Support Shawn's writng with a donation

Monday, November 7, 2016

It’s Time For Archie Comics Classics Action Figures!



Over the last fifteen years practially every comic book property has had an action figure line or an action figure. Marvel Comics has Marvel Legends. DC Comics had DC Universe Classics. Even indie characters like Witchblade, Shi, Dick Tracy, and Monkeyman & O’Brien have had their own action figures. However, there’s been one major comic book character who hasn’t made the transition from comic page to plastic:

Archie Andrews.

Archie and the gang from Riverdale are LONG overdue for a super-poseable six-inch action figure line. Archie is an iconic comic book property that’s been a part of American culture for generations. Kids know who Archie is. Adults know who Archie is. You’d think with every comic book character getting an action figure line and selling like hotcakes some company would have gone out of their way and given us Archie Legends or Archie Comics Classics toy line.

 But for the past fifteen years toy collectors have gotten…Nothing.

I don’t know if it’s a licensing issue. Or if the Archie Comics’ owners don’t want to take advantage the booming action figure market.  Or if toy companies just don’t want to take the risk on Archie. But with smaller toy companies like Super 7 and NECA raking in millions on all sorts of properties like He-Man and even old video games like Contra, I’d like to think someone would have given us an Archie Comics Classics toy line already. It’s money in the bank.

I know there’d be lots of people ready to buy a six-inch super poseable Archie along with Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie. And lots more who’d buy Josie and the Pussy Cats with their instruments packed in. And even a few more to buy a super-poseable six-inch scaled Sabrina The Teenage Witch with Salem packed in.

And maybe if the line does well over a couple of waves maybe we could get some obscure characters like Lil’ Jinx, That Wilkin Boy, and…Pepper!

Archie Comics Classics is a toy line that probably wouldn’t cost that much money. Tooling up a couple of basic buck bodies wearing casual clothes wouldn’t be that expensive. A smart toy company owner could probably mix and match torsos, overlays, and paints to make variants of characters from different eras in the Archie’s history like 50’s Archie (Classic plaid pants and “R” Sweater), and Archie as Pureheart the Powerful and Jughead as Captain Hero. Even toss in a few swappable heads for different facial expressions and different characters.

The possibilities for Archie Comics Classics are endless. I can see a dozen ways to easily sell Build-A-Figures of larger characters like Big Moose or Big Ethel by mixing and matching Archie characters from different eras. Or diorama pieces like Pop Tate’s Cho’klit shop and parts of Riverdale High. All it takes is for some creative toy executive to have the vision to take the Archie Comics property and bring it to toy stores.

With the TV show Riverdale coming to CW soon, I’d think there’d be some plans to get some merchandise out to to take advantage of the Archie brands’ exposure to the public. With there being six-inch plastic versions of every character out there from Superheroes to wrestlers and video game characters, this is the right time for Archie to launch a toy line. I’d love to have a six-inch scale version of Archie and the gang to hang out with Superman, Batman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Hulk and John Cena on my Toy shelf. Make it happen Archie Comics!

2 comments:

  1. Shawn, Donald Trump won the election.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. blog on it: http://shawnsjames.blogspot.com/2016/11/donald-trump-is-president-wtf.html

      Delete