Why is it so difficult to get new legends?

They have to have legends deals. Unlike Jakks, where they would sign someone independently of a WWE Legends deal, Mattel can’t/won’t do that and only does wrestlers signed to deals. The reason so many legends aren’t signed is you have a 75 year old WWE CEO who still holds grudges from 50 years ago and won’t swallow his pride to make himself even more money. It’s beyond frustrating for an old school collector like myself. There are so few figs I’ve gotten because there’s really no one new they’re producing.

Considering the people he’s rebuilt bridges with, mainly due to make money, that’s not exactly true. It just depends on how big a name they are.

Jazwares I think will eventually start making those guys and it will force WWE to start making more deals to stop Jazwares from making them.

Since Mattel took over in 2010, Triple H has rebuilt those bridges (Warrior, Bruno, etc). Not Vince.

WWE would have to get a talent under a Legends deal, and let's not pretend every party wouldn't try to juice everything they could out of it or the 'E would offer anything possible to make it happen. Then Mattel would have to find the "right spot" for it, which sometimes would take a long while based on the talent's cachet.

And let's not forget a ton of talents were involved in a lawsuit a while back, so feelings are probably still raw from that.

Also, some just don't give a hug for toy monies.

Because they can't...Pretty simple really. They can only make guys who have WWE Legends contracts.

If you go to WWESHOP, you'll see that WWE has over 40+ Legends signed. Considering that includes most of the big main players, that can't be cheap to keep all of those people on the books. That also doesn't include people like Mae Young, Freddie Blassie, Gorilla, Sherri, Superstar, Hayes, Rocky Johnson, Kama, Valentine, etc. that are/were under deals, but don't have other merchandise available on their website.

I would imagine WWE has a Legends budget set aside each year that they use to keep existing deals in place and to pursue new deals. They aren't going to forgo resigning M$M or Rick Rude to Legends deal so they can sign Baston Booger to a Legends deal instead. That's just not realistic and not the best way to run a business. WWE probably has a handful of deals that end each year of midcard/lower midcard/cult favs that they are willing to let expire so they can replace for someone else.

We are pretty much at the mercy of those handful of new Legends that WWE pursues each year (which Mattel might play a part in since they have stated before that they request people based off of our feedback and who they also think would make sense from a business standpoint).  We are lucky that WWE hasn't cut more of the existing deals due to the pandemic (part of some of the Legends deal includes appearances). 

On top of that, I think we overlook how much work it is and the challenges for Mattel to juggle/space out all of these Legends in addition to the current roster. There are only so many slots available each year in the current retail climate. They are still a business and their shareholders expect them to increase sales/revenue each year.

In addition, WWE has to agree/sign off on the figure lineups and they prefer the focus to be on the current product. I think people forget this. Mattel can't just release Elite 88 with 6 Flashbacks.

So yeah, we might get 2 or 3 Macho Man/Ultimate Warrior/Cena/Hulk Hogans every year, but that is because they sell and their sales help Mattel release figures of Mae Young or Freddie Blassie.

I think at times we get so hung up on justifying figures that we each personally want (I want more releases of Sherri yesterday in case AFA is reading this long ass reply) that we lose sight of everything else.

I do wish though that WWE/Mattel would release a poll of 20 or so people each year that they would be willing to pursue (that are not/were never under deals) and let us vote on it to determine demand. Let's say they went with the top 5 to pursue for release for the following year - then they would have a big enough list in case some of the wrestlers don't sign on and we'll have some input on new Legends released.

The only thing we can do is keep being vocal/expressing our opinions in a respectful way (without annoying Mattel/beating a dead horse) on who we would like to see on this board and hope that if we have enough support that it will push the needle (look at the support for Valentine that I believe played a huge role in his figure being released). Hopefully, TRU works out and additional online retailers are explored/allowed into the game so it opens up more spots available to collectors.

I will never tire of Warrior or Macho Man     

For the 2021 lineup of Elite / Ultimate style figures (around 70 figures released or officially announced) we have gotten 3 new Legends (Ellering, Mae & Hayes, if you want to stretch it say 4 for Kama). And from the leaked lineups of Elite series after 86 and the Survivor Series lineup, it’s not looking good for new Legends being added

And we know Ellering was supposed to come out a year or two ago, and Hayes has probably been around since Mattel got the license. So not exactly earth shattering news that we got those two


I love Mattel’s product, but they’ve got to do something to get some variety, for us adult collectors. Not just Macho, Warrior, HBK, HHH, Austin and Undertaker over and over and over again