So, you have a line of collectible toys, statues, and DC-branded bits like power rings and pins, and you want to sell them directly. Moving from one of the words in that sentence to the other isn’t a huge, drastic name change, but the fact that DC Entertainment is going to actually move into “Direct” sales is.

DC announced the name change of their toy line today via a post on The Source blog, but the bigger part of the announcement is the opening of a webstore that will hold all of the DC Collectibles products. Found at DCComics.com/Collectibles, the site currently merely acts as a portal to the existing WB Store, “WBShop.com”. Some products are currently unavailable online, and instead only have links to “Comicshoplocator.com” which helps fans find the product at their local store. When the full online store launches in May 2012, all products will be available directly there, without any external linkage needed.

Will retailers get upset over this “step” into the direct market? Well, it’s really just a lateral motion, and a way to try to leverage more direct dccomics.com visits, so probably not much to speak of. Regardless, your DC Direct branded figures just became more… Collectible.