Does Mattel distribution switch you off?

[danfdan]

Starting to find myself getting frustrated and now bored with Mattel's awful distribution.
Why go to all the effort to make and market something and then make it almost impossible to get a hold of?

Case in point - Legends 20 in the U.K.

This is only our second Legends set and distribution is awful. Some Smyths shops have 1 or 2, some have none, some have a different 1 or 2. Independent shops seemed to get a handful of each figure and.no idea if they're coming back in.

Can see why so many get annoyed with all the exclusives:

It's honestly made me want to just spend my money elsewhere and collect something else it's such a shambles.

[Mongo Bears]

Yes.
I’ve hunted and missed stuff so now I kind of care less so I don’t hunt anymore and miss a lot more. Oh well

[nomorexclusives]

I waited for 8 months for series 2 and 3 superstars and now hoping s4,5,6 and 7 are not cancelled. I dont understand any of it either. I have never had so much trouble just finding a walmart that stocks something once they get it. I am waiting for the new toy reset, after that I will start collecting something else. I am already buying the new tmnt line and getting back into NECA. I have been patient but again, if walmart is not stocking than they should just get out of the toy business. In the late 90s stores were constantly stocking new cases. Now it is once every 2 weeks. Its just mind blowing. Why give walmart, as you said, give exclusive lines to walmart if they dont care about action figure toys anymore? I always see target restocking. Are they getting more stock or are they just more organised? Both?

[AxelSmackdown]

not really, I mainly get my figures from online

[viper412]

Honestly yea, between distribution and quality control I’ve pretty much stopped collecting

The one figure I’ve been waiting for (UE RVD) is a Walmart exclusive and we know how those go. Also the last time I really wanted a figure (RA2 RVD) I got lucky off the Walmart website random assortment and the waist/abs were incredibly loose so I returned it and never saw another again. The loose parts are becoming too common especially with the increasing prices then there’s clear oversights in design and part choices before they even get made. When Mattel gets it right, it’s out the park but the average gets lower and lower imo

[Jackass Pacific]

i'm from the era of not knowing what figures were coming out until you saw them in the store or on the back of a card. so i'm pretty patient with the distribution

[Flair Forever]

It's really frustrating when regular mainline Elites aren't even making it to stores; But most stores, at least in my area - rarely have any mainline Elites stocked and if/when they get them in it's only once every couple of months and they're gone very quickly. I have zero stores in my area (Target or Walmart or other) that are in any way reliable for stocking mainline Elites.

I have yet to find one of these magical "shippers" that seem loaded with mainline Elites - but even if I did - the normal distribution on these still sucks. Why is it that the only way these stores are getting mainline Elites anymore is on Shippers?

Then you wanna talk about Exclusives? Forget it.

[Biff Slamkovich™]

Yup!

As a Canadian collector of Mattel's WWE products from DAY ONE (I was actually working at Toys R Us when the line launched), we got off on the wrong foot immediately.

Leading up to the release of the the product, I remember seeing Basic series 1, Elite series 1, Basic 2-packs series 1, and Entrance Greats series 1 online and was so hyped. When I first unboxed a case of Elites to merch them, to my surprise, only Undertaker and Rey Mysterio were in the box. I opened the other cases of Elites on the pallet only to find that Edge, CM Punk, and MVP were nowhere to be seen.

It wasn't until probably Elite 7 when full cases started to arrive in Canada. And even then, Toys R Us, Zellers and Walmart were skipping every other wave.

Not to mention all the annoying US retailer exclusive lines like Decade of Domination, Hall of Champions and Flashack Elites (which all contained amazing legend figures) never made it to Canada.

We've been forced to pay scalper/secondary market prices due to Mattel's poor distribution since day one. For a global company that has been around as long as they have, it's quite shocking that even after being 13 years into the line there is still no fair, consistent distribution worldwide for a globally recognized brand like WWE. It's kind of sad really.

[Papi Joker]

[GreyHaze:Big Bad Booty Daddy]

Nope. I don't buy figures in stores anymore. I buy like 4-5 figures a year and just get them online. It saves me time, it's hassle free and you don't have to set yourself up for disappointment when you find nothing at the toy isle. I also never preorder either minus a few RSE's, but it's been a long time.

