Defining Moments 5 & Elite 11 IN STOCK NOW @ RSC!

I'm not sure you actually understand what supply and demand means. Yes, there is "demand" for stand-alone figure add-ons like knee-pads and elbow pads. That there is demand is neither a point of contention, nor at all relevant to the issue of whether Mattel should produce them. What is important is the relative size of that demand. Again, you betray self-important thinking by looking around a web forum and extrapolating that audience to be at all representative of a company's customer base. The fact is, the people on this site are a tiny percentage of Mattel's customers. They actually already listen to us on a degree entirely exaggerated compared to our actual size. And with good reason. While we may actually be a quite small number of their buyers, hard-core collectors can be cultivated quite profitably. We actually get a lot of our needs met. But there are still business realities that need to be balanced.

Yes, we do see some great retailer exclusives going to a relatively small retailer which focuses on collectors. Which is great. But, they still need to sell. Some people naively think that Ringside should offer obscure characters as exclusives. Ringside clearly knows better. Indeed, their exclusives generally focus on extremely popular wrestlers but in unique attire. That's where supply and demand can balance profitably. Sure, there is demand for lots of really obscure characters. I'd love a WWE Legends figure of Disco Inferno and I'm sure I'm not alone. But that doesn't mean there are a lot of me, either. And Ringside and Mattel actually need a LOT of people to buy something before it becomes profitable for them.

You point out some after-market options for figure customization. Its great that these places exist, but how do you think they are at all relevant to Mattel? Mattel uses economies of scale to make money. They are able to produce high-quality products by producing them in high volume, thus bringing the per unit price down. That is what they are set-up to do. That is their business. It is not a failure at thinking "outside the box" that keeps them from trying to service custom orders at high per-unit prices. Its just not the business they are in. Given their size, they have too much overhead to operate profitably on such a small scale. The price they would need to charge if they produced the items in volume to the demand would be higher than the market would bare. That's really all this comes down to. Its the same reason they aren't custom producing figure sculpts or hand-creating custom order clothing. Its not the scale their company is designed to operate. You say if Joe Blow can do something profitably, then so can Mattel. This actually just reveals how little you understand about the business world. You have a very simple understanding of reality and one which reality does not remotely support. Its okay to want something and even to ask for it. Its okay to bummed out if what you want doesn't come to pass. Its not okay to assert knowledge you don't have and accuse ignorance in the people who actually do have that knowledge. Doing so is an act of arrogance borne from ignorance and that is never a good combination. You are effectively tilting at windmills. Raging at Mattel for not operating in the world of your imagination. Rather than consider that you might not know something, you'd rather assume that actual working professionals are completely unaware of basic principles and you demean and insult them accordingly. You want to tear down others but are defensive at having your own suppositions called into question. Mattel clearly knows nothing about making toys, but don't dare you be accused of lacking expertise. Oh, no. You know how this all works. Not Mattel. Not anyone else. How dare you be accused of the lack of expertise you accuse actual experts of!