...monster/ever after high?..they're not listed on the page you linked, but they're the only conspicuous mattel-owned current brand which jumps out to me...

...oh!..i did not realise they'd been acquired by mattel; yep, mega brands' portfolio is on par with barbie, hot wheels/matchbox, and fisher price...

 

Shelf warming pain in the butt is what those are. And most are on clearance

 

This is a good result. Competition keeps our folks at Hasbro on their toes. One company dominating the market = problems.

 

As much as I don't like some of the stuff Hasbro has produced over the past 5-8 years, Mattel does even worse with many of their brands, and though I am not a collector of them, giving the ML 6in treatment to Thundercats, DC, and MOTU would be great.

Thankfully (for my wallet) I don't collect SW Black or ML 6in figures, but IMO these lines have been some of Hasbro's best work in the last few years.

 

Jem would hate that. In the 80s, Barbie had that Barbie and the Rockers line. It was a total ripoff of Jem and an attempt to grab market share from the fad. The actress who plays Jem, Samantha Newark thinks Barbie sucks. Shed probably stop supporting Jem at conventions if they did that.

Why on Earth would we want pink TFs and Barbie Arcees? Would you buy them? Little girls probably wont. They dont go for boys toys often enough to support 'pink' versions of every toy property under the sun..
Four Horsemen are getting stale, eh? Thats why their re-issue MOTU line from SUPER7 is already all sold out of the first wave everywhere, huh..? Thats the hard to get first four figures from Mattel, but redone by super7. We can't be tired of a product that we couldnt actually buy anywhere. Not in stores and their mail order company Digital River are the biggest ******s on the planet! They cant process payments very well and they take MINIMUM 8 days to respond to each and every email. Its like they deliberately wait 8 days. So after trying to send them a couple of letters already youre getting three months in arrears and they cannot tell you how much they are trying to put on your credit card! Its bloody preposterous. A lot of people couldnt get those great 4 horsemen figures because of rampant scalping. They only offer a limited amount on the release date. Then they sell out within a few minutes or the scalpers get upset. They have a limit though, you can ONLY buy ten figures.. Then a few weeks later after all the scalpers have sold theirs on ebay, then they suddenly have a shed-ton of more figs on their site. Its supposedly the customer satisfaction ones they held back in case of returns, but its clear that there are far, far more units than were available on the release date.. It not unintentional, its how they pander to 'adult' collectors. A guy who buys 10 of each figure each month is worth way more to them as a customer than someone who gets one or even two of each item per month.

THIS!!!!!^
Their paint jobs are gloppy and their (non-horsemen) figures have lousy likenesses. Just look at the Suicide Squad line.. Shameful..They often have frozen joints and the plastic is cheap.

 

Hasbro is gunning Mattel to get the bigger chunk of the Female/Girl Demographic market where the Mattel's strength is.

I'm really wishing Hasbro buys off Mattel big time. To kill DC Multiverse's kind of design and DC super heroes will follow suit of Marvel Legends' style of sculpting and articulation and of course, cheaper price.

Looks like we will still see inconsistent action figures from Mattel's DC f*ckin' Multiverse line.
And we will see more of it's annoying T-CROTCH HIPS (which it needs to DIE).

Oh well. Back to square one and choose between Mafex and Figuarts for better DCEU action figures. And oh, DC Icons and Essentials by DC Collectibles. Much cheaper than Mattel's offerings.

I HATE YOU MATTY. F*ck U.

 

...you know, that could just as easily go the other way: if mattel's figure lines are cheaper to design, produce, and sell for a higher price, there's no reason hasbro wouldn't adopt mattel's more-profitable standards without any major competition keeping them in check...i'm of the opinion that too much consolidation in the industry stifles innovation and competition, both, and that a combined hastel could easily dominate the toy market to the detriment of competitors and consumers...

...think the toy segment is shrinking now?..imagine if toys r us and mattel both go away, the corporate motivation to keep squeezing until nearly no consumers are left other than specialty collectors...

 

@myrrh
Yeah I know what you mean.
It's just me being just a bit... call it selfish out of disappointment as an action figure collector aside from being a TF collector.

Disappointment that Mattel still employs 4 Horsemen (right?) as their action figure sculptor for DC Multiverse and still using T-CROTCH HIPS TO ALL FIGURES or MOST.

