2016 Imports Dragon MLB Baseball Figures Take Over from Where McFarlane Left Off
By Ryan Cracknell |Hobby Editor
The collectible sports figure landscape continues to evolve with the release of 2016 Imports Dragon MLB figures.
For more than a decade, McFarlane dominated this corner of the hobby with their detailed pieces covering all four major sports. Hockey was the first to go with Imports Dragon taking over the NHL license at the start of the 2015-16 season. Now the Canadian company has moved into baseball.
Like hockey, 2016 Imports Dragon MLB Series 1 has a large checklist. Whereas a typical series of McFarlanes has less than ten pieces (not including variants), Imports Dragon is kicking things off with 20 pieces.
They keep the same detailed look McFarlane Sports Picks are known for. Each Imports Dragon MLB figure stands approximately six-inches tall.
Series 1 is slated to release in April. Over the course of the season, Imports Dragon plans to release at least 40 baseball figures. Among them is a limited edition David Ortiz figure commemorating his final season as well as pieces featuring retired players.
2016 Imports Dragon MLB Series 1 Checklist
Jason Altuve, Houston Astros
Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs
Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals
Carlos Correa, Houston Astros
Nelson Cruz, Seattle Mariners
Jacob deGrom, New York Mets
Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays
Prince Fielder, Texas Rangers
Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
Sonny Gray, Oakland Athletics
Zach Greinke, Arizona Diamondbacks
Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians
Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates
David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox
Jhonny Peralta, St. Louis Cardinals
David Price, Boston Red Sox
Max Scherzer, Washington Nationals
Masahiro Tanaka, New York Yankees
Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers
Comments? Questions? Contact Ryan Cracknell on Twitter @tradercracks.
No Machado? Come on man!
I hope they also do some Hall of famers who were not covered by McFarlane, i.e Banks, Musial, Kaline, Winfield etc.
Really hope Miguel Sano is in a later wave this summer. Need more Twins and he’s the future of the game
I can already tell I’ll be disappointed with these. Judging by those two figures (especially the Prince Fielder), they look horribly undetailed and cheap. I hope I’m wrong. But the lack of detail in the jersey and pants compared to McFarlane’s figures seems very noticeable. I’m assuming the price will be cheaper at least.
This hurts me as a collector. You can tell that these figures lack the detail Mcfarlane put into them. If you zoom in on the faces, there horrible. Nobody looks even close. I cannot purchase this crap. Another silly ploy by MLB to save money while they take in a fortune.
I got my Andrew McCutchen figure a couple of weeks ago and the likeness of his face is really generic and doesn’t look much like him. Plus they made him look a little on the heavy side and Cutch is a slimmer speedster. I also don’t like that he’s 6 inches tall and shorter than the McFarlane figures. I have both figures on display side by side and there’s no comparison in the quality. These kinda suck.
I’m pretty disappointed as a collector. I just looked at the deGrom figure on line and I concur with the above posters…the detail is pretty cheap. I have over 100 McFarlane’s and now this. Unless they upgrade the line my collection is pretty much complete.
These look absolutely horrible. Thanks a lot, MLB, for ruining a hobby of mine. Looks like I’m going to have to learn how to customize old McFarlanes if I want to ever have the figures I want. McFarlane can make stupid crap like Assassins Creed.
All the figures are the same
Same face on every figures
These are terrible, I bought a bunch of McFarlane that I didn’t have because these are rediculous.
Lots of improvement to be made for sure. Basically collect N.Y. Yankees, N.Y. Mets as far as baseball goes. Take this time to listen to the collectors out there. Most of these guys are dealers as well so they know what people want and are looking for. Now apply these comments to marketing and design to put out the best product possible. I assume Football and Basketball will be next, so get your “A” game going before you produce these figures. Remember what N.F.L. stands for, NOT FOR LONG if you don’t sharpen up your detail. Cost issues, variants and a good mix of teams, availability. 20 figure releases are a little to much, you should cut it down to 12 with at least 4 variant figures and a 1 special edition figure in each set with 3 of them being a classic player from the earlier years. Good luck.
I just saw my first one up close (Bryant.) Sorely disappointed. Not enough detail. There are amateurs out there who are putting out better Mcfarlane custom figures.
The hockey ones are so bad they are just molded and packed and in Canada they are 5 bucks more expensive than McFarlane ones used to be. Just a big money grab, wait a while and buy them at the dollar store
My goodness…my first reaction was to question if MLB even took the time to examine these pathetic examples of baseball sports figures. How could they not see how cheap a product this is to represent their industry. Mcfarlane where are you??
These really are bad. The only decent ones that I have seen are the Lorenzo Cain and Paul Goldschmidt. The paint sheen, especially on gray, is not right for the uniforms. It’s shiny. The facial detail is better on some than others (i.e. David Ortiz, Josh Donaldson, David Price are DECENT, at best… Kris Bryant and Jacob deGrom look HORRIBLE). The poses are good, for the most part, but again the details are decent, at best. These look like McFarlane figures had an illegitimate child with Starting Lineup. The fact that the pitchers are noticably smaller in comparison to the hitters is annoying, and the bases are terrible. The scale is off (home plate is TINY), and the dirt isn’t dirt detail… it’s textured brown plastic. Unfortunately, I love collecting baseball figures enough that I am one of the schmucks spending money on these. But, that is solely because there is no alternative. I like that they are putting out a lot of figures, but it should be quality over quantity. I sincerely hope that McFarlane reacquires the MLB license, or Imports Dragon figures out how to make a better quality product, because I feel like a patron who’s favorite menu item at his favorite restaurant was discontinued, and now I’m forced to choose a soy burger instead of grass fed beef.
please send me an email telling me how long import dragons has the rights to Major League Baseball figures they are terrible and I hope my final and gets the contract back soon
You’d need to check with Import Dragons for that info. They haven’t said publicly how long the deal is for.
I purchased both Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor on Ebay. This new company used the exact same molding for both figures. their stance and detail are identical. And to make matters worse, they look like fraternal twins, but with different shades of skin color. Pathetic!
I want Mcfarlane back. These are terrible. I was at the recent fanfest in miami and they were trying to push these very hard ridiculous discounts and free ones for making purchase. I saw very few sales. I would not spend my money on them
I just bought a Paul Goldschmidt figure at Factory 2 U for $5.99 here in Chandler, Arizona. They had over a dozen figures there in the back of a tiny toy section. I thought it was a great find! At first I thought it was a McFarlane figure and just noticed now it’s not. I’m shocked McFarlane let the license go as baseball appears to be his favorite sport! Regardless of who made it, I’m happy with the figure as the quality of the painted decorations is good. I think the colors match the Dbacks uniforms and the face is close enough for me. Then again, I paid 6 bucks!
If I still knew a local card show dealer I would tell him to swoop in on these.
Noah, if you look at the earlier posts, you will see that Christopher McAfee pointed out that the Goldschmidt figure is one of the very few decent ones. I have it myself for that reason. The great majority of the Imports Dragon figures, both MLB and NHL, are terrible. The faces are generic and cartoon-like, and the poses, especially for the pitchers, are unnatural and awkward. You have to wonder what Imports Dragon’s target audience is. The old SLUs were clearly meant for children, as toys, while the great majority of McFarlane collectors were adults, who put them on display. The Import Dragon figures are a cross between the two. I hope, for their sake, they can sell enough of these to children to make it worth their while, because I can’t imagine many adults being interested in them.