NS - Mattel's "DC Super Hero Girls" toys revealed

[icon_uk]

I've mentioned this series in posts in the past, but it still seems relevant to the group, and to those looking for some actual female focussed superhero items for younger family members, or even for yourselves (I'm in no position to judge another person's toy collection heaven knows). The dolls and action figures have now been shown in packaging.



Here are the fashion dolls (Click to embiggen)





And here are the slightly smaller action figures (Don't click to embiggen because they're not linked)



And the High School playset



Oh, and a full length version of the theme song

"Get Your Cape On Lyric Video | DC Super Hero Girls" (Watch on YouTube)

 

Comments

[dragontail]

Tragically for our home, these come just slightly too late for our kidlet (who, being 11 and having grown up without super hero dolls, vastly prefers action figures and is now transitioning to what she calls "true collectibles" because she's going tween on us). Even a year ago, she would have been mad for the figures and maybe one or two of the dolls.

I think they're great and hope they sell by the truckload. If they can capture the same eyes as those that love Ever After High and (especially) Monster High, I've faith they will.

EDITED TO ADD: I'm going to try to sell her on the Harley and Ivy figures regardless, given they're her favourite DC couple.

[bradygirl_12]

These are great! I'd love them myself. Glad to see Ivy included. :)

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Super-heroine toys for girls?

The world's gone mad, mad I say!

[lilacsigil]

I would have been obsessed with these from ages 7-12 or so. I collected Star Wars figures and I don't think it was a coincidence that, despite there being few women in the movie, I had lots of Leia figures and robots. I unilaterally decided (my brother shared the collection) that all the robots were female except C3PO who had a male voice in the movies. I later collected the X-Men Animated Series action figures which had a surprisingly high proportion of female figures.

Having an entire line of action figures? I'm still kind of sad how segregated toys are, like DC toys are "for boys" except for this one extra line to excuse them from having to have female figures in the general lines.

[q99]

I like that this line exists, but it seems like forever ago that it was first announced, so I'm kinda curious about the gap.

Well, as long as it's out now.

[lyricalswagger]

I want some.

[cyberghostface]

lol at Harley Quinn being there.

[chalicother]

Makes more sense than Posion Ivy.

[cyberghostface]

I could actually see Ivy as a hero more than Harley.

[kamino_neko]

So, the genocidally misanthropic one is potentially a hero, but the psychotic who actually has been a (not always overly competent) hero multiple times is not?

[janegray]

Yep. Because Ivy is generally faily consistent, and while her methods are abhorrent she is motivated by the objectively good desire to protect the environment. Thus, if she could just tone down her horrid method, she could easily be a anti-hero (see: all the stories set during the Earthquake event when she takes care of orphans, a couple of Gail Simone stories where she sympathizes with people who were used as guinea pigs and helps Batgirl take down the company that did it, a Sirens story where she does her best to help Catwoman bear the grief of losing her baby, etc etc).

Harley is all over the place. She goes from rescuing innocent civilians in one story, to causing huge riots where male guards are literally butchered and female guards are exchanged between prisoners like currency so she can break out the Joker. In one story she saves the city, in the next she hides explosives in videogames to blow up hundreds of children for shit & giggles. In the same story she goes from helping the Joker nuke a city to helping the heroes take down a dictator.

Ivy is like a cannon: FAR too brutal and prone to massive collateral damage, but at least you can tell where it's pointing and you can get it to point at a legit threat. Harley is like nitroglycerine, you never know if it's gonna blow up in your face.

[kamino_neko]

Yes, Ivy is consistent - consistently malevolent.

She is sane, and calculatedly evil.

Harley, on the other hand, is psychotic. Medicate her, and you've got a stable, goodhearted woman.

A medicated Harley is a potential hero. There is no way to turn Ivy into one.

[janegray]

Ivy is not consistently malevolent, as shown by the stories where she helps people. And even in her standard stories, while she most definitely goes WAYYYYYYYHOLYSHITWAYYYYYYYYY too far, she is still motivated by the objectively noble goal of wanting to protect the environment.

