Mattel 2 Billion in debt. Changes coming?

Businesses commonly carry debt. I know it seems like a big number but it needs to be taken in the context of their revenue and profit. Looks like they did $5.4 Billion in revenue in 2022.

They also had a net profit of $2.26 Billion as of June 30th this year.

The debt will not force sudden product streamlining as that will narrow their revenue streams and risk profit margins, and more importantly to the suits- the stock price.

If CC or Retros get cut it’s because the line isn’t profitable, not the company as a whole.

Yep it really is that that bad for Mattel products here in Canada and impossible to find WWE Elite and MOTU stuff in stores. You can find a lot of it from online sellers but it's far from perfect. The Ruthless Aggression line here for our Walmarts online is slim pickings with only 1-2 figures you can still buy in stock (Shelton and Cena). No idea if we will ever get any of the Ultimates (Rey, Brock, RVD, and Eddie Guerrero) and Edge hasn't showed up yet. Target exclusives which are suppose to come to Canada's Toys R Us are not sold on their website at all and I've only seen them a few years back on pegs in store. There's no other option but to pay much more then most of us are willing to pay on the second market. I don't quite get what's going on at all. Hasbro's stuff here is easy to trackdown online and anything that's exclusive we can find on Walmart or Toys R Us online. We have no idea what's going on with Mattel and no one seems to want to offer transparency with what's going on except the one guy with MOTU Origins saying international customers are having a harder time finding stuff and that they were going to offer to us the exclusives on Mattel Creations at some point. I've asked Steve a couple times on here but just radio silence. They don't have the answers I guess and it's out of their hands I'm sure they will claim.

I have noticed that RSC restocking has gotten odd lately, but I've mostly noticed it in the basics. They'll be completely sold out of a set for months then suddenly the entire set is in stock again out of nowhere, like how randomly, last month, all the sets from 128-139 seemed to simultaneously come back in stock at around the same time, despite currently being on set 143 for preorders.

As for the Elites, it's hard to say. I don't tend to keep track of Elite restocks as much because most Elites I buy when they are first available or preorder them. But I do think that Black Friday season this year is going to be extremely slim pickings for WWE because there isn't a whole lot of back stock on the site right now outside of wave after wave of basics. Plus an entire backlog of AEW. Although I'd say a big reason for that is that there hasn't been much that's come out this year to put on sale. I went back and looked at my holiday orders from last year as well as the database and by the looks of it, there were 9 numbered Elite sets that came out last year, vs us being on track for *6* this year. Meanwhile, the subsets and side series have gotten way more prevalent, most of which were rereleases.

Wow. I didn't realize till I looked at the numbers just how comparatively few new Elites we got this year.

So yeah, I don't know if it's so much that Ringside is having trouble restocking recent Elite sets as much as it is there just aren't as many new figure sets to restock.

This is sort of what I was getting at. There are so many side lines and rereleases that there are very few numbered waves coming out.

The problem is that the numbered waves are almost exclusively where the FTIL superstars hit from.

So with them releasing all these exclusive flashback side lines, there's not a whole lot of new wrestlers being made, or really, non-legends figures at all outside of the basics line.

I get that everyone on here wants legends only but, you know, some of us actually watch and want wrestlers from the current product as well. I don't need the Steiners, I don't need Hogan, I don't need Warrior, just let me complete a current roster faction before people from it start getting released. The Judgement Day has been around for how long now? It shouldn't take two years worth of releases to make a complete set! Same with Damage CTRL. The waves are close together yet it's gonna take us how long to get a whole three woman trio.

Honorary Uce should have been made by now. Damien Priest is gonna be long gone from TJD before his figure comes out. They pushed the crap out of Demonic Alexa and yet we only got one basic, one elite, and a 2-in-1 ultimate. Stop giving current talent the shaft and stop focusing all your effort on what amounts to ebay exclusives.

Really? Hmm. Must have miscounted then.

I did fail math.

Sorry to bother. I didn't mean to come off as mean. I was just really really exhausted and cranky from being up all night.

