[Pyroclasm]

From what I've seen, most movie lines appear to fail. They are flash in the pan attempts to quickly capitalize on movie-goers' desire to have a piece of the movie. Because they are attempting to jump on the movie merchandising bandwagon, they tend to be of so-so quality. The same can be said of video game tie-ins. Just think about the various other movie lines that came out, and how many successes can you think of? Star Wars, GI Joe or Transformers, Batman? They have a built-in fan base. They're successful long before any of their recent movies. Even bad to mediocre movies don't seem to phase them.

Think about all the recent failures: Last Airbender, A-Team, Percy Jackson, Prince of Persia, etc. With the exception of a few toy companies like Hasbro, they don't seem to give their movie products much consideration. Get the crap out quick so they can get them sold. They are relying on fans of the movies and speculators. Of course, Hasbro has a vested interest in the quality of their Transformer and GI Joe lines, so it's no surprise that their movie figures rival the standard versions.

In the case of Jim Cameron's Avatar, I loved it. Saw it twice in the theater (3D and regular). Was eagerly looking for the figures. Then I saw how cheap-looking they were, and how nothing was in proper scale to each other, so I basically gave up on the line.
Like it was said earlier:
1) They looked like knockoffs--poor paint apps, bland details, little articulation, cheap looking plastic. The big figures weren't as bad looking, but they did look like they skimped on the paint and articulation.
2) Scale was all over the place. The humans were too small compared to other action figures in this scale, and they made N'avi the same height as these tiny humans. The 6" N'avi were closer in scale to be used with the small humans, but they also made humans at this scale. This made the small N'avi and large humans somewhat useless.
3) The vehicles and creatures weren't to scale with each other, let alone with the figures they were supposed to be used with. On top of that, they were also plagued with simplified details and overall "cheap" look. They were barely "The Corps" quality.
4) With all the issues with quality, the final nail in the coffin was their high price point. The vehicles which could work with some of my Joes couldn't compare with Joe vehicles, yet were like $10 or more higher. Only until these guys hit clearance did I get one of the Amp suits. At clearance their price more closely matched what you were getting.

I think that in order to get better Avatar figures, another company, preferably Hasbro, would need to take on the license. Perhaps then we can get beautiful articulated figures that better represented the grace of the N'avi.