Grade The Wrestlemania Reveals!!

[hbk1983jz]

Could have been an easy A if only the Steiners showed up. B for me

[Crossfit Jesus]

Solid B Steiner would’ve made it A

[zen411]

I just want some first time in line legends to slide into legends or other lines with no warning. Mr Fuji with chase facepaint...bad news brown.. . The Genius. Etc.

There are a lot I will buy I just miss those surprise add ons. Other than muta no surprises like that for me.

[rkmo: Garbage Collector]

You talked me into an F, brother.

[AxelSmackdown]

Apr 9, 2024 12:17:00 GMT -5 rkmo: Garbage Collector said:

You talked me into an F, brother.

[Mongo Bears]

B.
It was a good showing. Finally jeans DDP!
But I was hoping to hear about either Raven or Haku or Big Poppa pump, or another surprise besides Muta which was nice.

Rereleases turn me off.

[jong]

Muta = A+

[savedbytheringbell]

I seriously wanted a UE Tatanka after all the rumors last week lol. Never had been a want of mine then I started thinking about it more and more after reading the boards. Now, a UE Tatanka will forever be on my wish list, thanks to all those rumors lol

[Fighter Hayabusa]

Forgot about the TMNT line. Casey Cody bumped it up to a B

[stc13]

This was my second favorite reveal all-time, behind SDCC 2016. It's a solid A for me.

It's relative for me. We're 10+ years into the line. The days of 10-15 FTIL reveals and a bunch of top-top wanted attires are gone. There's just too much ground that has already been covered.

They knocked out some desired looks with jeans DDP and WM8 Hogan, some unique roster building deep cuts like the post NOD Faarooq and WHO/New Foundation Neidhart, and there were some nice FTIL reveals. The design work has really been solid, and the UE line in general has breathed new life into actually upgrading existing releases. The Greatest Hits and Vault lines are fantastic additions for newer collectors or those who missed high demand figures, even if this board isn't the target audience.

Is there room for improvement? Sure. But I think they really hit a home run here and the team deserved credit where due.

[gentlemanjohnny]

    1 retro fig shown
+  Not enough Hogans
___________________
               D

[nomorexclusives]

I had to give it an A.

First of all wrestlemania reveals usually aren't so broad. That is usually something more reserved for sdcc. So we got a lot of new stuff coming. That in itself is great. Reissued figures with new headscans are great for those looking to only buy the best figures for each character. Some people already have 50 hogans. But i think those people would still want the best likeness of him. (P.s don't forget the technology wasn't necessarily there before to do that. And mattel isnt pumping out hogans to spite us but because "he sells merch brotha". And with the money they make from selling hogan stuff they can pay buy 3d printing machines (for one) and pay top level artists to produce these figures for us. This goes for any reissue figure that ends up selling)

Great themes and character choices. For nwo fans for example there is now a (slight chance of picking these up at walmart, cough, before employees do) possibility of conceptualizing the reality of maybe maybe owning the entire cast of characters from that era. Huge thanks to mattel on this.

Overall between all the lines shown i saw only love poured into these projects. From the setup to the energy they are pouring into this to make each figure right (bar the occassional bret hart hiccups lol).

I call it like i see it but i feel mattel knows it has competition on its heels from powertown and has to step up their game a bit especially in the details since powertown tries to be exact in likeness 100%. We are in for a few special years i feel and this series of reissues is a great chance for newcomers to catch up and get a 2nd chance to own their favorites for their collection. The only people i notice who are upset are resellers who may have previous figures listed for a high price only to realize those values will come crumbling down once more figures are released into the wild.

Keep up the good work mattel. 10/10 for me.

Btw steve we want that rock "rocky" statue figure. If not ill change my grade to an f ofcourse haha

[tkw2010]

I can understand an A grade if you only collect male figures.

But as female figure collector it's a solid F. 148 male figures and 10 women? Like them or not that's a bold, sad choice. How are we 4 waves into Monday Night Wars and no Chyna, Trish, Lita, Jackie, etc. They payed their dues too. No U.E. women? It's like as long as the elite line includes atleast 1 woman screw the other lines. Hell, even Becky would have been a perfect candidate for April O'Neil.

I get that "FeMaLe figures DoNt SeLl" I've heard it my whole collector life but man it's probably due in large part to the fact that us female figure collectors are throwing in the towel because the product just isn't out there. We have to wait 3 years to see a talent come back around if they do at all. These women are on the road, training, and working just as hard as the men and the Mattel team could care less. They check the few boxes they need to and don't give it a second thought. But we're the ones not buying them?

Everyone's got their Fandom and it sucks when we're not invited to the party man.

[ttmbrad]

I went with a B. Lots of stuff I plan to add to my collection. Lots of stuff I will pass on.

[Vamp55]

Gave it a C. If they can find a way to make Target / Walmart exclusives available to international collectors it would be higher. But hard to get excited for anything that fall into this category. Vader and Dusty in to Ultimates is excellent, but as a Aussie collector it’s just more money out the door to secure them. Which means I buy less overall.

Muta was great.

I’m basically out on elites at this point. I really only buy the DM sets as I have all of them to this point (except the 1/15 Warriors). The DM set was lacklustre for me, when compared to last years set.

No Steiner’s sucks. I’ll probably pass on Dudley's and Head Bangers. And no macho! 🥺

SDCC is close, more reveals then, hopefully some stuff closer to me wants and tastes.

[The Big Boss Man]

I said a "B" in the main chat, but I've upped it to an "A."

