Wrestling Toys (Mattel WWE, Jazwares AEW, etc.)

Of all the things to focus on, Mattel is like 'hold on... she's known for her huge butt - we gotta make a bigger butt sculpt!' Forget that almost none of the women actually have sculpts that represent their actual physiques or heights. My god.
 
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Hold on, besides a new butt, in the last year, new parts for the women include a more athletic midsection, bigger biceps, and new ankles (both men and women). It took fifteen years to get a decent ankle joint! But seriously, I don't think Mattel was being overtly sexual. The average buyer picking up a handful of figures probably wouldn't notice. I looked at as an incremental movement away from the generic.
 
mrboshek said:
It took fifteen years to get a decent ankle joint!
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That about sums up Mattel, right there.
I also don't think they were being overtly sexual. I just think they're cheap, kind of lazy, and choose only very specific times to even really care about the scale and accuracy stuff that they claimed was going to be the big thing to separate them from Jakks.
 
They've made a lot of head scratching decisions over the years. They'll continually use the wrong part for a person when they actually have something more appropriate already available in their tooling or they won't invest in new tooling for someone who will have something like twenty releases (they've never really gotten HBK's boots right), but a likely one-off gets a new mold. Some joke Bill Miekina's bias comes into play. A figure of someone he personally likes might get more love.
I can overlook some scaling issues (why did Bill think Yoko was so tall?) if the figure is aesthically pleasing. Gorilla arms are a big no-no. The kickpad boot mold with certain calves is a complete no.
 
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mrboshek said:
They've made a lot of head scratching decisions over the years. They'll continually use the wrong part for a person when they actually have something more appropriate already available in their tooling or they won't invest in new tooling for someone who will have something like twenty releases (they've never really gotten HBK's boots right), but a likely one-off gets a new mold. Some joke Bill Miekina's bias comes into play. A figure of someone he personally likes might get more love.
I can overlook some scaling issues (why did Bill think Yoko was so tall?) if the figure is aesthically pleasing. Gorilla arms are a big no-no. The kickpad boot mold with certain calves is a complete no.
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A big thing that started turning me off to the figures when I still collected was how anorexic so many of the wrestlers looked. The body they were using for Punk/Edge (WHY ARE THESE GUYS ON THE SAME FUCKING BODY?) is like that. Weirdly proportioned and doesn't really suit almost anyone it's used for.

And yeah, HBK's boots, and a lot of who gets what type of boots/kneepads are the other type of problem that really drove me out of collecting them. I think the final straw for me, maybe this is a bit silly, was Billy Gunn. His boots and boots-to-kneepads transitions were SO inaccurate and it was just infuriating.
 
I have SEVERELY cut back on what and how much I currently buy wrestling related.
Now it's looks I don't already have for some fave wrestlers (or upgrades to previous figures), current faves who I don't have represented yet, some of the women who I like who're getting figures that look good (the most recent Natalia I saw was anorexic looking she was so thin).

I've sold quite a bit of my early line classic 80s to early 90s figures, and made out pretty well when I did (years ago at this point).

IMG_20230119_190724268~2 by lionpride75, on Flickr

IMG_20230119_190545298~2 by lionpride75, on Flickr
 
Damien said:
A big thing that started turning me off to the figures when I still collected was how anorexic so many of the wrestlers looked. The body they were using for Punk/Edge (WHY ARE THESE GUYS ON THE SAME FUCKING BODY?) is like that. Weirdly proportioned and doesn't really suit almost anyone it's used for.

And yeah, HBK's boots, and a lot of who gets what type of boots/kneepads are the other type of problem that really drove me out of collecting them. I think the final straw for me, maybe this is a bit silly, was Billy Gunn. His boots and boots-to-kneepads transitions were SO inaccurate and it was just infuriating.
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That's part of the reason why I got out not once, but twice. Currently, I'm feeling a near zero interest in Marvel Legends for similar reasons. Toss in Masterverse and I can say I own way too many figures with anatomy and proportions that I'm not overly happy with. I try to give them a pass because of the wide number of releases, but you can only take so much.

