L.E. Becker of WARP 9 in Clawson, Michigan writes in to share his displeasure with the current state of DC Direct products.

I was just glancing at the previews for the DC Direct products that are coming out for September solicitation, and I am just shaking my head, wondering, who in charge decided that out of five products, only ONE is original, and the rest are reissues/repaints/revisions of OLDER product.  Do we really need a repaint (a third one actually) of the Jim Lee Batman statue?  Does anyone really want a White (Black) Canary or Black (Jessie Quick) Flash Ame-Comi figures?  Okay, I admit the Mike Mignola repaint of the Batman: Black & White Statue is cool, but C'MON DC!!!

What used to be innovative collectible items, just now feel like a waste of my ordering time.  DC Direct product just never ships on time, has inferior quality, or are just lacking in originality.  And ANY DC Direct product line that IS successful, especially in the secondary market, has its retail price jacked up by a minimum of 20% after at least 1 year.  Best case in point is the Cover Girls of the DC Universe statue series by Adam Hughes.  $100.00 was reasonable given the talent involved, although the quality got a little sloppy at the end (I am talking about the mass production aspect, NOT Mr. Hughes' renderings).  Bad paint jobs, poor assembly (Poison Ivy is a HORRIBLE piece to set up), weak structure (out of an initial 10 Power Girl statues ordered, 5 came in with broken ankles).  So the obvious answer... jack up the product to $125.00 starting with the Adam Hughes' Raven statue.

The reissue of the Black & White Mike Mignola Batman Statue?  When it originally was solicited, the SRP was $45.00 (back in 2004 I believe).  Now I know price of materials have gone up, but NOT to the point where it is DOUBLE (SRP for the new statue is $95.00)!!!  Are the royalties that Mignola will make from this supposed to pay for a new Hellboy movie or Amazing Screw-On Head animated feature?

Or maybe the real reason for these insane price hikes (and reproductions), is because someone is seeing the after market prices on some of these older pieces and figure "well shucks, if they will pay $400+ for the original, why not bump it up to $95.00 to cover our costs."  Or, it could also be the higher ups saying "hey... we're not sure if this 'holding the line at $2.99' is really helping... let's increase the cost on our dc direct items to make us a bit more profitable."

DC, business is tough enough already without you rehashing old ideas from the premier comics DIRECT line and charging up the wahzoo.  We need FRESH product line and QUALITY produced items.  If you cannot or will not do this, then just stop.  Retire the DC Direct line and license out your characters.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.