1/6 NEXT Hot Toys DC Figure...?

[jal76]

It’s unfortunate that Hot Toys will make every background Clone Trooper from an animated series and anyone who walks by the camera for more than two seconds in The Mandalorian before they would even dream of making something like Black Manta, who is a major DC character with a design that would rival the shelf presence of any Iron Man figure that they’ve released.
Oh well…they must really hate DC over there in the Hot Toys headquarters…

 

[GhostBeard]

It’s unfortunate that Hot Toys will make every background Clone Trooper from an animated series and anyone who walks by the camera for more than two seconds in The Mandalorian before they would even dream of making something like Black Manta, who is a major DC character with a design that would rival the shelf presence of any Iron Man figure that they’ve released.
Oh well…they must really hate DC over there in the Hot Toys headquarters…

You are 100% IMO. Black Manta, and Ocean Master, were phenomenal on screen and would have made fantastic figures.

 

[jal76]

You are 100% IMO. Black Manta, and Ocean Master, were phenomenal on screen and would have made fantastic figures.

Yep…I’d imagine that even people who were not the biggest fans of the film would have bought those figures just for how amazing they would have looked.

 

[Bleah]

This is just sad... DC should really consider giving the 1/6 license to another company UNLESS DC/WB is the problem themselves.

 

[ironwez20]

It’s unfortunate that Hot Toys will make every background Clone Trooper from an animated series and anyone who walks by the camera for more than two seconds in The Mandalorian before they would even dream of making something like Black Manta, who is a major DC character with a design that would rival the shelf presence of any Iron Man figure that they’ve released.
Oh well…they must really hate DC over there in the Hot Toys headquarters…

Disney has its whole fist up hot toys ass.

 

[Gipetto0812]

While it is sad and definitely drives me a little bonkers that HT always phones it in with DC, so many DC figures do tend to become shelf warmers. You couldn't give the Man of Steel figures away at one point in the after market. SS was literally giving Jor El away for free with random orders. BD Armored Batman also took awhile to sell out as did many of the JL figures. Even a pretty decent 2.0 Two-Face upgrade took forever to sell out with regular discounts and that's from arguably one of the better selling DC licenses HT has. Collectors just don't seem to buy up the DC stuff like they do the Marvel stuff. Regardless of your opinion on the Sideshow comic figures, the X-men figures sell better than any of the DC ones.

 

[ironwez20]

Well I mean that’s cause nobody wants two face 2.0 or Jor el. Dc fans have been saying what they want from them but they don’t listen . They want returns Batman again and catwoman and penguin , pheonix joker, Shazam and black manta. But they hop on the harly Quinn figs fast. I’m surprised king shark was even made

 

[Gipetto0812]

Well I mean that’s cause nobody wants two face 2.0 or Jor el. Dc fans have been saying what they want from them but they don’t listen . They want returns Batman again and catwoman and penguin , pheonix joker, Shazam and black manta. But they hop on the harly Quinn figs fast. I’m surprised king shark was even made

I mean I totally get it that those aren't the exact figs that collectors want. However, that Two-Face was a really nice and needed upgrade from the original IMO. No one might've been asking for it, especially when the iron was hot for other (and maybe current) DC characters, but it's still a really nice figure and upgrade. Sure, it didn't come with the Dent sculpt and outfit, but comparatively, I think it's much more of an upgrade than the terrible rerelease of Begins and TDKR batman figures. But, my point was, DC figures in general, just don't sell as well as Marvel or SW. Even lesser "background" characters from those properties seem to sell better than most DC characters. One collector bought nearly 20 of the 501st clone troopers just to display them alongside the HT Anakin for the march on the Jedi temple scene. At the very least, that's about $4,500 for that display alone. I honestly can't see that happening with many, if any, one collector for a single, very unimportant DC character like a clone trooper is to SW, let alone an actual main character for a DC property.

I'm not trying to side with HT or anything, as I would love there to be more DC releases, rather than the occasional placating bone thrown our way of a character no one asked for. I would also love a Keaton Batman and Joker 2.0/reissue or new release of any of the Burton Batman characters. But, as it's been said over and over, Disney has HT by the balls. It's making them money, probably more many than any DC properties would honestly. It also has to do with the movies as well. The DC movies don't do as well either. I personally disliked the new Suicide Squad and have no desire to own any figures that come/ might come from that movie regardless if I like the comic character(s). Sucks to be a 1/6 DC fan at the moment.

