DC Universe Classics action figure stands

While I’ve found my assortment of the McFarlane stands to be more than adequate to the task of supporting my DCUC collection, I thought it would be a service to you, the discriminating toy collector, if I were to order a set of the official Mattel stands and review them.

Here’s my one-sentence review for those too lazy to read after the jump: unless you decide you really need that “DC Universe” logo, buy the cheaper, flatter and more attractive McFarlane stands.

The stands are as blue as they look in the photos, which makes them a lot more obtrusive than the clear McFarlane stands. The pegs are a tad smaller than the McFarlane ones, which means that if you’ve been using McFarlane stands like I have, no foot peg that’s been plugged into a McStand is going to fit a DCUC one. Moreover, some figures’ foot pegs don’t fit in the stands regardless of whether I’d ever used them with a McStand.

I’m puzzled by the small hole in each stand; hopefully this represents some future feature, such as a clear pillar stand for floating accessories like Skeets, perhaps? (If so, for $12, they could have included a few of those stands in the box.)

The DCU stands are also rather tall–they lift the figure about a quarter of an inch off the ground, which means you’ve either got to put every single DCUC figure on one of them or some of your figures are going to look inordinately taller than others.

However, the DCU stands can do one thing the McStands can’t–they work well with smaller, thinner figures like Harley Quinn and Robin, thanks to the smaller pegs (the larger McStand pegs tend to warp the foot due to their size). It’s not perfect, though–for instance, Robin’s foot is so thin, it still hovers a little above the bottom of the peg, which drives an OCD-type like me nuts.

I’ve found most of my DCUC figures stands pretty well on their own, and the ones that don’t usually fit fine on the McFarlane stands. You can get 15 McStands for $5, as opposed to 25 DCU stands for $12. Right now in my DCUC collection, I’m using about a half-dozen McStands and one DCU stand (for Harley Quinn).

However, the value of the DCU stands will go up if it turns out that little hole does have some purpose.