I think the Build a Figure concept needs to go

[kgchampion]

I’m finding it way harder to find BAF sets at retail since the pandemic. The stores around me get maybe one or two cases. Amazon sells out of 1 or 2 popular figures or the entire set immediately. I’ve wanted a referee figure for the entire line. They’re finally making one and it’s a BAF. I’m beyond irritated about that because that Kane and Luger are going to be impossible to find.

Just put a referee in the basic line! It’ll sell like hot cakes. Every kid would want to get a referee figure because they’re in every single match on the TV show!

[nomorexclusives]

Kids love it.

Thats about it.

Mattel will prob keep it for that reason.

[The Assassin]

Whatever strategy gets us more "first time" names and more "deep dive" names.

I'll gladly buy stuff I don't need and sell it, to get them. Even if I'm losing a little time and money, it's worth it for a deeper WCW/NWO era roster.

[PJ]

I have no problem with it. Most times I don’t even want the BAF Mattel makes the WWE line. So if I compete one it’s a bonus if not that’s fine too because it means I only have to buy the wrestlers in the sets that I want. The exceptions being Mr Perfect where I never saw the Ziggler so I just finished him using the MNW Lex BAF legs. mNW Lex, which I will never build as I will never see the set at WalMart. And the Bulldog which I haven’t found the set locally yet.

[DaFlo]

I have been trying to collect most of the BAFs since the beginning and I don't like how many BAF lines we have nowadays. Maybe my memory is washed but I think we only had one or so per year in the Best of PPV Elite lines? (I know they started around 14/15 to introduce BAF Basics but seems they have stopped that) They were actually featuring current superstars and made the sets in my opinion way more suitable. I will just buy the BAF loose if I can't find a good price on the set.
They should probably do 2 BOPPV BAF Elite lines per year and maybe one extra for Legends. (like MNW line)

[coldblooded]

The baf set with suited figures was getting old.

Now they are finally introducing actual wrestlers into it. So I think it revived it for me.

[voicesinmyhead]

Mar 14, 2024 2:28:53 GMT -5 kgchampion said:

I’m finding it way harder to find BAF sets at retail since the pandemic. The stores around me get maybe one or two cases. Amazon sells out of 1 or 2 popular figures or the entire set immediately. I’ve wanted a referee figure for the entire line. They’re finally making one and it’s a BAF. I’m beyond irritated about that because that Kane and Luger are going to be impossible to find.

Just put a referee in the basic line! It’ll sell like hot cakes. Every kid would want to get a referee figure because they’re in every single match on the TV show!

I still don’t know why so many people are bothered by finding something in person anymore. Ringside will eventually have an entire wave for less than retail and probably before the retail store would even get it. Why do people still wait or need to find it in the store? Finding a chase or something I can understand, but why are we waiting for mainline figures to hit retail.

Note: I’m not saying buy the figures at the higher price on Ringside. You can easily be patient and get it for less on Ringside and probably still before it’ll hit the stores.

[grandmasterPRA]

I'm gonna agree with you on this one. I obviously know why Mattel does it and will probably keep doing it. It pretty much is like stealing money from us. But at the same time they are figures they probably assume won't sell on their own so that's the only way we are going to get them. So overall I totally get it

However, it is getting a little ridiculous in terms of the figures they are including and how hard it is to even find these figures to begin with. I wanted that British Bulldog BAF and I haven't even sniffed that Survivor Series set. They haven't shown up anywhere online, RSC never has them, I never saw them in stores. So it's bad enough that you have to buy 4 figures to get the one you want but now we can't even find the 4 figures to begin with. The figures themselves that you have to spend $22 each on are also boring as hell. Like that Disciple figure really is the best example. They threw in 4 figures that are all pretty much just repaints and now we have to spend about $100 on 4 figures we don't want just to build the one figure that we do. With how awful inflation is right now and how much everything costs just for normal every day expenses, I just can't justify throwing $100 down to build one figure that I want. But if it is making them money then it is making them money, that's their job at the end of the day.

