DC comics has a bad rap these days for making movies that tend to disappoint their fans. Sure their writers tend to pick twists that don’t really surprise anyone, but it doesn’t help when they have one other big group of people to worry about: the people who are in charge of making their licensed toys. So much goes into making a movie and so many things are communicated through the grapevine that sometimes movie studios and toy companies don’t see eye to eye.
Toy companies are more interested in sales and production than they are in keeping company secrets. Meanwhile, movies try to make characters for the toy companies to use without giving away too much about their projects. But then you get these toys, Lego sets, and action figures.
These toys gave away more than they probably intended. From the final bad guy and subsequent fight to individual scenes, this list has quite a few spoilers. (Spoilers as in toys that spoil their movie; not spoilers for any upcoming projects, save for one at the very end). I tend to believe that toy companies are getting on the bandwagon before the reviews come out so that they at least have a couple of extra bucks in their wallet, particularly in the case of Green Lantern.
Whether it was a miscommunication or deliberate spoiling, we’ll never know. Either way, here are things to try to avoid when going shopping for toys before a big DC movie comes out in theaters.
20 You Need To Parallax
It’s crazy to think that at one point in time, people were excited about the Green Lantern movie. Fans were buzzing with speculation about what all the movie would include. One thing stopped the one surprise that might have been able to give the movie a shred of hope: the toy line for the movie. It seems they couldn’t wait until after Green Lantern hit theaters to release the Parallax toy. This told everyone that Hal Jordan’s greatest nemesis was going to be in the film when other promotional didn’t. I guess they saw earnings early?
19 Gone But Not Forgotten
Okay, I don’t think this really counts as a spoiler because refusing to bring back Superman for Justice League would have angered the fan base more than all of the other recent Superman movies combined.
Superman will always come back.
But the fact that DC was trying to play it up as if he weren’t going to return made for a spoiler in many of their toys. One of them was a set that had Batman and Superman teaming up to fight against their villain, Steppenwolf. That whole set was trouble, as you’ll see later on in the list.
18 Lego My Ending!
Lego is nearly infamous for revealing spoilers too soon, and this one is no different. This set included Batman’s airship, telling fans how our favorite vigilante was going to approach his battle against Steppenwolf. By giving everyone a peek at the new ship, it made the third act lose its bang, as it meant that Batman wasn’t going to be using any of his skills. Just his piloting would be showcased in the final showdown, which is a little disappointing.
17 Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow
After seeing a toy of Lex Luthor completely bald, in a prison uniform and in chains for the movie Batman v Superman, spoilers came out. For all of the promotional material, Jesse Eisenberg’s Luthor had hair.
Lex’s bald toy could only mean that he would transform before the end.
While being bald is Luthor’s iconic look and fans knew it had to happen eventually, the toy told them that it would be sometime during Batman v Superman. A small detail, sure, but a spoiler is a spoiler and most fans do not like them.
16 Who Is That Masked Person?
The Batman animated series is one of the best created by DC. I don’t think there will be many arguments there. When it got its own straight to DVD movie, Batman: The Mask of The Phantasm, they made toys to go along with it too. Unfortunately, as is par for the course, it seems is the fact that there had to be a spoiler with one of the toys. The whole point of the movie is to figure out who the Phantasm is, as they present quite the trouble for Bruce. This toy revealed the identity of the Phantasm.
15 Man Of Vinyl
Once again, this isn’t actually all that much of a spoiler because of two reasons: anyone could tell you DC wouldn’t allow Superman to be gone forever, and the toy in question is a Funko Pop. They labelled him specifically as a Justice League figure, and put him as part of a collection, even though DC was doing its best to lead viewers on as if Superman wasn’t going to be part of the film. No one fell for it though, and the figure has been lumped together with all of the others without consideration for spoilers.
14 Another Plot Thread
2017’s Wonder Woman seemed to have everything going for it: a fantastic set of actors both known and unknown, a great female director at the helm and a marketing team that focused on what was important.
Ares was one of the worst kept secrets.
But they seemed to miss one very important detail in preparing audiences for the movie: keeping the villain a secret. Toys of all different kinds made sure to feature Ares, even though he was supposed to be a surprise for the audience. Maybe for the sequel?
13 Kryptonite What?
What do you do when you’re a gazillionaire and aliens that are weak to a rare space rock threaten your planet? Collect as much as humanly possible and make ways to defend yourself, of course! Batman is the kind of person to have contingency plans just in case any one of his superhuman friends goes rogue (and even one for himself). He would want to be prepared as possible. That’s why the toy that shows Batman using kryptonite bullets was a spoiler. (More on his moral code later).
12 Out Of Stepp(enwolf)
We all know that DC and Marvel are on completely different levels. Marvel has been working for the past 10 years to achieve their cinematic universe. DC is a little behind the times. But when their Justice League movie came out, fans were expecting Darkseid to be the villain, as he is the league’s main headache. When a Lego set showed the villain to be Steppenwolf, however, fans were less than amused. Understandably, the movie didn’t do as well, and I think Lego is partially responsible. (But only a little).
