StocktonCon 2018 Interview with Mattel Designer Bill Miekina
Aug 28, 2018 6:22:37 GMT -5
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Post by Chicago on Aug 28, 2018 6:22:37 GMT -5
Jef and Scott of the Fully Poseable Wrestling Figure Podcast spoke with Bill at StocktonCon on Saturday, August 18.
Here's a recap of their Q&A interview with Bill as covered in the most recent episode of their podcast.
If you want to listen for yourself, skip to the 22:34 mark of Episode #136. The Q&A portion begins at 26:53 and ends at 35:46.
Here were some of the figures they saw on display:
Top Talent Elite Series Seth Rollins
Elite Series 62 Akam and Rezar (Authors of Pain)
Bob Backlund "who will be in a Flashback Elite along with Undertaker" (Jef's words)
The Undisputed Era
The Shield Reunion
King Harley Race
Hall of Champions Elite Series 3 (Paul Bearer, Ultimate Warrior & New Age Outlaws)
Aleister Black
Elite Series 62 Sting
Ruby Riott
WrestleMania Elite Undertaker
RetroFest Elite Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Killian Dain
Check out the images in the first post of this thread for a complete showing of Mattel's setup at StocktonCon.
Because Jef and Scott weren't going to be able to make it to the Mattel WWE panel on that Sunday - scheduled for 3 PM local time on SummerSlam Sunday - they asked Bill if Mattel was going to do any special reveals for it and he said it was pretty much a rehash of what they did at SDCC.
Now for the Q&A (questions were pooled from their listeners on Twitter):
What is the status of the Elite Scale Stage/Ramp that we saw at Axxess?
They're still in the "in process" mode on that one. It's still in the planning stages. Scott asked specifically about tech (is the ramp going to have LEDs, is it going to have something to plug into to play music, is it gonna have videos on the screen etc.) and Bill said all of those things will be incorporated if it makes sense. Price point plays a big part in all of this. All of those things will drive up the price, so they're just trying to find that happy balance of what to incorporate in the set versus how much do they think people are going to pay for it. So it's all in the planning stages, but the good news is that it sounds like it's a go. Keep tweeting at Mattel/Bill/Steve Ozer (Action Figure Attack) saying that you want that Elite Scale Stage so they know there is a huge demand for this.
What is the status of the Elite WrestleMania 33 Nikki Bella figure? (from the Amazon listing)
Bill said it's a no-go. (It will instead be the WrestleMania 32 Sasha Banks from the unreleased TNF Women's Champions 3-Pack)
Will there be any Retro Tag Team sets?
No. For now, the plan is only in singles.
How long is the Retro line planned for? Is there an end point in sight? What about Retro ring accessories?
Bill said they have long term plans for the Retros. It's an ongoing line and currently there are no ring accessories planned. Scott specifically mentioned a WrestleMania ring cart or steel cage as possible accessories for the ring and Bill said no to both. Mattel would rather put those funds and planning into more figures instead of ring accessories.
Are there plans to stock U.S. exclusives like Target's NXT and Hall of Champions or GameStop's RetroFest Elites in the UK?
That wasn't really Bill's forte (meaning the distribution side of things). He couldn't really answer that question, but he said there are avenues to purchase those figures. The Shop is currently your best bet to get them if you're in the UK.
What about Fabulous Rougeau figures?
Bill said no. They are not under contract.
Any update on Hulk Hogan figures?
No comment (in other words, nothing has changed since SDCC).
What is the possibility of doing something similar to the Hasbro/Retro line for LJN figures?
Bill seemed pretty adamant that it wasn't going to happen. Shipping and weight of the 8" scale LJN figures have to be considered, and Bill doesn't particularly view that size figure as a player in today's action figure market. LJNs didn't move and there was no poseability with them, unlike the Hasbro/Retro figures which are all about poseability and actions. The smaller scale of Retros and the fact that they're much cheaper to ship and weigh less than LJNs is a benefit to them. If Mattel ever were to do LJN figures, it's going to be a long time down the road and there's going to have to be a ton of demand for them.
Follow-up: What about sprinkling in LJNs to different assortments similar to the Jakks Classic Superstars line did (eight figures in a set = one LJN throwback)?
It didn't even seem like that was a go. Scott doesn't think it's going to happen anytime soon, at least not for the foreseeable future.
What are the odds of something like MattyCollector coming back for the Mattel WWE figures?
Bill mentioned the massive success of HasLab. While there's promise with something like that, Mattel doesn't have any plans currently to do something like that. Scott said maybe in the future we'll have an option to go online and purchase figures in limited quantities similar to Hasbro's concept. It didn't seem like it's going to be anything imminent or in the next six months to 18 months, but maybe there's a possibility that it would happen down the road. Again, no current plans at all. Mattel would need to see more companies have success with it.
When someone gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, does that mean they have an instant Legends deal?
Everybody assumes this, but that's not always the case. Jef asked Bill specifically about The Rock 'n' Roll Express and Bill said the last time they got almost everybody from a Hall of Fame class, it was the one where Madusa went in (The Class of 2015). He said that was the last time they had almost all of them under Legends deals (assuming that means no Tatsumi Fujinami, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Connor "The Crusher" Michalek from that class). The Rock 'n' Roll Express don't have Legends deals, nor do The Midnight Express.
