#905 HASBROMANIACS GUIDE TO WWF HASBROS (HASBROMANIACS.COM)

I just received this Hasbro´s Official WWF guide and checklist. This publication has been prepared and done in the last 12 months by Hasbromaniacs, the biggest Facebook community devoted to wrestling toys and figures.

The guide covers all action figures produced by Hasbro between 1990 and 1994, ordered in their 11 waves, plus the mail-aways, the rings, a complete checklist and a couple of pages more dealing with promotional shots Hasbro did for catalogues or promotional purposes, some of them depicting figures whose final version varied in some way from the prototype displayed, or were never mass produced. 

Each wave has one or two dedicated pages in which the figures are displayed "loose" but smaller pictures of the carded figures are also available. In the case of the rings, there is a comparison of all variants, and there are also a comparative picture between all Undertakers.

The quality of the paper and the printing are excellent, only with some resolution flaws in the pictures of the catalogues -which are very rare to find-.

There is very few text -in English- in the 24 pages of the guide. It is not a book, but a collectors' catalogue, so it is suitable also for people who do not undestand English.

Hasbromaniacs.com is also an online shop that offers other articles which we could classify in two categories: custom and paper accessories. In the customs category, we see customized figures, as well as several types of champion belts and the neon entry diorama. Among the paper items we see posters, repro stickers (for example for the different types of ring), this guide or even custom cards to figures Hasbro never released.

Apart from the guide, I also have the back-card poster and a WWF logo print in A4 size, which is given away with every guide as a present. The poster is also quite cool and looks perfect near or behind your figure display. It is not very big, approximately has A3 size, while the print is exactly A4 size and has stunning printing quality. The shop is based in Germany, but can ship most of their articles for a very cheap rate: 5 US$ or 3,90 Euro worldwide. Please take a look at what they offer, there are very cool things in there!

A video of the guide can be seen in the Facebook group under this link. Please do not miss this video!! (No Facebook account or login required).
https://www.facebook.com/hasbromaniacs/videos/2085518478363632/

#899 WWF – DEMOLITION MINI FIGURE (Around 1991)

Since April was “traditionally” a month in which I only showed bootleg and knock-off toys, I will continue doing so in this entry and the next one.

This figure is extremely rare. I am quite certain is one of those little toys sold inside plastic balls in vending machines on streets. For 1 Euro (or 100 pesetas at the time), you get one surprise toy.

Those toys are mostly crap, but since recently I have been observing how big the attraction that these machines have over children is. The slot-machines are kind of mesmerizing to children, and I guess I was no exception when I was younger. I recall looking from below to check if I could see which ball would come next.

I think I found this figure in Spain. It is made of plastic (it is made of some soft PVC, without points of articulation), and could represent any Demolition member, that is, Ax, Smash or Crush. Since the face is so poorly detailed, I don’t dare saying it is one or the other.

As you can see, also the cast, thepaintwork and the finishing are poor, but despite all these negative aspects, it is a great collectable item, that very few people have (or may have). I wonder if it was already a China import or if it was finished somewhere in Spain, what would make it even more interesting.

I cannot say anything else about it. Manufacturer? Year? Country of origin? Anybody?

For the purpose of this entry, I photographed it together with a Hasbro figure and it’s “bigger size” knock-off figure presented in entry #537.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DEMOLITION MINI FIGURE
• Toy Line: Unknown
• Year: Around 1991
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer
• Size of the figures: 5-6 cm

#848 TOYS FROM THE PAST - MUSEUM (XI)

See more of these entries here: http://toysfromthepast.blogspot.com/search/label/TFTP

See you next month!

Important notice: The items on display are NOT for sale.

#847 TOYS FROM THE PAST - MUSEUM (X)

See more of these entries here: http://toysfromthepast.blogspot.com/search/label/TFTP

See you next month!

Important notice: The items on display are NOT for sale.

#802 INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP (IWC) GIANT FIGURE - HULK HOGAN (Around 1991)

This is a toy which I think should attract much interest, since there are many great wrestling collectors worldwide who probably have never seen this interesting knock-off of the famous Hasbro figure from 1990, only supersized.

