Wrestling Toys (Mattel WWE, Jazwares AEW, etc.)

[secondwhiteline]

WCT did Pokémon mini figures and plushies for ages, you've probably seen their stuff around even if you didn't know the name. I'd have to look up what else they did.

Monsuno was a Bakugan also-ran, just another collectible toy/card game grift series.

 

[secondwhiteline]

Jeremy Padawer is just a typical no-talent opportunistic sleazebag. Literally made money in the late '90s by buying up a bunch of .com names and sitting on them until someone needed that name and then selling it. Relevant to how he would treat everything he ever touched -- he also used to run a fucking website tracking the value of fucking Beanie Babies.

[Reams of harsh but entirely justified invective]

He's basically a sleazy finance bro masquerading as a toys and collectibles guy. The kind of dude that would trick a child into trading him a rare Pokemon card and then get hyper-defensive online if anyone called him out on how shitty that is to do. You know the type.

He really is an incredible example of failing upwards. But yeah, he's the missing link between the sleazy card dealer at the local toy show and the venture capital guy who destroys your favorite toy store and/or toy company.

I'll never forget when the AEW line released a chase Riho that was just "the one with the less-bad face scan." Holy shit, that line. Like, I can't imagine someone at the company wasn't unloading those chases on the aftermarket, and the only possible argument I can make against the theory was that there wasn't a chase Sting in every wave.

The only AEW chase I ever found in store was Blade Runners Sting, weirdly enough. Traded it to a collector friend who's the biggest Sting fan I've ever met for a bunch of inexpensive WWE figures I just hadn't gotten around to buying.

I'm going to weirdly miss this one, and not just because I didn't get a Mina or Thekla before it ended. Incredible line for a semi-bystander to follow. One of the most entertaining things you could do as a figure collector was track how many times a wave changed its lineup before hitting market. I swear, they must have accumulated more unreleased figures than Marvel Legends.

 

[Alt]

My last AEW pick up was Julia Hart. Still regret paying con prices on Skye Blue since she never ever surfaced again at cons or shows.

But I did dump everything except for all my Rosas, latest Hayter, and Julia a few months ago.

 

[Alt]

Jeremy Padawer is human garbage. He is a stain on our entire community, and represents the WORST aspects of toy company upper management on every level. The fact that he hasn't been drummed out of the entire communtiy yet is an embarrassment to us all.

So natch he is now CEO and not one of the severed heads. I was hoping he was one of the severed heads, pyrrhically.

 

[Damien]

My last AEW pick up was Julia Hart. Still regret paying con prices on Skye Blue since she never ever surfaced again at cons or shows.

But I did dump everything except for all my Rosas, latest Hayter, and Julia a few months ago.

I kept looking and then not buying the female figures - same as I often do with WWE - because they always just look too skinny. They do it to the male figures too, but I think it tends to be less obvious because those figures are already fairly large. But you take an already small figure and crank her waist size so it fits into a corset and I just... ick.

So natch he is now CEO and not one of the severed heads. I was hoping he was one of the severed heads, pyrrhically.

Yup. Jeremy is literal proof that 'CEO' isn't actually a legitimate position in a company and that having ANY ability to do literally any job pertaining to the company is not a requirement to be a CEO.

 

[secondwhiteline]

My last AEW pick up was Julia Hart. Still regret paying con prices on Skye Blue since she never ever surfaced again at cons or shows.

But I did dump everything except for all my Rosas, latest Hayter, and Julia a few months ago.

I still have most of the women's figures I bought from the line, although the scale mixed with the WWE women can be wonky. It's most noticeable with Shida, who was made way too tall and never got a true second figure (Can't really count that ShopAEW exclusive that was the same figure but with a fabric shirt and a kendo stick. Not even an updated head with her hairstyle and new makeup from that time).

 

[mrboshek]

Rick posted 70 people out at Jazwares. I don't know if that's true, nothing from JayC confirming that number.