MNW line: Dud or Success?

the concept of the line is phenomenal. in 5 years or 10 years the MNW sections of our collections are gonna look stunning--------those that could not only find but also afford these figures. ive had to go to ebay to buy 4 figures from this line and the resellers didnt spare me as i had to pony up about $40 a piece for those figures when they sit on the pegs for $20.


NOW

lets look at target.


actually as a matter of fact this arguement has already been make and stood on.

i think wal mart needs to be the home of LESS desirable exclusives----throw your roman reigns and cody rhodes john cena and charlotte and brock lesnar exclusives at wal mart all day.


if its an important line, a line that will be important to collectors, lets go target in the future. i mean hell, after three weeks target throws those bad boys on clearance and it helps us out so much.


dear WWE mattel team : no more important exclusive lines for wal mart. every figure manufacturer is going through this phase with their collectors, wal mart is cancer to collectors so please stop putting your cool stuff there. Target and Amazon are the most friendly. i mean truly if they could handle the stock i and all others would even prefer to pay Ringside for an exclusive wwe line.

In terms of sales for Mattel its a success but the line is super weak. Re-releases etc instead solid figures we want. Some gems like the Austin and the Hall and Nash too even though Nash is very hard to find.

When I first heard that the line was Walmart exclusive I thought that it may appear at retail here in Canada so I was happy.

Then Steve says Walmart Canada opted not to carry the line.

My question is, at what point does Mattel decide whether or not a line should be retailer exclusive or not? Is it not in Mattel's best interest to ensure that their products are carried where the most people can buy them?

So Walmart Canada says no.....then what? Mattel just gives up and says "Welp looks like an entire country can't have these products now!"?

I wonder if TRU Canada was even offered to carry the line or not. But the fact that MNW figures appeared in the UK with Mattel Canada stickers on the back is so unbelievably frustrating.

I'm a day-1 Mattel collector. Literally. And they have done this retailer exclusive crap time and time again and released very sought after figures in random sub-lines that most people outside of the US don't have access to.

This retail exclusive thing needs to stop and these figures need to be absorbed into the main elite line so that all fans have a chance at getting them.

You have people willing to spend the money on your products....let them! And "durrrr just buy it for triple the price on the secondary market if you really care that much" argument doesn't hold. Easy for some to say that when they're able to simply go online and preorder something or walk into their local store and find items at retail price or on clearance (another thing Canadian retailers don't often do with WWE figures).

The only mark Target is missing, is putting them out on their release day, and not having the street date problems. However, the last two Legends sets have been available for pickup the day of, and it was the easiest. Walmart can't touch Target in that way.

And people wonder why Steve and Bill don't post here anymore....

That speaks volumes on them; not this community. People have been literally screaming about quality control issues and it is just now getting addressed. It shouldnt take a majority to fix a glaring issue. This should be known to mattel execs by now. Do they even open the finished product? Noone here should have to tell them about these problems if they actually had quality control.

Lastly the walmart exclusives distribution problem is nothing new. It started with their exclusive hot wheels packs (in the late 90s already) and it hasn't stopped since. Thats at least 25 years of this nonsense. At some point people are fed up. Anyone living in a major metropolitan area has more chances (dfw has dozens for example) but the average collector is dealing with a walmart where either the local scalper or the employees themselves have cornered the market and the next walmart is an hour away.

Mattel is doing well with barbies thanks to the movie and hot wheels are best sellers but they are starting to hit roadblocks. Have you ever walked into a dollar tree or dollar general lately? These stores are starting to get flooded with hot wheels as the new pricepoint caused by inflation is causing a lot of walmarts to dump them. Walk into any grocery store (that carries hw) and you will see they are stuck with cars from 2-3 years ago (as is the case typically at drug stores) due to the higher cost for the consumer.

This example translates to the figures as well. Transformers/Mcfarlane/neca/dc direct figures usually go to the clearance aisle as the average price per figure is too much for people (in 2024). Anything over 20$ in general.

Walmart does well with the following figures:

Simpsons
Super mario bros
Sonic
Wwe basics
Tmnt

What is the common denominator? All those figures are around 11-13$.