[grandmasterPRA]

Mar 14, 2024 7:00:47 GMT -5 voicesinmyhead said:

Mar 14, 2024 2:28:53 GMT -5 kgchampion said:

I’m finding it way harder to find BAF sets at retail since the pandemic. The stores around me get maybe one or two cases. Amazon sells out of 1 or 2 popular figures or the entire set immediately. I’ve wanted a referee figure for the entire line. They’re finally making one and it’s a BAF. I’m beyond irritated about that because that Kane and Luger are going to be impossible to find.

Just put a referee in the basic line! It’ll sell like hot cakes. Every kid would want to get a referee figure because they’re in every single match on the TV show!

I still don’t know why so many people are bothered by finding something in person anymore. Ringside will eventually have an entire wave for less than retail and probably before the retail store would even get it. Why do people still wait or need to find it in the store? Finding a chase or something I can understand, but why are we waiting for mainline figures to hit retail.

Note: I’m not saying buy the figures at the higher price on Ringside. You can easily be patient and get it for less on Ringside and probably still before it’ll hit the stores.

That used to be the case, but Ringside's stock has gotten pretty terrible. Take that Survivor Series set for example that builds the british Bulldog. If you go on Ringside now, all they have is Shawn Michaels. I've been waiting forever to see that Jerry Lawler and I never saw him on that site or in stores. If you go on Ebay right now, there are only 5 listed for sale, so clearly they are difficult to find. That set just never appeared anywhere for me and that has become more and more common with these sets. They are just becoming almost impossible to find. Getting figures online has almost become just as difficult as finding them in stores

[HandsomeHollywood]

I rarely get a chance to grab these in stores living in Canada and buying them online increases the cost. I do most of my buying on the secondary market and sellers always sell those figures and the BAF parts separate, or keep the BAF and sell the figures from the series.

I'd be indifferent whether they stayed or stopped.

[ChuckPOORis55 Cody Gang 4 Lyfe]

Mar 14, 2024 7:00:47 GMT -5 voicesinmyhead said:

Mar 14, 2024 2:28:53 GMT -5 kgchampion said:

I’m finding it way harder to find BAF sets at retail since the pandemic. The stores around me get maybe one or two cases. Amazon sells out of 1 or 2 popular figures or the entire set immediately. I’ve wanted a referee figure for the entire line. They’re finally making one and it’s a BAF. I’m beyond irritated about that because that Kane and Luger are going to be impossible to find.

Just put a referee in the basic line! It’ll sell like hot cakes. Every kid would want to get a referee figure because they’re in every single match on the TV show!

I still don’t know why so many people are bothered by finding something in person anymore. Ringside will eventually have an entire wave for less than retail and probably before the retail store would even get it. Why do people still wait or need to find it in the store? Finding a chase or something I can understand, but why are we waiting for mainline figures to hit retail.

Note: I’m not saying buy the figures at the higher price on Ringside. You can easily be patient and get it for less on Ringside and probably still before it’ll hit the stores.

Because it's easier to justify spending 25 dollars on a figure I have in my hand than it is to put in my card information and go through the check out process online. Plus it feels infinitely worse to pay more than retail (I don't know where you get the idea that things are usually cheaper on RSC unless you gamble on sales that only get a couple of bucks off) plus shipping on a figure, waiting for it to arrive, then having to hope they remembered to actually put padding in the box so my figure arrives in decent condition if I wanna keep it MOC. That's not even getting into store exclusive lines that RSC doesn't sell and I will never see in stores.

[ChuckPOORis55 Cody Gang 4 Lyfe]

My only desire is that Mattel follow in the foot steps of other companies (fat chance) and offer the BAF on card on their website. Otherwise BAFs are pretty irrelevant to me, I'll buy the figures I want from the set and buy the pieces I'm missing online if I want them bad enough. Could be worse, they could learn nothing from the backlash McFarlane is getting (like they did with their current boxes and Hasbro) and start doing "digital BAFs".

[secondwhiteline]

A lot of the issues people are having sound like the distribution more than the BAF concept. But if you own 714 Elites, I don't know if it's unreasonable for Mattel to ask that you buy more?