11 It’s Not Easy Being Green
Surprise, surprise, Green Lantern is on this list once again. This time the toy set revealed the addition of the character, Krona. In this case, Krona was in none of the promotional products in order to help keep the surprise for the audience.
Krona’s only time in merchandising was toys.
It gets hard to sell toys though when one of the major characters can’t be used. If you really want to avoid spoilers, put it in your licensing contract with the toy companies. Loopholes are everywhere, friends.
10 A Final Setpiece
The Aquaman movie coming out soon has been drawing quite a bit of attention ever since it was announced. With a newly designed and more serious Aquaman, it’s looking like it’ll be a pretty good film. Unfortunately, Lego is at it again. There was a set released showing the final showdown in Atlantis. Part of the set shows off Mera’s inclusion in the fight, which was the answer to a lot of her character’s usefulness. Hopefully, the movie will have a few more surprises. We guess that only time will tell, as this movie has not yet been released.
9 A Bat-Themed Joke
The movie Suicide Squad had the makings to be fairly good. With good actors and an interesting premise, it could have helped the DCEU. Unfortunately, it HAD to include Jared Leto as the Joker, simply because he’s a big name for the box office. So you can imagine the hype that was created when a Joker-colored Batsuit came out as a toy. Super cool, but it should have been saved for the movie as a reveal. It may have helped the film. We guess that not even the toys could save this trainwreck of a film in the end.
8 Another Green Man
Because Man of Steel was an origin story, the destruction of Krypton was a gimme. Fans of the comic knew that General Zod would show up at some point, but one other Kryptonian’s inclusion was a surprise.
Nam Ek’s inclusion took everyone by surprise.
Nam Ek was included in the villainous three, but he didn’t get much time in any of the trailers or promotional materials. He did get an unwanted spotlight in toy form though, which ruined a surprise for moviegoers. Which was a shame, since it could have been a good reveal if it hadn’t been ruined.
7 A Bit Of Homework
Jor-El is Superman’s dad, which is no surprise to anyone, but to see his entire character arc written out on the back of an action figure’s box.
Jor-El didn’t have much mystery, thanks to this particular toy.
While most of it is second nature to Superman fans, it was disappointing to learn that half of the movie could be summed up in just a few sentences, throwing out any possibilities of learning something new in the reboot. That just goes to show that sometimes it is best to read the fine print.
6 A Break From Tradition
Earlier I talked about how Batman started hoarding kryptonite in the movie Batman v Superman. When they released a toy that was a Batgun, people lost their mind. The gun itself was partly a spoiler because Batman would be seen using a gun. But the bigger issue with it was the fact that Batman was breaking his moral code. He never uses guns in his battles because he doesn’t like to end people. It raised a lot of questions and rustled a lot more tempers. DC just never seems to learn when it comes to releasing toys related to their films.
5 Zero To Hero
When Aquaman was created, comics weren’t allowed to show too much violence. So, even though Aquaman has arguably one of the coolest powers, he’s been the tail end of jokes for years. His green and orange outfit really haven’t done much to help his image.
A toy was the first to show off this version of Aquaman, as portrayed in the Justice League film.
But before Jason Momoa’s take on the character, audiences really didn’t know what to expect a live-action Aquaman would look like. You can look no further than the toy that spoiled the look for everyone.
4 Everything Is (Almost) Awesome
Lego can’t seem to help spoil a ton of movies… including their own! Before the Lego Batman movie came out, you could get yourself a scuttler, which was one of the ships used in the movie. The writing on the back unfortunately gave away the fact that Commissioner Gordon was retiring, a fairly large plot point in the movie. It’s only ironic that the actual product would give away the story for a movie that is literally a commercial for the product that is spoiling it. There really wasn’t an excuse for this one; it was just bad planning.
3 A Cyborg Bat
This isn’t technically a spoiler simply because the new animated Batman series isn’t quite out yet. However, this toy came from San Diego’s Comic Con Artist Alley this year and featured the H.A.R.D.A.C. cyborg Batman, painting a grim setting for our favorite detective vigilante. It’s based on a comic where there are a lot more cyborgs. Given that we’ve seen spoilers come out of artist alley before, it’ not too crazy to think that the new animated series could be just as gritty as the new Titans show.
2 A Washed Up Bat
Once again, Suicide Squad is up to bat with another spoiler-filled toy. This time it was a Batman figure with a breathing apparatus. Before we had seen the movie, we had no idea about the little dip Batman would take in pursuit of Harley Quinn and the Joker.
Batman’s inclusion in the film was revealed by a toy.
That part of the movie hadn’t been shown in the trailers yet, so why they decided to unveil the figure at the 2016 toy fair is a little strange. Still, it got people wondering if Bats would be taking a dip.
1 Two Sides To The Story
The Dark Knight was one of Christopher Nolan’s masterpieces, and easily the most popular of the trilogy. It was the rise of Two-Face, the once amiable Harvey Dent. Before the movie came out though, you had the opportunity to buy a Two-Face figure. Harvey has one face for most of the movie and doesn’t adopt his iconic look until the very end of the film. But having seen the figure, you’d know the Joker wasn’t the only baddie Batman was going to have to deal with.
