Where do you draw the line?

There’s plenty of gimmicks that haven’t been covered with available talent that hasn’t been made that we don’t need repaints for 3 and 4 times

Blame the voters on that one. Mattel shouldn't have put it in the poll to begin with, but the people voting on WWE.com were the ones that chose it.

Not gonna lie…but I’d freak over a “Hands of Stone”/Rugged Ronnie Garvin.

Rigged or not, it shouldn’t have been an option imo since they’ve already released it at least twice.

As somebody who started collecting Hasbro lines within the last couple of years, I'm very impressed with the products they put out.  Like you said, coordination with retail, design, paint apps, metallic paints, washes, etc.  They're setting the bar in many ways, and the constant misfires from Mattel are laughable.  How can Funko have perfectly times/coordinated pre-releases on Target's website on a regular basis, but every single time Mattel has something there's a "miscommunication."  They've done it 5-6 times within the past couple of weeks alone.  Maybe it's fair to say the problem is in fact on Mattel's end...

That said, I don't totally buy into "grass is greener on the other side" thinking.  WWE is Mattel's premier licensed property after losing DC.  If Hasbro was even interested in WWE, they'd probably be 4th or 5th on the priority list for action figures, which means they probably aren't going to get the best designers, budget, retail prominence, etc.

But it is interesting that months keep sliding by and we've heard zip about a contract extension.  Yes, Bill and Steve are still planning for 2022 and beyond, but that's what any business does until they lose a contract/bid - if you don't and you do get the contract, you're screwed.  Not saying Mattel won't get the deal - they're the most logical fit, imo.  But this is dragging on far, far longer than any other renewal I can remember.

I said at the time that the moment is so iconic, they’d had at least two attempts at getting it right and failed, maybe for an Ultimate, they will focus and nail it abs spend money on making the new head sculpts and hair that we know is missing. Also the ultimate would also be bigger (as in wider, bigger torso) and more accurate in his size…it was only acceptable to have it in there if they finally nailed it but they’ve effectively given us the same god damn figure but with butterfly joints. So it even sucks for those new to the game who luckily for them missed the first two releases. It really is Inexcusable.