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

[CTV]

Anyone else into wrestling figures? I watched WWE as a kid, stopped as a teen, and started again (+ AEW) last year. It's camp. Here are some of my recent pickups:

https://flic.kr/p/2r2X82z

 

[Super Camel]

Those are nice pick-ups. Some good figures of some good stars. I definitely have always loved wrestling and started watching WWF as a kid. I collected the WWF Hasbros and then all the WWF/WWE figures from Jakks be it Bone Crunchers, Ruthless Aggression, Classic Superstars, etc.

I don't collect a lot of wrestling figures these days, except for 3 things. One. I grab figures of my favorite Legends from Mattel, especially Bret Hart. (side note, I met Bret Hart last weekend and got his autograph).

Two, I still go back and buy vintage WWF Hasbros be it loose or MOC.

And Three, I really like the little figures Mattel puts out right now, the WWE Knuckle Crunchers. Those little figures and their accessories and the super bouncy ring are a lot of fun.

But there are some great wrestling toys right now. Not just from Mattel and Jazwares, but some much smaller independent companies as well. And I'm glad you made a thread to talk wrestling toys

 

[Damien]

I really enjoy the hell out of wrestling. We used to have a somewhat active thread about it on Fwoosh. What I don't really do anymore is collect wrestling toys. It's just such a deep rabbit hole. Almost no other toyline has so much potential for endless variants. And there's so many characters that feed into other characters, to the point where I, personally, find it almost impossible to collect 'just' this or 'just' that.

Edge is one of my favorites of all time. But like... can I get an Edge and not want to get the Christian? I don't know. Can I get Shawn Michaels and not want HHH? No way I'm buying just ONE member of the House of Black.
Then you get those guys that are active for a really long time and have tons of iconic attires. When I was collecting Mattel Elites some years back (some SOME years at this point), I think I had like 12 CM Punk figures, and almost as many Shawn Michaels.

On top of that, I always struggled with Mattel's figures because I fucking hated how lazy and cheap Mattel is. Shit like Edge and Daniel Bryan being on the same body absolutely fucking SENDS me. It's so incredibly trash. Their whole claim to fame over Jakks was supposed to be attention to relative scale and they tossed that out the window within like 3 waves.

I still get tempted, though. I'm a massive mark for Bret Hart, so any time he gets a new figure I get a little itchy. And great figures have come out, or are coming out, for some of my other all-time favorites like Razor, Diesel, and Demolition. And, of course, guys like Shawn.

Plus, the collection never ends. If you actively still watch, that means there's always new favorites, and new attires, and ... I'm getting anxiety just thinking about it.


But that new Razor DOES look really nice.......

 

[CTV]

It's definitely a slippery slope! It's way easier for me to cherrypick wrestlers than it ever was with ML, so I feel like collecting them is manageable, for now. I'm at the point where I'm pretty satisfied with my collection overall. At this point, I'm mostly in for new MCU characters, X-Men, and drastic improvements on older figures (but even then, I stopped myself from getting the new Agent Venom because I have the old one, even though it looks really good.) I've sold a bunch of wrestling customs recently too which makes me feel better about recouping costs.

 

[Damien]

It's definitely a slippery slope! It's way easier for me to cherrypick wrestlers than it ever was with ML, so I feel like collecting them is manageable, for now. I'm at the point where I'm pretty satisfied with my collection overall. At this point, I'm mostly in for new MCU characters, X-Men, and drastic improvements on older figures (but even then, I stopped myself from getting the new Agent Venom because I have the old one, even though it looks really good.) I've sold a bunch of wrestling customs recently too which makes me feel better about recouping costs.

I'm FAMOUSLY indecisive when it comes to toys. It's the reason I've had/do have so many versions of He-Man or Wolverine or Conan. I just can't decide which one I like -best-, or at least -most enough to get rid of any others-. That's how I ended up with a dozen CM Punk figures. Could never decide which era/storyline/moment/match meant more to me than the others. Or even just which color scheme I liked better.

