MNW line: Dud or Success?

I'm somewhat in the middle. The distribution is horrendous, the lack of key players 6 waves in is really showing, half of the build a figures have been either a complete pass/headscratchers. But I do love that its captured some moments fairly well. We finally got the Austin 3:16 shirt done right, we got puffy shirt Lex Luger, we got all denim Scott Hall (even if he was a bit short and could have used a wash on his vest), two solid Steve Austins, Harlem Heat with updated articulation in new colors, a Fake Diesel which I would have never expected etc. And every Ultimate so far has been great: Bret, Piper, Eddie & Mankind (Hunter & Lex look good too).

But as we're approaching 2025 we're already starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. We're not getting Sting, Flair or Savage. We're missing key midcard guys like Owen (obviously never happening) Buff, Edge & Christian, The Hardys, Jarrett and Goldust. Hell, this line could also have been a great way to get lower card guys who we'd never expect like La Parka, Glacier, Mortis, Alex Wright, Steven Richards, Blue Meanie, or Disco Inferno.

And where the hell is a proper white singlet Big Poppa Pump? They turned the cancelled Rey into an Elite, they figured out how to sneak the new WCW title into a line. DDP & Warrior made the transition too.

The distribution of the line has been horrendous but I'm not 100% sure how much of that falls on Mattel. Walmart just sucks ass

The selections of figures have left a lot to be desired for me. I have no use for guys in street clothes or repaints and there is a TON of that in this series. I was really hoping for some new characters and new looks and those have been few and far between.

However, there have been some awesome highlights in this series. The Disciple is an all timer in terms of a Build a Figure and after selling the other 4 figures I bought in order to get The Disciple, he was pretty much free. Diamond Dallas Page in the Blue jeans is a figure I've wanted a long time and they delivered. I'm super excited for Golga. Singles Long pants Booker T is another figure I've wanted for a long time and now we are getting it. Ultimate Eddie is awesome, Fake Diesel is a fun figure, Ultimate Piper is one of my favorite Ultimates, they were going to give us a maskless Rey Mysterio but couldn't so that wasn't their fault.

The next Series with Kane, Hardcore Hak, Booker T, British Bulldog and the Golga BAF is the best series yet IMO so maybe the line is just hitting its stride now after a slow start and while the distribution is obviously terrible, I personally haven't had an issue yet finding a series in store, but I also got very lucky cause the ones I did find, I never saw show up again. Jury is still out on this series for me. I give it a C- so far but I'm optimistic that it can get better and has been showing some signs of improvement.

Smyths

They had:

No series 1
All of series 2 on sale for 13
All of series 3 minus Rob for sale at 15
All of series 4 reg price
No series 5
Greatest hits missing Eddie reg price
No series 6 yet

Prob 100 in total. Just sitting there collecting dust.

I bought one ddp. I was too pissed to buy anymore. It would appear that they get what we can't find in the states.

They had probably a hundred elites stacked 8 deep. The mnw figures were hanging 5 deep. They had 10 pegs of mnw.

Still doing some homework on this. Going to get us some answers. I will be asking them if they ever got s1 and if s5 and 6 have hit yet.

We’re 5 sets in and the only figs ive found on the shelves are 2 series 2 HHH figs.

Does Smyths ship to the US?

Welp, nevermind. Like I said, I raise the white flag in the search for these. I thought NECA figure hunting was bad but this line is the worst I’ve ever experienced in the years I’ve collected figures.

Ooo, baby, do you know what that’s worth? Ooo, heaven is a place on Earth.

England, apparently.

It is an incredible feeling to walk through a smyths store aka formerly toysrus. I feel they went the extra mile to stack boxes up to the ceiling for dramatic effect. I couldnt even see if the top shelves were stacked 8 deep as well. That is one thing target could improve in. Placing the largest boxes on top to make them more visible. Also kids tend to want what they cant have (reach).

Retros should be sold at smyths too. I wonder why mattel doesnt take asvantage of that. Even if they made less money, they could at least sell out quicker keeping the line going longer.

Plus you keep all those customers who will then go and buy other mattel products. Again companies dont value the customer like they used to. Smyths however gets it. They also have a very good inventory system. Very precise and updated. You guys have it good there in the uk.