Is this the dark days of WWE figure collecting in the UK?

I’d be interested to know which one if it’s not against rules to say (given RSC is an online seller they may not want others discussed)

But I would say I’ve spoken in the past few days to arguably the biggest uk online retailer (who have had live events, one with Bill there) and they have had quite a few exclusive lines in. Those they haven’t were open to them but the min order quantity was too high.

So I would say the are available, which is what steve also says, as long as they will meet the min quantities.

This broadly makes sense - but just from a pure business development perspective (and given how much Mattel does for individual US retailers), surely there must be some middle ground struck, for the sake of getting your product into more markets and cultivating stronger retailer relationships.

A simple one that I've been privy to a dozen times is where the min order quantity is slightly reduced as a "trial". Should the product sell-through, then the retailer is on the hook to meet the original min quantity for future orders.

Generally speaking, when I've worked for FMCG companies, this is how it goes with retailer partnerships - give a little, get a little.

Does anyone know roughly what the minimum order is? And what the cost per figure is? My guess is 10,000 units per wave at £10 GBP. A well known UK Wrestling shop online told me that the minimum order was larger than the entire UK market would purchase.

This is the thing I think we miss sometimes living in the bubble of our fandom

Wrestling popularity has gone down. Wrestling fig collectors are a smaller sub set of that.

From my brother, colleagues at work, friends etc around a similar age (now mid 30s to mid 40s) I hear the same story: as kids got into the end of the golden era as sky sports become big here in the uk and especially around summer slam 92, drifted off in the new gen era, come back in the attitude era, then into the end of attitude and into ruthless aggression wouldn’t follow it close but would watch it after coming home from the pub or uni bar etc. Nowadays they’ll watch if nothing else is in it if bored. It’s a very passive hobby.

The people around that age, mid 30s to mid 40s are the people with disposable income to buy figures and collectibles and that key market is being missed over here. Not due to mattel but lack of interest in the product.

Your estimate seems pretty reasonable - and this is sort of my point above. If, as a "trial period", that minimum order was dropped and these things were actually on shelves, there'd at least be a more accurate read on what the true demand is. Even if only for 1 or 2 lines.

As it stands, there's no way to actually estimate demand as the stuff is either unavailable or significantly more expensive than it should be.

I really miss Wrestlingworld. They used to get in all the exclusives.

It’s more complex than that I think - they offer it for one line etc then they have set an expectation because some do more than just wrestling figures

Also as a business I expect it’s not paid up front but shipped out by mattel at their cost then invoiced to the retailer. Mattel want to make it worth their while

It’s fairly common in a lot of businesses to have min order quantities - Including wholesaling records and CDs etc

Agreed with both of you. It boggles my mind that Mattel has a head office in Canada but not a site that sells anything. The fact that the TRU and Walmart ca websites are no where near updated is also beyond me. Heck, Amazon isn't even all that great on our end for figures and over priced when something does pop up. We are so close and yet so far. Doesn't help though reading that US collectors aren't finding the same stock everywhere.

Can't understand why they don't. Seems like they're leaving a lot of money on the table.