MNW line: Dud or Success?

[Path 2 Glory]

Nov 9, 2024 23:54:54 GMT -5 NoseBleedcollectibles said:

Nov 9, 2024 22:25:24 GMT -5 👑🇵🇭⭐️ said:

They need to focus more on the Greatest division of the Monday Night Wars.



Just make the Light Heavyweight Championship Title Belt, and I'll leave it alone.

And the WCW luchadors parka psychosis juvi

Also, I want Juvi with AND without the mask please.

[iamcline]

This line has been a smashing success. Hmm...

[MonsoonMan]

the concept of the line is phenomenal. in 5 years or 10 years the MNW sections of our collections are gonna look stunning--------those that could not only find but also afford these figures. ive had to go to ebay to buy 4 figures from this line and the resellers didnt spare me as i had to pony up about $40 a piece for those figures when they sit on the pegs for $20.


NOW

lets look at target.


actually as a matter of fact this arguement has already been make and stood on.

i think wal mart needs to be the home of LESS desirable exclusives----throw your roman reigns and cody rhodes john cena and charlotte and brock lesnar exclusives at wal mart all day.


if its an important line, a line that will be important to collectors, lets go target in the future. i mean hell, after three weeks target throws those bad boys on clearance and it helps us out so much.


dear WWE mattel team : no more important exclusive lines for wal mart. every figure manufacturer is going through this phase with their collectors, wal mart is cancer to collectors so please stop putting your cool stuff there. Target and Amazon are the most friendly. i mean truly if they could handle the stock i and all others would even prefer to pay Ringside for an exclusive wwe line.

[nomorexclusives]

Nov 10, 2024 10:21:56 GMT -5 MonsoonMan said:

the concept of the line is phenomenal. in 5 years or 10 years the MNW sections of our collections are gonna look stunning--------those that could not only find but also afford these figures. ive had to go to ebay to buy 4 figures from this line and the resellers didnt spare me as i had to pony up about $40 a piece for those figures when they sit on the pegs for $20.


NOW

lets look at target.


actually as a matter of fact this arguement has already been make and stood on.

i think wal mart needs to be the home of LESS desirable exclusives----throw your roman reigns and cody rhodes john cena and charlotte and brock lesnar exclusives at wal mart all day.


if its an important line, a line that will be important to collectors, lets go target in the future. i mean hell, after three weeks target throws those bad boys on clearance and it helps us out so much.


dear WWE mattel team : no more important exclusive lines for wal mart. every figure manufacturer is going through this phase with their collectors, wal mart is cancer to collectors so please stop putting your cool stuff there. Target and Amazon are the most friendly. i mean truly if they could handle the stock i and all others would even prefer to pay Ringside for an exclusive wwe line.

Bingo.

Modern wwe figure lines at Walmart and the old school figures lines at Target. The proof is in the puddin. Ric flair and hogan went to ollies after sitting on walmart shelves for years. When has cody rhodes ever sat on shelves there. Never because that is where the younger customer goes to shop. Target shoppers are more affluent middle class. They can actually afford to pay retail prices for these. Yet they have to go to Walmart to get these now? Does mattel think we like shopping there? It is a garbage dump. I said the same thing when k-mart had all the vintage collection at-st exclusives, etc

Noone wants to walk into a walmart store. Stop torturing us.

This is so damm obvious that it absurdly baffles the mind why highly collectible lines are sent to Walmart instead of target who:

1. Cares about the customer
2. Puts product out on streetdates
3. Buys 100% of the exclusive product
4.makes product available online (from official store app)
5. Actually ships out online orders (instead of cancelling them)
6.has a working inventory system so people don't drive for hours to find product is unavailable (and just bought by an employee)
7. Does audits (inventory counts) regularly (NOT ONCE A YEAR IN JULY LIKE GMART)
8. Has actual employees dedicated to the toy department (instead of using random available employees who showed up for work that day
9. Has employees that can communicate with customers (who actually speak English. There isn't one working anywhere in southeast pa walmarts!!)
10. Has mid-level management who keeps track of inventory levels (SO they know WHAT to restock!!!! (Best sellers))
11. Restocks said product when product flies off shelves
12. Clearances out that product when collectors have had their fill
13. RINSE AND REPEAT NEXT SERIES!!!!

THAT IS A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS. THIS ISNT ROCKET SCIENCE.

WHO (ON MATTELS' TEAM) IS MAKING THESE DEALS WITH WALMART!!!

And what is the upside.... there is certainly nothing in it for mattel or walmart. At least target would go all in. Something fishy about these deals.

