It’s Friday here at It’sAllTrue.Net and every NoisyDvL5 needs a day off now and again. I’ve been asked to share Friday content duty (along with our other new contributor, AdventureVault). Now that I have the reigns, everbody better hold on… at least until tomorrow.
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This week, ToyFare Magazine put up its second DC Universe Classics Fan Poll. While Mattel is doing the right thing by getting fans involved, I have some serious reservations about the way it’s being handled. In this poll, fans can choose from Captain Marvel Jr., Geo-Force, Raven, Uncle Sam, Toyman, and Libra. Although everyone has their favorite character, I didn’t need a ToyFare poll to tell me Raven was going to win in a popularity contest. |
Not only is she the best known of these characters, not only was she featured on the Teen Titans cartoon , but she is also a key character in making the Wolfman/Perez Titans team complete.
This is what I don’t understand. Did Mattel really need a fan poll to tell them to make Raven? Even in last year’s poll, didn’t they already realize the Question was a popular character? And what about the rest of the characters in that poll? Because we chose Question, and Raven (yes I’m predicting it now), does that mean we won’t be getting the losers? No Huntress? No Toyman?
I doubt it.
In both polls it wasn’t only obvious who the winners were going to be, but it was almost blatant that the other characters were also on the “to-be-made-eventually” list. None of the characters are overly complicated, just modifications to the male/female “buck” body. Also, none of the characters on either list are very obscure. Why is Mattel asking us to choose one character from a list of characters that will probably be made anyway?
Wouldn’t it be more interesting if we were given a list of obscure characters? Wild Dog, Neptune Perkins, Prince Ra-Man, Shade the Changing Man, Fireman Farrell, Bullet Girl, Cave Carson, Brother Power the Geek, the Golden Age Tarantula, Firebrand (any of them), the Red Bee, the Manhattan Guardian. I could go on forever, there’s too many to mention. These are the characters we should be choosing from. E or F-listers that would probably never be made unless they were put into a fan poll. And to those who don’t think these characters would sell, I only have three words for you: Collect and Connect. As long as there is only one per case, and it comes with a C&C piece, there won’t be a problem with peg warming.
-Mr. Rant
The Manhattan Guardian totally ROCKS. Mattel already screwed the pooch by not making him as a variant. >_<
So… which horse were you backing that’s not going to beat Raven?
I’m a big fan of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters in general, so I went with him.
If Uncle Sam won, it would be really cool to get a little Doll Man with him. Similar to the Atom in wave 8.
especially now that cartoon network has been re-airing the teen titans… raven’s as good as made.
She really is. We already have Starfire, Cyborg, a Robin, and some type of Beast Boy on the way. Two years in a row, the voters have chosen the figure that “will most likely come anyway”. I don’t know whether to blame Mattel for their selections or people for how they vote.
Enjoyed the post, Mister Rant. After reading it I kind of came to the conclusion that Mattel is probably not so stupid. What they probably wanted was just to stir up publicity and fans and social networking sites by having the poll. It was probably a ploy to keep fans involved and excited and generate buzz…like this post, for example. ^^
But I agree with you, it would have made a better poll and probably generated more buzz if they listed obscure characters. Of course then they’d have to make it and possibly lose money in the long run ^^;
Okay, but then again, since we’re talking about corporate executives, the heads of Mattel could be totally out of touch. No idea, really.
Yeah, Mattel is doing it for the publicity, I just wish we could get some rarer figures out of it.
As long as they put only one of these minor characters in a wave and put it with a C&C part, they won’t peg warm and the sales will be consistent. So money wise they wouldn’t have to worry.