Twice a month the gang from Mattel are kind enough to answer five questions from AFi readers.  The Mattel marketing and PR team, have replied with the answers to our latest round of questions that AFi readers have posted in our forums.  There will not be a posting of answers on January 1st as Mattel will still be closed during that time.

Here is our latest round of questions and their answers:

Q1.  What can you tell us about the new Target exclusive “Justice League” figures that are hitting.  They appear to be recycled Batman: The Brave and The Bold figures with the peg-holes filled in.   There is a 7-pack and some singles all painted in the style of the New 52.  Is this a one time thing or is it an ongoing line?  Any chance we’ll see more of the unreleased Brave and the Bold figures (we got the Flash in this line) like Shazam and Dr. Polaris?

A1.  While we know there is a log of fan demand for some of these unreleased figures, but this assortment is not the avenue to deliver them. This JL line at Target is mostly a kid aimed line that yes, does use some redesigned parts from Brave and the Bold. While we are excited this line also appeals to collectors, adult collectors are not the primary target and characters like Dr Polaris don’t really fit into this type of line. We tried offering some unreleased figures form Young Justice as a preorder on Mattycollector.com and did  not get enough pre orders to go into production. That makes it a little harder to try and resurrect other unreleased figures. The demand is very loud online, but doesn’t always translate to enough actual customers to meet our min orders.

Q2.  Why is Beware the Batman a part of the Batman Unlimited line as opposed to the Power Attacks or Evergreen line? Is Mattel concerned at all about the possibility that the “mom + kid” demographic will balk at the pricepoint for figures from a kids’ cartoon?

A2.  Just because we’ve planned for Beware the Batman figures as part of the Batman Unlimited line doesn’t mean that figures from the new series can’t or won’t appear elsewhere in our toy lines.    These figures feature a fabulous new design about which our Design team is very excited!  The great thing about the Batman Unlimited line is that it allows us to pull from all of the sources of Batman content.

Q3.  Can new slimmer/less muscular biceps be made for the Damian Wayne Robin in the Batman Unlimited line? The ones you’ve shown are way off in scale for the figure. Also is there any chance that Damian can get open hands on the final release? Damian is known for using weapons so even if he doesn’t come with them it would be nice to have the option of putting weapons in his hands.

A3. The final figure of Damian Wayne Robin will have open hands to allow you to have him hold weapons.  The NYTF model was an early version.  In terms of his build, that is staying as is.

Q4.  What are the chances of making the capes on the Batman 66 TV figures soft thin, flexible plastic, or at least put more effort into them if they are staying fabric? As they were shown they look like an afterthought and don’t gel well with the rest of the sculpt on the figures.

A4.  Our Design team considered flexible plastic capes, however this posed a challenge for allowing the figures to sit in the Batmobile.  And Batman and Robin need to be able to sit in the Batmobile!  So the solution was fabric capes.

Q5.  Since we’re getting Beware the Batman 6″ figures in the Batman retail line, what are the chances we could get 6″ Green Lantern Aya and Razer figures in theDC Unlimited line or DCIE subscription (either in animated or comic-style)?

A5.  There are so many possibilities for character selection.  You mention some interesting and exciting options!

If you’d like to ask a question for the  January 15th submission then feel free to post your questions in our Mattel Q&A question submissions thread!   Remember they can be about any Mattel product including MOTUC, Ghostbusters, WWE, any of the Mattel DC lines, Voltron and Cars. Twice a month we draw our submission question directly from the ones that AFi readers post.

You can submit new questions in this thread.

Thanks again to the team at Mattel for taking time to answer our questions!