This figure is probably inspired by the 12 inches (talking) figures by Hasbro, released also in 1990 but in another pose. I have taken the picture above for comparison purposes, in which the small figure is the original Hasbro figure from the regular line (series 1).

The plastic from which it is made is the same in which most dolls are made, some kind of slightly flexible and hollow plastic. it has articulations in head, waist, shoulders, groins (legs) but also half in the arms and half in the legs. Also note that the T-shirt is plain yellow, without text.

The cast is very similar to the one used for the small figure, very similar details, identic pose, I would say it has been bootlegged/copied.

The figure is completely unmarked, but I found out that the toyline under it was sold is IWC (International Wrestling Championship), not to be confused with International Wrestling Champions by Mannix. Nothing is known about the manufacturer, maybe they were hiding themselves from possible lawsuits and demands from the WWF.

Interestingly, there were a few figures made, all quite similar, and I could find some boxed examples on the internet. Despite it’s rarity, they are not very expensive, so I guess they are either not very well known or not interesting due to its size. This brand also had mini-wrestlers, which are also quite rare to see.

The following pictures were found on eBay. Note that the masked wrestler is made up using the same cast of Hulk Hogan except for the head.

UPDATE1 (Nov/2019): I got a wrestling belt in a mixed lot that looks very similar to the ones by Galoog in the WCW line. It seems NOT to belong to this line (does not appear in the pictures above), anybody knows?

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: HULK HOGAN
• Toy Line: IWC Wrestrling
• Year: Around 1991
• Company: Unknown toymaker (China)
• Size of the figures: Approx. 30 cm.

#791 HASBRO'S WWF - RICK STEINER, SCOTT STEINER and DOINK THE CLOWN (1994)

 

Unfortunately, I cannot remember watching any of these wrestlers in action, as I have commented several times, by the time they were famous characters in the WWF universe, the show had been cancelled in Spanish TV, so I cannot bring my personal opinion or memories this time.
 

Rick Steiner (Robert Rechsteiner): Rick Steiner is one of my favorite figures from these later years, I like the colouful outfit and the strange beard/moustache that no other Hasbro figure has. The action feature was overused, and thus, less impressive, but still fits well and is always working, so it is a sturdy figure.

Scott Steiner (Scott Carl Rechsteiner): Scott was really the brother of Rick Steiner, but unlikely, the figure is one of the ones I like less. The wrestler is quite generic, the haircut is common to many other wrestling stars, has no distinctive mark or outfit and the action feature is even more boring than the one used for in Rick Steiner. I think this opinion is shared by people in general, based in my experiences from my toy shop.

Doink the Clown (Matt Osborne and others): What a great idea for a character, although probably influenced by Batman´s Joker, the idea of a not-funny clown is in my opinion a good one. He played always the bad guy, but still his outfit, make-up and green wig are truly remarkable. The figure is one of my all-time favorites, being the only one that came with "hair" and a cool pose of the left hand, that should remind you of the jokes and tricks he used to fool his opponents. The action feature is the boring up-down punch, but all the other features makes the figure one of a kind in the Hasbro toyline.

Since wave 11 has already been published completely in different articles (see #53, #265 and #375), the next series of articles dealing with Hasbro´s Official WWF will present the tenth (and last in this blog) of the ordinary series, but I still have a couple of surprises up my sleeve that wrestling fans will really enjoy, so there is still some way to go with this great toyline.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: RICK STEINER, SCOTT STEINER and DOINK THE CLOWN
• Toy Line: Official WWF (Wave 9)
• Year: 1994
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 12 cm

#790 HASBRO'S WWF - HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN #2 and MILLION DOLLAR MAN #3 (1994)

 

The purple series, or series 9 was sold starting in 1994, and, like the later series, was short and kind of "updating" the list of famous wrestlers of the day. I think series 9 sold together with previous and later series, because of its relative short time in the market. Some figures would simply not be manufactured anymore, so a new batch of around 5 figures were added every half a year or so.

The series brough 5 new figures plus the re-issue of Tatanka that had been available in series 6 (see entry #608). Some wrestlers somehow had a second period of great fame, so it was necessary to re-release their figures in order to provide children the chance to play with them in case they didn´t buy it the first time. For wrestlers who were popular during long periods of time, there were several versions (that we call #2, #3 and so on) made, and these were not simple re-releases, but figures based in new designs or at least, new repaints of the old figures. This was not the case of Tatanka, but the other two figures I want to talk about today.

