Why is it so difficult to get new legends?

[jacobl18]

I understand Owen Hart, Chris Benoit & maybe Nailz not getting a figure but why does it seem that we hardly ever get new FTITL figs when there are a ton of wrestlers that Mattel could hit a home run with.

I guess my question is why is it so difficult for example to call up Gangrel or the Mountie and say “Hey Mattel wants to make an action figure of you....You don’t have to do anything and here is some money”. Can it really be more difficult then that?

I don’t know about you guys but I’m tired of Ultimate Warriors, Macho Man, Triple h. Give us Baston Booger, Adam Bomb, Mountie, Kona Crush, gobble Gooker, Brother Love, MR. Fuji, Giant Gonzalez, Ludvig Borga, Mr. Hughes, Godwin’s, Gangrel, Val Venis, oddities, ect...

[WrestlingFigWig]

They have to have legends deals. Unlike Jakks, where they would sign someone independently of a WWE Legends deal, Mattel can’t/won’t do that and only does wrestlers signed to deals. The reason so many legends aren’t signed is you have a 75 year old WWE CEO who still holds grudges from 50 years ago and won’t swallow his pride to make himself even more money. It’s beyond frustrating for an old school collector like myself. There are so few figs I’ve gotten because there’s really no one new they’re producing.

[CM Tusk]

Because they need to be signed to certain deals and WWE also have to give approval. They use who they have and who usually sells well for the most part.

[CM Tusk]

Mar 16, 2021 23:49:24 GMT -5 WrestlingFigWig said:

They have to have legends deals. Unlike Jakks, where they would sign someone independently of a WWE Legends deal, Mattel can’t/won’t do that and only does wrestlers signed to deals. The reason so many legends aren’t signed is you have a 75 year old WWE CEO who still holds grudges from 50 years ago and won’t swallow his pride to make himself even more money.

Considering the people he’s rebuilt bridges with, mainly due to make money, that’s not exactly true. It just depends on how big a name they are.

[jacobl18]

Mar 16, 2021 23:49:57 GMT -5 CM Tusk said:

Because they need to be signed to certain deals and WWE also have to give approval. They use who they have and who usually sells well for the most part.

But why can’t they specifically sign legends for action figures only? Why does it seem like no progress is being made? It’s in Mattel’s interest to get old legends signed so they can make more money from collectors. Mattel needs to push WWE.

[alabamaslammer64]

Jazwares I think will eventually start making those guys and it will force WWE to start making more deals to stop Jazwares from making them.

[alabamaslammer64]

Mar 16, 2021 23:59:32 GMT -5 jacobl18 said:

Mar 16, 2021 23:49:57 GMT -5 CM Tusk said:

Because they need to be signed to certain deals and WWE also have to give approval. They use who they have and who usually sells well for the most part.

But why can’t they specifically sign legends for action figures only? Why does it seem like no progress is being made? It’s in Mattel’s interest to get old legends signed so they can make more money from collectors. Mattel needs to push WWE.

Because like everybody has said, it’s wwe not Mattel, Mattel can only make what they can and that’s the issue. Jazwares is likely the only one who can make independent deals with the ones you just names that wwe probably won’t ever make a deal with.

[WrestlingFigWig]

Mar 16, 2021 23:51:45 GMT -5 CM Tusk said:

Mar 16, 2021 23:49:24 GMT -5 WrestlingFigWig said:

They have to have legends deals. Unlike Jakks, where they would sign someone independently of a WWE Legends deal, Mattel can’t/won’t do that and only does wrestlers signed to deals. The reason so many legends aren’t signed is you have a 75 year old WWE CEO who still holds grudges from 50 years ago and won’t swallow his pride to make himself even more money.

Considering the people he’s rebuilt bridges with, mainly due to make money, that’s not exactly true. It just depends on how big a name they are.

Since Mattel took over in 2010, Triple H has rebuilt those bridges (Warrior, Bruno, etc). Not Vince.

[CM Tusk]

Mar 17, 2021 0:02:03 GMT -5 WrestlingFigWig said:

Mar 16, 2021 23:51:45 GMT -5 CM Tusk said:

Considering the people he’s rebuilt bridges with, mainly due to make money, that’s not exactly true. It just depends on how big a name they are.

