Why all the hate on Mattel?

I don't hate them, but I will give you an example of a thing they do that annoys me. Surfer Sting is one of the most colorfully attired wrestlers in history. There are a multitude of colors and color combinations to choose from, and they come up with this...

Simple, Mattel's quality has majorly dropped down over the past couple of years.
In Mattel's first few years, there weren't as many cases of poor quality control and questionable decisions. Fast forward to about 2016-2018 and it's almost like 8/10 figures have some sort of big flaw in them.

Back when i first started collecting Mattel in 2010, i would say maybe 2-3 out of the say 20 or so figures i bought had a minor paint flaw or a slightly looser arm. Now, since i started buying figures again in 2017, about 90% of them have had a nasty paint flaw or overly tight joints, where in one case my E56 Styles had an almost frozen left arm where when i moved the ab crunch, it would jolt the arm up like an old Flex Force figure, then one more ab crunch later the arm joint snapped and now he has a loose helicopter arm.
On top of this, every figure i've bought since 2017 has had frozen ankle joints, the majority of them have had nasty paint flaws and some have come with just straight up loose joints. For a company that should be improving quality with time, they're taking a step back.


Now, notable things that are happening but i haven't experienced yet.
Fortunately for me, i haven't come across a botched True FX yet. But the ones that are botched are horrendous, especially Basics & Women. The fact that some of them even get the green light shocks me.

Skin tones not matching is one of the most annoying things i see from Mattel, how do they give the green light to two completely different skin tones? Painting skin colour over black or white to 'cut costs' is just a poor excuse. How about take the cost out somewhere else like an accessory rather than ruin what could've been a great figure. The most recent one i've seen is a thread about EM Kurt Angle with horribly coloured legs. Now while i haven't experienced this much, the Elite 59 American Alpha i have, has this problem. While it's not the worst it could be, it's noticeable especially on Jordan.

Leaving the quality control behind for a minute, changing the Basic figures was a stupid decision. Why remove articulation but still charge the same price? On top of this, the plastic feels cheaper and the final product looks poor and cheap. Basics now are what you would expect to find at a Dollar store, the only use for them really is getting the heads off them, and even now with True FX, that's gone because Basic True FX is a disaster.


Now don't get me wrong, i still think Mattel have the best WWE figures ever, when done right they're amazing. But seriously, when people pay the money they do for your product, they shouldn't be expecting to receive a paint job disaster, and botched face or a broken figure. For me, i've got to pay at least $50 per figure because of the USD-AUD, so when i do that, i shouldn't be thinking "Is this one going to be a mess too?"
Right now, charging the price they do for the quality we all get is quite sad.

The distribution is my biggest complaint and I don’t blame them for that. Some Targets and Walmarts are great and some are terrible and don’t restock for 6 months. I honestly don’t know who to blame on that. Is it Mattel or is it the store? I would tend to think the store, but I don’t know.

My son collects Hasbro Marvel figs and the distribution is just as bad. Changing companies wouldn’t solve that issue.

The QC is definitely an issue. That needs to be approved upon. It seemed like it was headed in the right direction a year or so ago. Now it’s going the other way again. Just inconsistent.

I’m just gonna be honest here,..Bill rubs me the wrong way.

Am I the only one?

.......(No Zeus for you!)

So much Logic in these two posts, it could put on a concert.




Honestly, when was the last time we had a price increase? I don't even remember. It feels like elites have been about $20 and basics have been about $10 for years.

I don’t have many complaints other than it becoming more challenging to collect with all of the store exclusives. And I can’t afford a change in manufacturers.

Oh my goodness, I thought I was the only one who thought this! That EG Goldberg looked very off, and I couldn't put my finger on it. Makes total sense now.

Weirdly enough, I think the scan looks like him from the front, but not the sides. The sides resemble more of a gorilla. A few minor touch ups and it could of been a really good figure, even if they didn’t bother to give him a unique body. Give him the tan skintone, add some gloss to his boots, add some open elbow pads, as well as open back kneepads. Finally, give him a younger scan and add some highlights or toning to his goatee. Not that hard of a figure to make.

There you go.

I’m still lost at so many directing anger towards distribution. Mattel makes the product and ships it to whoever paid for an order. The only thing they can do is put pressure on the buyer to get it from the warehouse to the locations, but with so many other companies fighting for space, they can’t get too ugly with the buyers or they could give that shelf space to someone else. They have to manage expectations just like we do, only we can’t seem to do that in a tactful manner anymore.

A little while ago I mentioned it would be a good idea to try and find the new face print technology figures in store as Mattel worked out the issues with it for several months, but I ignored my own advice with BF/CM and purchased quite a few anyway, including two UE sets. Strictly speaking on those two sets; all three had identical scans right down to some spots/patches in O’Reilly’s beard. EG Goldberg doesn’t have eyeliner, but maybe the beard could have had a few less open spots.

Going out shopping I’ve been looking more closely at all the figures even if I’m not buying, and I’m really not seeing anything like the handful of printing issues that have been posted.

I’ve never had a Jakks or Mattel break being pulled out of the package. I have had 2 Marvel legends do that. I’ve had joints stuck on both, but less than I can count on one hand combined.

Have I been lucky? Sure, but with the sheer amount I’ve purchased over the years I should have had at least one terrible figure, especially online, but I really haven’t.