#680 HASBRO´S WWF - OWEN HART, RAZOR RAMON v1 and SHAWN MICHAELS v2 (1993)

SERIES 7 "YELLOW SERIES" (II)

This is the continuation of the previous entry. There are three more figure to comment.

Owen Hart is a wrestler, that surprisingly, I do not remember at all, Maybe at the time I watched wrestling on the Spanish TV, he was not yet well known. In any case, he was the brother of Bret Hart and it is sadly famous for having had an accident during a show that costed his life. I think he was quite good, and fought with the greatest. He was part of the Hart Foundation team (together with his brother), the New Foundation (with Jim Neidhart) and High Energy (with Koko B. Ware). The figure is represented with the Hart Foundation clothes (note the boots), but these clothes were also used for the High Energy Tag Team. The action feature is nice, but overused in the Hasbro series.

Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) is another "villain" that used to fight using illegal tricks and without any sport spirit or moral considerations. He looks a little bit like a street gang criminal. The figure is great and includes a gold necklace. Accesories are always welcome. The figure comes with a red vest that makes the figure recognisable over the others. The action feature is ok, but it is so common, that it is actually a bit boring.

Shawn Michaels in his white outfit from his solo career, also known as "The Heartbreak Kid" (HBK). At the time he had an argument and a fight with his ex-team mate Jannetty and became a villain. While at "the Rockers" he was the good guy. The figure is a bit boring, with the both arms down feature.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: CRUSH v2, KAMALA and NAILZ
• Toy Line: Official WWF
• Year: 1993
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 8 cm long

#679 HASBRO´S WWF - CRUSH v2, KAMALA and NAILZ (1993)

SERIES 7 "YELLOW SERIES"

 
The yellow series was the first one in which Hasbro changed the base colour of the backcard. In this case it is yellow, unlike all the previous waves, which had light blue background, and so, is this series also known as the "yellow series". It is a more graphic way to identify the figures that belong to a same wave.

There are 6 figures that we are going to comment for this wave. Three in this entry and three more in the next entry. The figures are:

• Crush v2
• Kamala
• Nailz
• Owen Hart
• Razor Ramon
• Shawn Michaels v2

The figure of Shawn Michaels was changed in the last moment, and in some catalogues there is a rare variant that has never been spotted yet (a real figure, I mean), and that features the Jake Snake Roberts punch. The prototype is painted with the same scheme as the figure we will see in the next entry.

Crush (Brian Adams) or Kona Crush is the same fighter that was part of the Demolition Tag Team, and was released in series 2 carded with Smash. Unfortunately, I cannot remember seeing him in action, but I think he played one the characters that the audience usually dislikes. The figure has a (in my opinion) quite boring action feature, but at least is nicely casted has has some distinctive colours.

Kamala (James "Jim" Harris), the Ugandan wrestler can be defined as exotic. The fights in which he participated were always fun, with unexpected twists and also quite spectacular. The figure is also very appealing and colourful. The jumping feature is one of my favorite ones and also one of the best ones in terms of "playability". The figure has a star on its belly, but there should be another version with a moon on the same position. This version should be ultra-rare, with only a few units ever made, but many figures have been customized and even repackaged with the moon. Personally I am sceptical about this kind of things. It looks a little bit like the Pimp Daddy Destro story, if you know what I mean.

Nailz (Kevin Wacholz) is also a very peculiar character. I love the concept and also the figure. I think this character was specially created to fight Big Boss Man in an epic match, but the WWF didn´t have the time to use it more, because Wacholz and Vince McMahon had some dispute and Wacholz was released from the WWF after only a few months in 1992. The story is quite dark, Wacholz claims he was given steroids. The figure is great, with the orange suit and the punch feature is not bad. One of my favorite figures.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: CRUSH v2, KAMALA and NAILZ
• Toy Line: Official WWF
• Year: 1993
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 8 cm long

#678 GUISVAL - SEAT 131 (1976, 1977 and 1980)

I have commented it in previous entries, but I repeat it now. The Seat 131 is one of my favorite cars of all times, because it is a car we had in our family until 1993 or so. I have it several times in different scale by different manufacturers. Today, I am showing the Guisval models.

The car debuted in 1976 with two versions: a very rare "Fire Chief" one (nr. 27) and the more ordinary one in brown (nr. 32). Although the catalogue images look all the same, I show two different shades of brown, probably the colour was not even through the different batches that were built back in the 70s.

 

One year later, the "Fire Chief" version was removed and new white version "Police" was introduced (nr. 44). In 1980, the brown version would be replaced by a silver grey version (but kept the same nr. 32), and in 1981, this was the only version available. After that, the car disappears from the catalogues, but it is still available in blue with or without rally stickers.

1976
Nr. 27 - Jefe de Bomberos (red with white doors)
Nr. 32 - brown

1977, 1978, 1979
Nr. 32 - brown
Nr. 44 - White "Policia"

1980
Nr. 32 - Grey
Nr. 44 - White "Policia"

1981, 1982
Nr. 32 - Grey

1984 on:
Also available in blue.

In later years (up to the late 90s), the cast was reused and sold with rally stickers. This more modern models can be identified by its 4 spoke wheels or the 8 points inside a circle hubcap type. These have plastic base and are made with a worse quality. I also have some of these, I can show them maybe next time.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SEAT 131
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: 1976, 1977 and 1980
• Company: Guisval (Spain)
• Size: 8 cm

#677 PIATNIK - 200 Km/h CLUB (Nr. 4220) (1973 and 1981)

These are two sets made by Piatnik with the same name and reference. The older one seems to be from around 1973 and the more modern one from 1981. Each year, Piatnik (and other manufacturers) changed each year a few cards to keep the deck modern. There are 24 different cards from one set to the other and 8 years between them, that makes an average of 4 cards/year.

In this case, the topic is "200 Km/h", that is a mixture of race cars, rally cars and also commercial models mixed up together, all of them reaching more than 200 kilometers per hour. The "landscape" format used by Piatnik allows larger photos.

 

1973 Version

 

 

1981 Version 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: 200 Km/h CLUB (Nr. 4220)
• Year: 1973 and 1981
• Company: Piatnik (Austria)

#676 SCALEXTRIC - SIGMA (Ref. 4047) (1973)

One of the first models I had in my collection, belonged actually to my father or my uncle, and survived several years until I got it in 1990 together with the white Porsche Carrera shown in a previous entry. Other cars, like some old Mercedes didn´t.

The Sigma model was designed by Pininfarina in 1969 over the chassis of a Ferrari 312 V12 (a F1 model). It incorporated several security features. It never raced, because it was not intended to do that, but due to its futuristic design it became very popular in publications or as a toy.

Scalextric´s Sigma was not very accurate. The spoiler it is too high and the car it a bit narrower as the original, but still very impressive. It was available in three colours: yellow, orange and white. I only have the yellow one, twice. The original one described above, and another one boxed I got later. The first I got had no mirrors, so I had to buy repro ones, but the second is was complete.

A typical problem in this car is that the spikes ot the spoiler are very often broken. In the model in the picture these two spikes are broken (see picture above, right). The exhaust pipes are also fragile, since they stand above the body of the car

The car was very interesting for competition because it is very low and very stable in the curves and has long axles, so it is already very fast, doesn´t need much changes to be a winner.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: SIGMA (Ref. 4047)
• Scale: 1:32
• Year: 1973
• Company: Scalextric Exin (Spain)
• Size: approx. 14 cm