[SteveHulk]

Yeah, being in the UK, all these US/store exclusives really put a damper on collecting. It's probably worse now than it's ever been:

Ruthless Aggression Elites and Ultimates
MNW Elites and Ultimates
Legends Ultimates
Superstars figures
Hogan 3-pack
Maivia 3-pack

...all things we have ZERO chance of finding or buying, without going to speciality/secondary sellers.

And if we DO finally get some store exclusives (Legends 19), they miss out certain figures (Brother Love) and price them waaaay more than Elites and on-line prices... so what's the point? 🤷‍♂️

[fzmadness]

I’ve scaled back a lot. Missing so many of the Walmart series and having preorders cancelled has kinda turned me off on wwe figures. I no longer NEED everything. Have focused my attention on other lines like Gi Joe and MOTU as well as a lot of vintage stuff.

[PJ]

Mattel’s distribution? No. Walmart’s distribution? Yes. Clearly Mattel’s shipping it because RSC, Amazon, other online stores and Targets all have product out in a timely fashion. It’s Walmart’s distribution that sucks. And it’s really not even the best warehouses fault. It’s Walmart Corporation in general. Not every store gets to carry the product. Corporate won’t put certain items on stores planogram. When Mattel had the DC license my closest Walmart didn’t carry the DCUC line not even their exclusives except during the holiday season. The rest of the year it wasn’t carried. And the Dept manager tried ordering it for me many times with the warehouse denying the order because it wasn’t on that stores planogram.

And another thing that doesn’t help in store inventory is its automated ordering. So if the inventory shows 3 pieces or more they won’t get shipped new product. But it doesn’t take in to fact things like stolen merchandise, hidden merchandise or customer’s ringing up old products on street dated items which all are missing items in the store, but not on the store’s inventory numbers. Walmart really needs to step up their inventory tracking.

[dynamitekido]

Yeah, and it's basically caused me to buy significantly less through the years. Now I still buy stuff in stores when I find it, but I rarely go figure hunting anymore as its generally a huge waste of time and gasoline.

[ddt4thee]

Aug 7, 2023 6:07:16 GMT -5 fzmadness said:

I’ve scaled back a lot. Missing so many of the Walmart series and having preorders cancelled has kinda turned me off on wwe figures. I no longer NEED everything. Have focused my attention on other lines like Gi Joe and MOTU as well as a lot of vintage stuff.

That's exactly how I feel now too. I'm completely indifferent now, whereas before I had to have any and all figures up to the Ruthless Aggression era.

[humbruh]

The Mattel elite team gotta do something for us International collectors cause it's a pain to find anything and exclusives are even worse. Mattel creations is the way to go if they decide to help us out.

[Mr Angry Cena]

I’m in Canada, and as stated above it is brutal over here. I amazingly found Elite 102 last week, but that was a fluke. We probably won’t see 103, 104 or 105 this year. We also don’t see any of the Walmart US exclusives. We occasionally get a random legends series in from ToysRUs, but it’s barely happening. We may get series 19 or 20, and that’ll be it for the whole year. So online it is, and we all know how expensive that can be. I’m glad that we have all these great “retail” exclusive lines, even if they end up costing way too much. It’s better than waiting a couple months between elite series for one meager flashback.

[ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕕 𝕋𝕠 𝕂𝕚𝕝𝕝]

Online retailers seem to be working so well in the US lately. The only time I ever fuss with a finding a figure is with exclusives, like UE Eddie.

Other than that, you can typically wait a few extra weeks after people first start receiving a figure, and get it for retail price online.

Its been pretty solid that way for a year or so, I'd say.

I assume collecting anywhere except the US is going to be hassle forever. I can't imagine how annoying that can be but its just how Mattel focuses their business. 

[wrestlingfan0815]

As bad as Mattel’s is with the wwe line try collecting Jazawares aew line retail hasn’t had a new wave in about a year

[kinnikuman]

I've said this multiple times in the AEW threads about this sort of thing. It's 2023 ... buy your figures online.