The Kickstarter has passed two goals, and we’re now on goal three: $28k to print Roomies! Book 2! (I may have to move that goal up to $30k so I can print more-than-originally-intended copies of Dumbing of Age Book 1, since response has been craaaazy.)
I will be at Phoenix Comicon this weekend! I’ll be tabling with Rob DenBleyker of Cyanide and Happiness in Artist Alley at table 649. I’ve never been to Phoenix, so I’m excited for it. I hope to see you there!
If Levar Burton walks by, I’ll make sure to do my best wide-eyed shellshocked stare. I bet he doesn’t get that all the time from fans at all!
They are such an excellent team.
everyone except Ethan and probably Jacob anyway
and ken
Well…I’ve never seen Ken show any affinity for comic books at all. Then again, Jacob openly mocked batman’s rouge’s gallery
Well, they don’t sell’em where I’m from or at least the stores where I usually go to.
How big a factor are toy sales for a cartoons profitability? Wasn’ t that the driving force for early transformers, He-men, Gi joe, mlp, etc…
but aren’t those all things that started out as toys? except maybe he-men…I’m kinda chicken-egg with that.
yup, he-man started out as a toyline. if you compare the early minicomics with the cartoon (or even with the later ones), you’ll find two distinctly different MOTU, uh, universes.
http://www.he-man.org/publishing/subsection.php?id=52&subid=20&field=Year&sort=
It’s complicated for a show like Young Justice…
For something like Thundercats, Symbiotic Titan, other shows like them toy and merchandising sales are big.
But then you have shows like Young Justice, Green Lantern, Batman, hell even Transformers at this point. They’re meant to sell toys but at the same time cartoons exist to promote the brand as a whole. So Young Justice is meant to promote pretty much everything DC related, not just its own toyline. If kids and adults watching the show walk away interested in say Flash and want to buy anything related to him it’s a plus for WB.
So the YJ toys being canceled might not be a driving factor for cancellation. Just something they’ll consider. Honestly seeing as most DC toys are selling poorly right now for various reasons I don’t know how they’ll weigh it in. I hope rather then cancel it they’ll decide to give the DC toy rights to Hasbro when the time comes for renewal. Its sad how awful the YJ toys are compared to the Marvel toys that are the same price…
I blame the nu52 for draining enthusiasm from the DC audience!
(Purely anecdotal, I am whelmed.)
I must say, I never thought your wife and Robin were one and the same.
Nah she wouldn’t be wearing a Spitfire shirt. She writes the most beautiful Spitfire rants lol
This is true. She’d have a Birdflash shirt.
Though my post did lead to quite the delightful Tumblr gif war XD
Ha! She’s wearing a “Spitfire” shirt; I wonder how many hours a day Robin spends on the YJ Tumblr tags!
That’s weird, I coulda sworn I’ve seen Artemis toys before. Big ones too.
Now I wanna buy one and sell it to her thourgh some kinda dimensional warp. Would that be profitable?
She doesn’t want the big ones!
Don’t believe a word of it. They always want the big ones.
+1
Yeah, I saw an Artemis toy on clearance at Walmart just a few weeks ago.
However, when I saw that ‘Clearance’ still translated to ‘$23′, I promptly laughed and walked away.
I just got one at Target, where clearance means ten dollars
So they fill the line with background characters instead of people who are, you know, in the main cast, and then they wonder why nobody bought it? I’m beginning to think that toy company execs are forced to have their brains surgically removed before they start work. It’s the only logical explanation.
It’s Marketing: logic need not apply.
It’s Matty’s marketing system. They feel waves/lines sell better if you hold back the characters people want. This way you can mix the characters less people want with the higher-end guys.
It… Wasn’t a good system honestly.
Sounds a lot like Hasbro’s marketing system, except instead of having a variety of lesser-known characters filling out the waves Hasbro just floods them with Bumblebees.
So, exactly the opposite of Hasbro’s system.
Wait, Bumblebee’s the most popular character? Over Prime? And Arcee? And Bulkhead? And, well, Ratchet? (And Starscream? And Knock Out? And Megatron?)
I mean, no offense to Bumblebee, he’s cool and all, but he doesn’t even talk. It’s hard to have the cool lines and complex characterization when all you do is beep.
Bumblebee is the most popular character. Kids love the guy. It’s just that Hasbro floods the stores with so many that they can’t possible sell them all. I counted almost forty of them the other day. FORTY.