Same with a Shawn Michaels. His career was so long. Do I want to own a figure of Rockers Shawn, or hiding-behind-Diesel Shawn, or WM12 Shawn, or amazing solo career Shawn, or 1st Gen DX Shawn, or WM25 Shawn? It's virtually impossible for me to just pick one. In fact, despite that I probably like comics more than wrestling, I'd say it's easier for me to pick a favorite version of Wolverine (probably my favorite comic character) than it is for me to pick my favorite CM Punk (not even my favorite wrestler). It's the absolute epitome of first world problems.

 

[CTV]

Resist the urge! Shawn was my favorite as a kid, this is the one I bought:

Shawn Michaels - WWE Elite Greatest Hits 2

Shawn Michaels - WWE Elite Greatest Hits 2 WWE Toy Wrestling Action Figure

www.ringsidecollectibles.com

For Punk, I got this one and used decals for the missing tattoos; I'll (probably) never need another one:

CM Punk (MITB 2011) - WWE Ultimate Edition Ringside Exclusive

CM Punk (MITB 2011) - WWE Ultimate Edition Ringside Exclusive WWE Toy Wrestling Action Figure

www.ringsidecollectibles.com

 

[Damien]

Resist the urge! Shawn was my favorite as a kid, this is the one I bought:

Shawn Michaels - WWE Elite Greatest Hits 2

Shawn Michaels - WWE Elite Greatest Hits 2 WWE Toy Wrestling Action Figure

www.ringsidecollectibles.com

For Punk, I got this one and used decals for the missing tattoos; I'll (probably) never need another one:

CM Punk (MITB 2011) - WWE Ultimate Edition Ringside Exclusive

CM Punk (MITB 2011) - WWE Ultimate Edition Ringside Exclusive WWE Toy Wrestling Action Figure

www.ringsidecollectibles.com

I had the original release of that Shawn. My poor wife went out of her mind trying to find the version with belly hair for me, because that was during the running change when they were finally putting the hair tampo on Shawn's lower torso but only like half of the figures they made were corrected. Weird thing to be worked up about, but it bugged me a lot for whatever reason.

Missing tattoos is another huge problem I have with wrestling figures. Especially someone like Punk where they're so large and in a very obvious place that it's hard to NOT see they're missing, and it drives me nuts.

 

[CTV]

I had the original release of that Shawn. My poor wife went out of her mind trying to find the version with belly hair for me, because that was during the running change when they were finally putting the hair tampo on Shawn's lower torso but only like half of the figures they made were corrected. Weird thing to be worked up about, but it bugged me a lot for whatever reason.

Missing tattoos is another huge problem I have with wrestling figures. Especially someone like Punk where they're so large and in a very obvious place that it's hard to NOT see they're missing, and it drives me nuts.

My OCD is the same with the tattoos, I tend to get them from here: https://curbstompcitydecals.ecwid.com/

Super easy to apply too. It took me years to get over that the figures don't have nipples; I used to use elmer's glue to add them to the JAKKS figures

https://flic.kr/p/2qPv9Ng

 

[Damien]

I almost forgot how hilariously bad Mattel's 'Ultimate' figures are. How can every other company figure out torso articulation and butterfly joints, but Mattel makes something that looks so incredibly.... fucking... weird. Also, that's a great example of the stuff that drives me a bit crazy with Mattel up there: in reality Cody Rhodes is taller than CM Punk. I really wish they handled scale and body types better. If they did - I really don't think I could resist collecting them again.

Back when I still collected wrestling figures, I was aware of a few places to get decals. I just.. didn't wanna? Especially because I used to take my figures down and play with them with my kids, so I really didn't want to add any details that would be easy to damage. Double-edged sword. Either make them look nicer on display but sacrifice playability with the kids, or maintain playability but they don't look as good on display.