They know they are not the market for high dollar items unlike target yet they are offered these high end exclusives that should be at target! If target has trouble selling ultimates than you know people are struggling to afford them.

In short, these problems have been known to mattel execs for ages. I dont know who is responsible but noone here is looking for a fight. People just want a response to their questions. When the same question by multiple people goes unanswered people start questioning things. At this point most of us know the answers even if we dont get an official response.

Walmart controls the deck of cards and mattel is making more money with their officially licensed resellers. So all of us have to make a choice; buy from mattel indirect (like sultan of profits) or keep hitting walmarts religiously until you realize the market is cornered where you live. Well most of us are choosing option C: WE ARE ASKING FOR ACCOUNTABILITY. We have all been told that things will change in 2025; that walmart will have these online and actually ship out our online orders and not cancellung them.

But you know what? Its all a lie because that is NOT what walmart wants. Walmart could easily put these on their site and sell through until people had their fill and then send the leftovers to retail. BUT THAT WONT HAPPEN BECAUSE WALMART WANTS FOOT TRAFFIC.

In the end we all come to the same conclusion, that mattel and walmart are happy as they get what they want ((little does walmart understand that other than wwe there is literally no other reason to shop there these days)(Hot wheel collectors/resellers are their main foot traffic. They dont give a raTs ass for action figures and vice versa)) Mattel and walmart instead rely on their "partners" to sell off the overstock. But nowhere in that equation is the word customer satisfaction mentioned. Thats because their customers are their partners now. They are satisfied. Oh yeah they are very satisfied. Sultan is having a field day.

But what about us. What about the collector? We are the reason they even have the possibility to sell ric flair. Without us he would be at ollies for ....oh wait yeah thats whats happening. Many collectors are giving up and buying elsewhere.

Ding ding ding!!!! We got a bingo.

In short: people dont like running around searching for product that was underordered (as walmart does not want to get stuck with it) when that product should never have been given to them in the first place. Its not a fit. The pricepoint is too high for the consumer there. So as long as the problem exists people will start buying wrestling figures from smaller companies that give people what they want. And what is it that collectors want: simple/ AVAILABILITY!!! ITS NOT DIFFICULT FOR GOD SAKES. This is why hasbro is doing so well because all of their pulse figures and vehicles are available for months before they go on clearance.

Some may just get so fed up with what the wwe collecting hobby has become that they are moving on to other pastures.

Doing the same thing over and over again has its consequences . Good and bad.

WHERE IS THE COMMON SENSE GONE IN THE TOY BUSINESS? IS IT JUST ALL ABOUT PLEASING RESELLERS? That is not a long term strategy. The resellers will bail on you the moment collectors stop buying from them. Does mattel think sultan will still buy their product when everyone and their granma has hulk hogan?

Get your priorities straight mattel. We are your base. Stop treating us like the leftovers you give us.

Yes. Massive failure. Based on distribution alone. When the majority of your customers cannot FIND the product because the store that the product is EXCLUSIVE to refuses to actually stock the product, that is a massive failure.

And you know what? It is 100% Walmart’s fault. Target doesn’t have these issues. EVERY WWE target exclusive can be easily found in stores and is readily available to be purchased online when they are supposed to be out.

The legends line goes up for pre-order on target and it doesn’t disappear after 9 seconds. When the release date hits they actually ship them, and when you go to the store they are actually on the shelves.

With Walmart, they just can’t figure any of this out, but Mattel just keeps giving them exclusives. It’s a real shame. We’ve all missed out on some great stuff because Walmart is just the worst retailer in existence.

So where do all these figures go? If they're never stocked (or is it never ordered instead?) do we see them a few years from now randomly showing up on shelves when other stock has run out or are we just SOL? Where do they go? A garbage dump? A third party selling site? Genuinely curious what happens with them since they've obviously been created but I dont see them.


Also, distributors of toys whose major purchasers are parents of kids aren't going to care too much about paint applications but figures breaking and not being able to move? That is going to cause issues among collectors AND parents with kids when the $20 toy they bought for little Jimmy has it's legs snap off the first time he goes to play with it. So I see that having to be fixed more than the other issues bc most parents just wont buy that brand again as opposed to calling and complaining to Mattel. The way they find out will be through lack of sales and returns instead. Just my opinion.