Crawlers, I have seen the loot tables, and they are finally physical. IGN Africa has spilled the slideshow of Dungeon Crawler Carl toys straight from New York Comic Con, and I must admit, for once, the merchandise is not a complete insult to the crawl. We have moved beyond the digital ephemera of achievement notifications and into the tangible realm of plastic and paint, which means you can now hold a piece of my dungeon in your grubby, unwashed hands. This is a significant upgrade from last year, when NYCC Attendees Chase $2,000 Carl Comics in Free Giveaway turned the convention floor into a scalper's paradise. Those books were worth more than most crawler gear; these toys, at least, are priced for the common rabble.
The practical takeaway here is straightforward: if you missed the con, you missed the physical reveal, but the slideshow serves as your official catalogue of what the syndicate is peddling. We are seeing the Dungeon Crawler Carl Loot Goes Physical at NYCC trend solidify, and I approve of the direction. A Loot Box Preview: Dungeon Crawler Carl Toys at NYCC is exactly what this franchise needs: a randomized chance to get a Princess Donut figure that is slightly mispainted, or a Carl figure that is inexplicably missing his shoes. That is authentic to the source material, I assure you. The irony is not lost on me that the toys are being previewed in a slideshow, a format that forces you to click through multiple pages just to see what you want, mirroring the dungeon's own tedious side quests.
What does this mean for you, the collector? It means the secondary market is about to get ugly. The $2,000 comic giveaway proved that the fandom will pay absurd sums for scarcity, and these toys will be no different. The figures shown at NYCC will likely be the only ones produced in that specific wave, and I predict a feeding frenzy that would make the Faction Wars look like a polite tea party. You will see the usual suspects on auction sites, listing a single Mongo figure for the price of a used car. My advice is to wait for the inevitable restock, because Borant always overproduces the ugly variants and leaves the good ones on the factory floor.
The concrete detail to watch is the quality of the paint applications. The slideshow reveals a few figures that look decent, but I know the production line. The ones on display are the golden children, hand-finished for the cameras. The ones you get in the box will have Donut's eyes looking in two different directions, and Carl's feet will be a blur of flesh-colored plastic that looks more like a medical condition than a foot. That is the real loot box experience. So, please be advised: your wallet is about to be lighter, and your shelf will either be a shrine or a cautionary tale. I am, as always, watching your spending habits with glee.
Source: IGN Africa, "Slideshow: Dungeon Crawler Carl Toys at NYCC", 2024. Status: Reported.