Well okay it’s not Hasbro’s fault. The stores want him and Hasbro complies. Not the same as “Hey lets make that obscure Green Lantern villain Shark before we make a Huntress or Kyle Rayner.”
Bumblebees sell pretty well over here. The local Target hasn’t had more than two of him for the past few weeks. Also, two Cliffjumpers. And nothing else.
Yeah it’s kind of a varying thing I’m sure. I know some say that they never see to many, but others post pictures that show shelves flooded with the poor guy. He’s certainly a kid favorite though. I see kids grab him all the time in stores and even if they’re flooded eventually they all sell. He’s not a true pegwarmer some claim.
And don’t forget- the main cast females will ALWAYS be in that cancelled line, even though there might be five variants for male characters that got half the screentime. /still bitter about Avatar’s lack of any female characters.
So yeah, screw Mattel. To Hasbro, where they’re at least BETTER at this stuff.
No more YJ toys? Not freaking fair. I was waiting for them to make YJ’s Hawkman and Hawkwoman. Or a larger Miss Martian figure.
Is it okay if I weep over this?
Nobody bought them because they had no articulation, wasted space on background characters (Captain Atom in the second wave? He didn’t even get a speaking part until season two.), and just in general sucked. I have two of them, and when it became apparent that they couldn’t stand up by themselves I stopped. How hard is it to put knee joints in your ten dollar figures so they can stand up?
Or the fact that they were the same price as Marvel Universe figures but no where near as good… They’re not even on Level with Bandai’s cheaper Power Rangers and Thundercats toys…
Uh Mattel… What is it that keeps you from making your kids toys on the level of other companies you compete with? It’s not like I’m asking you to make Transformers-level toys either. I just want DC toys to be as good as all those Marvel toys… For me AND for the kids that might be interested in them.
So the toyline was on par with the show. Gotcha.
No, the show is okay. I dare say even passable. But the toys are just horrible.
You would hope Mattel would have learned *something* after the utter failure of the Infinite Heroes line. Nearly the same price as the first waves of Marvel Universe with a third the articulation.
Well ‘hope’ might be too strong a word. You’d have to shove the Central Power Battery of the Blue Lantern Corps up Matty’s ass for that to have a snowballs chance in Hell of happening.
At least they’re consistent about not finishing teams.
The people who collected the 4 inch line don’t get an Artemis, while the people who preferred the 6-inch figures don’t get a Miss Martian, or even a T-shirt & jeans Superboy. And let’s not even talk about all the unfinished teams from the previous DC Universe Classics line.
I’d have bought them if I could have bought the entire Team.
I dunno… I didn’t mind the Captain Atom figure.
*Captain Atom = Favorite DC hero*
The 6-inch ones didn’t sell because they put a big base on em that raised the price to $20-$25
And Ultra-Car reminds me of that Spider-man debacle a while back. Anyone think that will come back?
Does this make Ultra Car one of the Troubleshooters? (I’m probably one of the very few people who got into Marvel New Universe back in the late 1980s.)
…oh, I assumed Robin was wearing the shirt in reference to the WWII female super-speedster.
I was thinking the captian of the Wonderbolts.
Hey, where is the Ethan/Ken romance plotline??!?!?!
I second this.
Well, obviously the reason we’re on Robin and Ultra-Car now is that the scene had to switch lest Willis have to draw something that would classify this comic as porn. It’s like when something really violent or steamy is going to happen in a PG-13 rated movie, so it abruptly cuts to a new scene.
So every time we suddenly switch to new characters without resolution in SP, it’s because those characters are engaging in very adult situations.
And now you will not be able to see it ever again without thinking this.
This philosophy would make reading DoA especially fun. Especially when one carefully considers the recent abrupt three day timeskip that included a meeting between Sal and Jason…
Hey, last time we saw Sal, Billie was trying to kiss her. They’ve been at it for three days now.
Return of the Cadbury Creme Cereal?
Is Young Justice cancelled yet?
like the opposite. it’s just starting it’s second season. and it’s awesome
I know everyone else seems to love it but I can”t stand that show.
I thought it was merely okay until The first season was 3/4ths of the way over. Then the second season does a time skip and were back to okay again.
It’s all over the map storyline wise, and it can’t decide if it want’s to be Teen Titans of Justice League Unlimited.
Meanwhile I would prefer it try to be YJ and JLE, which is what its setup ‘wants’ to be.
(Maybe when Bart shows up.)
Circular reasoning ho!
