The emphasis should be on was. Monster High, Barbie, DCUC etc does'nt sell as it used to and sellings keeps going down as Mattel quailty and design of their toys keep being repetitive and deteriorating. When I mentioned Playmates I talk about it in the sense of classic action figure line (for kids) which, they're the most successful and the only one left to actually do it which is sucks. I guess they're not one of the top toy companies, but they definitely doing better then Mattel. I wish we had more toy companies like in the past instead of this disgusting monoply of Mattel and Hasbro.

P.S. Video games shouldn't be included

Yes, Lego is now the number one toy company, which is unfortunate in my opinion as someone who prefers classic action figure/fashion doll and dislike Lego aesthetic. However, I will give them the cerdit for putting effort in every product they release both in design and quailty terms (them and Playmobil are the one who doing that which is really sad), so their success isn't just thanks to one hour and 40 minutes long commercial aired in movie theaters.

Eh, I think Hasbro is putting a good amount of effort into design and quality, at least for most of their stuff (maybe not so much the non-Legends Marvel figures [at least before the 6-inch ones] and the recent Star Wars vehicles). Maybe not quite as consistently as they should, but they're doing far better than Mattel.

Almost everyone doing better then Mattel right now. Hasbro does put effort in desgin, but not so much in quality. As much as I love my new titan return Blurr, he wouldn't last in kids hands, mine already have stress marks. The new transformers are made of very hollow thin plastic, I think only the Titan Masters and some of the RiD are actually durable. As for Marvel Legends I'm very disappointed, I got Ultimate Spider-Man ; he couldn't move at all when I first open him, the plastic have scrach marks and feels cheap, he has the worst paint of all of my toys with the paint being rubbed off and no not being clean. I still prefer my childhood ToyBiz Spider-Man , even though he is very loose and have less nice looking sculpt, he is much better in every other aspect.

Having gotten many Transformers, Marvel Legends, and Star Wars The Black Series over the past couple years, I'd say the quality on average has been a bit higher than you feel it is, especially with Marvel Legends. Transformers definitelyh have thinner plastic than they used to, but almost none of them feel thin enough to readily break from standard child's play. Blurr comes the closest, but even then, he still feels pretty sturdy. Rarely will any ML figure I open have any frozen joints at all, and even when they do, it doesn't take much effort to free them. Plus, the plastic and paint are rarely as poor as it seems your Ultimate Spider-Man was. I also have that mold (the Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man, not the Peter), and the paint and plastic look and feel superb.

My blurr indeed sturdy, however do you have more TR figures? There ones that both their legs and arms are hollow like skullsmasher and triggerhappy. Also don't forget that standard child's play includes bashing figures and such, which I highly doubt many toys today in general can survive that.

I don't own any Black series so I can't talk about, but from what I heard it's bit better then Marvel Legends.

They shouldn't have frozen joints to begin with as they are made for kids as well. The miles Morales one barely have paint.

Yeah that Miles morales is painted terribly and mine joints are super Loose.

I own all but three Deluxe figures (Scourge, Triggerhappy, Breakaway) from the first 3 waves of TR, as well as Legends Rewind and Titan Master Terri-Bull. The only one with significant quality issues is Skullsmasher, and that's not due to the hollowness of the legs, it's because the ball sockets of the hips are loose. Other than that, no real issues.

Of course they should never have frozen joints, but they ain't exactly perfect are they? Them rarely ever having frozen joints is good enough for me, especially when they'rebarely stuck, and don't need a real heating to free them. Also, while that Miles does have less paint then the other Ultimate Spider-Man released in the same wave on the same body, it's still well-applied. Plus, other figures with significantly more paint applications that I've gotten have also been very well-applied, like Deadpool, Rogue, Captain Britain, etc. Also, my Miles' joints are fine. Not too tight, not too loose.

Anyway, the fact those quality issues exist (of course not everyone have those issues) just shows those toys aren't that good quality.
I don't ever remember having playline toy with frozen joints, it's unacceptable. Also, I had to heat my Spiderman and even then he was still quite stiff.

The fact that occasionally, some (relatively minor) issues pop up, even if the majority of the issues do not happen to the majority of customers, shows that overall the line isn't good quality? The fact that they're not absolutely perfect means they're not good quality? What kind of logic is that?

It's not relatively minor, it's quite often. You can easily find reviews of Marvel Legends with those kind of issues.

I miss the days when stuck joints on action figures wasn't really even a thing.

Yeah, you can blame all that articulation that everybody seems to yearn for for that. That's why I'm fine with 5-7 points. I don't need my figures to be able to auto-fellate. They just need to stand there.