The first one is the #2 Hacksaw Jim Duggan (James Edward "Jim" Duggan Jr.) that came this time in a blue outfit (swimsuit-style) with the American stars and stripes on its back and knee-pads. Unlike #1, that had the 2x4 (two times four) wood bar as an accesory, this figure came with an American flag. In my opinion, Hasbro should have included the 2x4 too. No matter what, the flag is also nice, and what most people don´t know is that the accesory was previously available with another Hasbro product: the Gung-Ho v3 and v4 figures of the G.I.Joe: ARAH toyline, released in 1992 and 1993 respectively. The flag part of the accesory is identical, but the mast is different. In the WWF case, the mast as a round section, that fits the drilled hand of Jim Duggan (this drill was not in #1, see entry #202) and the G.I.Joe accesory´s mast had a more oval section, that fits better in the small G.I.Joe figure´s hands.

The second and last figure today is the third figure of Ted DiBiase or The Million Dollar Man, this time whithout his famous Tuxedo. Compared with the previous two, this figures looks bigger, and more menacing than the previous two, that were kind of small. Although I admit that this figure is more boring, and less remarkable, it has a more appropriate scale, since Ted DiBiase was quite a big man. The figure without accesories (again an error from Hasbro, who should have included a dollar belt) and with the straight punch feature, that is a nice one and had not been used too much in the previous figures.

 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN #2 and MILLION DOLLAR MAN #3
• Toy Line: Official WWF (Wave 9)
• Year: 1994
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 12 cm

#750 AMIGO - WWF QUARTETTS Nr. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 (1992 and 1993)

I am fascinated with these card sets by Amigo released in 1992 and 1993. Amigo is one of the greatest German card and board game makers. It is surely among the top 5, and because wrestling was hugely popular in that country by the early 90s, Amigo released 8 WWF quartetts with the corresponding license of the copyright owner.

I am not sure how this all started, by I think the first 4 came all at once into the toyshops in 1992, while the other 4 came one year later, a sign that the first four were selling very good. There are at least two editions of each of the 4 first sets, as you can see above, so, at least the first 4 were reissued at some point. Note that some boxes have a signature on the cover, other not (the ones without the signature are reissues), and some cards have in the back of each card a wrestler and text or only text. The example above even has a different cove picture (Papa Shango instead of the Ultimate Warrior).

The numbers 5, 6, 7 and 8 are much more difficult to find. I have number 6 only. I´ll buy the other 3 as soon as I find them.

Each set contains 32 cards, plus two instruction cards and three promotional cards (wrestling publications, other Amigo games, and wrestling videogames). Those promotional cards, are very difficult to find, if you are a die-hard "completist". The 32 cards build 8 families, with 4 members each, but in this set, the "family members" are not related in any way... One card shows one wrestler or one tag team, and the next card another wrestler. You can play the classic game with the families or using the back of the card you can play a sort of paper-scissors-rock game with one action on the back of each card. Here “Press” wins “Pin”, “Pin” wins “Body Slam” and “Drop Kick”, an so on…

The game complexity or fun is, in my case at least, unimportant. I just like looking at the great pictures showing wrestlers in action. The pictures are amazing, official promo pictures taken by the WWF themselves. All 32 wrestlers or teams are really well known, and there are no repetitions. The problem is that in the next quartett, you find the same 32 characters, but, fortunately, different pictures. If you collect all four sets, you could have 128 pictures of very famous wrestlers, and 256 pictures with all 8 card sets. In the second set, however, there are a few new wrestlers that were not present in the first 4 sets.

SET 1:

SET 2:

SET 3:

SET 4:

SET 6:

UPDATE1 (JAN/2017): I found set number 8, unfortunately without the promo cards, and with the box a bit beaten, but otherwise great condition!

UPDATE2 (Nov/2019): Here's Set Nr. 7! Also without the promo cards and with some use marks on the box. Now let's go for Nr. 5!

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: WWF QUARTETTS Nr. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8
• Year: 1992 and 1993
• Company: Amigo Spiele (Germany)