What am I missing??

Mattel had a model for selling Legends 10 years ago with figures of wrestlers like Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, the Brain Busters, Rockers, etc. Nobody bought them.

1. It’s more of a personal taste thing. I could personally go either way on them. I don’t mind not having them, but when I’m doing photography, the extra range helps with posing

2. They buy on concept most likely because of production lead times. Retailers generally like to have their pegs and whatnot planned out months (if not a year) in advance. Ordering on concept allows for production to start, so that product comes out faster. If you look at true preorders, they usually take somewhere around a year. Places like Walmart and Target don’t want that.

3. Until Sgt Slaughter was announced I’d never actually heard of Mattel Creations, so there may be something to your point. They’d still probably limit how far back they go. Jakks did those legends, but the legends collector is of a different generation now. As more time passes, those guys tend to fall deeper into the history books. Back when Jakks was doing Classic Superstars, those were the beloved legends of the generation collecting them. The people buying legends now are looking more for very late 80s-Attitude Era more than anything

Thank you for all of your input. I really appreciate it.

I HATE MY JOB - to your point and it is a valid one. Thank you. I did buy those but could totally understand why others didn't at the time. My thoughts then was ... If they were going to have someone as popular as Andre the Giant on line or Bundy at the early stages of Mattel's line ... I was wondering were they not doing legends? Or understood that collector ... if not that would be a deterrent to me for investing in this line. There was still a residual effect of JAKKS having the most diverse line of wrestlers ever made that had really good sculpts and was Mattel going to be able to do that? They still haven't matched the diversity however their scale and sculpts have me totally in and my jakks are in storage. Did enough people know about those figures on-line before gaining the brand loyalty of the line. So Mattel was correct in doing it but perhaps at the wrong time. I would like to think they have a far larger audience NOW that would lead to more success.

Buddyboy 101 - thank you. I actually like LOD a lot ... but I more questioned why they didn't establish Slaughter's, Snuka's and LOD's classic look to kick things off. That made me question if they knew these superstars and the new collectors to this line. I would say now the answer is yes .. but back then I questioned it.

BABABOOEY. Thank you. So when you take pictures let's say straight on does it not look more like a toy or not as realistic with that overt joint? Just not sure about the posing - perhaps I need to move them around more. I guess I wouldn't mess with Mattel's sales on how they order etc ... but certainly wished they would maximize their potential with reorders. Kind of like Target is doing now on remakes of Rogue for Marvel Legends. I sadly agree with your third point which is why it might be safer to let the collector decide if their is a market for anything 80's and earlier ... with now a larger audience and to your point Mattel Creations ... there really is no more excuses for the collector if they promote a legend and see how it does. If it fails ... the collectors spoke. If it wins - everyone wins. 

Guster.  Thank you.  Yes you are correct soda and underwear sell without a lot of effort ... toys definitely sell but with more strategy and awareness.  I have been to Toys r us and marveled how little they know their toys.  To some people jobs are jobs and not passion to know.  I don't know the buyers knowledge and understanding of collectors ... then the scalpers and how many others would buy.   Bottom line, I think you are right .. and I feel pretty confident that Mattel knows what they are doing far more than I am suggesting ... I am just adding a voice for them to consider of my passion.  Based on what I see here on this forum I am not alone .... but perhaps we are still not significant enough to financially impact them .. which is why they fight to get a legend in a line.  

Again, thanks to all of you for the exchange,

I actually loved the matty collector exclusives

in regards to the first question, yes. i personally prefer butterfly joints because of a better range of motion when articulating and doing certain poses for figure photography. the majority of people on here don’t like it because they only buy the figures and pop them up the shelf, stare at it, and walk away

I didn’t start collecting until CM Punk was well into his WWE Championship run, so I missed all the Legends figures and had to get them on the secondary market. By the time I heard about Matty Collector, it was already mostly defunct, but as someone with some experience in web design, that website was a piece of shit. It was impossible to find anything. Mattel Creations’ website also sucks and looks more like some garbage app than a website.

You have no idea! I worked in the stockroom. We had some fresh WWE Elites and Marvel Legends in the back for over a month. I waited until the inventory system told us to push them out just to see how long it would take because we had mostly empty pegs on the sales floor.

I gave up and pushed them out myself. They sold through in a couple days. There was a Wrestlemania shipper that was sitting in the back. I made a manager push it out the week before Wrestlemania just so I could see what figures were in it. This was a recurring theme. Target’s inventory system is terrible.