Thank you. Thank you. I don’t know much about toys, but I saw the McDonald’s happy meal toys when Young Justice first came out, and they had all the boys, plus a couple of (male) B-villains, but SOMEHOW completely neglected Miss Martian and Artemis. “Pissed” would be putting it mildly.
Meh. The Young Justice cartoon is okay, but I’m a bigger fan of the old YJ comic by Peter David and Todd Nauck. That was my comic back in ’98/’99. What can I say, I prefer super-heroes who can make me laugh.
That one was great. Everything Impulse did was comedy gold.
I miss it. I miss Impulse especially. He’s just not the same as Kid Flash (well, he is the same as everyone else, just not the same as Impulse). Sadly, lighter stuff like that does not get much demand in the comics market and the animated stuff is in a darker/serious phase right now. As it is, I’m watching DC Nation mainly for the shorts.
You know that DC editorial has admitted (at one point or another) that literally every decision made regarding Bart after the YJ comic ended was a colossal mistake?
Haven’t heard that. Last I checked, Didio stuck to his guns. I did hear that Mark Waid has had some strong things to say on the subject. I also heard that Geoff Johns wasn’t fond of the decision at first, despite being the one tasked with carrying it out.
The YJ show was flawed from the beginning for me because it didn’t adapt the YJ comic. Dick instead of Tim? Wally instead of Bart? No Wonder Girl or Arrowette or Secret? It’s an ok show, but it’s not Young Justice.
And the figures were ok on their own. It was the jacked up price due to the Hall of Justice pieces that kept me away.
Secret appeared in the first season, and Tim Drake and Wonder Girl are in the current season.
That’s a little bit of consolation. Still need some Impulse and Empress, though. Also, a little of Superboy’s ’90s personality and powers would be nice. Never cared for Half-Luthor Boy. I want the Kid back. The tone is really the thing that’s lost. That comic won over a lot of people who were nearly lost to comics after the darkness of the early ’90s. You know, it’s just kind of weird when the Teen Titans have a frothy, light cartoon and Young Justice has the one that’s as serious as a heart attack.
Wally’s crippled after the timeskip, and there’s a speedster with ear-wings on the Season 2 poster.
We’re holding out hope for Bart. But knowing DC it might be the hip new teenager Jay Garrick.
Wally isn’t crippled, he’s just retired.
Jay Garrick was already introduced in Young Justice during flashbacks and in the tie-in comic at Kent Nelson’s funeral.
And he did appear in an episode. (The one where Aqualad went back to Atlantis, if I remember right)
Impulse was in the most resent episode, and was just as halariously awesome as e was in the comics. XD
I dunno if I can give ya Secret. She was Secret in name only. Still probably the best season one episode though. I’d love to see more of her. Secret was fun.
But yeah Tim and Cassie are around now. Bart is probably joining, Arrowette had a planned cameo in season 1 where she watched Artemis and Green Arrow save her dad. We’ll probably see more of her.
So since Con’s around that’s all six of the main characters. So just one of them really needs at least a cameo and they’ve all appeared.
Lobo and Lagoon Boy appeared when it comes to later characters. Also Beast Boy too. He was on that replacement team with Cass Cain, Flamebird, Captain Marvel Jr, and Lagoon Boy.
So we have a few characters from the old team around.
Secret was the little sister of Harm, who killed her in order to become a supervillain, trapping her in a noncorporeal form, right? Not sure how that’s “in name only.”
She had no personality or character. She just said “secret” all the time like some kind of Pokemon. We also didn’t get stuff like her crush on Robin or the whole thing with Darkseid she went through. Nor has there been any sign of her being a warder (basically a Grim Reaper type of figure). The YJ comic was basically based around Secret’s character arc, so we just kind of wanted more out of her. There wasn’t enough there.
Like I said, I would just prefer a lighter tone. Maybe the next DC show . . oh wait, that’s Beware the Batman, isn’t it? Okay, maybe the next NEXT DC show will be lighter.
Pretty much. Yes she had the same origin but she lost all of the charm that made Secret so entertaining. She’s the exact opposite personality wise of the original Secret in nearly every way. Grim and quiet compared to bubbly, incredibly naive and yet someone whose badside you’d never want to be on. She didn’t have her powers in the episode either but that wasn’t much of a big deal I suppose since it was mostly about Artemis and Z.
I loved the episode but what I wouldn’t do for her to return more like her comic book counterpart. She was just a really fun character who I was waiting for to get animated so it kind of upset me a bit I guess.
