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Post by stc13 on Apr 16, 2022 7:00:53 GMT -5
I'm not a fan, but at this point I'm just indifferent.
I assume I'll never find one, and I'll never pay secondary market prices. So I basically just ignore them and cross my fingers that they don't make an attire that I want.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 15, 2022 17:15:41 GMT -5
Grabbed an Adam Cole off of Amazon hoping for the chase, and actually got the camo version. Still need to track down the WCW Big Boss Man, but I'm more or less caught up.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 15, 2022 16:41:57 GMT -5
I’m a legends collector. I started with Mattel in 2016 after being bitter about starting over when Jakks lost the license. For those who have been going since the start, when did the legends contract caveat start? I understand WWE’s position with it on one hand, but see how it really hamstrings Mattel. I think the limitations are becoming more glaring since at this point they’ve gotten to most of the heavy hitters. While I would like more obscure and mid-level guys I understand still needing a heavy doses of Warrior and Savage types. Mattel direct contracts probably ended around 2013/14. I believe Bruno and Crush were among the last figures on direct deals. The current arrangement sucks for collectors, but it's most profitable for WWE and Mattel. Neither side has an incentive to change it, and I think this is where it's going to stay for some time. There will be a name or two who drop off and a few new signings each year, but nothing like what we had in the past.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 15, 2022 12:33:33 GMT -5
In some ways, it's apples to oranges for me. When the initial line came out, there was a world of possibilities. With the roster available to them right now, Mattel is basically working with one hand tied behind their back. Even now, they've burned through a good chunk of the legends roster available to them.
Overall, I've enjoy Legends 2.0. Some of the attire choices haven't been my favorite - Eddie in black gear instead of colorful tights, orange Luger over blue, yellow, or lime green, Acolytes, yet another purple Taker. But they've also filled in some great gaps - Valentine and Dream Team Beefcake, pretty much every era of Jake, Invasion DDP. And while the FTIL figures have been underwhelming, that's ultimately on WWE, not Mattel.
It hasn't had that same wow factor as the original line. But a decade in, I think that's to be expected. I can't say the line has been overly memorable - I had to go back and google the lineups - and it doesn't stick out to me the way the Flashback line, HOF, or HOC did. But I've also bought nearly every figure in the line, so I can't really complain.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 15, 2022 10:04:39 GMT -5
Welcome back! I really like the new HHH, and the green gear is pretty iconic to me. I've been surprised how slow it's sold in my area.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 13, 2022 20:39:02 GMT -5
I like that Flair much more than I thought I would. I was never a fan of that haircut he had then. But the figure is really nicely done. Abs while the 4H shirt is nice a robe would have put that figure over the top for me. That Flair ticks a lot of boxes for me.... An attire I dont have him in... 96-99 WCW 4 Horsemen Shirt for Arn 10/10 for me and I don't have it in hand yet. A Robe isn't too critical for me I'm impressed with the shirt. Totally agreed. My only minor complaint is that the yellow gear makes me think of 94 rather than the late 90s. But I like having some of the guys who I have on a few different shelves in different gear. So no issue with ring gear for this figure since I have the UE and Retrofeat figures with the robe on.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 10, 2022 18:12:45 GMT -5
It took three Targets, but I landed a Mean Mark. I'm sure they'll be easily available in store or online within the next week or two, but this is an all-time want for me. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but was kind enough to humor me.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 10, 2022 8:24:12 GMT -5
It seems like a no-win scenario to me. The WWF tag scene was pretty bad, and business remained bad for the next few years. I don't think there was much that could have kept them happy, aside from giving them a higher percentage. Maybe there could have been programs with Bret/Owen or HBK/Diesel if they stuck around. But Vince strapped a rocket to Shawn and Kevin, so the Steiners would have just been putting them over. Owen/Bret is a dream matchup for me (there is a match on one of the compilation tapes), but I don't know that Vince would want Bret tied up in anything beyond a short tag program. And do you turn the Steiners? Because face vs face doesn't have the same draw.
