Twitter<\/a>, \u201cthat Zebra Batman in Mattel’s booth- Not planned for any wave…yet. Just did it for fun and put it in the case. A nod to the Silver Age.\u201d<\/p>\nThis brings me to the meat of my rant. I am sick and tired of toy companies showing us all of the awesome toys that they\u2019ve already cancelled. Now, Zebra Batman is a little different. He\u2019s not a cancelled figure. He\u2019s just \u201cfor fun\u201d. But he\u2019s indicative of an irritating trend of toy companies taking a line they\u2019re done with and showing us the figures that would have been in the next wave. <\/p>\n
But that next wave doesn\u2019t exist. Those figures will never be released. And for some reason, they always seem a little bit better than the ones that were. Now, maybe that\u2019s just the whole grass is greener feeling coming out, but it seems to be that the companies are just getting around to the important secondary characters or better sculpted versions of the main characters just in time for them to end up in the \u201cWe\u2019re Not Making These\u201d case. So I have to ask, do these companies get off on the disappointment or what?<\/p>\n
Everyone knows about the DC Direct Watchmen figures, but how about the Sigma 6 Scarlett figure? I don\u2019t even collect GI Joe and I wanted it. How about when Toy Biz showed us the X-Men babies and Frog Thor that were supposed to be pack-ins with the regular figures? Batman Beyond had the Stalker figure. The Earthworm Jim and Darkwing Duck lines each had an entire wave canned after showing them off to fans. And remember the Doom Patrol figures from Bandai\u2019s Teen Titans line? They were awesome! And Bandai was finally going to make a Silkie! But instead, all we got was disappointment.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure the toy companies don\u2019t think of it like that. I\u2019m sure they think that they are doing us a favor. But it doesn\u2019t feel like a favor to me. It feels like they are making sure we know our collections will never be complete. That you almost got that figure you always wanted, but wait, never mind. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s really frustrating is that in the modern interweb world, the direct market can be catered to. Large and small toy companies have websites to peddle their wares and I don\u2019t see a problem with them selling those last few characters that they just had to show off. Sure, they might have pegwarmed at retail, but online the production run can be smaller. Small enough to cater the hardcore fans and finish up any dangling toyline. Masters of the Universe is selling direct to the consumer right now, but that\u2019s only after they showed us those last eight 200x figures. I love Classics and I loved the stactions, but I still won\u2019t forget Mattel just had to show us those figures.<\/p>\n
Until toy companies realize the full power of online retailing for themselves I say thanks, but no thanks to the toy companies. I would rather not know what figures you got that close to making.<\/p>\n
Oh, and Mattel? It’s time for Zebra Batman. Period.<\/a><\/p>\n
-Mr. Rant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
img align=left src=”http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/resources\/images\/really.png” hspace=4>Last weekend\u2019s Comic-Con gave us a ton of interesting news and great pictures of the upcoming toys this year. But there was one thing that stood out to me like a glaring imperfection, and it was something Mattel doesn\u2019t plan on bringing to the fans. After all the years of rainbow, neon, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[6,31,10],"tags":[70,2557,30,2566,2560,132],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-b4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":746,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=746","url_meta":{"origin":686,"position":0},"title":"Most Requested Figures: DC Universe Classics Zebra Batman","date":"August 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Requests"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2814,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=2814","url_meta":{"origin":686,"position":1},"title":"Ask Matty – December 15th Edition","date":"December 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Ask MattyDecember 15th, 2009 1. SilntAngl asks: With Battle Armor He-Man being released next month there's a lot of talk about Battle Armor Skeletor. One hot topic is what one accessory Skeletor should have to go with his damaged battle plates. Many fans are expressing a desire for Skeletor to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask Matty"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":806,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=806","url_meta":{"origin":686,"position":2},"title":"Mr. Rant says I thought we were past “female figures don’t sell”.","date":"August 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently, it\u2019s 1950 and boys don\u2019t play with girl action figures. At least, that\u2019s the way Mattel still sees it for a few of their lines. If you are a fan of the Secret Saturdays or Batman: Brave and the Bold, don\u2019t get your hopes up for a complete set\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mister Rant"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3598,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=3598","url_meta":{"origin":686,"position":3},"title":"Mr. Rant likes his Green Lantern figures big.","date":"January 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Toy Guru recently announced his promotion to brand manager of the action figure line based on the upcoming Green Lantern movie. First, congratulations. Second, there\u2019s an issue I wanted to address before it\u2019s too late. Mattel, Toy Guru, I want you to stop doing 5 inch Movie Masters. Now, before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20335,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=20335","url_meta":{"origin":686,"position":4},"title":"Ask Mattel August 15th & Link Round-Up","date":"August 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Ask Matty - August 15th Edition DCClassics.Com Asks: Did the Death staction have enough of an impact that Mattel will look into moving forward in that scale? It did very well, but how and if this line will continue has not been decided. MOTUClassics.Com Asks: We know that Granamyr can't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ask Matty"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":142,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=142","url_meta":{"origin":686,"position":5},"title":"DC Fan Poll: Are Fans Being Given A False Choice?","date":"July 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "DCClassics.Com"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=686"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}