Muta is a tremendous addition, and getting an UE WCW Vader is awesome.

On top of that, a much improved Farooq, WCW Curt Hennig, "New Foundation" Jim the Anvil, and Rey Mysterio TMNT fig are all gets for me. Oh yeah, and jeans DDP!

[nomorexclusives]

Apr 10, 2024 9:05:42 GMT -5 tkw2010 said:

I can understand an A grade if you only collect male figures.

But as female figure collector it's a solid F. 148 male figures and 10 women? Like them or not that's a bold, sad choice. How are we 4 waves into Monday Night Wars and no Chyna, Trish, Lita, Jackie, etc. They payed their dues too. No U.E. women? It's like as long as the elite line includes atleast 1 woman screw the other lines. Hell, even Becky would have been a perfect candidate for April O'Neil.

I get that "FeMaLe figures DoNt SeLl" I've heard it my whole collector life but man it's probably due in large part to the fact that us female figure collectors are throwing in the towel because the product just isn't out there. We have to wait 3 years to see a talent come back around if they do at all. These women are on the road, training, and working just as hard as the men and the Mattel team could care less. They check the few boxes they need to and don't give it a second thought. But we're the ones not buying them?

Everyone's got their Fandom and it sucks when we're not invited to the party man.

Not to disagree with anything you said but keep in mind that it was basically an all male show for a long time with the occassional female matches in between (as opposed to a more "representative" showing, can't say which percentage but more equal lets say, today). So as you saw at the reveals mattel focused a lot on past legends of the 80s and 90s when, again, there was a huge discrepancy between the number of mens and womens matches. Its not a question of fair but a question of history. The female fans didnt even want to see more female wrestlers then. Now it has become much more sexualized so yeah more interest in womens matches and figures. I am sure the themes will change again and maybe one day it will be more 50/50 as you hope but i doubt mattel will bend the knee on this one as there is not a big wwe female collecting population. Having just come back from wrestlemania it was 90+% male. Hope it works out for ya at sdcc.

Edit: actually i have to just disagree on one thing. Starting in the mid 90s there was a shift in buying habits mainly due to the fact that the female figures were shortpacked in cases (1 compared to 2 or even 3 of other male figures). Princess leia from the potf star wars line kicked it off and was selling for more than even boba fett early on. Mcfarlane would do the same with angela and tiffany from the spawn line and even made them some of the first exclusives. We saw it with early figures of rogue and other female marvel heroes as well. So that notion that female figures didnt/don't sell is not 100% correct. Just depends on which genre and ofcourse on how limited they are compared to their male counterparts.

[nomorexclusives]

Apr 10, 2024 11:21:40 GMT -5 Vamp55 said:

Gave it a C. If they can find a way to make Target / Walmart exclusives available to international collectors it would be higher.

Not to defend mattel here but shipping internationally has gotten really expensive. Not sure what mattel can do with the newer reciprocal 20% vat taxes. I just sent a box insured for 270 dollars and had to pay 155 euros in vat tax shipping with dhl (so it wasnt even 20% but more like 50+%!!!. I can honestly say it has become almost impossible to send anything out of country without paying up the wazoo for it. Its not a question of weight but on the value of the items and size of the package. I suggest buying these figures loose in a lot as it will bw cheaper than buying them carded despite weighing less.

We just have to hope smyths will expand more in europe and the uk. There really shouldnt be exclusives at target or walmart or smyths but yeah thats where we are at.

[sandeep]

These reveals have been great I usually being very harsh every year but this time I'm pretty happy. Some questionable releases off course but they have hit the home run this time.

[secondwhiteline]

Apr 10, 2024 9:05:42 GMT -5 tkw2010 said:

I can understand an A grade if you only collect male figures.

But as female figure collector it's a solid F. 148 male figures and 10 women? Like them or not that's a bold, sad choice. How are we 4 waves into Monday Night Wars and no Chyna, Trish, Lita, Jackie, etc. They payed their dues too. No U.E. women? It's like as long as the elite line includes atleast 1 woman screw the other lines. Hell, even Becky would have been a perfect candidate for April O'Neil.

I get that "FeMaLe figures DoNt SeLl" I've heard it my whole collector life but man it's probably due in large part to the fact that us female figure collectors are throwing in the towel because the product just isn't out there. We have to wait 3 years to see a talent come back around if they do at all. These women are on the road, training, and working just as hard as the men and the Mattel team could care less. They check the few boxes they need to and don't give it a second thought. But we're the ones not buying them?

Everyone's got their Fandom and it sucks when we're not invited to the party man.

As someone who primarily collects female rosters, I don't feel like I'm not being invited to the party. Like, I agree that there are some notable omissions -- UE Rhea was something I absolutely expected, she feels overdue in the format, and why would you do a Turtles line with no April, anyway? -- but the main line overall has been consistent for a long time in its male/female ratio and I don't think the reveals here really undercut that. Whether that ratio is fair or could be improved is a big question, as it's certainly not representative of the importance, visibility, or size of the women's roster in the current programming. But in an action figure market where Todd McFarlane makes fun of his fans' requests for more female figures, I've seen what Not Invited to the Party looks like.

I'd absolutely agree that the exclusive formats trend away from female figures, though. MNW feels pretty egregious in that respect, because you can't say it's an era without prominent female acts. I'm hoping at least the Mattel Creations tag team thing means we start getting some current women's teams in the Elite format who otherwise might only get Main Event.