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Post by PJ on Nov 10, 2018 11:50:19 GMT -5
It failed because of over production. When my TRU got two shipments of Legends 2-Pack. With one shipment being 120 cases and the next being 80 more cases that was probably 100+ cases more than they received for the whole CSTT run from Jakks. And with the Legends 2-pack that was 200 cases of the same 3 sets. That was doomed from the start. And with the Singles they released Series 1 , 2 and the KMart Exclusive HOF all at the same time. And the HOF was just straight rereleases of series 1 & 2 with a cardboard plaque. Not even a different attire. So if you found Series 1 & 2 you didn’t need to find the HOF and vise versa. So they competed with themselves for sales. And it was worse for KMart because they got both the regular assortment and their exclusive assortment. Distribution is down to individual companies, so Target order say 500 cases of a series, and distribute them amongst their stores, Mattel cannot be held responsible for how Target distribute them, Mattel ship to the company's central warehouse, and not to individual stores So I'd say you got the 'over' part right, but down to over ordering rather than over distribution Except every single store that sells them has a distribution problem so at some point Mattel is responsible for it No for the large chain retailers (Target, WalMart, TRU, etc) Mattel ships to the retailers main distribution center. Once they do that distribution is out of their hands. After that it’s whichever retailer it is to divide the order up and distribute it to all their distribution centers who then distribute it to the stores in the Distribution Centers district.
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Post by Nivro™ on Nov 10, 2018 14:49:55 GMT -5
The Legends line was debated and discussed a ton on here back in the day. It was basically a three-pronged attack of errors: 1. It came out too quickly after the Jakks classic line ended. Most Jakks classic collectors sat out the launch of the line because they felt too connected to that line. The thought of starting over was daunting for them. Most eventually came around once they realized how much better these were compared to Jakks and they got into the Legends by the time the series was dying. This led to a big increase in the secondary market and the first elite flashbacks in the main elite line did way better than the Legends line initially did. I happened to get back into collecting right around when Mattel got the license so I loved the line from the start but I was clearly in the minority compared to all the Jakks collectors around these parts.This part is huge and people never look at it. Remember most of us had HUGE Jakks collections and its not necessarily we didnt want to restart but we were also under the impression that Jakks was continuing with the Legends of the Ring line that had Sting, Hogan, Jarrett, Cornette, Scott Steiner, Terry Taylor etc in it. We were under the assumption that we didnt need to restart we could just continue. And then JAKKS laid an egg on us and we all jumped ship after that.
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wormnation
Superstar
Joined on: Sept 8, 2018 9:15:31 GMT -5
Posts: 856
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Post by wormnation on Nov 10, 2018 14:56:49 GMT -5
I blame Trump
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Post by Nivro™ on Nov 10, 2018 15:00:45 GMT -5
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Post by LA Times on Nov 10, 2018 15:01:15 GMT -5
Poor sales, it sucks because they had a Legends ESR Andre bundle planned too. I think they leaned too much towards the obscure stuff, like tag packs series 1 with Bushwhackers, Piper/Orton, and Sheik/Volkoff, I mean, what a killer lineup, some of Jakks worst shelfwarmers, but they're $10 more this time around. If they mimicked Jakks' Rockers/Harts/LOD(red/black) who knows what would've happened? I did appreciate being able to get polka dot Dusty outside of an exclusive, like Jakks did with him and debut Mankind. Yeah, when I think of Legendary tag teams, the Bushwhackers, Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff and Rowdy Roddy Piper & Cowboy Bob Orton sure as hell dont come to mind. Funny thing is, those 2packs are expensive on ebay now, so todays shelfwarmers can become tomorrow's sought after.
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Deleted
Joined on: May 9, 2024 22:06:38 GMT -5
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2018 15:09:24 GMT -5
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hitman1072
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jun 9, 2005 1:43:07 GMT -5
Posts: 1,495
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Post by hitman1072 on Nov 10, 2018 15:48:12 GMT -5
The biggest factor, by far, was the economy. 6 inch collector focused lines were dead at retail. The only somewhat successful 6 inch collector line at that time, was DC Universe Classics. Even Marvel Legends were relegated to a few TRU exclusive 2 packs. As soon as the economy picked up, 6 inch collector focused lines were back at retail. Sure, the other factors mentioned played a small part, but the economy is what did in the Legends line.
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Post by Purple Reigns on Nov 10, 2018 15:54:27 GMT -5
Old heads will use mental gymnastics like "attire choices" to cover for bad sales
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Post by jayrod2009 on Nov 10, 2018 15:59:50 GMT -5
Don’t forget this was also during the “Mattel sells Barbies” debates from people that were affraid to make the tranistion from Jakks to Mattel. You also had collectors who were all in on Jakks, bad spent years building their collections and we all knew at some point we would be rebuying those same characters from a new company. There were so many factors involved here. Poor character selection, attire, market flooding, hard launch, etc.
