Power Ranger toys sell extremely well. It's consistently at the top of the "Most Popular Toys" list (I believe I saw it in Toy Fair, but I could be wrong). So, of course, retailers buy a big ol' buttload of Power Rangers and devote massive amounts of shelf space to them. They appear to "sit on the shelves", but they're not. Kids scarf them up, and the retailers replenish the stock quickly.They probably don't sell any more because they like to focus on the negatives and not the positives, so Bandai is sitting on boxes upon boxes of these things having a little pitty party. Meanwhile, I see more and more Power Rangers merch piling up over the millions of undeserved pegs. Sorry... they don't sell a LICK over here!
At first, it seems like Ultimate Muscle sold pretty well. But keep in mind that retailers ordered the line in very limited quantities. Sure, many of the stores eventually sold out, but it definitely took a while. I've heard people say that UM "flew off the shelves after a few months", but think about that statement: it took the retailers that long to sell only a case or so of UM toys. And many retailers still have them!
Truthfully, I think the line has been cancelled. I hope I'm wrong because I love the figures. But regardless of what we, the collecting minority, want, the retailers know exactly what they're doing: they're making money by selling toys that move off the shelves. That may or may not include UM... I guess we'll find out eventually...
-Nathan