile for Star Trek and then you got Picard. Then, with Harry Potter, it was three figures, and now, we’re still waiting for Hermione.
KQ (continued): They’ve always been kind of a slower pace with a lot of their stuff lately, especially with their bigger properties. So, to see them push this all at once, for an all at once release, it really gives me, as a collector, a little confidence that they’ve had a game plan in place, they’re going to be building universes, they’re going to be building worlds; and, they’re in it for the long haul, or at least as long as they have the license.
KQ (continued): It’s a good sign in my eyes that they’re pushing them all to come out at once and that this is like a wave, and then we’ll see how the waves play out through the year.
In case you’re not familiar with the specifics of the press release from McFarlane, let’s jump to two excerpts to give you the broad strokes of the big nerdy news:
The new DC Multiverse collector line features incredibly detailed 7-inch figures designed with an impressive 22 points of articulation. Each figure comes with a collectable card that has character-specific art and biography, multiple accessories, and a display base. MSRP is $19.99 to $24.99 USD for each figure.
And for the best part, availability!
The first wave of McFarlane Toys’ DC Multiverse launches today with pre-orders at retailers around the globe. The DC Multiverse collector figures and related toys will be available at major retail locations beginning in January 2020 including Walmart, Target, Amazon, GameStop, BestBuy, and Walgreens.
Here’s ToyArk.com’s “Quick List of Wave 1 Items” for the McFarlane DC Multiverse:
- Batman: Detective Comics #1000
- Batman: Detective Comics #1000 Variant Chase
- Superman: Action Comics #1000
- Batgirl: Art of the Crime
- Nightwing: Better Than Batman
- The Batman Who Laughs
- Batman: Batman the Animated Series
- Superman: Superman the Animated Series
- Green Lantern: Justice League
- Harley Quinn: Classic
- Green Arrow: Arrow
- Superman: Unchained Armor
- Batman: Hellbat Suit
- Bat-Raptor
Again, you can find my full interview with Khalil from Kastors on my DC Collecticast podcast. His website is KastorsKorner.com, @kastorskorner on Instagram, and subscribe to the Kornercast Podcast as well for more talk of the McFarlane DC Multiverse!
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