Please forgive.

I'll go now.

No argument here regarding current talent. My Legends collecting is sharply limited to a few specific names, and one of them is out of the line now. The bulk of my collecting is women's roster, and there are plenty of names I'm unlikely to see as Elites because of the limited number of spots for women. I've honestly been a little surprised to see how slow the turnaround has been on stuff like new Sami figures.

Agreed. Personally, for me the line struggling the most right now is hot wheels. Their glory days from the mid to late 90s is over and they have been trying to get back to that ever since without success. They are now trying to go all in with their monster trucks which have more shelf space than the regular cars. I hardly ever see anyone buying hot wheels anymore. Hot wheels are a good example of what happens if you make every car 10 times over with slight changes. They are out of ideas and color combinations. Most of their car choices now are fantasy and futuristic in nature. They should scrap the regular line and start over with new collectors numbers in a slightly bigger size. Oh wait they are already trying that....

So yeah they better get out of debt because when the 10th version of Leonardo is released they Will lose steam in yet another line.

For the time being wwe is doing great but only because the exclusives are pulling people into walmart. Eventuall like the rest of us the average buyer will get tired of seeing either empty pegs or an increased price point every other 6 months.

hasbro needs to cut out marvel legends. Everything disney(star wars especially) is completely dead. They are rotting on every single ollies shelves. Hasbro got greedy and started asking 25 dollars for some of these figures (29.99 for the gamorrean guard from sw). Mattel needs to be careful that they don't make the same mistake. They have already increased the price of their superstars figures twice and everyone has their limit. Personally 25 is mine. Having paid 4.99 to 8.99 for most figures up until the mid 2010s I just can't justify a 3-fold increase in just 7-8 years for the same stuff (high points of articulation already existed in marvel legends and mcfarlane figures way before mattel did the same with their wrestling figure lines).

I believe for many that breaking point is arriving. Mattel is doing the best they can under the situation they are in. They are simply a victim of inflation. YOU KNOW THINGS ARE BAD when hot wheels struggle with a 20% increase in price. But they need to know where to draw the line.

Agreed the risk is huge and there is so little left that mattel can do to keep boys or girls buying action figures. I see toys all together disappearing with just a few left in the end. Only toys with longevity to me is legos and playskool. Games like monopoly might stick around but sold a lot less. Even staples like bicycles will get replaced. I've said it many times when 80s merchandise goes away so too will the collectors. The last 3 years has woken people up to what's important. Freedom and health or hot wheels and barbies. Most people now buy bread and pasta before the latter. You can bet the same is happening now in Ukraine and israel.

I always thought a mattel store (like a lego store) is the best way forward. Cut out the middleman and keep all the profit. Mattel does not need walmart to sell wrestling figures (or motu/gijoe etc. Haslab is proof of that. They just need to get rid of basics. Truth is most parents are nOt buying toys at walmart anymore and are instead buying them at ollies or five and below for much less.

P s. I think hasbro will dissappear first. Their star wars lines are dead and their ipo's in general are much thinner than mattel. Either way I don't think either of them can survive unless they reinvent themselves. They need to get out of toys and into something else.

I think part of the problem is lack of imagination

When I was a kid (I’m 40 now) we had cartoons morning and after school then would play outside Reinacting what we saw. We’d have a handful of games for a console so action figures were a cheaper and more varied option for play

Nowadays kids are not outside playing power rangers etc, kids have cartoons 24/7 and parents are more likely to shove the kids infront of a screen be it tv, tablet etc

The biggest mind blow for me is kids sound rather watch other kids inbox snd play with toys than play with toys themselves, it’s crazy!

I’d have a handful of hasbro wwf figures and irs was also a red or a manager, I had two bret harts so one was Owen etc. nowadays kids don’t pretend one wrestler is another because they have a steady stream coming weekly it seems like so even if they do play it’s reduced. I mesn before I got my ring I cut open a cardboard box and drew on it and coloured it in for a ring etc.