Love the cut out card idea. I don't think the figures need stands though. They just take up unnecessary room on the shelf.

If you notice, Mattel uses the same card backing for all their figures per wave. Regardlessof which figure you buy (i.e. Clayface or Batman) the cardback has the same material printed on it. The only difference lies in the sticker up front which identifies the character inside.

As someone who works in advertising and dabbles in packaging design, this is a cost cutting measure for the company. If they were to make unique cardbacks for each character, it would require them to make printing plates for each one. And this also means separate print runs. Both will jack up the cost big time.

Take note that the sticker labels are also one-color prints.

Odd because they are able to do unique cardbacks for their CARS line and Hasbro does it all the time with Star Wars. I mentioned those two in particular because they entail third party license holders. (As opposed to GI Joe which also has unique cardbacks but is a Hasbro property)

DC Direct also resorts to sticker labels on uniform cardbacks.

I have a feeling the Mattel DCSH has huge overhead costs and/or license fees that force them to cut corners and as such,I doubt they are willing to print unique cardbacks with bios for this very reason.

I support this call for character bios mind you. And I doubt we are open to sticker label bios. My suggestions.

Make the character bios online and have the URL on the sticker.

Obviously I would prefer unique card backs. But after observing how they cut packaging costs, I wanted to voice out a potential glitch in our dream.
In my opinion, Mattel does this to help bring up profit margins and enable them to justify coming out with more obscure characters.

My "online" suggestion is merely a compromise if we can't have the ideal cardbacks.

Very interesting, JamesJesse. Thanks for that info.

I hadn't noticed until recently, but the cardboard backdrops included inside the package... they have all been unique lately for the Bat series. In the Superman series, I think there were two -- one for the heroes, one for the villains. Perhaps this could be eliminated (which we have no idea if these backdrops are to be included in DCUC anyway) in favor of character bios on the cardbacks instead? But, that cost may already be going to accessories (or the BAF) instead.

As long as the figure itself is awesome I'll be happy. The package is important but not as important as what's inside.

They could just use mini stands for all the figures like they do for the female characters. They don't need to break the bank.

Thanks for the info on the individual packing JesseJames. Now I think trading cards are definitely the way to go.

Trading cards are a bad idea--only because Im a card collecting junkie- and that means I would have to buy all the repacks just for the card.

Thing is 99.5% of the card back is identical for each figure in the wave, but each figure's product number and barcode are unique on the card, so each card is unique its just not obvious without close inspection. I'd say they're saving money more by only doing one photograph/main layout than for seperate print runs. My suggestion would be to add the bios to the bubble insert as the inserts are all unique and there is pretty much nothing printed to show through the bottom of the bubble. Or they could be like the GI Joe 2 packs of the last few years where the info is still printed on the insert but it's folded up behind the character in some way...

Barcodes and figure numbers can be set in different print runs and just entail a 1C font change rather than a new 4C plate. The area is left black and can be shot through a different press run for each figure.

I second everything JesseJames said, having designed many toy packages in my day.

However, I think the main difference between Hasbro and Mattel is that Mattel is very mismanaged, is probably fairly bloated in terms of overhead/staff, and just makes misguided decision after misguided decision that leads to more cost overruns or lost sales and that in turns causes them to have such a HUGE profit margin to cover by the best selling brands.

Hasbro constantly is feeding their core base in boys toys and even when they make missteps they immediately change course to adjust to those mistakes. Mattel soldiers on for years before changing course.

Personally, I think they only smart thing they've done is hire the 4 horsemen.

J.

PS This does not necessarily reflect on guys like Texas Ranger, ToyGuru, Boy Wonder, Dan Salazar, etc. who do their best to get the collectors what they want. But in the current corporate culture of Mattel they have to hit those margins first or lose their jobs.

I do remember a couple of years back when the JLU figures had trading cards in them. That might be the solution to bios. The cardbacks cannot be touched due to costs but

If it's a straight up rectangular cut, there would be no need for special die cutting and they can map out plates in accordance with case ratios. A Sheet for instance would have the same number of Superman bios and Firestorm bios as there are figures in the case itself.

Since the number of cases are often in even numbered denominations of four (eg. 4, 6, 12 or 16) cutting and insertion wouldn't be too much of an additional cost.

Holy QFT, Batman! Well said!

Peace,

Chip

Collector friendly to me is being able to find it in stores!

You better believe it. It's hard to enjoy a hobby when you aren't even able to find what you collect.

Here's my quick attempt at some DC Universe Classics packaging. The top part of the card can be cut off and that part will have character bios on the back. Ofcourse, I didn't put any space for the peg hooks.

Nice work, Wildcard!

That's awesome Wildcard. I doubt we'll get anything that nice, though, as Mattel seems to dislike character-specific cards.

Just you watch, some idiot will grab it and post it as official somewhere else, or some e-tailer will post it as "not final" product.