In conclusion, walmart does everything humanly possible to maximize profits with low wages and cost cutting measures while target does everything humanly possible to gain customer satisfaction and give them a pleasant in-store shopping experience. One cares. One doesn't give a damm. Make it make sense

It is almost as if mattel cares more about their officially licensed partners than any of us at this point
..




Edit: I hope mattel realizes that the majority of pollsters who said it was a success are from Europe and have no availabilty issues with smyths.

[Herc and Roma]

WHO (ON MATTELS' TEAM) IS MAKING THESE DEALS WITH WALMART!!!

Whomever it is that is responsible for determining what exclusive each retailer gets needs to be fired as they are to blame for this whole mess.  Walmart have serious problems (no inventory system, unable to keep their shelves stocked) and have done a terrible job with the distribution of their exclusives but its the WWE team at Mattel that determines WHAT exclusive Walmart or Target gets.  I doubt very much that Walmart asked for a MNW line or a Remco-style figure line- the jokers at Mattel are the ones who make that decision and they have failed miserably IMO.  They should have given Walmart an exclusive figure (or series of figures spread throughout the year) instead of a full line.  Both Walmart exclusives (MNW & Superstars) have proven to be very popular with collectors and now both collector bases are livid over the terrible distribution of these lines and the way both Walmart and Mattel have handled things.  Mattel needs to work with Walmart to find a way to improve the availability of these products or just cancel these lines and find another way to get the figures out to the customers they have left as many have dropped out due to how difficult it is to find these Walmart exclusives.

i think wal mart needs to be the home of LESS desirable exclusives----throw your roman reigns and cody rhodes john cena and charlotte and brock lesnar exclusives at wal mart all day.


if its an important line, a line that will be important to collectors, lets go target in the future. i mean hell, after three weeks target throws those bad boys on clearance and it helps us out so much.

I agree, Mattel needs to change strategy (first they need to overhaul the WWE team, bring in some fresh blood as its time for a change).  I would propose something different however:

Walmart- Home to products that are aimed at kids (Basics, 2-packs, Playsets, Belts, Wrekkin)

Target- Home to all products that cater to collectors (Elites, Ultimates, Store exclusive lines- Legends, Superstars, MNW)

Target has a far superior system in place and is better suited to sell collector type products than Walmart as is clearly evident in how they have handled the Legends line.  Walmart hasn't got a clue what they are doing nor does it appear they have any desire to try and fix their problems so they shouldn't have any store exclusives.

[theman]

This line has been fine but really sucks we don't have Sting or Ric Flair.

[wrestlingfigsIreland]

In terms of sales for Mattel its a success but the line is super weak. Re-releases etc instead solid figures we want. Some gems like the Austin and the Hall and Nash too even though Nash is very hard to find.

[BubbleNSqueak]

Nov 9, 2024 12:39:48 GMT -5 Keck Collects said:

Concept: Success
Retailer's ability to manage an exclusive: Failure
Online ordering: Failure
Build a figures: Success
Fan interest: Success
Big names: Mixed
Talent variety: leaning failure
Potential: Success

100% agreed with the “Talent Variety”. As much as I love Austin, Taker, HHH, etc.. we want more mid-card guys but we know those wrestlers are not on a “Legends contract”, so it’s hard to get those names in figure form. Also, a lot of figures in this line have been updated re-releases.

[Biff Slamkovich™]

When I first heard that the line was Walmart exclusive I thought that it may appear at retail here in Canada so I was happy.

Then Steve says Walmart Canada opted not to carry the line.

My question is, at what point does Mattel decide whether or not a line should be retailer exclusive or not? Is it not in Mattel's best interest to ensure that their products are carried where the most people can buy them?

So Walmart Canada says no.....then what? Mattel just gives up and says "Welp looks like an entire country can't have these products now!"?

I wonder if TRU Canada was even offered to carry the line or not. But the fact that MNW figures appeared in the UK with Mattel Canada stickers on the back is so unbelievably frustrating.

I'm a day-1 Mattel collector. Literally. And they have done this retailer exclusive crap time and time again and released very sought after figures in random sub-lines that most people outside of the US don't have access to.

This retail exclusive thing needs to stop and these figures need to be absorbed into the main elite line so that all fans have a chance at getting them.

You have people willing to spend the money on your products....let them! And "durrrr just buy it for triple the price on the secondary market if you really care that much" argument doesn't hold. Easy for some to say that when they're able to simply go online and preorder something or walk into their local store and find items at retail price or on clearance (another thing Canadian retailers don't often do with WWE figures).

[Bramahummel]

I have all of it so far incl chase figures. Some look cool but they are the same Wrestlers over and over.
This line needs NEW NAMES like Billy Kidman, Hardcore Holly etc

[Keck Collects]

The only mark Target is missing, is putting them out on their release day, and not having the street date problems. However, the last two Legends sets have been available for pickup the day of, and it was the easiest. Walmart can't touch Target in that way.

