Mattel Naruto Figures

This was a series of Naruto figures that was released back in the 2000's.

Why They Suck

 * Note: This page mostly covers the figures from the first wave
 * 1) All of the figures had very limited (albeit great) articulation. While the arms were decent, the legs on the earlier figures (and the later variants of Naruto, Sasuke, Neji and Rock Lee) were restricted to moving up and down. For an action figure series based off a manga and anime series with a ton of action scenes and movement, this was not good at all
 * 2) Sand Attack Gaara, Fire Jutsu Sasuke, Nine Tailed Naruto and Shino had even less articulation.
 * 3) Orochimaru, Choji and Haku also had limited articulation in the legs because of their clothing (and in Choji's case, his body shape)
 * 4) Mattel was also very sexist, as they never even made any of the female characters, so no Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Tenten, Tsunade, Kurenai, Anko, Konan and Hanabi. This is especially upsetting because Sakura, Tsunade and Hinata are very important characters, as Sakura is one of the main characters and she appears in almost every single episode, Tsunade is one of the legendary Sannin and the 5th Hokage and Hinata was extremely popular.
 * 5) Mattel also didn't make some fan-favorite male characters, like Might Guy, Itachi, Minato and Kisame. Itachi is especially upsetting because he is one of the most popular characters in the series
 * 6) Many of the figures looked very off model, most notably Naruto's ugly face, Sasuke's weird eyes, Fireball Sasuke's expression, Haku's needles looking more like Wolverine-esque claws and Orochimaru's ugly head.
 * 7) Mattel also ruined a lot of the figures by putting pointless action features in the figures. While some of them worked, like Rock Lee and Gaara, others sucked, like Naruto and Sasuke's throwing feature, Neji's chakra point action and Shikamaru's shadow base.
 * 8) The figures also had a tendency to break easily, most notably Sasuke, who broke very easily at the legs.
 * 9) While the figures have great articulation, their earlier figures had limited leg articulation, only moving up and down. Their later figures improved the leg articulation.
 * 10) Some of the figures aren't that great, like Shino, Haku, Jiraiya and Shadow Clone Naruto.
 * 11) The figures are very expensive and overpriced on Ebay and Amazon nowadays.
 * 12) Mattel never made any of the female characters, lacking in some important characters like Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, Kurenai, Shizune, Tayuya, Anko and Tsunade. Mattel also never made some important male characters, like the first 4 Hokages, Guy, Jirobo, Itachi, Kisame, Asuma and Kabuto.
 * 13) While the variant Gaara had the fixed articulation in their 2008 wave, that wave also included variants of Naruto, Sasuke, Rock Lee and Neji, where they didn't bother improving their articulation.
 * 14) Mattel made too many versions of Naruto. They made 11 versions of him which is unacceptable despite the fact that he is the main character.
 * 15) Their wave consisting of Jiraiya, Kidomaru, Eight Gates Rock Lee, Sakon, Orochimaru and Rasengan Attack Naruto didn't sell as well as the previous waves did. The wave was released in 2009, the year Naruto was fading in popularity in the West. The wave was also released during the filler seasons, which made fans not want to buy the toys. That wave also focused on action gimmicks, which some fans disliked. This resulted in Mattel losing the Naruto license in 2010 to Toynami.
 * 16) Some of the figures look wonky. Specifically Naruto who has a strange face.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) While these figures haven't aged very well, they have enough good qualities to go on Fantastic Toys Wiki