Even if they had gone back to WCW, you have a dream matchup with the Blondes. But beyond that the tag scene is Stars and Stripes, Pretty Wonderful, etc. Japan really was the option that makes the most sense in terms of money and matchups.
The timing is just sort of a bummer. The Steiners just caught the tail end of a golden age in tag wrestling, but we missed out on so many dream matchups by a year or two. And when they came back to WCW from Japan, you had a pretty great division with Harlem Heat, Sting & Luger, various 4 Horseman combinations, and LOD for hot second. But they were past their top form by that point, and Scott had become too big. Their run was good, but not what it could have been 3-4 years earlier.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 8, 2022 20:29:24 GMT -5
I can assure you that a multi-billion dollar company who has near total market share in their industry trying to undercut legitimate competition in its infancy is far from a wild idea. And twitter bots would be one of the more tame tactics in the corporate world.
Everybody always fixates on ratings and "beating" WWE. AEW can be incredibly successful and profitable without ever coming close to WWE's revenues or ratings. But WWE can also lose significant market share and valuation without ever losing a single "ratings battle."
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Post by stc13 on Apr 8, 2022 20:19:21 GMT -5
Yup newgenandy I’m hoping once the first one is out and they’ve got a better understanding of how long the process takes then it’ll be smoother going forward. I'm sure the process will improve with time. But I think people need to temper expectations on just how far "improved" gets us. Companies like Mattel and Hasbro often own their own factories, have full staffs working on product, and the line teams have spent years and years working with their factory counterparts. Steve and Bill have talked about how long communication takes just due to the time differences and a simple email exchange stretching over a couple of business days, and how they've worked for years to build those relationships. These small scale companies are starting from scratch. If they can deliver finished product that's remotely close to what they've been showing, it's worth the wait to me even if I'm not thrilled. I know not everybody will feel that way. Look at the Lucha line, where they are still working on producing figures that were shown when the line was announced nearly two years ago.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 4, 2022 21:13:29 GMT -5
Missed the preorder so hoping these are as easy as 13 to find in store I'm really hoping L13 clears out so there's room for L14. Pretty much everybody but Hurricane is still hanging around at my stores.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 4, 2022 13:02:19 GMT -5
Dumb question, but this Kane is essentially the same era as the DOD figure from a couple years ago, right?
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Post by stc13 on Apr 4, 2022 9:27:06 GMT -5
Grabbed a set!
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Post by stc13 on Apr 4, 2022 8:28:04 GMT -5
Not really. One of my friends collects figures - mostly older stuff from semi-obscure lines and some NECA stuff - so we'll go to toy shows and occasionally hit Target together. He'll occasionally see a figure of an older wrestler that interests him, so I've grabbed him a few figures from the legends line.