Here's a recap of their Q&A interview with Bill as covered in the most recent episode of their podcast.
If you want to listen for yourself, skip to the 22:34 mark of Episode #136. The Q&A portion begins at 26:53 and ends at 35:46.
Here were some of the figures they saw on display:
Top Talent Elite Series Seth Rollins
Elite Series 62 Akam and Rezar (Authors of Pain)
Bob Backlund "who will be in a Flashback Elite along with Undertaker" (Jef's words)
The Undisputed Era
The Shield Reunion
King Harley Race
Hall of Champions Elite Series 3 (Paul Bearer, Ultimate Warrior & New Age Outlaws)
Aleister Black
Elite Series 62 Sting
Ruby Riott
WrestleMania Elite Undertaker
RetroFest Elite Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Killian Dain
Check out the images in the first post of this thread for a complete showing of Mattel's setup at StocktonCon.
Because Jef and Scott weren't going to be able to make it to the Mattel WWE panel on that Sunday - scheduled for 3 PM local time on SummerSlam Sunday - they asked Bill if Mattel was going to do any special reveals for it and he said it was pretty much a rehash of what they did at SDCC.
Now for the Q&A (questions were pooled from their listeners on Twitter):
What is the status of the Elite Scale Stage/Ramp that we saw at Axxess?
They're still in the "in process" mode on that one. It's still in the planning stages. Scott asked specifically about tech (is the ramp going to have LEDs, is it going to have something to plug into to play music, is it gonna have videos on the screen etc.) and Bill said all of those things will be incorporated if it makes sense. Price point plays a big part in all of this. All of those things will drive up the price, so they're just trying to find that happy balance of what to incorporate in the set versus how much do they think people are going to pay for it. So it's all in the planning stages, but the good news is that it sounds like it's a go. Keep tweeting at Mattel/Bill/Steve Ozer (Action Figure Attack) saying that you want that Elite Scale Stage so they know there is a huge demand for this.
What is the status of the Elite WrestleMania 33 Nikki Bella figure? (from the Amazon listing)
Bill said it's a no-go. (It will instead be the WrestleMania 32 Sasha Banks from the unreleased TNF Women's Champions 3-Pack)
Will there be any Retro Tag Team sets?
No. For now, the plan is only in singles.
How long is the Retro line planned for? Is there an end point in sight? What about Retro ring accessories?
Bill said they have long term plans for the Retros. It's an ongoing line and currently there are no ring accessories planned. Scott specifically mentioned a WrestleMania ring cart or steel cage as possible accessories for the ring and Bill said no to both. Mattel would rather put those funds and planning into more figures instead of ring accessories.
Are there plans to stock U.S. exclusives like Target's NXT and Hall of Champions or GameStop's RetroFest Elites in the UK?
That wasn't really Bill's forte (meaning the distribution side of things). He couldn't really answer that question, but he said there are avenues to purchase those figures. The Shop is currently your best bet to get them if you're in the UK.
What about Fabulous Rougeau figures?
Bill said no. They are not under contract.
Any update on Hulk Hogan figures?
No comment (in other words, nothing has changed since SDCC).
What is the possibility of doing something similar to the Hasbro/Retro line for LJN figures?
Bill seemed pretty adamant that it wasn't going to happen. Shipping and weight of the 8" scale LJN figures have to be considered, and Bill doesn't particularly view that size figure as a player in today's action figure market. LJNs didn't move and there was no poseability with them, unlike the Hasbro/Retro figures which are all about poseability and actions. The smaller scale of Retros and the fact that they're much cheaper to ship and weigh less than LJNs is a benefit to them. If Mattel ever were to do LJN figures, it's going to be a long time down the road and there's going to have to be a ton of demand for them.
Follow-up: What about sprinkling in LJNs to different assortments similar to the Jakks Classic Superstars line did (eight figures in a set = one LJN throwback)?
It didn't even seem like that was a go. Scott doesn't think it's going to happen anytime soon, at least not for the foreseeable future.
What are the odds of something like MattyCollector coming back for the Mattel WWE figures?
Bill mentioned the massive success of HasLab. While there's promise with something like that, Mattel doesn't have any plans currently to do something like that. Scott said maybe in the future we'll have an option to go online and purchase figures in limited quantities similar to Hasbro's concept. It didn't seem like it's going to be anything imminent or in the next six months to 18 months, but maybe there's a possibility that it would happen down the road. Again, no current plans at all. Mattel would need to see more companies have success with it.
When someone gets inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, does that mean they have an instant Legends deal?
Everybody assumes this, but that's not always the case. Jef asked Bill specifically about The Rock 'n' Roll Express and Bill said the last time they got almost everybody from a Hall of Fame class, it was the one where Madusa went in (The Class of 2015). He said that was the last time they had almost all of them under Legends deals (assuming that means no Tatsumi Fujinami, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Connor "The Crusher" Michalek from that class). The Rock 'n' Roll Express don't have Legends deals, nor do The Midnight Express.