They could probably do more to make BAF waves internally consistent. PPV theming can cover so many eras, so you get waves that don't really seem to make anybody happy.

[shanieomaniac]

Obviously, we all know why they do BAFs. And that's not ever going to change. But I do agree that with most of these sets, the most desirable figure is the BAF for me. I didn't care about that SvS wave, but I would have loved the Bulldog. This years Wrestlemania wave was horrid but I want the Nicholas.

Very, very rarely is it that there is an entire wave of figures that I want, and usually when that happens, the BAF is one I don't really care about. I have a BAF Doc Hendrix just because I wanted all the figures in that wave on their own. The only other BAF I have is kid Dominik, and that's because I actually wanted him, so I bought the set to make him.

This upcoming SvS wave, if it is what we project, will be the first time since I've been collecting again that I want every figure in the wave plus the BAF.

That said, I don't know if it's fair to say BAFs are behind a paywall, mainly because if you want a BAF but none of the others, you can usually get the completed BAF on secondary pretty easily for less than half the coat of the entire case. That's not nearly the same as, say, being in a position where you don't have access to in-store AEW figures and now you are looking at at least 100 dollars on secondary to complete your Dark Order set or the Butcher/Blade/Bunny set. Same as them only releasing the Diesel and Doink Ultimates with the crowdfunder. That you could have argued was putting figures behind a paywall, since there was no way to go and buy the items at a reasonable cost directly.

At least, thats how it feels to me. All figures cost money but with the BAF waves being much more available now online (if you are in the US anyway) it doesn't feel the same to me as a figure that you have no way to get at all except on secondary.

[kirk815]

Mar 13, 2024 22:01:13 GMT -5 Biff Slamkovich™ said:

Mar 13, 2024 20:35:57 GMT -5 kirk815 said:

If people don't like/want them, they don't have to buy them. I'd rather have a company offer too much than not enough.

This does nothing to solve my main issue I raised though that the most sought after figure is made as a BAF and locked behind the purchase of four other figures, usually of which are repaints, or attires of Superstars that have been released numerous times before.

I'm just coming from the perspective of someone who usually buys one of each Superstar (exceptions exist obviously in the case of people like Undertaker, Macho, Warrior, and other big names with notable gimmick changes or iconic attires), but I find that it's getting harder to justify buying my 3rd Charlotte, 3rd Lawler, 5th Kevin Owens or 8th Shawn Michaels in order to get the one British Bulldog figure that I've wanted in elite form (not Basic) for years.

Not trying to crap on anyone and how they collect, it's just frustrating as a seasoned collector.

I totally get/understand your frustrations and most people on this board probably agree.

The issue is that Mattel can't run their business off of personal preferences of each individual member of this board.

Going back to my original point, people complained when we didn't have a BAF or when they were only suited figures.

And there are people that complain that they don't want to buy four figures to build the one that they want.

Regardless of what Mattel does, people are going to complain so id rather have more options than less.

There are other alternatives that other people mentioned to help save or recoup your cost- buying the BAF via third parties, selling off the figures you don't want, etc.

I really don't think there is an alternative to get some of these figures as an elite. The versions of Virgil and Davey (already released as a basic) probably wouldn't have been released in any elite spot when they could give it to someone else more popular (Virgil's case) or more detailed/elaborate attire (Bulldog).

Then there are people like John Cone and Nicholas that were probably pushed by Mattel for WWE to sign for the sole purpose of releasing them as a BAF. I don't see them even getting released in the basic line.

If the BAF didn't exist, I don't think we would have most of these figures released. So it's up to us to decide how much we want them and how much we are willing to pay for them. The alternative is they most likely wouldn't exist.

[JokerFC]

Biggest hassle with BAF lines over here in Ireland is Smyths not getting the full wave....Smyths seem to have dropped the BAF waves now too....didnt get SS, SSeries & RR this year either.

[arthur214]

Maybe we could start getting some REALLY deep cuts if they started doing BAFs in every regular line set like Marvel Legends?

