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Toy Fair 20: DC Direct highlights

DC Direct had a more muted showing than usual, which probably isn’t a strange thing considering the happenings at the company.

Direct to you

First of all, yes, it’s ‘DC Direct’ now. The collectible wing of DC has once again changed its name back to DC Direct from DC Collectibles. If you don’t remember, they switched it the other way a few years back. In any event, things are back to normal now.

Well, they are with the name anyway. There have been rumors aplenty as of late about DC Comics in general, including its status as a publisher in the longterm. Those started off in a big way with the departure of co-publisher Dan DiDio.

This weekend though, now sole-publisher Jim Lee said that any and all rumors are bunk. He’s the publisher now, according to the artist and DC Comics big, and the company itself is going nowhere.

That’s good to hear as a fan of the medium. And it presumably sets DC Direct back on a fairly straightforward course… if there was ever any question to begin with (we don’t really know).

I did get the sense however, that the offering slate wasn’t as robust as it usually is. At least, when it came to action figures. Direct had a number of new toys on hand, but ‘new’ lines were kind of nonexistent. I suppose you could count the DCeased line as new, but that’s really a part of Essentials, and also just uses a bit of new tooling and paint.

In any event, there was new stuff to see, it was just mainly in the statue space. So without further ado…

Statues

The meat of what DC Direct had on hand come in the form of statues. And man, was Toy Fair 2020 was loaded with them. If you’re a collector of alll things polystone and such, there’s plenty to like.

Almost all of DC Direct’s main statue lines received new pieces, including Batman Black & White, Bombshells, and more.

The Animated Series continues

That’s an impressive array of statuary, no? Well, you won’t find an equal amount of action figures from DC Direct here. But that’s not to say that there aren’t some cool looking figures.

Chiefly, those include the new extension of the Batman: The Animated Series lineup. If you’ve somehow missed it, DC is bringing the classic show back as a comic book mini-series and a toy line. Both are looking great, and both play right off of the classic B:TAS Aesthetic.

New figures include Deathstroke, Azreal as Batman, Jason Todd’s Red Hood, Red Rain Batman, The Batman Who Laughs and more. There are also a few re-releases, including the fan favorite “Christmas” Joker figure, Batman and Robin themselves, and a classic Catwoman with a Selena Kyle alternate head.

All of these look great in person, and I hope it means that we’ll be getting more. We kind of need a new Lex Luthor, and since he is in the new comic there’s at least hope.

Also I feel like I have to add that these figures are head and shoulders above the McFarlane ‘animated’ DC stuff. I like McFarlane’s work as of late quite a bit, but their animated figures lack a certain something that these have in spades.

DCeased

Also showing at Toy Fair was a line of DCeased ‘zombie’ DC heroes and villains. I didn’t follow the DCeased series at all in the comics, though I think it was essentially an Elseworlds story. What I do know is that Darkseid’s unleashing of the Anti-Life Equation basically resulted in a universe of vicious, super-powered zombies. Yes, you’ve seen it before, I know.

Nevertheless, horror fans might get a kick out of these figures, some of which are out now. You’ll spot a few unpainted figures in there too, those are Nightwing, Red Hood, Batgirl, and Deathstroke.

And the rest…

A smattering of additional figures were in the booth at DC, including a new box set of Justice Leaguers and some cool looking variants. That’s really it though, as again, the booth wasn’t chucked with toys.

About Jason Micciche

Jason's been knee deep in videogames since he was but a lad. Cutting his teeth on the pixely glory that was the Atari 2600, he's been hack'n'slashing and shoot'em'uping ever since. Mainly an FPS and action guy, Jason enjoys the occasional well crafted title from every genre.

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