mrh
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 1, 2018 0:11:53 GMT -5
Posts: 2,945
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Post by mrh on Feb 16, 2021 2:22:29 GMT -5
At the time, I actually was working for TRU here in Canada. I was the one who got to merch the entire section out after we closed the day before launch to make sure everything was ready for the next day. I was deep into collecting Jakks Classic Superstars and remember being so excited to see what Mattel was offering. After I opened one of the elite cases, I was shocked to find that only two people were included for series 1 -- Undertaker and Rey Mysterio. After doing a bit of digging, I eventually found out that Canada was only going to get two figures out of each elite series and I was crushed. I was going to miss out on CM Punk and the rest of the wave. Years later I eventually got Punk in my collection, but Canada didn't start getting full elite cases until about series 6 or 7. It's been a long journey with many ups and downs (from a collectors perspective), but I've been here since the beginning.
No idea -- and so interesting. Thanks for sharing
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mrh
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 1, 2018 0:11:53 GMT -5
Posts: 2,945
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Post by mrh on Feb 16, 2021 2:23:02 GMT -5
January 1st, 2010 I was all in. The prototype images were released prior to that and I knew I was going to tag along with Mattel following the end of my huge collection with Jakks. I walked into TRU on 1/1/10 and there they were. All elites and basics. I must have bought the entire set of basics, elites and two packs since I still have them all. Must have dropped quite the amount of money in one day looking back. My Mattel collection has far surpassed what I had from Jakks. It kind of petered out due to WWE's quality of programming nosediving these last few years.
Look at this distribution. And compare this to AEW's roll-out. Some of it is COVID, and especially Toys R Us closing, but what a difference!
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wrestlingfan0815
Main Eventer
Joined on: Mar 28, 2018 15:26:43 GMT -5
Posts: 3,730
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Post by wrestlingfan0815 on Feb 16, 2021 3:20:24 GMT -5
What I remember about the beginning was being able to walk into a store and find figures on the shelf i remember when the line first started Walmart got in several cases at a time and restocked frequently so people had a chance to get the ones they wanted/1 of 1,000 title chases, now a days your lucky a store gets one case that last about a day and then it’s months of empty pegs, hard to even tell where the wrestling section is at Walmart by me because it’s usually completely empty to the point where people aren’t even blaming the beginning of the year reset anymore because its all year long
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zombiesnake
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Feb 23, 2011 17:15:34 GMT -5
Posts: 271
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Post by zombiesnake on Feb 17, 2021 13:25:41 GMT -5
When the line started it was really hard to get here in Canada. I didn't live near a TRU or Canadian Walmart at the time, which made it a bit harder, but I did live on the border not too far from an American Walmart. Of course they didn't have any on release but before too long I had early figures of Matt Hardy, Randy Orton and Batista, they were much higher quality than Jakks, but didn't scale well and I wasn't sold on starting a huge collection all over again.
Then they announced Macho Man. That sealed it. Macho was my biggest want that never happened, and to go along with it the had Ricky Steamboat and Kerry Von Erich. Of course I was starting over. When that Macho Man dropped I grabbed every Elite character I could get my hands on around here and haven't looked back.
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Post by BoJack Hogan on Feb 17, 2021 13:47:19 GMT -5
January 1 2010. I remember I was super super super hungover after NYE, as I was visiting home during break from school in the UK. I wasn’t psyched about any of the basics. They all looked like crap to me. I still bought HHH and Kofi. I might have also bought the Beth/Santino 2 pack, but that might’ve also been a few days later when I first saw the Elites. I bought Edge, Taker, MVP, and Rey (always hated Punk, never wanted him). That was my first foray into Mattel. I’ve started, stopped, and started again numerous times since then.
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Post by RSCTom on Feb 17, 2021 14:03:16 GMT -5
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Post by Xæro #FakeCollector on Feb 17, 2021 14:19:11 GMT -5
Oh man, this video brings back so many memories. I remember my brothers and I being hesitant to switch over, but the hype videos helped convince us to take the plunge.
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Post by CampCornette on Feb 17, 2021 14:22:37 GMT -5
I remember seeing protos and being so underwhelmed. I remember thinking they looked small. I was hell bent on keeping my jakks collection and calling it a day. I was in TRU on like 12/28 or 29 and they just put them out. I bought E1 Edge and Mvp and was instantly hooked. Slowly sold off my jakks.