 

[Hoody999]

Yep it's purely sales and popularity driven. Star Wars is hot at the moment with The Mandalorian = lots of Star Wars figures.
Marvel was hot = see how many figures were made for that franchise.

If WB could get their **** together and do something amazing, then Hot Toys will follow.

Personally I love the ZSJL movies. If that series of movies had prevailed and people generally liked it (like ZSJL) then I'm sure we would have gotten more. If they did the final 2 films I'm sure we'd get more of the Knightmare figures and Darkseid, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern etc.

I blame WB. They have no idea what they are doing.

Really hope Discovery cleans up the management hard over there.

 

[jal76]

It’s hard to gauge what sells and what doesn’t.
Judging sales by which figures are sold out versus which are still in stock is meaningless when no one on this site knows how many of each figure was produced in the first place.
Maybe Two Face 2.0 is the bestselling figure of all time and the reason it hasn’t sold out is because Hot Toys accurately anticipated it would be and made enough figures to meet their demand.
Using interest from this site as a gauge is equally futile.
No one knows what percentage of people who buy Hot Toys figures frequent this site.
As dead as it has been in general lately, if this site was an accurate gauge of Hot Toys consumption they would probably be getting ready to file for bankruptcy.
I cannot believe that there is less general consumer interest in some of the DC characters than there is in having figures of Kylo Ren, Rey, or anyone else from the generally disliked Star Wars sequel trilogy and yet those figures get made.
Hot Toys clearly just wants to be in the Disney business and are just big Star Wars fans even though it’s on the decline.
I don’t think their failure to make DC figures has anything to do with sales.

 

[Alatar]

Agree mostly with all recent comments above going back to last half of previous page. Black Manta (!) and Ocean Master (!!!) would have looked amazing on the shelf. For that matter, hell, Darkseid would look amazing. It’s frustrating. With Steppenwolf I do get that he would be expensive to make. Although at least we did get Cyborg (releasing in what feels like an eternity from now, a year).

Even if it takes a bit longer for DC figures to sell out, they do sell out. HT is still making the same money, it just takes a little longer. I suspect that the rumors that Howard Chan doesn‘t care much for DC whereas he loves SW and MCU are a fair bet to be true.

TSS did nothing for me personally so I don’t feel I’m missing out on anything. SS’s Harley was iconic. I didn’t purchase that figure, but it looks awesome. TSS’s is meh. For TSS King Shark had the most impressive costume. None of the other costumes were particularly compelling imo. I don’t see anyone clamoring for a Peacemaker figure.

It’s a wasteland right now for DC. Almost a bit depressing to check in here because there’s so little activity in terms of releases to talk about. I’ve recently been immersing myself in the study of Watchmen (and yes, enjoying the heck out of it, but still…) in order to deepen my appreciation for a line made by Soosootoys. I started an expensive kitbash project in part because WB shut down the Snyderverse which was producing amazing looking figures. Otherwise I’d be excited by the ZSJL 2’s figures that would be coming out, etc.

I guess the next wave of genuine excitement for most DC collectors will come with announcements of figures for The Batman and The Flash. (Personally, I‘m taking a wait and see approach for both films. Not hyped for either but that’s the continuing aftereffects of what WB has wrought upon Snyderverse fans.) Until then we’re twiddling our thumbs.

 

[Hoody999]

It’s hard to gauge what sells and what doesn’t.
Judging sales by which figures are sold out versus which are still in stock is meaningless when no one on this site knows how many of each figure was produced in the first place.
Maybe Two Face 2.0 is the bestselling figure of all time and the reason it hasn’t sold out is because Hot Toys accurately anticipated it would be and made enough figures to meet their demand.
Using interest from this site as a gauge is equally futile.
No one knows what percentage of people who buy Hot Toys figures frequent this site.
As dead as it has been in general lately, if this site was an accurate gauge of Hot Toys consumption they would probably be getting ready to file for bankruptcy.
I cannot believe that there is less general consumer interest in some of the DC characters than there is in having figures of Kylo Ren, Rey, or anyone else from the generally disliked Star Wars sequel trilogy and yet those figures get made.
Hot Toys clearly just wants to be in the Disney business and are just big Star Wars fans even though it’s on the decline.
I don’t think their failure to make DC figures has anything to do with sales.

I spoke with one of the shops which stock Hot Toys in the US a couple of years ago. He gave me some insight into how the Hot Toys game works.