As far as wrestling goes, I felt jazwares had potential with their AEW figures after series 1 & 2. Their arms appeared a little scrawny at times, but overall I thought they looked less lanky than a lot of WWE figures. By series 3 or 4, they obviously downgraded to a gummier plastic, skin tones had a less than healthy appearance, and there's been too many questionable likenesses over the course of the line.
 
mrboshek said:
That's part of the reason why I got out not once, but twice. Currently, I'm feeling a near zero interest in Marvel Legends for similar reasons. Toss in Masterverse and I can say I own way too many figures with anatomy and proportions that I'm not overly happy with. I try to give them a pass because of the wide number of releases, but you can only take so much.

As far as wrestling goes, I felt jazwares had potential with their AEW figures after series 1 & 2. Their arms appeared a little scrawny at times, but overall I thought they looked less lanky than a lot of WWE figures. By series 3 or 4, they obviously downgraded to a gummier plastic, skin tones had a less than healthy appearance, and there's been too many questionable likenesses over the course of the line.
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Yeah, I was really excited about the AEW stuff when it first dropped and we even bought a few. Actually, I will say that the Ultimate Super Deluxe Extra Magnificent WhateverTheFuckTheyCallIt Britt Baker was really good. My big complaint was that, for the price, she was basically a single torso piece away from being two completely different figures, so why not just put the extra torso in there? Seemed silly.

Definitely seems like there's been a quality downgrade overall, though. Or maybe just that it never improved and some of the weaker elements are less forgivable after this long and this many waves of product.

Weird proportions is an issue with ML for sure. One CAN defend that easier because they're mostly based on comic books and therefore don't have to be proportioned like a real human being. But wrestling figures are literally real people so.. they don't get a pass. Even so, my favorite MLs definitely aren't the ones that have major anatomy problems, so clearly I'm not immune to being annoyed by it even on a comic figure.
 
I did some reacquiring today at the semi-monthly local comic show. The show is usually 95% comics, this month, a friend of one of the regular comic sellers tagged along and brought a nice selection of wrestling figures. I picked up Target excl. Macho Man, Billy Graham, Paul Ordorff, and Michael Hayes. Four unopened figures for $65. I've been mostly waiting for re-releases, but convenience at reasonable prices won out. Macho took up nearly half of the cost at $30. He was one I was thinking about grabbing on eBay because his estate doesn't seem to have a deal with WWE.
 
The four figures I bought all have single jointed elbows. Possibly all the other figures I've bought during this recent collecting phase have been from the double jointed elbows era. I forgot how limited those elbows really were. Macho has the hand with the little milk creamer and one with the outstretched pinky. You can't nail those poses with a single jointed elbow 😆
 
I used to buy a lot of Elites, but lately I'm just not interested in most wrestlers anymore, not enough to buy them. There's always so many dumb issues with the scale or parts choices. My current gripe is that the Ultimate Drew McIntyre that comes with three heads doesn't come with an angry/sulking head. That's 99% of his emotions on-screen but they gave him two smiling heads instead. Same with the Walmart Ultimate Stone Cold, instead of coming with two fists, he comes with two "pointing finger" hands. That said, there's some bangers, like the last AJ Styles Ultimate Edition, so I like to keep my eye on the line. Mostly looking forward to seeing how the Tiffany Stratton Ultimate turns out, and waiting patiently for them to give us a Rhea Ripley Ultimate.

Agreed about the double elbows, though. I wish I could trade in 95% of my old collection and get back what I paid. They've redone a lot of my favorite Elites with double elbows, but I can't bring myself to spend $25 a piece on them just for that. We did get some sweet accessories back then, though. My favorite is probably the full APA backstage set, the door and table, I remember buying a bunch of tiny beers and playing cards to put on that table for dioramas. Lately the boxes look so empty, besides the (welcome) occasional extra hand.

PS: Does anyone else get triggered by Mattel painting on the skin tone? Like the upper body on singlets, or even faces when it's on someone with hair and a beard? It never matches the skin plastic and always looks bad, lol.
 
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There are a few wrestlers I would like but availability for both companies is trash around me in Toronto.

I don't really have any third-party connections like I can with superhero or Star Wars stuff.

I also have no idea what the hell is going on with AEW. I mostly collect the women's stable, but I know they have canceled figures or things just don't become available, and as has been discussed, I just don't think the quality is really there to justify the headache, as opposed to... NECA Mirage TMNT or Jada Street Fighter.

I did get Julia Hart, which was cool, by Skye Blue is a fool's errand.
 
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For a while I was making custom Titan Tron video stills for the old entrance stage.


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