Being a Marvel Legends collector for 10 years (and spoiled by it. Very Much.), I can't help keep comparing Marvel Legends and DC Multiverse to each other. And I always treat Marvel Legends' style as the "effective way" of doing action figures for MASS MARKET. Not only that. MLs have additional accessories to offer. Extra hands, weapons and head. More like DC Icons by DC Collectibles or comparable to let's say MAFEX of Figuarts.

Then compare those offerings to Mattel's DC Multiverse, would you be happy?
Paying a bit expensive than Marvel Legends figures with least offerings will you not be prompt to say, "Is that it?" "Is that what I'm paying for?".

Every collector have a right to demand a decent 6" action figure from it's makers just like TF collectors demands to hasbro or takara-tomy. It's one of my reason I can't start a long line DC action figure collection. I have some but I'm very picky but not when it comes to Marvel Legends where I'm more generous buying their products.

For me the biggest screw up by DC Multiverse is the Man Of Steel masterpiece figure being re-used until today in Justice League Multiverse figure. A Superman figure that doesn't look like Henry Cavill, tanned skin tone, No Ab-Crunch and no additional accessories.
And they still charge a higher SRP vs Marvel Legends?

I maybe a DC Comics fans but I'm not a 100% fool on every merchandise they dish out.

 

Gotta say, as "hot shit" as the 4 Horseman were a decade ago, they've certainly lost their luster. The past several handfuls of heads they've sculpted for GI Joe Collectors Club are pretty ho-hum, to be generous.

 

It\'s better that there\'s competition, without competition quality goes down.

 

It's true, Mattel has always CRUSHED Hasbro when it comes to fashion dolls. Hasbro tried to compete via Jem. Great show, ugly dolls. Then in the 90s they tried again with Sindy. Hands up anyone who even remembers Sindy. Yeah. Anyway, she was basically a Barbie clone.

Then Mattel's Monster High became the latest doll craze. Hasbro's answer to this was to humanize their My Little Pony characters and create Equestria Girls. But MH just had better quality . . . everything. And far better clothing design. Hasbro is so terrible with fashion dolls. Recently they overhauled Equestria Girls again, so we'll see how that goes.

 

I was quoting sales, not valuation.

So true, and look how healthy they are now.   Let's hope it doesn't go down similarly should it happen.

 

Leave it to Hasbro to low ball on the deal, lol, cheap Fuckers. LMFAO

 

That's like teaching a 12 year old kid how to play a video game, Hasbro should know by now that their distribution is trash.

 

Yeah 4 Horsemen were great decades ago. DCU Classics? Although those were have t-crotch hips, it sold and how many waves they made? So many. Then it died.

The problem is.. it's 2017 and they're still doing T-Crotch Hips? F*ck that.
And when they're handling DCEU Movie figures, they don't know whether to give the figure an ab-crunch or not.

I mean, what do they really care on the figure? Articulation or Sculpt?
Seems they don't know getting the right balance like what Hasbro does in their Marvel Legends figures.

I'm getting the impression that Hasbro have better R&D department compared to Mattel in terms of action figures.
Heck, DC Collectibles could be even better than Mattel's R&D.

 

Glad that the merger talks fell through. I feel like we dodged a bullet with that one.

 

Such a bummer this fell through. I guess I will have continue to live with Mattel doing DC figures still. I was imagining there being DC Legends also. Oh well.

 

See you next year!!!!

 

I disagree, Mattel probably know Hasbro will pull on them the same thing they did to Kenner and eventually fire all the Mattel workers.

But this discussion is beyond transformers only and so it's logical to talk about it's consequences to the toy market.

Transfromers generations marked an improvements?! Lol! They keep getting more hollow, less painted and more stickers. Hasbro "collector-oriented lines" are a joke, they're overpriced playine toys with a bit more articulation then usual that's all.

Keep on trying to make competition light factor, when in reailty it's one of the most important factors in economy and we see it's effect on the toy market. You should check Retroblasting, they talk about that as well.

 

Hasbro: "Mattel, we want to buy you."
Mattel: "Why?"
Hasbro: "Coz you're DC Multiverse is inconsistent & T-Crotch hips is very dated & sucks."

lolz