My wife is happy to hunt for figures if I tell her what to look for, but she's never been a wrestling fan. So this is my main outlet to talk about wrestling and figures.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 3, 2022 10:27:19 GMT -5
I'd still expect this to be released. Cody hasn't been under contract since the beginning of the year, and was pretty much known the be going to WWE when the figure was shown the other week. If it was going to be pulled, it would have been pulled by now. It's likely too far along in production for Jazwares to replace it with another figure.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 3, 2022 9:00:29 GMT -5
How on earth have Molly Holly and Stacey factored into the legends series before Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair 😂 Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they put desirable looks of top names in the line, then you're going to have a bunch of complaints that they made X super popular figure and not all collectors can get it. I think that's why we're seeing things like Mean Mark, a third release of purple Taker, and final Raw Warrior in this line over new looks. Not saying I'm a fan of it, but they probably prefer those guys in higher production lines since they're guaranteed sellers. But they sure are taking their sweet ole time with Hogans.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 2, 2022 8:01:16 GMT -5
I would suspect that the Luminary section of the line is about to become very ROH heavy. The Khan owns both companies, I can’t see any reason they wouldn’t be able to start ROH figures immediately. If the restrictions are the way they made it sound in the last Q&A, then doing ROH figures will probably be a lot better than trying to find 8x10s from mid 90s/00s Japan tours and hope WWE doesn’t make a fuss. They already have most of the top names from ROH during the period that matters Absolutely. We're about to see a run of figures from the early 00s indies. There's so many unique figures they can do of Danielson, Punk, Joe, the Bucks. Plus this should be enough of a loop hope for some iconic attires of guys who popped into ROH for a short run. Christian right around the start of his Impact run or 2002 Jerry Lynn, which is close enough to his TNA, WWE, and WCW runs for me. Plus there are guys who could be signed if they ever expanded to a full blown Luminaries line - Raven, Dreamer. Not getting my hopes up - right now they basically have 3 Luminaries slots a year. But it definitely opens some fun design options for the Jazwares team.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 1, 2022 21:31:21 GMT -5
These are all Legends in their own right. It just feels like the line is shifting a bit to RA or maybe AE legends as opposed to 80s and 90s ones. Hopefully fans who grew up watching RA have the disposable income of the ones watching 30 years ago to keep this line going. I'd prefer a mix in each wave as opposed to an entire series dedicated to one era. I feel like if you bought Legends 7, there isn't much appealing about Legends 16, even though it's the same line. I like getting a Rey in tights, though. I feel like RA flashback figures always do well, so more of them being introduced in the lines should be no issue. Even as somebody who didn't watch the RA era and doesn't have a lot of interest in the figures, I can't complain about the variety. There aren't a lot of new names being added to the roster Mattel has to work with, no matter how much we wish it was different. And they did a pretty solid job of pumping out a pretty comprehensive roster from the late 80s and early 90s. And many of those guys only really had one or two noteworthy looks. I'm hoping we'll see them start to dig deeper into doing the same for RA, WCW, New Gen, and some other eras that haven't been as well represented. There's a lot of ground they could cover with talent under contract - WCW champ Booker T, Team Angle Shelton Benjamin, Attitude Era Jerry Lawler, etc. Personally I'd love to see them get back to more deep cuts/wrestlecrap things like The Disciple, Diamond Studd, Vinnie Vegas. But get why that's not something they want to do from a retail standpoint.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 1, 2022 21:17:33 GMT -5
The Acolytes could of been awesome figures if their parts were more true to life. So many other figs get new tooling, why can’t we get a torso that’d match someone like Bradshaw or farooqs body type a little better. The torso farooq has is just bad, they should of retired it with Batista. It was also used on Sting, Tatanka , Stevie Ray and it looked real out of place on them too. Agree. A lot of tooling is wasted on one off figures that people don’t care about to begin with like James Elsworth/Captain America Kurt Angle etc. I think a smaller retooled Lesnar torso would work for these guys. Granted both Bradshaw and Farooq had different physiques. That's a big issue for me. We get unique tooling on some truly forgettable one-off figures like Velveteen Dream, Angle, etc. Meanwhile the rest of the line basically works off of the same 5 torsos. Heck, even for Angle they used Warrior torso for all of his singlet figures, yet tooled a new mold for a one-off attire. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems a lot more economical to create a new single torso, use it half a dozen time, and settle for painted on details on his return attire. Torso scaling isn't a deal breaker for me. I don't mind a little artistic license here and there. But some of the parts choices are real odd. Even something like the Bulldog/Austin torso would have been a much better fit.
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Post by stc13 on Apr 1, 2022 14:09:04 GMT -5
I saw on the Major WF pod Insta that Chella announced Charlie Haas for their 7" Uncensored figures. Nice addition to the line! It looks great! I'm happy they're doing it but it's a 50/50 with me right now. I don't know why I'd need it to be honest, with no Shelton to go with it. I'll wait till we see more pictures I think. Mattel loves partial tag teams. I'm surprised they haven't done a Shelton yet, honestly. I could see him popping up in the RA line.
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