[jjh1292]

Thank you for the input guys. I really appreciate everyone voicing their opinions on this. I really hope Steve and Bill will take a look at this thread.

[mrh]

Nov 10, 2024 15:15:54 GMT -5 Herc and Roma said:

WHO (ON MATTELS' TEAM) IS MAKING THESE DEALS WITH WALMART!!!

Whomever it is that is responsible for determining what exclusive each retailer gets needs to be fired as they are to blame for this whole mess. 

And people wonder why Steve and Bill don't post here anymore....

[Raoul the Great]

I’m going to say the MNW line has been a failure, not a total failure, but incredibly disappointing for these reasons:

1. The Walmart problem

2. The number of blatant repaints and reissues. The MNW line is diabolical in that it forces you (or me at least) to buy figures of wrestlers I already have or don’t want just to build the one rare figure you actually might want, like Disciple, Vincent or Golga. Two Austins in street clothes? Really? (At least they came with soft goods)

3. Quality Control issues. I’m including this based on other complaints as I haven’t noticed any with mine.

4. We are missing some big names! It’s painful to think about how many important wrestlers we won’t be getting: Chris Jericho, Giant/Big Show, Sting, Ric Flair, Konnan, Jeff Jarrett, Dustin Rhodes/Goldust, Raven, Saturn, Sabu, Macho Man!!! (Chris Benoit and Vince McMahon for obvious reasons), most cruiserweights & light heavyweights from WWF and WCW. I know some of these guys could sign a deal, but I think the MNW line will end long before they can be added.

[nomorexclusives]

Nov 10, 2024 21:14:59 GMT -5 mrh said:

Nov 10, 2024 15:15:54 GMT -5 Herc and Roma said:

Whomever it is that is responsible for determining what exclusive each retailer gets needs to be fired as they are to blame for this whole mess. 

And people wonder why Steve and Bill don't post here anymore....

That speaks volumes on them; not this community. People have been literally screaming about quality control issues and it is just now getting addressed. It shouldnt take a majority to fix a glaring issue. This should be known to mattel execs by now. Do they even open the finished product? Noone here should have to tell them about these problems if they actually had quality control.

Lastly the walmart exclusives distribution problem is nothing new. It started with their exclusive hot wheels packs (in the late 90s already) and it hasn't stopped since. Thats at least 25 years of this nonsense. At some point people are fed up. Anyone living in a major metropolitan area has more chances (dfw has dozens for example) but the average collector is dealing with a walmart where either the local scalper or the employees themselves have cornered the market and the next walmart is an hour away.

Mattel is doing well with barbies thanks to the movie and hot wheels are best sellers but they are starting to hit roadblocks. Have you ever walked into a dollar tree or dollar general lately? These stores are starting to get flooded with hot wheels as the new pricepoint caused by inflation is causing a lot of walmarts to dump them. Walk into any grocery store (that carries hw) and you will see they are stuck with cars from 2-3 years ago (as is the case typically at drug stores) due to the higher cost for the consumer.

This example translates to the figures as well. Transformers/Mcfarlane/neca/dc direct figures usually go to the clearance aisle as the average price per figure is too much for people (in 2024). Anything over 20$ in general.

Walmart does well with the following figures:

Simpsons
Super mario bros
Sonic
Wwe basics
Tmnt

What is the common denominator? All those figures are around 11-13$.

They know they are not the market for high dollar items unlike target yet they are offered these high end exclusives that should be at target! If target has trouble selling ultimates than you know people are struggling to afford them.

In short, these problems have been known to mattel execs for ages. I dont know who is responsible but noone here is looking for a fight. People just want a response to their questions. When the same question by multiple people goes unanswered people start questioning things. At this point most of us know the answers even if we dont get an official response.

Walmart controls the deck of cards and mattel is making more money with their officially licensed resellers. So all of us have to make a choice; buy from mattel indirect (like sultan of profits) or keep hitting walmarts religiously until you realize the market is cornered where you live. Well most of us are choosing option C: WE ARE ASKING FOR ACCOUNTABILITY. We have all been told that things will change in 2025; that walmart will have these online and actually ship out our online orders and not cancellung them.

But you know what? Its all a lie because that is NOT what walmart wants. Walmart could easily put these on their site and sell through until people had their fill and then send the leftovers to retail. BUT THAT WONT HAPPEN BECAUSE WALMART WANTS FOOT TRAFFIC.

