Lines rarely get a proper ending. They get quietly delisted, or the last wave shows up at clearance with two figures missing and nobody says a word. That is not what happened here. On September 1 and 2, McFarlane Toys pushed out preview images and then full reveals for DC Super Powers Wave 16, and the announcement came with a label collectors do not see often: final wave. Pre-orders opened September 3, exclusively through Entertainment Earth, at $80 for the set of six, with shipping estimated for October 2026.
That is a clean, announced finish to a four-year run. It is also the first concrete deadline in a much bigger story: McFarlane's DC license runs out at the end of 2026, and Mattel takes the property from there. If you collect DC figures at any price point, the next four months are the last time the current shelf exists.
What Is Actually in Wave 16
Six figures, all in the line's established 4.5-inch retro format on classic blister cards:
- Martian Manhunter
- The Flash (Silver Age)
- Wonder Girl
- Deathstroke
- Superman (JSA)
- Cyborg (Metallic)
The set-of-six price is $80.00, which works out to roughly $13.33 per figure before any Entertainment Earth promotion. Articulation stays where it has always been for this line, in the neighborhood of five points, which is the point rather than a shortcoming. These figures were built to sit alongside a 1984 Kenner shelf, not a modern seven-inch collector line.
The roster choice is telling. Martian Manhunter and Silver Age Flash are foundational Super Powers characters. Wonder Girl and a JSA Superman are the kind of deep-bench picks a line gets to make when it is confident about its audience. Deathstroke is the commercial anchor. Metallic Cyborg is the variant that will decide whether the case is worth buying whole. A final wave assembled this way looks planned, not dumped.
Why It Is Ending
Nothing about Wave 16 suggests the line failed. Super Powers has been one of the healthier corners of McFarlane's DC output, and the move earlier this year to an Entertainment Earth exclusive arrangement gave it a stable home after the retail shuffle that started it as a Walmart exclusive back in 2022 and opened it up by the fourth wave.
The reason is licensing. McFarlane Toys holds DC through the end of 2026. After that, Mattel takes over. The DC Multiverse name stays with McFarlane until the license expires, and Mattel's line will carry a different banner, DC Universe. Super Powers ends not because it stopped selling, but because the clock on the contract ran out and a 4.5-inch retro line takes lead time that a departing licensee no longer has.
That distinction matters for how you value the last wave. A line killed by weak sales leaves behind cheap inventory. A line ended by a license expiring leaves behind a fixed, permanently closed set.
The Kenner Math
The reason Super Powers built a following is straightforward: it is a completable line in a hobby that has mostly stopped offering those. Every figure is the same scale, the same articulation budget, the same card presentation with updated art built to echo the 1984 Kenner Super Powers Collection. You can put sixteen waves on one shelf and it reads as a single collection rather than a pile of unrelated buying decisions.
That is also why a final wave carries weight here that it would not carry for a 7-inch line with rolling releases. A collector who is fourteen waves deep has a strong reason to close it out. A collector who has never bought one has a rare opportunity: the full checklist is now finite and knowable, which makes it a project with an actual end date rather than a subscription.
What Usually Happens to Prices
Be careful with the assumption that a discontinued line automatically appreciates. The pattern with retro-format figures at this price point is more specific than that, and it splits three ways.
Case-fill figures, the ones everybody gets whether they want them or not, tend to drift below retail on the secondary market for the first year. Nothing about being from a final wave saves a figure people did not want.
Chase and variant treatments behave differently. Metallic Cyborg is the one to watch in this set, because metallic and repaint variants in retro lines historically pull ahead of standard figures once the line is closed and nobody can order more.
Complete sets are the real story. Sealed, complete-wave sets in closed retro lines are what climb, because they are the unit that completionists actually need and the unit that becomes hardest to assemble as loose cases get split. If you are buying with any eye toward value, the set of six at $80 is the sensible position, not a single figure.
The other factor specific to this wave: Entertainment Earth exclusivity means there is no Walmart peg overhang, no big-box clearance event waiting six months out to reset the floor. Whatever gets pre-ordered is roughly what exists.
The Mattel Handoff, As Confirmed
There has been a lot of speculation about the transition, so it is worth separating what is on the record from what is not.
Mattel's kid-facing line is already in motion. A 6.5-inch core DC line launched its first wave in July 2026, with Wave 2 arriving in September 2026, expanding the roster with Green Lantern, Superman, and additional Batman releases. Mattel also revealed a line called Cyber Chaos during SDCC 2026.
The part collectors care about is later. Mattel's DC collector product is scheduled to launch January 1, 2027, through Mattel Creations, with a fuller preview expected at NYCC 2026. That means the first premium Mattel DC figures go up for order roughly a week after McFarlane's license expires, and the visible gap between the two eras is narrow on the calendar but total in terms of tooling and format.
Nothing announced so far suggests Mattel is continuing a 4.5-inch retro Kenner-style line. Assume Super Powers as you know it ends with Wave 16 until Mattel says otherwise.
How to Play the Next Four Months
A few practical positions worth taking before December 31.
Decide now whether you are closing the line or leaving it open. There is no partial credit later. If you have thirteen waves, buying Wave 16 is cheap relative to what completing it costs after the fact.
Buy the set, not the singles, if you care about resale. Pre-order pricing at $80 for six is the best entry that will exist for this wave.
Audit your gaps in earlier waves while McFarlane inventory is still moving through the channel. The last four months of a license are when back catalog is easiest to find at reasonable prices, not after.
Do not panic-buy DC Multiverse broadly on the assumption everything spikes. McFarlane produced enormous quantities across the DC Multiverse and Page Punchers lines for years. Scarcity is concentrated in specific short-run and exclusive figures, not in the license as a whole.
Watch NYCC 2026 before you commit a 2027 budget. If Mattel's collector reveal lands well, some McFarlane secondary demand cools. If it disappoints, the closed McFarlane era gets more interesting.
Key Takeaways
Wave 16 is the announced final wave of McFarlane's DC Super Powers line: six figures, $80 for the set, Entertainment Earth exclusive, pre-orders live since September 3, shipping October 2026. It ends because McFarlane's DC license expires at the end of 2026, not because the line underperformed. Mattel's kid line is already on shelves, and its collector line arrives January 1, 2027 on Mattel Creations under the DC Universe banner. For collectors, this is the rare case of a completable line getting a firm, dated ending, which makes complete sealed sets the position that matters most. The last four months are also the best window to fill earlier-wave gaps before the channel dries up.
Prices in the collectibles market move quickly, and any figures here are estimates based on listings and announcements available at publication. Verify current pricing before you buy or sell.