The Four Horsemen are taking all of my money

The Four Horsemen will be robbing me blind this year.

So, all the big toy news has come out of the New York Comic Con, and I think it’s safe to say Mattel stole the show.

There will be not five, but six waves of DC Universe Classics in 2008. Two have hit stores already; here are the remainders (with links to photos).

Wave 3
Robin, Nightwing, Deathstroke (w/ variant), Sinestro (w/ variant), Green Lantern
BAF: Solomon Grundy
Due in
: June/July

Wave 4
Wonder Woman (w/ variant: Artemis), Captain Atom (w/ gold variant). Cyborg, Batman Beyond, Ares
BAF: Despero
Due in
: Late summer/early fall

Wave 5
Will contain at least Hawkman, a new version of black-suit Superman, and Mr. Miracle.
Due in
: Late fall 2008

There will also be:

Wal-Mart Exclusive Wave
Amazo, the Atom, the Riddler (in business suit), Eradicator, and Black Lightning.
BAF: Metallo
Due in
: August

Toys R’ Us Exclusive two-packs
Orion (w/ removable helmet) and Lightray
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Azrael (reissues)
Due in: August

And then there’s the San Diego Comic Con exclusive: Lobo, with his dog. Yes, Lobo.

All of these will be sculpted by the Four Horsemen. But wait, there’s more!

Fall 2008 will see the release of Masters of the Universe Classics–another He-Man revamp, but this time oriented toward adult collectors and in the same style as DC Universe Classics. The link kicks off with an exclusive “King Grayskull” figure at the SDCC. At least the first wave of this line should hit by the end of 2008.

Then there are the Horsemen’s own FANtastic Exclusives. I’m waiting on my Ramathorr order, which should ship soon; and then the next character, Scarabus, will be available at the SDCC.

All of the above is in addition to the 6″ Movie Masters Dark Knight line, which will feature six figures over two waves from the movie in the style of DC Universe Classics. So there’s six more action figures from the Four Horsemen I’m getting. And I’ve already bought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures the Horsemen sculpted for NECA. I’m not sure whether they sculpted NECA’s upcoming April O’Neil figure, but if they did, you can add that to the pile of Four Horsemen stuff I’ll be buying this year.

This is truly the Year of the Horsemen. I think it’s great to see their “experiment” of ten years ago pay off so well and offer my congratulations to them on all their success. Great job, guys!

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17 Comments

  1. orionpax636

    Companies enticing retailers to carry other products seems to be a pretty common practice across the board. At the athletic shoe store I work at, our company feuded with Nike for years because as a requirement for receiving Jordan shoes, we had to also sell lesser, cheaper shoes as well.

  2. JPL

    It was regarding how often deals like that are made between toy companies and retailers, but thanks for the additional info.

  3. Poe

    @JPL–Do you mean how often in terms of shipments, or how often do they make deals with companies like Mattel to get exclusives?

    The answer to the first question is, according to Mattel, in the case of the Riddler wave, "very frequently." Starting in August, the wave is supposed to ship continuously throughout the rest of the year, so they should be easy to find. Let's hope it's more like Legendary Heroes than the Marvel Legends Wal-Mart wave.

    As for the second question, as you can see from the previous sentence, it's a fairly common practice. Usually a manufacturer will offer an exclusive wave to a retailer in order to entice them to carry the regular waves.

  4. JPL

    I have to agree with you about Wal-Mart, orionpax636. Unfortunately, if that is the only way to get that figure, I'll have to shop there.

    Which actually brings up the question of how often do stores such as Wal-Mart or Target get exclusives like the DCUC?

  5. @Paul: I'm with Paul… Power Girl and Dr. Fate are my top 2 wish figures for the line. If they could shake a Captain Marbles and a Swamp Thing BAF I'd be a happy man.

  6. orionpax636

    I hate Walmart. Seriously.

    That said, I have no clue how the Horsemen do everything that they've done. This is what they've done recently: sculpted the Turtles, sculpted all the DCUC you see above, sculpted Scarabus, his Timekeeper, and probably all his variants, sculpted the Dark Knight line, sculpted Raziel from Soul Reaver for NECA, and waged a 4-man war against the evil figure pirates that tried to cripple the Anitherian Nine.

    And all they ask in return is our money and Zapp's potato chips…

  7. Poe

    @Paul–I'm pretty sure you'll see all three of those characters in this line eventually. In fact, I'll bet you'll get at least one next year.

  8. Dr. Fate, Powergirl, Captain Marvel would be my top three.

  9. JPL

    Well, I guess I'll be shopping at Wal-Mart in the near future. The Riddler was always my favorite Batman villian and that has to be the best action figure of the character I've ever seen. I'm still trying to repress memories of the ToyBiz figure that came out in the early 90s. 🙁

    Now when are the Four Horsemen going to start doing the Flash's bad guys (Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Trickster)?

  10. I would totally buy a Kite-Man figure.

    Then again, I'd buy a Paste-Pot Pete figure too.

  11. Poe

    Yeah, I'm curious too…let me guess…

    KITE-MAN!

  12. @Paul, who are you looking for?

    -x

  13. I can't believe that they still haven't announced any DC characters that I really want. God damn.

  14. I was all about the Turtles, but knowing that 4H sculpted them over made it even better!

    I might as well just start signing my pay checks over to them or Mattel…

    I wonder if the MOTU line will be new designs, or similar takes to what we saw from the MYP series. [I say this now] But I don't know if I can go ahead and go completist on another MOTU collection. I spent a lot of time & money on the last one. Then of course, once I see them, I'll most likely go ga-ga over them and just give in.

    -x

  15. I'm not fond of that Batman Beyond figure… waaaaaaaaaay too buff. I want a more Teen Body for him like the Robin.

  16. dwaltrip

    Whenever I question myself as to whether the Horsemen sculpted someone or not, I just use the criteria that if it looks good, they sculpted it. If it looks bad, someone else did. 🙂

  17. I didn't know the Horsemen sculpted the turtles.

    Yeah, they own my money now, too. If I'm able to get any ML in the second half of this year, it'll be after all my Horsemen spending is out of the way.

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