You are assuming Harley can be medicated. Given her history (she has spent a lot of time in Arkahm, where presumably she got therapy and drugs and they never helped), as well as the history of villains in general in the DCU (if you are a psycho you stay a psycho, redemption never sticks), I would say that's unlikely at best.

[kamino_neko]

Ivy doesn't want to protect the environment. She wants to protect plants.

3/4 of the species on Earth can go hang, at best - they deserve to be destroyed, at worst.

Ivy is a genocidal, evil creature.

the history of villains in general in the DCU (if you are a psycho you stay a psycho, redemption never sticks)

You try to pull this against Harley, while claiming that Ivy, who has repeatedly denigrated animals, and humans specifically, as being good for nothing but fertilizer, can be redeemed, because her motives are 'good'?

[janegray]

You are just going to keep ignoring the part where Ivy has canonically saved people, are you?

Yep. Well-Intentioned Extremists trumps Chaos Agent Who Acts At Random in my book.

By all means, feel free to disagree :)

[kamino_neko]

Yeah, we're not going do much to change each other's minds, clearly. Agree to Disagree it is.

But, to answer your question I am going to ignore it, because it's an anomaly, which is 180 degrees away from her common characterization. Whereas Harley as a goodhearted person who's just off the beam in a dangerous way is the common characterization (frex, both her solo series work this idea from different angles), and actively evil characterizations are the anomaly.

(Also, Harley being a good medication regimen away from being a functional good guy is also canonical - see Convergence: Harley Quinn.)

[icon_uk]

ivy very much wants to protect the environment, very much so, she appreciates the value of the ecosystem. Insects and birds and the like she has no problem with because they maintain and propogate the ecosystems her beloved plants require.

AFAIK it's only humans she has a problem with, because humans keep frelling up ecosystems left and right, more effectively than any other species in history. So it's only humans that are an active threat to the world she wants to create.

[kamino_neko]

That's a point she's less consistent on, to be sure, but I think the bulk comes out on the side of 'who cares about animals' - I've seen it both played for laughs (from the Harley and Ivy miniseries, paraphrased: 'Harley, don't drive over those plants.' 'What about that monkey?' 'Knock yourself out.') and seriously (the Animal Man/Swamp Thing crossover near the end of both series had her railing against the Red, I believe).

Logically, of course, she should care about at least some animals, since they're important to maintaining plant ecology (as pollinators, spreaders of the seeds, etc), but she's not really been written with that logic in the forefront, IME.

[icon_uk]

In Convergence we see the pre-Flashpoint Harley who when trapped under the dome basically went through what should have happened to to her long ago.

She started therapy, she was prescribed medication and had no Joker messing with her head. She started to recover and lead a more normal life and even when the meds ran out because of the city being isolated, she was able to lead a more or less normal life.

Like everyone else with abilities, Ivy loses her powers and becomes Pamela Isely again, but just like in the Earthquake situation, she becomes a key figure in helping keep Gotham fed, since she is still a genius level botanist.

So there might be hope for them both, well, pre-Flashpoint at any rate.

[kamino_neko]

Hmm. You know, I had forgotten Ivy's using her botanical skills for good in Convergence.

I still class helpful Ivy as an anomaly in her characterization, but I suppose I have to admit it's a more common anomaly than I was thinking earlier in this discussion.

[merchantfan]

Yeah, I think Ivy is nastier at heart than Harley. Maybe there's a reality where Harleen imprinted on Batman instead of the Joker and she's more of a Speedball pre-Civil War.

[thezmage]

A medicated Harley is also virtually unrecognizable from canon Harley.

[cyberghostface]

Ivy has a somewhat altruistic motive of protecting nature, Harley enjoys killing people for fun.

[chalicother]

When thinking about it...yeah...I see it to. Though looking at Scansdaily, many members don't even see Harley even pre-New 52 as a villain for some reason.Popularity trumps history.

[icon_uk]

IIRC Bruce Timm and Paul Dini created her to be the funny one, so the Joker could get nastier and creepier whilst she did the comedy schtick that Joker episodes usually call for.

