WotC needs to cut down on the lead time here.
For example, I complained many times that there were not enough Dragonborn, especially with a player line coming out.
Well, it takes 18 months.
Uh... okay, when exactly did you know that Dragonborn were going to be a core race?
So whatever. Let's say there was absolutely nothing they could do about that.
Then they failed on the player side. We're going to charge premium prices for these visible figures, some of them resculpts, and expect the sales to be great!
First off, competition from the Reaper line directly here. Reaper has several figs and all of their figs use the same scale and have the same consistency. I can pick up several dwarves from the D&D minis line and some of them look like fat humans, some of them look like dwarves, and some of them look like tall gnomes.
Second off, it appearst that many stores that were carrying the monsters line dropped the player line. While I can't say it's universally true, Borders (several of them), never carried the players line after the first wave.
The player line, without a high amount of Dragonborn to fill the void of a core race, was ill timed. It should have been shelved until it was ready.
If WoTC wants player style miniatures, go with a "Heroes" line and sell figures of the novels. That way even people who don't use miniatures, much like Star Wars, will be tempted to purchase them. WoTC has a huge library of characters and having them in miniature form would've been an easy hit.
In addition, the RPG department needs to work hand in hand with the miniature department. Unless these adventurers are being cranked out in a week, there should be some lead time to make miniatures that are appropriate to the game. We're getting Norkers now? Now? Seriously? Like two years into the game? Like no one knew Norkers were going to be in the second adventure before it saw print? Like the miniature developer bought his own copy and said, "Wow, look, Norkers!"