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Post by Fighter Hayabusa on Nov 10, 2018 16:03:46 GMT -5
They failed on Matty Collector because I don’t think your casual collector knew they were on there. It was a site mainly for MOTU collectors so it’s not going to get much traffic from wrestling figure collectors. Ringside probably would’ve been a better home for them if they weren’t going to properly advertise and promote the line being on Matty. Another factor is that the average retail price was $15-$20 and on Matty you were paying $30 after shipping.
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Post by Mongo Bears on Nov 10, 2018 16:13:37 GMT -5
A lot of good reasons given here that didn’t occur to me since I wasn’t around collecting until 2013-14. Still though it blows my mind that I am a 40 yr old flashback/legends guy and out of 33 legends figures released I only bought 11 and only 4 there that I was super excited about. Keep in mind also that I was behind in the collecting game and wanted to buy buy buy. The 2-pks weren’t very desirable to me either. I only bought bushwhackers and I didn’t even care about them. Piper would have been most exciting for me but I didn’t want to pay for stupid Bob Orton too so I passed. 5 Matty collector exclusives and I bought Arn Anderson and ddp but I hate the ddp face.
My first ever thread I created and pretty much my first ever post here testifies to what I’ve said here
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Post by mikey1974 on Nov 10, 2018 16:28:11 GMT -5
The Legends line was debated and discussed a ton on here back in the day. It was basically a three-pronged attack of errors: 1. It came out too quickly after the Jakks classic line ended. Most Jakks classic collectors sat out the launch of the line because they felt too connected to that line. The thought of starting over was daunting for them. Most eventually came around once they realized how much better these were compared to Jakks and they got into the Legends by the time the series was dying. This led to a big increase in the secondary market and the first elite flashbacks in the main elite line did way better than the Legends line initially did. I happened to get back into collecting right around when Mattel got the license so I loved the line from the start but I was clearly in the minority compared to all the Jakks collectors around these parts. 2. As a strategical decision, to try and combat that first issue Mattel aimed to make more obscure attires that were different from Jakks -- this was all on Mattel and Bill (both Bills at the time, there was another Boss Bill who isn't there anymore). This backfired immensely. Instead of Sgt. Slaughter in his camo we got a different, less known Slaughter. We got Jimmy Snuka with boots. LOD in black, not in the red and black. Since then, Mattel has done a complete 180 and gone with the more iconic looks that fans crave -- which is what they should've done in the first place. Trying to stand out from Jakks with niche looks may have sounded initially good in theory but was awfully foolish. 3. The K-Mart Hall of Fame line absolutely destroyed the line. Legends Series 1 sold reasonably well across the board. So Legends Series 2 came out and did OK, not as great ... Terry Funk in particular was really clogging shelves (which was sad, love Terry). Then K-Mart got a TON of the same exact figures in slightly different packaging from Series 1 and 2 and they clogged the shelves. It's the exact same problem that haunted the Galoob WCW line back in the early 90s -- for Galoob, Series 1 initially flew off the shelves so TRU ordered a ton of it and then it clogged shelves because everybody had already bought Series 1 and were ready for a Series 2. For Mattel, people were good on Series 1 and 2 and then here came a billion more of the exact same figures. Had they been repaints or a Series 3 the line could've gone on a whole lot longer. 3a. This last issue also killed the TRU two-packs, which also hurt the line. Mattel didn't come out on fire with character selection (instead of LOD/Demolition/Rockers/etc. we got an Iron Sheik repaint and the Bushwhackers), MSRP was high and TRU ordered WAY too many. They clogged shelves forever and killed any chance of a 2nd series. I remember I bought them initially after some hesitation because of the price, which is saying something because I was 100 percent all in on the line. That's how iffy the character selection/initial price was here. This is it, right here. I would even argue that Rick Rude and Jake The Snake were questionable attire choices as well. Terry Funk,Slaughter, and Snuka were the absolute worst possible choices though.Also didn't help that you had 2 versions of the Iron Sheik on the pegs roughly around the same time. I remember when the HOF line leaked out, and so many of us were convinced that there would be new deco on the rereleased figures... when we saw they were exactly the same figures, you could literally feel the air drain out of this place.
