Warner Bros. sent out details earlier today in regards to some of the properties they will be featuring at the two largest international toy fairs this month. While there will be plenty of focus on The LEGO Batman Movie as well as the upcoming releases of Wonder Woman and Justice League, there was one tidbit from the press release that hinted at something unexpected. Toys for Justice League Action.
There was not much revealed other than Mattel will produce both action figures and vehicles for the new animated cartoon. There were a few images released showing off some of the figures and the Batmobile from the series.
Mattel has held back on producing toys for the animated projects in recent years after what they considered an unsuccessful run of toys for Young Justice, which ultimately led to the show being cancelled. And while the show is being produced for a new season on Netflix, subsequent shows, Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Beware the Batman has very few merchandise released which also saw both shows have very short runs.
Even with the success of arguably one of Cartoon Network’s flagship shows in Teen Titans Go!, Mattel was wary on producing toys as Jazwares has produced toys for the show despite Mattel having the main toy license on DC properties. It seems that Mattel is changing their tune as it was also revealed that they will begin producing Teen Titans Go toys this year as well. This also may have to do with the the success of the DC Super Hero Girls line which has seen great success of which Mattel was a main supporter of.
With the release of two DC live action films this year along with the ever growing properties on television in both live-action and animated form, Mattel seems to have realized they are sitting on an un-prospected gold mine. It seems that after years of having limited DC products on store shelves, the tides may be starting to change.