[Crossfit Jesus]

I think you’re wrong

[voicesinmyhead]

Mar 14, 2024 8:22:51 GMT -5 ChuckPOORis55 Cody Gang 4 Lyfe said:

Mar 14, 2024 7:00:47 GMT -5 voicesinmyhead said:

I still don’t know why so many people are bothered by finding something in person anymore. Ringside will eventually have an entire wave for less than retail and probably before the retail store would even get it. Why do people still wait or need to find it in the store? Finding a chase or something I can understand, but why are we waiting for mainline figures to hit retail.

Note: I’m not saying buy the figures at the higher price on Ringside. You can easily be patient and get it for less on Ringside and probably still before it’ll hit the stores.

Because it's easier to justify spending 25 dollars on a figure I have in my hand than it is to put in my card information and go through the check out process online. Plus it feels infinitely worse to pay more than retail (I don't know where you get the idea that things are usually cheaper on RSC unless you gamble on sales that only get a couple of bucks off) plus shipping on a figure, waiting for it to arrive, then having to hope they remembered to actually put padding in the box so my figure arrives in decent condition if I wanna keep it MOC. That's not even getting into store exclusive lines that RSC doesn't sell and I will never see in stores.

Obviously you would need to go in the store for store exclusives, but there is no reason to stress over trying to find a main line elite in stores.

But how is it easier to have to go in person than buy something online? You make it sound like buying something online is a long and grueling process. Are you like 80 years old and allergic to technology? Buying things online is quick and easy. Most websites allow you to save your credit card information to make future checkouts even easier. The amount of time you have to spend driving to the store is already longer than the two seconds it would take to checkout online.

And, you don't know where I get the idea that things are usually cheaper on RSC? I clearly stated that you have to be patient, but eventually, you can get almost everything for retail or less as the prices drop or when there's a sale. I have never seen Elite 107 in stores (I always make a stop through the toy aisles when I am regularly shopping at Walmart and Target), but Ringside currently has 3 of them for $19.99 (which is less than retail), and 2 of them for $24.99 (which is only $2 more than retail). I think the extra two dollars is well worth it to save yourself the time and the gas money (and that is not even considering any of their discounts). There is absolutely no reason to stress about finding anything in the main elite line in stores when you have RSC and plenty of other websites that have these figures for retail prices. I can't name the other websites on here, but there are at least two that can get you Elite 107 right now for retail. I don't see why the stress is necessary. Save yourself the headache and the time (even though you somehow think online shopping is a difficult process).

[voicesinmyhead]

Mar 14, 2024 8:18:43 GMT -5 grandmasterPRA said:

Mar 14, 2024 7:00:47 GMT -5 voicesinmyhead said:

I still don’t know why so many people are bothered by finding something in person anymore. Ringside will eventually have an entire wave for less than retail and probably before the retail store would even get it. Why do people still wait or need to find it in the store? Finding a chase or something I can understand, but why are we waiting for mainline figures to hit retail.

Note: I’m not saying buy the figures at the higher price on Ringside. You can easily be patient and get it for less on Ringside and probably still before it’ll hit the stores.

That used to be the case, but Ringside's stock has gotten pretty terrible. Take that Survivor Series set for example that builds the british Bulldog. If you go on Ringside now, all they have is Shawn Michaels. I've been waiting forever to see that Jerry Lawler and I never saw him on that site or in stores. If you go on Ebay right now, there are only 5 listed for sale, so clearly they are difficult to find. That set just never appeared anywhere for me and that has become more and more common with these sets. They are just becoming almost impossible to find. Getting figures online has almost become just as difficult as finding them in stores

At one point you were able to get that entire set off RSC for $100. I know because that is how much I bought it for. After the discount, tax, and shipping, it came out to $109. So for $9 extra ($22.99 per figure plus tax times 4 figures is approx $100), I got all four figures early and without any concern of having to find them in store. The amount of time you have spent looking in stores and on eBay has already surpassed that $9. They even dipped lower than that at one point, but I pulled the trigger at $100 to ensure that I got them before they sold out. You have to be can be patient in the sense of not paying the initial over inflated prices, but also know when to pull the trigger when the deal is close enough to retail and may not get any better (in your case waiting too long for Lawler and now he's gone).