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Post by qdogg on Nov 10, 2018 16:30:47 GMT -5
They didn't have enough big names signed at the start of the line
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Post by Mongo Bears on Nov 10, 2018 16:39:00 GMT -5
They didn't have enough big names signed at the start of the line True but they did have names they just refused to make flashback figures for like triple H, Kane, undertaker etc
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Post by mikey1974 on Nov 10, 2018 16:39:42 GMT -5
They didn't have enough big names signed at the start of the line This too. If they had waited a year, and just focused on the current WWE Superstars / Figures and waited into 2011 to launch the Legends line, you would've had powerhouses like Bret Hart, Randy Savage, and Ultimate Warrior to anchor the line. Another HUGE factor was Vince's demand that people still wrestling at the time - Triple H, Kane, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, etc - NOT get flashback style figures in the Legends line cause he felt that still active wrestlers on the roster didn't belong in the line. Of course for whatever reason he had no issues with them hving older attires/looks in the EG and DM lines, but for some reason he made Legends completely off limits.
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Post by Fighter Hayabusa on Nov 10, 2018 16:40:13 GMT -5
I think another thing that hurt is that they had a dumb rule of not putting legends on the active roster in the line. Not sure if this was self opposed or something ordered by WWE. So flashback attire of guys like Undertaker, HBK, HHH, Jericho, etc couldn’t be used.
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Post by Artie Kendall on Nov 10, 2018 16:50:04 GMT -5
I think another thing that hurt is that they had a dumb rule of not putting legends on the active roster in the line. Not sure if this was self opposed or something ordered by WWE. So flashback attire of guys like Undertaker, HBK, HHH, Jericho, etc couldn’t be used. It was ordered by WWE. When a fan asked Bill Kerner about a Stunning Steve Austin he said WWE wanted the more iconic looks released first. Here we are eight years later and still no Stunning Steve Austin.
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Post by mikey1974 on Nov 10, 2018 17:00:52 GMT -5
I think another thing that hurt is that they had a dumb rule of not putting legends on the active roster in the line. Not sure if this was self opposed or something ordered by WWE. So flashback attire of guys like Undertaker, HBK, HHH, Jericho, etc couldn’t be used. I remember hearing at the time it was a WWE decision... I mean, imagine if they had waited a year, and had access to the currently active roster for the Legends line! it could've been one of the greatest lines ever made! Imagine it coming out something like this : Series 1 : Stone Cold Steve Austin Ricky the Dragon Steamboat Dusty Rhodes Macho Man Randy Savage Kamala Mr. Perfect Series 2 : Bret Hitman Hart Ravishing Rick Rude Jake The Snake Roberts The Undertaker - grey and black Chris Jericho Sgt. Slaughter Series 3 : The Ultimate Warrior Andre The Giant Rowdy Roddy Piper Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff The Iron Sheik DDP Series 4 : The Rock Shawn Michaels Big Van Vader Eddie Guerrero British Bulldog Rey Mysterio Series 5 : Undertaker #2 - Attitude Era Brian Pillman Jimmy Snuka Bam Bam Bigelow The Model Rick Martel Kane ...etc. and the 2-packs something like this: Series 1 : Hawk and Animal (LOD attire) The Bushwhackers Strike Force Series 2 : Demolition (Ax and Smash) The Brain Busters The Rockers ...something like that. Because by the time you'd get done with lineups like this in 2011, then you're going into 2012 where Mattel would get even more rights and get even more superstars made like Yokozuna, Nash, Miss Elizabeth, The Giant, etc. along with more redo's of Shawn,Bret,Taker,Mysterio,Rock,Austin,Kane,etc.
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Post by stc13 on Nov 10, 2018 17:14:02 GMT -5
I think another thing that hurt is that they had a dumb rule of not putting legends on the active roster in the line. Not sure if this was self opposed or something ordered by WWE. So flashback attire of guys like Undertaker, HBK, HHH, Jericho, etc couldn’t be used. It was ordered by WWE. When a fan asked Bill Kerner about a Stunning Steve Austin he said WWE wanted the more iconic looks released first. Here we are eight years later and still no Stunning Steve Austin. It is amazing that we are still waiting on any WCW Austin (Stunning Steve or Hollywood Blondes), 2000 HHH, have only had 2 classic Flair Elites, etc. Yet here we are with 3 different figures of John Tenta and Fred Ottman. I absoliutely love this line, but logic went out the window a long time ago.
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Post by BadGirlRyleigh on Nov 10, 2018 17:17:12 GMT -5
They didn't have enough big names signed at the start of the line They did so. WWE placed huge restrictions on them. No one that was active could be in the Legends line. That took away HBK, Kane, Undertaker, Triple H, Mysterio, Jericho, Goldust, Edge, & Christian. And while they didn’t have Macho, Warrior, & Bret at launch they had enough guys to get through Year 1. Rock Austin Triple H Undertaker Steamboat LOD Slaughter Dusty Jake Roberts Kamala Rick Rude Sheik Volkoff Snuka Funk Vader Perfect Hacksaw Bulldog Pillman Kane HBK Jannetty Bushwhackers Mysterio Goldust Edge Christian Jericho I could have a field day making lineups with those guys
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