[chalicother]

Then explain Harley in Return of the Joker?

[icon_uk]

The commentary track on that movie actually goes into some detail about that. This was to be the last continuity appearance of Harley as a character, so they knew they could do things with the character that they couldn't/wouldn't before. They could make her actually evil and not have to worry about what that would do to her "rep" long term.

Even allowing what she did to Tim was hideous, Paul Dini desperately wanted to keep her alive (since he viewed her creation as being one of his biggest contributions to the Batman mythos), but Bruce Timm and everyone else involved viewed her involvement in the scheme as being fundamentally unforgiveable (Far more cruel than anything else we'd seen her do directly) and felt she had to be killed off.

This is why she DOES die at the end of the flashback, adding her in at the end of the movie was Dini making his displeasure manifest, and it was left in because it added a moment of comic relief.

[randyripoff]

Bumblebee seems an odd choice.

[chalicother]

To be fair, out of the dark skinned or at least black super heroines , Bumble Bee has had the most exposure. She was showed in Teen Titans as part of Teen Titans East and had a possible romantic tease with Cyborg. Then in Young Justice, while Rocket joined the team before Season 2, Bumble had an arc in which she interacted with another character, Mal.

[randyripoff]

True, but Vixen also has a very high profile. Of course, this also points to a particular lack of superheroines of color in the DC universe. Still, I suppose I should be happy that there's some representation.

[thezmage]

I think that the edge goes to Bumblebee because she's more toyetic. Basically, she's got wings, where all Vixen has is a necklace.

[chalicother]

Does she really? She has Justice League, Batman Brave and the Bold, a animated arrow series, and going to appear on Arrow.Though DC looks to be smartly ignoring Arrow influence, apart from New 52 Green Arrow. Justice League she was in a love triangle, which in the character not a apart of the official ship, gets not the best treatment. I haven't watch all of Brave and the Bold, but still Bumble Bee has had promotion for kids and more recently. Also the name Vixen.....may sound too sexual (not my opinion, but it's a possibility).

[thezmage]

So, thanks for reminding me that this exists. I do really like the Supergirl figure.

Just watched the series, however, and while I fully recognize that I am not the target audience, I wasn't a big fan. I don't think turning Poison Ivy into, basically, Fluttershy makes a whole lot of sense. Although I have to give Wonder Woman credit for one thing: throwing him as far away from you as possible is the appropriate thing to do when meeting Hal Jordan.

[kamino_neko]

Could use more variety in the face molds, but...pretty nice.

... And LOLing a bit at Kara's accessory being her cape....

[kamino_neko]

Huh. Just noticed the Harley doll doesn't give her the bangs. That's disappointing, since otherwise the doll works a lot better than the fig.

[crimsonmoonmist]

I might actually pick up some of the smaller figures (Supergirl in particular).

[merchantfan]

Oh, those are super cute! Not sure why they included Harley and Ivy, but I like how practical their outfits look. And so many characters! Yay!

[icon_uk]

The school they go to also has more than a few villains as "Bad girls" at the school, in the usual "selfish, greedy, vain" sort of role

Harley and Ivy seem to be less completely villainous than say, Cheetah, but Harley is a definite "wild child" (And Wonder Woman's roomie) and Ivy is a burgeoning plant-obsessed eco activist.

[lb_lee]

Huh, cute! I have a friend who's into Monster High, I'm wondering if she might appreciate these, I'll have to tell her.

Though man, those toys are REALLY making me realize how the sameface for cartoonish women is the small pointed chin, big eyes, heart-shaped face.

[dustbunny105]

"Get Your Cape On" seems an odd theme song when most characters in the line don't wear capes with their costumes.

[icon_uk]

I miss heroes wearing capes, they always added a suitably dramatic flair.

Not to say that there aren't exceptions of course

[junipepper]

Babs speaks for us all.

[grumman]

Looks like they've got proper articulation, which is nice. More than I can say for those cheapskates at Hasbro who went back to five points of articulation on most of their Star Wars figures.