Hot Toys does not sit down and say "OK, for this figure X I think we should make 5000. Then for this figure Y, let's make 8000". It is ALL based on pre-orders. It's essentially no different to anyone doing a custom project run. You gauge interest, make a list of the number of people who want the item and order materials etc accordingly. It's also the best way to order your inventory and materials needed for each figure and minimise on waste.

Sure distributors like Sideshow will order more for themselves to have some in stock, and there would be a certain percentage extra for spares, etc etc. But in the end it is pre-orders (or sales) which drive the numbers.

Consider yourself the owner of Hot Toys, and you need money to keep things going. Would you be making more figures from franchises that sell (with high pre-orders) or ones from those with low pre-orders ?

Sure it's hard to judge Asian interest from our Western perspective as well. Asian pre-order numbers may look totally different. But I considering Hot Toys was pretty much founded on Iron Man, I could guarantee that a lot more Asians are Marvel fans than DC fans.

But in the end it still comes back to WB for me. Snyder had even proposed an Atom movie spinning off from the Ryan Choi (scientist in the Victors dad's lab) character which was set up in JL. This would have been filmed in China with a predominantly chinese cast, director etc. Imagine what that would have done for Asian interest and $$. But WB weren't interested. This was of course years ago, way before "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was even being considered by Marvel.

So once again WB ****ed it up, the bumbling fools that they are. This in turn affects DC popularity/pre-orders and the figures we do/don't get.

 

[Hoody999]

Agree mostly with all recent comments above going back to last half of previous page. Black Manta (!) and Ocean Master (!!!) would have looked amazing on the shelf. For that matter, hell, Darkseid would look amazing. It’s frustrating. With Steppenwolf I do get that he would be expensive to make. Although at least we did get Cyborg (releasing in what feels like an eternity from now, a year).

Even if it takes a bit longer for DC figures to sell out, they do sell out. HT is still making the same money, it just takes a little longer. I suspect that the rumors that Howard Chan doesn‘t care much for DC whereas he loves SW and MCU are a fair bet to be true.

TSS did nothing for me personally so I don’t feel I’m missing out on anything. SS’s Harley was iconic. I didn’t purchase that figure, but it looks awesome. TSS’s is meh. For TSS King Shark had the most impressive costume. None of the other costumes were particularly compelling imo. I don’t see anyone clamoring for a Peacemaker figure.

It’s a wasteland right now for DC. Almost a bit depressing to check in here because there’s so little activity in terms of releases to talk about. I’ve recently been immersing myself in the study of Watchmen (and yes, enjoying the heck out of it, but still…) in order to deepen my appreciation for a line made by Soosootoys. I started an expensive kitbash project in part because WB shut down the Snyderverse which was producing amazing looking figures. Otherwise I’d be excited by the ZSJL 2’s figures that would be coming out, etc.

I guess the next wave of genuine excitement for most DC collectors will come with announcements of figures for The Batman and The Flash. (Personally, I‘m taking a wait and see approach for both films. Not hyped for either but that’s the continuing aftereffects of what WB has wrought upon Snyderverse fans.) Until then we’re twiddling our thumbs.

I ordered the 1/6 Darkseid from Marco Art on FB. The quality is great. Sure it's essentially a statue, but with 2 sets of arms, 2 heads, omega beam eyes and removable armour to essentially make him into Uxas if you like. It's a great figure.

It seems it is essentially a 1/6 version of the Prime 1 figure which goes for over $1000.

It needs to be painted, but when you look the colours are pretty basic. And of course no human skin tones to try and achieve.

He's a big boy ! Bigger than Thanos. But will look great next to my JL lineup. I'll post some pics when I'm done painting. Armour is done.

 

[ironwez20]

I spoke with one of the shops which stock Hot Toys in the US a couple of years ago. He gave me some insight into how the Hot Toys game works.

Hot Toys does not sit down and say "OK, for this figure X I think we should make 5000. Then for this figure Y, let's make 8000". It is ALL based on pre-orders. It's essentially no different to anyone doing a custom project run. You gauge interest, make a list of the number of people who want the item and order materials etc accordingly. It's also the best way to order your inventory and materials needed for each figure and minimise on waste.

Sure distributors like Sideshow will order more for themselves to have some in stock, and there would be a certain percentage extra for spares, etc etc. But in the end it is pre-orders (or sales) which drive the numbers.

Consider yourself the owner of Hot Toys, and you need money to keep things going. Would you be making more figures from franchises that sell (with high pre-orders) or ones from those with low pre-orders ?