Now that the kids are older and my youngest just doesn't even care about wrestling anymore, I could probably start collecting again and worry almost solely about how they look on the shelf. So decals are on the table more now, if I ever got back into collecting. Still trying to convince myself not to, though.

 

[CTV]

Mattel's relationship with scale is definitely...something. I don't have enough of them to say for sure but from what I've read elsewhere, the Ultimate line is typically out of scale with the rest of it. The Elite line Punks are probably in better scale, but then again, Mattel. I don't blame you for not getting back into it, especially with the economy and everything else going where they are.

 

[Damien]

What I need is a friend in the neighborhood that collects wrestling figures so I can just go play with them at their house and then not have to spend any money. Unless said friend charges me for it - like some kind of action figure amusement park? I mean.. did I just create an incredible business model?

 

[mrboshek]

Oh gawd, belly hair Shawn Michaels! That was actually a big deal back in the day. Here's an old picture I took of "Belly Hair" HBK giving the Sweet Chin Music to my imposter non belly hair HBKs after I found him at Walmart.

I'm on my third go around with Mattel. I keep coming back to wrestling, this time, I'm doing my best to collect more sensibly. I've had two major sell-offs and started up again during one of Ringside's holiday sales in '23.

 

[Damien]

I'm doing my best to collect more sensibly. I've had two major sell-offs and started up again during one of Ringside's holiday sales in '23.

I've tried to convince myself I can collect 'sensibly,' but I've yet to come up with a satisfactory explanation as to what that means for me. As detailed above, I just have such a hard time choosing and I can't imagine I'm going to be suddenly good at it. And even so, it bums me out that I sold my Brood Edge, or my Defining Moments Bret Hart. What's a fella to do.

Why on earth did you get four of the wrong Shawn? Was it just blindly buying them until you got the right one?

 

[mrboshek]

I've tried to convince myself I can collect 'sensibly,' but I've yet to come up with a satisfactory explanation as to what that means for me. As detailed above, I just have such a hard time choosing and I can't imagine I'm going to be suddenly good at it. And even so, it bums me out that I sold my Brood Edge, or my Defining Moments Bret Hart. What's a fella to do.

Why on earth did you get four of the wrong Shawn? Was it just blindly buying them until you got the right one?

That was during the peak of my crazy Mattel WWE collecting days. I can almost guarantee Kmart had a good sale and I bought a couple extra Shawns. I was picking up any kind of cheap extras for customizing. My laptop has a picture of, I believe, eleven versions of Kerry Von Erich! I would post it while at work, but it was stored online at Photobucket and they want $5 to "recover" my account! There really wasn't much toy competion for my dollars during the first five years or so after Mattel took over the license. I'd need to make harder choices back then if there were a 6" Joe line or if Marvel was pumping out 100+ figures a year

Selling off was both good and bad. Mattel has rereleased many figures with better face printing that looks so much better than the first version. I feel like I came out ahead there because most of my elite sales were break even or profit and then I bought a newer version later on. But there are some going for too high of a price for me to repurchase (Von Erich, Road Warriors). I need them to sign a deal with the WWE.

I'm sticking mostly to non-current men and most women wrestlers. I'll occassionally pick up current roster if I see a deal. I was an elite articulation completist during the early days. Now I need to at least enjoy your matches. If I fast forward when you're on TV, then I don't need your figure

Update: Eleven KVEs. I can't believe I didn't keep one. A good amount of reasonably legit ring gears could be made by switching kneepads and tassels.

 

[mrboshek]

I'm going to point this out this out in a purely, "Hey, look new tooling" manner. Naomi has a noticably larger butt. It's just good to see some different shaped parts added, like the recent narrower hipped mid section. In general Mattel does a decent job tooling new parts for the women that may never be used again probably because the men are mostly generic trunks and tights. That being said, Naomi's boot to shin connection leans toward the bad side and comes close to nearly ruining a good figure. Not as bad a recent RVD figure that I couldn't buy since I didn't have the spare parts to fix him.