In the end we all come to the same conclusion, that mattel and walmart are happy as they get what they want ((little does walmart understand that other than wwe there is literally no other reason to shop there these days)(Hot wheel collectors/resellers are their main foot traffic. They dont give a raTs ass for action figures and vice versa)) Mattel and walmart instead rely on their "partners" to sell off the overstock. But nowhere in that equation is the word customer satisfaction mentioned. Thats because their customers are their partners now. They are satisfied. Oh yeah they are very satisfied. Sultan is having a field day.

But what about us. What about the collector? We are the reason they even have the possibility to sell ric flair. Without us he would be at ollies for ....oh wait yeah thats whats happening. Many collectors are giving up and buying elsewhere.

Ding ding ding!!!! We got a bingo.

In short: people dont like running around searching for product that was underordered (as walmart does not want to get stuck with it) when that product should never have been given to them in the first place. Its not a fit. The pricepoint is too high for the consumer there. So as long as the problem exists people will start buying wrestling figures from smaller companies that give people what they want. And what is it that collectors want: simple/ AVAILABILITY!!! ITS NOT DIFFICULT FOR GOD SAKES. This is why hasbro is doing so well because all of their pulse figures and vehicles are available for months before they go on clearance.

Some may just get so fed up with what the wwe collecting hobby has become that they are moving on to other pastures.

Doing the same thing over and over again has its consequences . Good and bad.

WHERE IS THE COMMON SENSE GONE IN THE TOY BUSINESS? IS IT JUST ALL ABOUT PLEASING RESELLERS? That is not a long term strategy. The resellers will bail on you the moment collectors stop buying from them. Does mattel think sultan will still buy their product when everyone and their granma has hulk hogan?

Get your priorities straight mattel. We are your base. Stop treating us like the leftovers you give us.

[PJ]

Nov 9, 2024 12:21:57 GMT -5 HandsomeHollywood said:

As a non American, it doesn't exist.

Hell as an American it doesn’t exist.

[Lorenzo Alcazar]

Yes. Massive failure. Based on distribution alone. When the majority of your customers cannot FIND the product because the store that the product is EXCLUSIVE to refuses to actually stock the product, that is a massive failure.

And you know what? It is 100% Walmart’s fault. Target doesn’t have these issues. EVERY WWE target exclusive can be easily found in stores and is readily available to be purchased online when they are supposed to be out.

The legends line goes up for pre-order on target and it doesn’t disappear after 9 seconds. When the release date hits they actually ship them, and when you go to the store they are actually on the shelves.

With Walmart, they just can’t figure any of this out, but Mattel just keeps giving them exclusives. It’s a real shame. We’ve all missed out on some great stuff because Walmart is just the worst retailer in existence.

[EDH]

Yeah I’ve been collecting from the start 2010 and this Is the worst series distribution wise to find the saddest part about this is that it has been out for a year maybe a little more yet Mattel does nothing to help collectors. Mr. AFA is all over these boards. He sees and reads all the complaints about This series and does nothing to help us follow collectors another issue is how is it getting backdoored To Palmart He gets more allocation of the Monday night wars then Walmart does how is that?Mattel does nothing about that either

[Path 2 Glory]

So where do all these figures go? If they're never stocked (or is it never ordered instead?) do we see them a few years from now randomly showing up on shelves when other stock has run out or are we just SOL? Where do they go? A garbage dump? A third party selling site? Genuinely curious what happens with them since they've obviously been created but I dont see them.


Also, distributors of toys whose major purchasers are parents of kids aren't going to care too much about paint applications but figures breaking and not being able to move? That is going to cause issues among collectors AND parents with kids when the $20 toy they bought for little Jimmy has it's legs snap off the first time he goes to play with it. So I see that having to be fixed more than the other issues bc most parents just wont buy that brand again as opposed to calling and complaining to Mattel. The way they find out will be through lack of sales and returns instead. Just my opinion. 

[arossi417]

I didn't vote because I'd give it an incomplete. 95% of the issue with this line is it isn't available to most collectors even though it's exclusive to the biggest retailer in the country. Makes it very hard to say the figure quality is poor or design choices don't pop in hand if only a fraction of the people here find them. The greatest hits set making that early of an appearance in this line is also strange, and buying re-releases for a BAF is another concept I don't love.

If I had to vote, I'd lean toward failure. The figures are somewhat enjoyable - not everything is a hit, but I am just tired of coming on here weekly and reporting my Walmart is empty. Could say the same about the superstars line as well. Not sure about a fix - can't dump everything at Target as nice as that sounds, chases don't feel fair if you are using an online retailer like Creations or Amazon, and Walmart is too stupid to adjust to anything. Line is a nice concept that gets hindered by the choice of retailer.