I think at this point, the only reason we've seen the second RotLA wave is 'cause even though it's slated for "early 2009" that really means "holiday season 2008" so that wave should be hitting in December which is why some retailers are picking it up as a last ditch effort to see if the line sells.
If Hasbro didn't have any sales for that second RotLA wave, then we wouldn't have seen them at SDCC.
If you take their answer re: the card back art for TLC Wave #2 back when those figures were supposed to be part of TAC and the fact that they don't want to show it simply because it will never be used (which just seems crazy to me, you already paid the artist, why not sell a set of cardbacks for these figures?) - so no purchases from retailers for RotLA Wave #2 = that slide getting deleted from the SDCC PPT deck.
It's also the same thing with the coins for the Force Unleashed figures - you already made the tools for them. Take pre-orders for a set of Force Unleashed figure coins on HasbroToyShop.com for a couple of months, use it to gauge interest, if you get enough sales of them, produce them, if not cancel everyone's pre-orders. But I doubt that product costs more than tooling so why not just make as many sets as you presell. Same thing with the cardbacks for the TLC Wave #2 figures. But anyway, I digress...
The four different Indy figures and two different Mutt figures are what really hurt this line. They could have cut the numbers for both characters in half, slotted in some more characters up-front like Toht or the German Mechanic or Marcus Brody (for the RotLA) and Marion or Oxley or Mac (for the KotCS wave) and then collectors would have probably bought MORE figures. Let me explain....
As it stands now, if you get one of each you got:
Indy w/Fertility Idol
Indy (Streets of Cairo) w/Whip Action
Indy w/Bazooka
Indy w/Crystal Skull
Mutt w/Sword
Mutt w/Snake
That's a total of six figures.
If instead they had used those same six slots to release:
Indy w/Removeable Hat, Jacket, satchel, working holster, fertility Idol, whip clip, 2-whip versions & gun from RotLA
Toht
Indy w/Removeable Hat, (no jacket torso), satchel, working holster, Crystal Skull, whip clip on belt, 2-whip versions, bazooka & gun from KotCS
Oxley
Mutt w/Cloth "Leather Jacket", sword and switch-blade
Marion w/Snake ('cause she was in that scene too)
That's still six figures, but if they took the time and made the heads swapable between the two Indys, that would mean a total of EIGHT figures sold.
The Indy w/Bazooka figure would work JUST FINE if you wanted to make a streets of Cairo version of Indy if you could just pop the head from the RotLA Indy onto that body. But you can't 'cause the heads are not compatible. Same thing with making a Jacketed Indy figure from KotCS. Just take the spare body you have now and combine it with the older Indy head, now you have a KotCS version of Indy in full garb. They would have doubly sold each Indy figure.
Now before you start saying "but they saved on tooling by having four Indy figures" - sure they did, but not by much. The Streets of Cairo Indy figure has a mechanism that had to be tooled and does not share any parts from other Indy figures. It's head isn't even compatible with the Fertility Idol Indy figure. Sure the legs on the two KotCS Indy figures and the Fertility Idol Indy are the same and the two Jacketed versions share the same arms (although they did give us a second left hand for the KotCS Indy - I would have much rather had a handless version of the crystal skull) - the Jacket piece that goes over the torso is DIFFERENT between the two Jacketed figures only because the RotLA Indy has a working over-sized holster and the KotCS Indy has a smaller non-working holster. They should have just gone with a a holster that was somewhere in between - working but not oversized to accomodate the flap and "button".
Collectors also have the ability to "pass" on certain versions of the same character so even if you aren't like me and would have been compelled to buy two of each Indy figure so you could perform a head-swap. If you're collecting purely based on one of each character, you loose the liability of the jacket-less Mutt and then gain the extra sales of the Toht, Oxley and Marion figures.
Some other things that they could have done? Skip the Marion & Cairo Thug 2-pack - just released two versions of the Cairo Thug 2-pack, right off the bat.
They appear to have no problem shipping the Toht figure with a second head INSIDE THE PACKAGE (which is something they say they'll never do with a Star Wars figure) - so why not package variant heads of Dovchenko, Irina, the German Soldier and Russian Solider in their packages? How many people are going to buy TWO Toht figures (if he comes out) anyway? I know I am, one to display with one head and one to display with the second head. If they had packaged a Irina w/Glasses second head in the package with her, I would have happily bought two of that figure. Same thing with Dovchenko - he has his hat on like once in the movie - each time he's fighting with Indy he's got no hat on, so why not make a version of his head w/o the hat. The variant Russian and German solider heads would have helped that sell even MORE than they did as well.
I really hope that the lack of retailer interest in the line for these last two waves ToD and RotLA #2 just means that they will easily be picked up from HTS. Which brings me to my next point. Start taking PRE-ORDERS for six-packs of the RotLA #2 wave - one of each figure except two of Toht. I know if it meant I was guaranteed all of the figures I need from that wave, I would happily place a pre-order for that six-pack of figures. Heck start offering a pre-order for a six-pack of the ToD figures too. Then also offer a pre-order for say a three-pack of Thugee soldiers too.
The tools are made for these figures, why not just try as many avenues as possible to get them sold?
One more thing - why are they saying "no" to stuff to readily? HTS seems to have no problem selling Cobra Commander in a Suit as a SDCC exclusive so why not give me a Professor Indiana Jones in a suit figure? Or a Donovan in Suit figure? Or a Colonel Dietrich figure? If they feel that collectors are the only driving force for the line, just keep offering one-off figures each year as SDCC exclusives. How hard could that be?