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walkingturtles
Main Eventer
Joined on: Apr 22, 2018 19:54:00 GMT -5
Posts: 1,702
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Post by walkingturtles on Feb 17, 2021 16:49:23 GMT -5
I think there's a fear on the corporate side to change uniformity. Honestly it happened with JAKKS, the move to DAs late in their run as well into the TNA run turned off a lot of the RA collectors and they stopped buying. I think Elites need to stay like they are for uniformity but Im ok with the introduction of things like Ultimates where you get more articulation. Elites desperately need to change, and it goes beyond the uniformity of torsos. Mattel used to pull out all the stops but somewhere along the way they got comfortable and stopped. The constant use of the same parts when better ones exist/using existing parts instead of making new ones, the lack of toy evolution (which now results in AEW looking light years better than WWE and AEW being more collector/custom friendly with the easy to swap torsos). I buy elites basically for the cool attires and nostalgia at this point. If they don’t overhaul beyond just double joint arms Im going to slowly drift to just collecting Unrivaled and 1997-2006 attires. Once Jazzwares gets going with serveral waves deep, and a good catalog of figures they are going to put some serious pressure on Mattel. Their figures are so interchangeable, you can pop off not only hands and heads, but mid sections, like combining Hangman with Jericho bottoms to give him a tights look. Things like that along with so many never before figures whereas Mattel is starting to get heavily maxed out.
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Post by BadGirlRyleigh on Feb 17, 2021 16:58:08 GMT -5
Elites desperately need to change, and it goes beyond the uniformity of torsos. Mattel used to pull out all the stops but somewhere along the way they got comfortable and stopped. The constant use of the same parts when better ones exist/using existing parts instead of making new ones, the lack of toy evolution (which now results in AEW looking light years better than WWE and AEW being more collector/custom friendly with the easy to swap torsos). I buy elites basically for the cool attires and nostalgia at this point. If they don’t overhaul beyond just double joint arms Im going to slowly drift to just collecting Unrivaled and 1997-2006 attires. Once Jazzwares gets going with serveral waves deep, and a good catalog of figures they are going to put some serious pressure on Mattel. Their figures are so interchangeable, you can pop off not only hands and heads, but mid sections, like combining Hangman with Jericho bottoms to give him a tights look. Things like that along with so many never before figures whereas Mattel is starting to get heavily maxed out. Mattel don’t really have many options to counter the abundance of new faces in the AEW line. I really only see two options. They can dig deeper into the NXT roster and go to the UK roster. Or they can try to get some deep cut legends like the Classic Superstars line did. Both options are outside their comfort zone so idk if we’ll see either one happen.
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walkingturtles
Main Eventer
Joined on: Apr 22, 2018 19:54:00 GMT -5
Posts: 1,702
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Post by walkingturtles on Feb 17, 2021 17:29:55 GMT -5
Once Jazzwares gets going with serveral waves deep, and a good catalog of figures they are going to put some serious pressure on Mattel. Their figures are so interchangeable, you can pop off not only hands and heads, but mid sections, like combining Hangman with Jericho bottoms to give him a tights look. Things like that along with so many never before figures whereas Mattel is starting to get heavily maxed out. Mattel don’t really have many options to counter the abundance of new faces in the AEW line. I really only see two options. They can dig deeper into the NXT roster and go to the UK roster. Or they can try to get some deep cut legends like the Classic Superstars line did. Both options are outside their comfort zone so idk if we’ll see either one happen. Mattel’s only recourse I believe is a serious redo of many classic lines and figures. Redo that DM Bret Hart or Legends Steamboat. Go on eBay and see what’s hot and give us more, even if it’s just the same figure with different attire. It’s their only recourse versus so many AEW first in line guys.
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Post by stc13 on Feb 17, 2021 17:44:31 GMT -5
Mattel don’t really have many options to counter the abundance of new faces in the AEW line. I really only see two options. They can dig deeper into the NXT roster and go to the UK roster. Or they can try to get some deep cut legends like the Classic Superstars line did. Both options are outside their comfort zone so idk if we’ll see either one happen. Mattel’s only recourse I believe is a serious redo of many classic lines and figures. Redo that DM Bret Hart or Legends Steamboat. Go on eBay and see what’s hot and give us more, even if it’s just the same figure with different attire. It’s their only recourse versus so many AEW first in line guys. I'm not so sure that Mattel, or more accurately WWE, see it as something they even need to respond to. WWE clearly wants the merchandising emphasis to be on current stars with some top tier legends (and that's not just in figures). You can sprinkle in NXT talent, but the viewership there is a fraction. And NXT UK is even smaller than that, and Mattel's UK distribution is weak at best where the primary audience is. And the reality is that many buyers will either be WWE-only who don't care about AEW figures or will buy both lines. Now if AEW significantly cuts into Mattel/WWE's marketshare or if we see profits lag, then there will definitely be changes. They may be major or smaller things like the double jointed elbows. But honestly I'm not expecting much. I don't think Mattel has much rope to play with.
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DudeAbides
Main Eventer
Joined on: Oct 8, 2012 16:53:30 GMT -5
Posts: 1,316
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Post by DudeAbides on Feb 18, 2021 10:53:45 GMT -5
I collected Jakks BCA and TTL as I grew up through the Attitude Era. I got into the RA line but at some point I fell out of wrestling and fell out of figure collecting for the most part. I still collected some movie lines like NECA but not nearly what I do now.