Since Mattel took over in 2010, Triple H has rebuilt those bridges (Warrior, Bruno, etc). Not Vince.

Yeah, and Triple H needs Vinces blessing to do so as Vince makes the final decision. Guys like Warrior and Bruno coming back into the fold means more profits for Vince so it’s good business. Adam Bomb, as well most of that list, won’t move the needle enough for Vince to care.

[rkmo: Autonomous Meat Shield]

WWE would have to get a talent under a Legends deal, and let's not pretend every party wouldn't try to juice everything they could out of it or the 'E would offer anything possible to make it happen. Then Mattel would have to find the "right spot" for it, which sometimes would take a long while based on the talent's cachet.

And let's not forget a ton of talents were involved in a lawsuit a while back, so feelings are probably still raw from that.

Also, some just don't give a hug for toy monies.

[Mongo Bears]

Well wwe like to sell more than just action figures. I don’t see many people buying t-shirts, socks, mugs, etc of the guys you mentioned besides maybe gangrel. However people will buy anything macho man/warrior

[ztj_wwf]

Because they can't...Pretty simple really. They can only make guys who have WWE Legends contracts.

[GreyHaze:Big Bad Booty Daddy]

It all boils down to money. Mattel is not going to go out of their way and pay extra $$$ when they could use existing WWE legends and get paid. It sucks imo because we know there are plenty of superstars who will never get a figure outside of a WWE deal. Jakks signed a lot of people that WWE wouldn’t normally do and Mattel is much bigger company than Jakks. It’s strange to see someone like Vampiro who’s wrestled for multiple different promotions not have a recent figure for example. I’d love to see Ultimo Dragon, Kidman (who is a WWE employee) and a few others.

[kirk815]

If you go to WWESHOP, you'll see that WWE has over 40+ Legends signed. Considering that includes most of the big main players, that can't be cheap to keep all of those people on the books. That also doesn't include people like Mae Young, Freddie Blassie, Gorilla, Sherri, Superstar, Hayes, Rocky Johnson, Kama, Valentine, etc. that are/were under deals, but don't have other merchandise available on their website.

I would imagine WWE has a Legends budget set aside each year that they use to keep existing deals in place and to pursue new deals. They aren't going to forgo resigning M$M or Rick Rude to Legends deal so they can sign Baston Booger to a Legends deal instead. That's just not realistic and not the best way to run a business. WWE probably has a handful of deals that end each year of midcard/lower midcard/cult favs that they are willing to let expire so they can replace for someone else.

We are pretty much at the mercy of those handful of new Legends that WWE pursues each year (which Mattel might play a part in since they have stated before that they request people based off of our feedback and who they also think would make sense from a business standpoint).  We are lucky that WWE hasn't cut more of the existing deals due to the pandemic (part of some of the Legends deal includes appearances). 

On top of that, I think we overlook how much work it is and the challenges for Mattel to juggle/space out all of these Legends in addition to the current roster. There are only so many slots available each year in the current retail climate. They are still a business and their shareholders expect them to increase sales/revenue each year.

In addition, WWE has to agree/sign off on the figure lineups and they prefer the focus to be on the current product. I think people forget this. Mattel can't just release Elite 88 with 6 Flashbacks.

So yeah, we might get 2 or 3 Macho Man/Ultimate Warrior/Cena/Hulk Hogans every year, but that is because they sell and their sales help Mattel release figures of Mae Young or Freddie Blassie.

I think at times we get so hung up on justifying figures that we each personally want (I want more releases of Sherri yesterday in case AFA is reading this long ass reply) that we lose sight of everything else.

I do wish though that WWE/Mattel would release a poll of 20 or so people each year that they would be willing to pursue (that are not/were never under deals) and let us vote on it to determine demand. Let's say they went with the top 5 to pursue for release for the following year - then they would have a big enough list in case some of the wrestlers don't sign on and we'll have some input on new Legends released.

The only thing we can do is keep being vocal/expressing our opinions in a respectful way (without annoying Mattel/beating a dead horse) on who we would like to see on this board and hope that if we have enough support that it will push the needle (look at the support for Valentine that I believe played a huge role in his figure being released). Hopefully, TRU works out and additional online retailers are explored/allowed into the game so it opens up more spots available to collectors.

