Toy Line Deep Dive: Funko's DC Primal Age.

DC Primal Age Logo

Debuting in 2018, Funko Toys (in partnership with Warner Bros and DC Entertainment) launched a 5.5-inch toy line with a fantasy-inspired take on the classic DC characters and their universe.

This new universe would take those characters and redesign them in the 1980s barbarian action figure styling and put them all in a savage world (more on this phrase in future article) of swords and sorcery.

This bold new toy line boasted fourteen action figures, three beast mounts (think Battle Cat and Panthor), and a single playset spread across two waves of figures while other waves were planned with an additional twelve figures (two waves worth), two beast mounts, and another playset (with included bonus figure) but we never saw anything beyond the initial two waves (the additional figures, mounts, and playset were cancelled and only exist as concept art).

Aesthetic

This new Primal Age line would pull heavy inspiration of 5.5-inch barbarian styled action figures (Think He-Man from Masters of the Universe). They would use highly exaggerated posing with chunky 5.5-inch bodies, flesh tones, armor, swords, shields, animal companions, and of course, loincloths.

Concept Art/Production Sample Gallery

It's interesting to see how some figures remained true to their concept art, but others had major changes made to them before reaching production samples.

Gallery:

Wave 1 (2018) - Figures, Mounts, and Playset (Pictures courtesy of Figure Realm)

Heroes:

• Batman

• Wonder Woman

• Aquaman

• Green Lantern

Gallery:

Villains:

• The Joker

• Scarecrow

• King Shark

• Mr Freeze

Gallery:

Mounts:

• Ace the Bat-Hound

• Joker Beast

Gallery:

Playset

• Batcave

Gallery:

Wave 2 (2019) - Figures and Mount

(Pictures courtesy of Figure Realm)

Heroes:

• Superman

• The Flash

Gallery:

Villains:

• Bizzaro

• Black Manta

• Lex Luthor

Gallery:

Mount:

• Krypto the Superdog

Gallery:

Unreleased/Cancelled Figures, Mounts, and Playset

Beyond the initial, first two waves, nothing else was released for the toy line but there were twelve more figures, one more mount, and one more playset planned.

Figures

Heroes:

• Batman (ninja)

• Cyborg

• Green Arrow

• Shazam

• Supergirl

Gallery:

Villains:

• Ares

• Black Flash

• Cat Woman

• Cheetah

• Deathstroke

• Doomsday

Gallery:

Mount:

• Hammerhead Shark

The Hammerhead Shark was reported to have been planned to come with a repainted Aquaman, however I've never seen any artwork of said Aquaman.

Gallery:

Playset:

Fortress of Solitude

This playset is a real gut punch because it looks utterly amazing. While it wouldn't have been nearly as impressive (in size) to the Batcave playset, it had that small Masters of the Universe Fright Zone playset feel.

It would have been a smaller, one-sided playset with a character change feature. You would place either the included Clark Kent figure or Superman (sold separately), insert the Super Key, twist the key and the playset would switch the figure out to it's counterpart.

As mentioned above, the playset would come with a Clark Kent figure who is re-imagined as a blacksmith for the Primal Age, but it would also include a Shielded Kryptonite Storage pedestal, as well as the Bottled City of Kandor.

The playset itself would have been seen it molded in two different plastics. The main playset, base, chamber, and pedestals would have all been molded in a white ABS plastic while the background ice would have been molded in light blue, clear ABS plastic.

The Super Key would have been molded in metallic gold plastic and the domes of the two pedestals would have been clear plastic. My speculation is that the kryptonite pieces would have been multicolored clear plastic, and the City of Kandor likely would have been a metallic gold as well.

As a Superman and Masters of the Universe fan, this playset would have been right up my alley. When I saw the concept art of it for the first time, I immediately had thoughts of the Horde's Slime Pit and Fright Zone playsets from Masters of the Universe, both smaller (both in size and price point) playsets but highly sought after by fans.

Gallery:

I personally love this line; I was a bit late to the party on these figures as I didn't start buying them until 2020 when I started collecting Masters of the Universe Origins. I thought they were great compliments to Masters of the Universe figures and even the Batcave playset was a perfect alternate or stand in to Castle Grayskull and it's a shame these figures didn't really take off.

The lack of quality control on the line is ultimately what lead to poor sales and the end of this line. I went through 4 different Aquaman figures before I found one that wasn't already broken or had poor paint applications. The figures themselves are really fragile, and it was very easy to break a joint on them.

I would also personally like to thank Reis O'Brien, the designer for the DC Primal Age toy line, for providing all of the concept art for the mainline as well as the unreleased items. If you want to check out what he's currently work on, you can head over to his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reisobrien/