Earlier this week BBTS broke news that they were being shorted by Mattel on their DC Universe Classics Wave 9 figures. Starting a cavalcade of worries from collectors about being able to purchase this wave. Rightfully so, since a lot of us are only able to find DCUC via online stores.

Hi - we unfortunately have received bad news from Mattel on the DC Universe Series 9 assortment. They have informed us that they grossly under-produced this wave and that only about 25% of our order will be filled. Many other stores also apparently have suffered the same huge shortage, and the product is short across the entire market. We were extremely upset with Mattel for this news and have relayed to them how upset our customers will be as well.

At this point, we unfortunately do not expect any more shipments from Mattel. For those of you who ordered between February 13th and 14th, it is possible that your orders will fill due to cancellations and non-payment of orders from people who ordered before you (their cancelled orders will move to the next people in line automatically). If you ordered after these dates, it is very unlikely we will have any inventory, and we suggest that you purchase these figures anywhere else you may be able to find them. (You can view the date you ordered your product by logging into your BBTS account and viewing your preorders) We have heard reports they are showing up at mass market stores, and some should also be on ebay. We absolutely hate not being able to fill your order, but Mattel has really screwed up this wave and there is not anything we can do about it.

We are hoping that some sort of future production run of DCU 09 can be negotiated, but at this point there is nothing worked out. We will keep your preorders open in our system until we can determine if Mattel will produce more in the future or not. We will email you with any further news as we hear it from Mattel, hopefully something will be resolved.

The sales manager at Mattel did assure me that DCU waves 11, 12, and 13 would not suffer from the same issues, so we do not anticipate any shortages on those waves.

However some of those fears seemed to be put to rest when folks were finding DCUC Wave 9 in stores. Even I stumbled across a Guardian figure (but only him) at a Toys R Us a while back. Now reports are starting to get bare and worries are starting to set in that Mattel may have actually underproduced this wave.

Originally Mattel had stated that Wave 9 was going to be for sale on MattyCollector.com but now that's been said not to be happening. Could Wave 9 become the most sought after series next to the Walmart Wave 5? Did Mattel really make less of this wave? Are prices being inflated because of a faux scare? I have no idea.

I'd really like to get Green Arrow and Chemo, but it's looking like I might not be able to. Perhaps I should stay clear of DCUC anyway. The last time I tried to catch up I ended up inadvertly buying 3 full sets of Wave 6. One I'm keeping, one I plan on selling and one I'm giving away to you, huzzah!

So have you found DCUC Wave 9 and are you worried?