Whats the deal with belts again?

[raVen™]

I saw a member on here say recently that mattel can't make the old wcw belts and possibly the ecw belts too? I was just wondering what the reason is behind it? I figure wwe owns all the belt designs now, or did they go back to the companies that originally produced the belts?

[Gangrel-Brood]

You are correct in saying the company responsible for making the original belts has the final say in whether they can be produced in figure form.

[Deleted]

i'd love the old wcw or nwa versions of the US title.

[Figure kingdom]

Based on the questions and answer session Ringside did with Mattel they said the WCW side has legal entanglements and "isn't worth the hassle." I disagree with them since Mattel did most of the older and newer well known belts, it leaves room for them to do WCW and ECW belts before their deal with the WWE is up. Instead of repacking the same belts with the future elites, they can give us the round WCW title, and at least the ECW title at the very least.

[poindizzle]

May 10, 2013 10:10:19 GMT -5 @oldskoolwrestle said:

i'd love the old wcw or nwa versions of the US title.

I think that WCW US championship was one of the ones that I had read about being off limits because of the rights reverting back to the designer. That's a shame, I think that's one of my number one wants in toy form. It was just such a good looking title.

Don't know what it is about the US title, but even WWE's US belt is my favorite of the current championships.

[A Flair for the Gold]

i would love me a 1991-93 round WCW title. would go well in my sting collection! i got a good question, did we all luck out when toybiz was able to produce the NWA world and tag belts then? and ya damn right, got me an NWA world title, LOL. looks decent on mattel, and terrible on jakks, haha. oh, and poindizzle, i love your sig man!

[raVen™]

May 10, 2013 12:24:54 GMT -5 poindizzle said:

May 10, 2013 10:10:19 GMT -5 @oldskoolwrestle said:

i'd love the old wcw or nwa versions of the US title.

I think that WCW US championship was one of the ones that I had read about being off limits because of the rights reverting back to the designer. That's a shame, I think that's one of my number one wants in toy form. It was just such a good looking title.

Don't know what it is about the US title, but even WWE's US belt is my favorite of the current championships.

Ahhh memories of Raven and goldberg.

[A Flair for the Gold]

May 10, 2013 12:29:02 GMT -5 raVen™ said:

May 10, 2013 12:24:54 GMT -5 poindizzle said:

I think that WCW US championship was one of the ones that I had read about being off limits because of the rights reverting back to the designer. That's a shame, I think that's one of my number one wants in toy form. It was just such a good looking title.

Don't know what it is about the US title, but even WWE's US belt is my favorite of the current championships.

Ahhh memories of Raven and goldberg.

that match was one of the more epic WCW matches i ever seen. crowd went bazerk when goldturd won.

[raVen™]

My Mom was the biggest Goldberg fan ever, At the time I was obviously a huge Raven mark, her and I didn't have a good week that week, lol. I remmeber it like it was Yesterday. rest in peace

[Joe/Smurf]

More or less, the WWE doesn't own the rights to those old WCW/ECW belts. They could do the nWo World Heavyweight belt because they still use that belt on TV. Basically, Mattel would have independently go out and get rights to remake those belts that's money they could be putting elsewhere into the line, so it isn't going to happen.

On a side note, WWE doesn't own the rights to the Internet Title, so Mattel would have had to get the rights to make it from Ryder himself/the artist who made it. Obviously, that wasn't hard to accomplish since we got it in figure form.

[Nivro™]

The most ironic thing about all of this is that some of the people that own the rights to these belts, are also ones that WWE has used in recent years to make their own titles. Its not exactly like its "bad terms" or anything...Mattel simply doesnt want to spend money to make money.

[attitudesback]

What about the ECW main belt? The belt was used in WWE TV so could this one not be made?

[Calcifer Boheme]

It really isn't worth the hassle, if you think about it. It's not like that figures would make a ton more money with the belts than without. While plenty of us might buy figures just for the classic titles, most people would not. They'd either buy the figure or they wouldn't. So it would be Mattel spending X amount of dollars for very little gain.

It's a shame, as I would absolutely love all the classic belts. But I fully understand why they don't want to do it.

[T]

Would love an old school ECW title. Hope they sort something out.

[Deleted]

Would love a Wcw US Title.

[BURNING HAMMER]

May 10, 2013 19:17:07 GMT -5 Nivro™ said:

The most ironic thing about all of this is that some of the people that own the rights to these belts, are also ones that WWE has used in recent years to make their own titles. Its not exactly like its "bad terms" or anything...Mattel simply doesnt want to spend money to make money.

They certainly make stupid decisions, but I can't say this is one of them.

For the money involved in getting the rights to the belts, actually designing and producing them in figure form and then allocating them to figures which apparently already cost the Earth to make, where do they really make a profit on all that work? I can't imagine they would, to be honest.

I'm the first to complain about budgetary restrictions but I can totally understand where something like tiny, plastic belts is concerned.

[Jay "The Brain" Mann [OFSU]]

There's a reason why when you turn on WWE '13, it talks about the classic belts in that game being copyright of Reggie Parks and Dave Millican.


On a side note, I don't think Mattel ever made an action figure version of the silver ECW belt. Someone tell me if I'm wrong, and if I am, I'll get that figure.

[Nivro™]

May 12, 2013 3:17:34 GMT -5 BURNING HAMMER said:

May 10, 2013 19:17:07 GMT -5 Nivro™ said:

The most ironic thing about all of this is that some of the people that own the rights to these belts, are also ones that WWE has used in recent years to make their own titles. Its not exactly like its "bad terms" or anything...Mattel simply doesnt want to spend money to make money.

They certainly make stupid decisions, but I can't say this is one of them.

For the money involved in getting the rights to the belts, actually designing and producing them in figure form and then allocating them to figures which apparently already cost the Earth to make, where do they really make a profit on all that work? I can't imagine they would, to be honest.

I'm the first to complain about budgetary restrictions but I can totally understand where something like tiny, plastic belts is concerned.

First and foremost Mattel needs to figure out how to package a title without it getting stolen. After that, Its easy to place the belts with figures. You dont drop a VUM WCW Title with a cost high deco CM Punk figure. You place the "oval" WCW World Title with a WCW Lex Luger which is cheap to make (its literally trunks, knee pads, boots and no designs). Then you can slap a US Title on Magnum TA. Its not the right era title for Magnum but it will help the figure sell. We've already got a Kevin Nash, lets say they get the rights to sell Hall. You put a WCW Tag Title with Hall (because most already have Nash, they'll want 2 tag titles) and then give another Tag Title to someone like Barry Windham (again wrong era but would help the figure sell) and You've just released all 4 main WCW Titles with popular wanted figures that use very low deco costs.

A lot of people dont think about the cost when coming up with ideas and think, "Well give me Sting with black tights, neon yellow boots, multi-colored scorpion, multi-colored face paint, ring jacket and the vum WCW World Title".....that's A LOT deco cost even on a popular figure.