Now all we need is Mr. Doug Side to show up.
It’s been stated since season one that this is an alternate universe sort of deal. As a comic book reader, you should understand what ALTERNATE UNIVERSE means.
The show was never intended to be a recreation of the original comics though. I honestly get the feeling they used “Young Justice” primarily because Teen Titans was already previous used. It was always intended to just be a retelling of the entire DC with the younger heroes as the main focal point. If one doesn’t try and compare it directly to the original comic, it really can be a highly enjoyable series. The story is complex, the characters interesting, and they do a lot of nods and in-jokes towards the comics we all grew up with.
Truth be told, I enjoy that cartoon a lot more then current DCnU 52. Something to be said about a lack of over-the-top gore/violence and angry sexual overtones, I guess.
As for changes in characters like Secret… well, all I can say is, I prefer the treatment she got in the YJ cartoon, than certain characters have received in the 52. (Cough/Starfire/cough)
What you say about the origins of the show is true. However, that doesn’t mean I have to like it. It is an okay show, but I’m not crazy about it.
The thing is that the TV shows and the nu52 aren’t exactly our only options. I’m close to going for a whole “none of the above” sort of choice because I’ve been reading a lot of trades and back issues. Mainly stuff from the ’70s and ’80s. Other than I,Vampire and Frankenstein, I haven’t been reading much new DC stuff (though, I really miss OMAC).
I never said you have to like it.
I just PERSONALLY feel its better to look at the show on its own merits, rather than whether or not it is an exact retelling of a comic that shared the same title, especially when that was never the intent of the show. I went into the show just looking at it as a completely new approach to things, despite my immense love for the original YJ Comic series. As a result, I really like the show.
But if you feel the show itself doesn’t work for you because you because of tone, characters or story or whatever, then of course it just doesn’t work for you. Different strokes and all that stuff.
As for other options… well they’re our only options in regards to NEW stuff regarding these particular characters. Sure, we can do trades and back issues, but if we’ve already read those things… which I pretty much have being a massive comic nerd…
But like you, I’ve kinda been reading less DC stuff, mostly because I haven’t enjoyed a lot of their choices and approaches to “re-imagining” things.
I have trouble not making the connection in my head. I had the same problem when Geoff Johns’s Teen Titans comic came out. For some reason, it’s hard for me to separate this stuff.
Also, by and large, I prefer lighter superhero stuff (notice how my only current DC comics are monster/horror comics). I’m much more of a Teen Titans cartoon or Brave and the Bold cartoon type over a YJ or JL type.
Ugh…even a toyline with a big TV show behind it has trouble finding legs. I tell ya…action figures are outta the water and flopping on the ground, gasping for air. They keep getting more and more expensive and parents just aren’t gona go for that. ‘Course I might have bought some of the smaller figures if they were…I dunno, ACTION figures rather than standing-there figures, but that’s my personal preference and somehow that kinda junk sold well for a good while in the form of Justice League toys.
Justice League toys gave you three figures for the same price Young Justice charges for one
Many years ago. By the end of the line, three packs were $15 because of rising prices. The single pack YJ toys come with giant Hall of Justice pieces, so they’re not perfectly analogous to the JLU single packs.
…why would YJ toys come with Hall of Justice pieces? IT’s been in like 3 minutes of the series?
Shouldn’t we be getting a Happy Harbor Mount Justice set?
I’m guessing it was cheaper to make for the company, since the Hall was basically just the exterior of the building, as opposed to a complex base layout of the Cave.
If you’re going to be in Phoenix, you may as well come up to Sedona to have a look around. Beautiful place.
New Young Justice Series: Meh. Good graphics, well done story, but doesn’t stand up to the original.
WHERE’S OUR NEW SEASON OF TEEN TITANS. D:< *grumbles* Screw Robin in YJ. :/
I was about to remind you that once an animated show goes off the air, it NEVER comes back in the same form it was in before.
Then I remembered Futurama.
Still though, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Is it the tone of Teen Titans you miss so much, or what? Because DC shows seem to move in cycles of light and dark. Right now, they seem to be in a dark (or at least serious) phase. They’ll turn around at some point.
Teen Titans didn’t have a tone. It would bounce from the zaniest of cartooniness to so dark and serious you’re amazed it got on tv (and back) in a handful of episodes.
Perhaps that’s the problem. Whatever cycles you’re talking about can’t keep up.
Kind of like the Young Justice comic, then.
