McFarlane Toys

Hey guys, quick question...what happened to McFarlane Toys?

Only asking because I collected everything they put out in the 90's and stopped after their AvP figures. I moved onto Gentle Giant and Sideshow and recently realized that I haven't really seen anything that they've put out recently. After checking Spawn.com I realized why...they lost all of their licenses! All they do now are sports figures and Halo stuff. Does anyone know why this happened? Were there quality control issues? Were there bidding wars for licenses that they lost? They were a really good entry point for figures and it's a shame they they're not really relevant anymore.

Thanks!

They picked up Walking Dead and are doing both comic and tv show based figures.

Some bad licensing decisions I think it the biggest culprit. So they streamlined and when where the money was. Halo and SportsPicks.

Looks like they're starting to get back into the swing of things. The Walking Dead line looks decent, and there's talk of another Spawn line 'soon' (although it's been on the horizon for a few years now).

Thanks guys. I somehow missed The Walking Dead stuff but I'll check that out. I do agree that they flooded the market with Spawn variants that I don't think anyone really liked but their movie and horror lines were awesome.

To me this is atrocious looking. Todd used to make amazing looking small scale figures. a decade and a half ago his figures looked twice as good as this garbage.



Jakks does better looking figures than this... I think Ive seen Kinder surprise toys that look more impressive.

It just really shocks me at how little Todd cares about what his company produces.

Things got more expensive as quality went up and they outsourced and downsized and everything went down the crapper.

I have a ton of McFarlane stuff I wish I could sell, but I don't think It would be worth the time to post them, and have none sell...Shame.

Most old stuff isn't even worth the cost of shipping... glad I never got too hardcore into them. But in fairness McFarlane toys were trendsetters and did produce some very impressive figures.

It's a shame really, as I see McToys as the game-changer for collector figures.
I remember I had a heated debate with one of their CR back in the day right before the downfall, telling them they should really step-up their game 'cuz lot's of collectors were starting to move on to better products...
Sometimes I wonder if in 10 years Hot Toys would be in the same situation as McToys is right now?...

galactiboy said:

Most old stuff isn't even worth the cost of shipping... glad I never got too hardcore into them. But in fairness McFarlane toys were trendsetters and did produce some very impressive figures.

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I collected them for awhile when Spawn was still hot, and their horror line was great. But I'm glad I sold off most of them. I only kept 3 Spawn figures and my Army of Darkness figures.

Oh, I also held onto my Where the Wild Things Go figures. Those are still the best!

They were the shee-ot when they went into their "it's not art, it's toys" mode, and when other companies started producing better stuff, they didn't get any better than what they were. Other companies put them to shame, and they refused to up their game to stay competitive with them. So they focused all of their attention into SPs and HALO. Which with those, they can reuse the same old sculpts over, and over, and over, and over, and over ..... you get my point, same sculpt, different head, different paint.

Pretty sad that the creator of Spawn's own toy-line doesn't even make any Spawn figures anymore.

Glad I sold all my McF stuff when it still had some value to it.

Yeah, at one time they were definitely worth something. I remember selling my Metal Gear Solid figures at insane prices. And then there were Spawn figures you couldn't give away.

I sold my AVP figures for a decent price... but the Spawn figures are definitely worthless now... I see tons of boxed figures at cons, F&S and Swap meets... nobody wants them anymore...

It was McFarlane that got me into collecting nearly 10 years ago (10 years ago?!! Yikes!) and I believe it's the same with a lot of people. My first McFarlane purchase was the Movie Maniacs Jaws box set. I loved that thing. Sold it a while ago but it's the one McFarlane toy I've sold that I wish I hadn't. I got twice what I paid for it back, too.

The point of this post? Even though I've moved on from McFarlane and their output isn't as great it was - understatement! - I'll always be grateful to Todd and his company for getting me into collecting in the first place. Oh, and I miss seeing that plastic shark eating a boat in my living room cabinet.

That Jaws set was awesome! So was the Alien Queen.

Yes, the Queen was awesome... sold it years ago too...
I still have some Spawn figures, and some Movie maniacs...
as well as some Tortured Souls...
cannot sell them, so might as well keep them...

Yeah, the Alien Queen was actually my second McFarlane purchase. I had quite a few of the box sets including the Alien and Predator and Kaneda on his bike (from the Akira anime movie). I'm actually having nostalgic pangs now about how I had them all set up. Shame they all had to go, really, but they'll always be a fond memory. Good times.

I used to love McToys.

There Movies Manics line was awesome back in the day. I mostly collect movie figures so getting awesome sculpts of cool movie charters really excited me. I mean where/when are we ever going to get another Snake Pliskin figure?

Sadly I got tired of the mini statues and moved on to some Mezco and finaly found a home with NECA.

I feel NECA is evoloving with the times and Mctoys have been left in the dust. Athough without Mctoys blazing the path it did we wouldn't have the awesome NECA stuff we have today. I kinda see NECA as McToys 2.0 only their changing with the times and are still relvaent.

Hmmm, I've got a box of Movie Maniacs figures I was thinking of selling. Are you guys saying I haven't a hope? I mean if it'd cost more to ship them than what I could make back on them....damn.

cplhicks said:

I used to love McToys.

There Movies Manics line was awesome back in the day. I mostly collect movie figures so getting awesome sculpts of cool movie charters really excited me. I mean where/when are we ever going to get another Snake Pliskin figure?

Sadly I got tired of the mini statues and moved on to some Mezco and finaly found a home with NECA.

I feel NECA is evoloving with the times and Mctoys have been left in the dust. Athough without Mctoys blazing the path it did we wouldn't have the awesome NECA stuff we have today. I kinda see NECA as McToys 2.0 only their changing with the times and are still relevant.

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I don't own any NECA stuff personally but I know exactly where you're coming from. The 1/4 scale Predators NECA just put out are awesome. They definitely took the baton from McFarlane and ran with it, IMO.