After Low Q2 Sales, Mattel Cutting 2,200 Jobs

Please. DC figure sales aren't even a blip on their radar. Mattel has the #1 selling action figure line in the US and it's got nothing to do with comic books or movies.

Maybe. On the flip side of this, Hasbro had a great year. To be a little more logical in all, it might too early to see what that effect is just yet.

Well, maybe if they hadn't essentially killed off Monster High through their own poor decision-making, it would still be holding the fashion doll top slot. But no, they had to gut it just to appease a handful of over-concerned people and to un-dethrone their own Barbie line.

Which line is that, the Jurassic World line? Because I'm confused (not denying, just confused) how that'd be the #1 line, and I'm honestly drawing a blank at what other action figure lines Mattel does.

No truer words ever spoken. I still haven’t seen that damn Batwoman wave in stores yet. I just thank goddess I found the king shark wave at Target.

WWE. I can't post links but it's easily googled.

How the hell were people putting a political spin on this?

Seriously! a 14% drop in a single quarter is MASSIVE.

At least Hasbro is still doing well, and NECA seems to be bouncing back with new retail deals. But Mattel got F'ed in the A.

MY girlfriend loves Monster High stuff. Please elaborate on what you meant by "over-concerned people" and why they would (as you seem to say) sabotage the MH line to not compete with Barbie?

What an extremely naive comment.

You cannot deny that Mattel has no idea how to properly distribute their products.

Another Mattel line that exists but actually doesn't is Halo. Halo is a multi billion dollar brand and is even more poorly distributed than DC.

I feel for all the people that lost their jobs and the dramatic decline of a major company, but I hope this shakes them into getting their sh** together.

Never dried the distribution issues, just that the DC action figures have much of an impact on Matty's financials. WWE is the #1 selling action figure brand in America. And it's not even the leader for Mattel's boys toys. Hot Wheels is. And Hot Wheels numbers don't touch Mattel's girls' toys sales. So acting like an improvement on distribution for a low-impact niche line like DC Multiverse would make an ounce of difference to the financial health of the company is laughable. Action Figures are not a big deal.

Thanks. WWE is so far out of my sphere of interests that I completely spaced that line, let alone that it was being done by Mattel.

Same with my wife, with Monster High as well as Ever After High and DC Super Hero Girls. As for what I said, mostly I was referring to the MH reboot from a couple years ago, where they redesigned everyone to have 'friendlier faces' that were less off-putting to potential consumers (read: parents who had an issue with the whole 'Monster' aspect, since until that point the line had sold like gangbusters regardless) and scaling back on the 'creepy' aspects of the clothing designs, also all-but nixing or replacing a number of popular-but-not-frontline characters in the process (Ghoulia, Spectra, a handful of others). This was also when they started pulling back on the number of dolls and lines being released, and started doing their 'budget' lines (fewer articulation points, more simplified outfits) which, while great for younger kids to get into the line with, also crowded out the style of dolls that had made the line into the smash-hit it was. Now, the budget dolls are most of what you can find on shelves, when you can even find MH product in the first place. Combined with the quiet killing of the Ever After High lines (which also went the budget route, and then just disappeared completely except for TRU and online stores), Mattel is more interested in keeping their flagship doll line as the top dog (especially after they lost the Disney license to Hasbro).

It's especially prevalent as Garret Sander (creator of Monster High and one of the head line designers for most of its run) has left Mattel as of June of this year, after having been with the company for nearly fifteen years. Whether he left of his own volition or Mattel let him go, I don't know, but without him there any more (and a lot of the other design team members having moved on, either within the company or elsewhere), I doubt Mattel will do much to continue Monster High, at least in the immediate future. Their marketing of the line and its tie-in merchandise (particularly the animated films and the web series) has fallen flat to the point where it's nonexistent. Through poor decision making, they cut off one of their strongest lines at the knees.

(I don't know what's going on with DC Super Hero Girls, since aside from the basic dolls, almost all of their new product is only found online for both the doll lines and the action figures, but I just today learned that they're already retooling the line with Lauren Faust at the helm, so I have no idea where that's gonna go)

Pretty much this. Though if Mattel had better worked on some of the DCEU stuff to fit within certain markets, they might be higher on the list.

Looking at Jurassic World for example, the scale it's in and how well it's doing, it would be smart to consider doing a DCEU line and CW Series line that's comparative to that in cost too(especially because of cross play!). Part of the reason action figures aren't as dominant in the market is because of the cost.

But it's no secret Hot Wheels and Barbie are what keep Mattel afloat. It's always been that way.

And Halo is billion dollar brand, but the figures never really had much of a strong sales market outside of mega construx. The figure line does about as well as other collector game centered things, though the roleplay toys do a little better.

The TRU hit is what's causing this mostly because of the order volume TRU did compared to other outlets. As well as the back debt of TRU not being able to pay the stuff it put on credit so to speak, and the money Mattel used to help bail TRU out now never going to get repaid.

And who's fault is that I wonder? Hint: not the multi demographic consumer.

Perfectly somes up my exact reaction to that idiotic and naive comment of his

I have financial reports to support my "idiotic" comments. What do you have to support your position?

NECA sales numbers would be even smaller than Mattel. Their market isn't that strong, nor would they have the money for that kind of acquisition. (MOTU or DC.)

MOTU is staying in house, it's one of those few things they can make with no licensing fees. Like Barbie, Max Steel, Matchbox, and Hot Wheels. MOTU will make a comeback though as new media develops. Right now She-Ra stuff is likely in the works as the new netflix toon is shaping up to be as big a hit as Legendary Defender is.

The DC license is in a transitional state, but a new 4'' line may come out of it to go with Multiverse comic stuff now. Thanks to Jurassic World's line scale, the market data now supports trying that again in a better cost efficient way to keep figure cost down to boost volume sales.

Multiverse 6'' is here to stay though and has made some massive strives forward to improve the figures. The new ones of those are looking awesome.

Their local store and fan know-it-all conjecture!