[MKSavage]

Mar 16, 2021 23:49:24 GMT -5 WrestlingFigWig said:

They have to have legends deals. Unlike Jakks, where they would sign someone independently of a WWE Legends deal, Mattel can’t/won’t do that and only does wrestlers signed to deals. The reason so many legends aren’t signed is you have a 75 year old WWE CEO who still holds grudges from 50 years ago and won’t swallow his pride to make himself even more money. It’s beyond frustrating for an old school collector like myself. There are so few figs I’ve gotten because there’s really no one new they’re producing.

While some of that may be true, you also have to take into account some wrestlers don't want to sign with the WWE because they can make more money on the independent circuit. I believe Scott Steiner is a good example of this as he says the contract with the WWE isn't worth enough for what they have to do (appearances and such, and not being able to work with anyone other promotion). Rick Martel may be another example of that as well. And you also have to take into account the lawsuit that happened a few years ago, and I think is still going through the appeals court today, that has removed a lot of guys from the list of being made. It would be great if Mattel could sign wrestlers independently to contracts like they did in the beginning but, I believe they can no longer do that as the decision on who to sign is up to the WWE. It would also be great if the WWE could sign wrestlers to just figure contracts to get some of the lesser known stars out, but, that just doesn't appear to be what the WWE wants to do - maybe they don't see that as profitable enough to them. 

[Warriah']

Mar 16, 2021 23:44:38 GMT -5 jacobl18 said:

I don’t know about you guys but I’m tired of Ultimate Warriors, Macho Man

I will never tire of Warrior or Macho Man     

[Medieval]

Mar 17, 2021 6:30:15 GMT -5 Warriah' said:

Mar 16, 2021 23:44:38 GMT -5 jacobl18 said:

I don’t know about you guys but I’m tired of Ultimate Warriors, Macho Man

I will never tire of Warrior or Macho Man     

Same here.

[taserface]

For the 2021 lineup of Elite / Ultimate style figures (around 70 figures released or officially announced) we have gotten 3 new Legends (Ellering, Mae & Hayes, if you want to stretch it say 4 for Kama). And from the leaked lineups of Elite series after 86 and the Survivor Series lineup, it’s not looking good for new Legends being added

And we know Ellering was supposed to come out a year or two ago, and Hayes has probably been around since Mattel got the license. So not exactly earth shattering news that we got those two


I love Mattel’s product, but they’ve got to do something to get some variety, for us adult collectors. Not just Macho, Warrior, HBK, HHH, Austin and Undertaker over and over and over again

[PJ]

It’s really simple to understand. Even if Mattel could go out and sign whoever they wanted they would still need the wwe to approve who gets made. And if the wwe doesn’t want them made it’s not going to happen. And from your list the only ones I would be interested in are the Mountie which I am pretty sure Bill or someone from Mattel said wouldn’t be made because of a legal issue with the RCMP. Mr Fuji ( if in ring attire) and Val Venis.

[Lorenzo Alcazar]

It's not as simple as it sounds....."just give us new Legends!"....unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

A) WWE has to WANT to do business with the talent.
B) The talent has to WANT to do business with the WWE.

There are ex-wrestlers who, for whatever reason, WWE just doesn't want do business with. It could be personal, or it could be that just nobody thinks it's worth the money involved. Most of the people listed by OP are just NOT going to sell. Mattel knows this and WWE knows this.

And from a talent side, there are wrestlers who have just got the mindset of " WWE!". They hate Vince, maybe they felt they didn't get a fair shake in WWE, and they don't want Vince and WWE to make another dime off of them. Some people just don't want to do business with WWE.

So, there's a lot of moving parts involved. It's not as easy as some people think. I think that Mattel is to the point where they've pretty much put out essentially every BIG NAME. And even omissions like Buddy Rogers or Nakita Koloff, or whoever....are these legit going to sell big numbers?....these are figures that are aimed at children and they do some fringe stuff aimed at collectors, but it's very limited in capacity.

From this point on....the legends are likely to be repetitive, and any new names are going to be lower level talent that's on good terms with WWE.

It is what it is.