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Autistic rant incoming.
The Naruto line could have very easily become another money maker like the Dragon Ball stuff but Bandai fucked themselves over in so many ways to the point the line has absolutely no chance of ever coming back.
A few notable things include:
>Started releasing figures way too late
Best I remember they showed off the original release of Naruto sometime in 2012 and yet wait until near the end of 2014 to release him to start the line, well into the period of where the manga is wrapping up everything.
>Further releases are too slow and infrequent. Character selection is dogshit.
Here's the timeline of releases for all the figures.
Naruto - 07/12/2014
Sasuke - 01/23/2015
Kakashi - 12/25/2015
Minato - 01/25/2016
Sage Naruto (2.0) - 07/25/2016
Sasuke 2.0 - 10/25/2016
Itachi - 11/25/2016
Rock Lee - 03/24/2017
Gaara - 07/25/2017
Madara - 10/25/2017
Jiraiya - 01/26/2018
Boruto - 03/23/2018
Sage Naruto (Cloak) - 04/25/2018
Naruto (Best Selection) - 06/13/2020
Nothing kills momentum for a new line more than a staggered release schedule as well as being full of characters nobody gave a shit about. To add onto that, every figure apart from the very first Naruto as well as the Best Selection release are all P-Bandai. Even more onto that is the nerve to introduce 2.0 releases so "early" after releasing the other versions beforehand, although to be fair that looks to have been when they were finally taking things much more seriously with the line and pumping out releases within an acceptable time frame.
But again, P-Bandai killed a lot of momentum for this line too. Making 2.0 Naruto and both forms of Sasuke web exclusives makes entry into the line harder than it needs to be. Kakashi too if we want to go by general popularity. If they had been kept as general releases with re-releases here and there, they might have helped keep the line moving.