Anyway, I’d rather have the schizophrenic nature of the Teen Titans cartoon than the consistent serious darkness of Young Justice (the show) or middle-of-the-road stuff like Green Lantern. But then, at least I have the shorts.
Wasn’t that cancelled due to a scene in the movie they made for it?
I never heard that – explain, please?
I always assumed it was canceled because season 5 couldn’t match season 4 and thus the fickle and capricious gods of show cancellation just decided to axe it. Kids-targeted animation rarely makes it even that long anyway.
No. The show was ended because it reached 65 episodes, the magic number for kids’ tv. The movie came out after the final season. Plus that doesn’t even make sense that they would cancel the show when they could just not release or edit the movie.
If I recall correctly, CN ordered five seasons of the show shortly after the first episode aired. So, I think they knew what they were doing. Five years does make some sense for a 6-11 demographic show. The kids who started watching it in the beginning when they were 6 would be 11 and ready to move on by the time the show ended.
I just started getting caught up with Young Justice in the last month, so this news is sad.
Also, I’m still cautiously optimistic about the time jump. Yes it’s infuriating, but I’ll give it a chance to prove to me that this will work.
YJ toys failed at retail for one reason: PRICE.
I wound up passing on Aqualad, Sportsmaster and Artemis 6″ figures because they cost too much. $21-$23 for a fourth-tier character all because it has a base? That’s way too much money when compared to cheaper WWE action figures. Plus kids like wrestlers more than superheroes.
And the 4″ were $11-$13 a piece. That’s way too much money compared to Joes, Marvel universe, and even some of the basic transformers.
And DC toys have had poor sales for three reasons. Price, Character selection (So many pegwarmers of Jonah Hex, Mercury Creeper and ever other D-lister) and poor quality control. YJ figures can’t stand up and DC Universe classics often break easy or just have flaws like two right biceps, or two right thighs.
Things have gotten so bad with DC Comics product that the only way to get em’ is through a Matty subscription or a China auction.
I haven’t seen the 4-inch scale figures for more than $8. Which is still a little ridiculous, mind, considering you can get an $8 Marvel figure that has thrice the sculpting detail and articulation.
8-9 was the usual range I saw them as. Still it was a bit much considering that every other toyline in that price range was better in sculpting and articulation. I wish they had either ditched the piece of the Hall of Justice and put more money towards sculpting or took that away to lower the price. Either probably would have helped the line a bit.
Here in NYC they were retailing $11.99- at TRU and Target $14.99 at LCS here. Made me walk away.
I feel it’s kind of cheatsy to include comic book store prices in appraisals of how much things cost.
Eh? How else would you get them?
Unless there’s a way to get them direct from the source without any kind of a retail markup. Which I guess would be fine for adult collectors, but how would kids get hold of them?
Comic book stores are specialty stores, meaning that they have higher prices in exchange for better selection. Basically, because their prices are higher they keep the product for longer than the stores like Target and Walmart, which have better prices but less of a selection of older product. So comic book stores are always goon to have higher prices on toys than major chains such as Target, which is why including them is unfair.
It’s the same business model as Suncoast Video or FYE. Which have closed down because the Internet offers the selection of a specialty store with the prices of a discount store. Usually. Toys don’t seem to be particularly cheap there either.
Well, really they just have higher prices because they usually have to pay more for the product. Mega-store ordering at large bulk can get toys at a better discount than a small comic store.
There’s a chicken and the egg thing going on here. They have that business model because they can’t do the bulk buys necessary to get the discounts.
No one better tell Robin what Lobdell did with Artemis in the comics.
Mr. Burton did it to himself when he guest-starred on a show like Community.
On that note, can’t wait for Phoenix ComicCon. I’ll have to swing by the Willis table as Inspector Spacetime.
i never saw them period not even at wal mart and we have 2 here
Aww… I bought them. And I was really looking foward to owning Blue Beetle, Robin (Tim Drake), and Wonder Girl…
Wow, she even has a shirt with Spitfire on it? A shipper and hardcore Artemis fan. Apparently I have more in common with Robin than previously thought. There aren’t enough female action figures, and Artemis could make an awesome one. I hope Robin does take her revenge.
…there are plenty of young justice Artemis figures. Unless she’s talking about the 1:18 line but those have such crappy articulation who cares?
My wife cares, ‘cuz the six inch guys include the ugliest Robin ever and an unreleased Kid Flash who’s not much less ugly. Sure, there’s a six-inch Artemis, but she can only hang out with a pair of gremlins.