So, the Man-E-Faces color vote is over, and as expected, half/flesh-half/orange won. I voted for half-and-half back when the poll started. It was my first instinct upon being told about it at Toy Fair, and I didn’t question it at that time.

But I’ve changed my mind. It’s not that I specifically wish one of the other choices had won, but rather, I think either of the other choices should have won. This should have been an either-or situation.

Any orange in the coloring basically makes it the toy version. So now, rather than getting a definite vintage art or a definite toy-based version, we’re getting what amounts to a watered-down toy version. I think I (and everyone else who voted for the half-and-half) blew this one.

But I also I don’t think Mattel should have offered the half-and-half in the first place. It was an easy way out, and the majority of fans (myself included) took it. If orange and flesh had been the onely options, it would have been really interesting to see who won; even though flesh-tone had the higher vote count of the two in the actual poll, I suspect many half-and-half voters would have chosen toy colors.

Now, all that said, half-and-half did win, and I’m a big fan of democracy so, hey, that’s that. Still, I wish Mattel hadn’t even offered the option. Now we’ll have to hope that the Hawkman/Stratos, Aquaman/Mer-Man, Green Lantern/Zodac and Supergirl/Wonder Woman two-packs sell well enough to get us to a fleshtone Man-E-Faces/DCSH colors Two-Face two-pack (and, fingers crossed, minicomic-red Roboto/robot Brainiac 2-pack).

Also: It’s worth noting that my graphic up there isn’t quite correct, and that there is a difference beyond skin tones. All three pics were based on the vintage cross sell, and I only changed the skin color. The vintage toy had much brighter, pinkish tubes on the armor, rather than dark purple. The half-and-half is, unsurprisingly, somewhere in the middle.

Out of curiosity, I tossed up a poll over the weekend to see what people chose when they didn’t have the half-and-half option. It’s on the sidebar of the main page.