So one day I'm walking through Kmart in 2010 and I see these Mattel WWE Legends figures on the shelf. A Rock and Austin that looked way more proportionate and poseable than anything I had before were sitting there and I just had to grab them. I somehow found this site shortly after that, was a ghost for a while before joining. I watched wrestling again when Rock returned in 2011, so I got some of the current talent figures at the time. But I stopped watching after Punk left, and have since abandoned anything in my collection but AE.
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Sean
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 18, 2012 6:19:02 GMT -5
Posts: 1,127
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Post by Sean on Feb 18, 2021 15:54:42 GMT -5
My first was the basic Mickie James and I was shocked at the articulation. Having being so used to Jakks women’s figures these were a big upgrade!
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omartheterror
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Jan 12, 2020 5:37:35 GMT -5
Posts: 452
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Post by omartheterror on Feb 18, 2021 21:30:05 GMT -5
Mattel’s only recourse I believe is a serious redo of many classic lines and figures. Redo that DM Bret Hart or Legends Steamboat. Go on eBay and see what’s hot and give us more, even if it’s just the same figure with different attire. It’s their only recourse versus so many AEW first in line guys. I'm not so sure that Mattel, or more accurately WWE, see it as something they even need to respond to. WWE clearly wants the merchandising emphasis to be on current stars with some top tier legends (and that's not just in figures). You can sprinkle in NXT talent, but the viewership there is a fraction. And NXT UK is even smaller than that, and Mattel's UK distribution is weak at best where the primary audience is. And the reality is that many buyers will either be WWE-only who don't care about AEW figures or will buy both lines. Now if AEW significantly cuts into Mattel/WWE's marketshare or if we see profits lag, then there will definitely be changes. They may be major or smaller things like the double jointed elbows. But honestly I'm not expecting much. I don't think Mattel has much rope to play with. I think you hit the nail on the head and unfortunately it’s wishful thinking otherwise. I seriously doubt that Mattel/WWE would decide that their response to losing market share would be to sign Hercules or the estate of Giant Gonzalez to a legends deal.
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Post by JHTB® on Feb 18, 2021 21:52:56 GMT -5
I was impressed with the detail and accuracy of the gear, even though I wasn't a big fan of some of the head scans like Elite 1 Taker. On Boxing day I was shocked to see Basic 1 Batista and Evan Bourne on the shelves at Zellers here in Canada. I couldn't believe my eyes and went straight to an employee asking if there was more in the back. When I got home to open up the Evan Bourne, I was even more shocked to see how detailed his gear was and how he had unique sculpt for his boots and belt. Ever since then, I was hooked.
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Post by TheHitmanKid on Feb 18, 2021 22:00:22 GMT -5
Those commemorative 1 and 1000 belts that Mattel used to have in the basic line actually stopped me from being interesting in collecting. I just thought they were horrendous. Until I saw the Wrestlemania 30 Bret Hart, with the winged eagle belt. Thats when Mattel caught my attention because I knew at that point, they making official belts too. That figure looked beautiful and it was next to the Wrestlemania 30 Shawn Micheals too. Mattel really had my attention then!!
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celflessness
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Feb 5, 2020 7:30:40 GMT -5
Posts: 335
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Post by celflessness on Feb 19, 2021 2:30:52 GMT -5
Elites desperately need to change, and it goes beyond the uniformity of torsos. Mattel used to pull out all the stops but somewhere along the way they got comfortable and stopped. The constant use of the same parts when better ones exist/using existing parts instead of making new ones, the lack of toy evolution (which now results in AEW looking light years better than WWE and AEW being more collector/custom friendly with the easy to swap torsos). I buy elites basically for the cool attires and nostalgia at this point. If they don’t overhaul beyond just double joint arms Im going to slowly drift to just collecting Unrivaled and 1997-2006 attires. Once Jazzwares gets going with serveral waves deep, and a good catalog of figures they are going to put some serious pressure on Mattel. Their figures are so interchangeable, you can pop off not only hands and heads, but mid sections, like combining Hangman with Jericho bottoms to give him a tights look. Things like that along with so many never before figures whereas Mattel is starting to get heavily maxed out. Didn't Mattel already try Create A Wrestler sets, with interchangeable parts? I'm assuming they flopped, given they only did a few waves. I dont think Mattel or WWE judge the competition on the same factors that adult collectors do.
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walkingturtles
Main Eventer
Joined on: Apr 22, 2018 19:54:00 GMT -5
Posts: 1,702
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Post by walkingturtles on Feb 19, 2021 9:29:02 GMT -5
Once Jazzwares gets going with serveral waves deep, and a good catalog of figures they are going to put some serious pressure on Mattel. Their figures are so interchangeable, you can pop off not only hands and heads, but mid sections, like combining Hangman with Jericho bottoms to give him a tights look. Things like that along with so many never before figures whereas Mattel is starting to get heavily maxed out. Didn't Mattel already try Create A Wrestler sets, with interchangeable parts? I'm assuming they flopped, given they only did a few waves. I dont think Mattel or WWE judge the competition on the same factors that adult collectors do. True but that’s a great concept for kids as well, they love to change and customize. Added to the fact that it wasn’t some special concept, just a happy accident as they called it.
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