Sure it's hard to judge Asian interest from our Western perspective as well. Asian pre-order numbers may look totally different. But I considering Hot Toys was pretty much founded on Iron Man, I could guarantee that a lot more Asians are Marvel fans than DC fans.

But in the end it still comes back to WB for me. Snyder had even proposed an Atom movie spinning off from the Ryan Choi (scientist in the Victors dad's lab) character which was set up in JL. This would have been filmed in China with a predominantly chinese cast, director etc. Imagine what that would have done for Asian interest and $$. But WB weren't interested. This was of course years ago, way before "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was even being considered by Marvel.

So once again WB ****ed it up, the bumbling fools that they are. This in turn affects DC popularity/pre-orders and the figures we do/don't get.

WB and dc have to be about the dumbest company to own big superhero properties ever. They suck so much that one day they may end up selling off the characters cause they are that incompetent

 

[Hoody999]

WB and dc have to be about the dumbest company to own big superhero properties ever. They suck so much that one day they may end up selling off the characters cause they are that incompetent

Totally. If you asked any non comic book reader on the street 15 years ago (before Feige + Marvel) and you asked them to chose which property is more recognisable based on;

Hulk, Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Thor

or

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman

Just those three from DC would be enough that I would say 99% of people would know who they are.

But yet Warner Brothers ****ed it up and get paid truckloads of money for it !! Such incompetence when you have the most recognisable superheroes on the planet.

 

[hbhf]

We've been having variations of this argument now for several years and at the end of the day it really comes down to the popularity of Marvel and Star Wars vs. DC. Obviously we aren't privy to sales numbers, but I have a hard time to believe the situation is that DC movies toys sell crazy huge amounts and HT is just intentionally not making them "because Disney!" or some other excuse.

Now like others I do think it comes down to them having made some poor character selection choices in the past (yeah, no **** Jor-El and Zod didn't well very well; their designs aren't that interesting and the film itself was highly divisive) and that something like Black Manta would likely sell really well. But I don't think it's about a dislike of DC or some personal axe grinding at the company. They're a business and they go with what sells, and that overwhelmingly seems to be Marvel and Star Wars, with a few exceptions like Batman and the Joker.

Right now McFarlane Toys is really the only licensor (other than Funko, lol) that's really doing anything resembling a deep dive with the DC license, and even their output skews very heavily Batman.

 

[matticus]

WB and dc have to be about the dumbest company to own big superhero properties ever. They suck so much that one day they may end up selling off the characters cause they are that incompetent

You mean this WB?

https://www.comicbookmovie.com/suic...o-his-character-as-deadshot-a187824#gs.a7oifi

 

[Hoody999]

You mean this WB?

https://www.comicbookmovie.com/suic...o-his-character-as-deadshot-a187824#gs.a7oifi

 

[Turtle882]

I could've sworn his name was Milton.

 

[hbhf]

I spoke with one of the shops which stock Hot Toys in the US a couple of years ago. He gave me some insight into how the Hot Toys game works.

Hot Toys does not sit down and say "OK, for this figure X I think we should make 5000. Then for this figure Y, let's make 8000". It is ALL based on pre-orders. It's essentially no different to anyone doing a custom project run. You gauge interest, make a list of the number of people who want the item and order materials etc accordingly. It's also the best way to order your inventory and materials needed for each figure and minimise on waste.

Sure distributors like Sideshow will order more for themselves to have some in stock, and there would be a certain percentage extra for spares, etc etc. But in the end it is pre-orders (or sales) which drive the numbers.

Consider yourself the owner of Hot Toys, and you need money to keep things going. Would you be making more figures from franchises that sell (with high pre-orders) or ones from those with low pre-orders ?

Sure it's hard to judge Asian interest from our Western perspective as well. Asian pre-order numbers may look totally different. But I considering Hot Toys was pretty much founded on Iron Man, I could guarantee that a lot more Asians are Marvel fans than DC fans.

But in the end it still comes back to WB for me. Snyder had even proposed an Atom movie spinning off from the Ryan Choi (scientist in the Victors dad's lab) character which was set up in JL. This would have been filmed in China with a predominantly chinese cast, director etc. Imagine what that would have done for Asian interest and $$. But WB weren't interested. This was of course years ago, way before "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" was even being considered by Marvel.

So once again WB ****ed it up, the bumbling fools that they are. This in turn affects DC popularity/pre-orders and the figures we do/don't get.

Anecdotal but that Facebook post comparing the number of people waiting in line for the new Iron Man at the HK store vs. the number of people waiting for Cyborg was also very telling in that regard.