#310 HASBRO'S WWF – BUSCHWHACKERS and DEMOLITION (1991)

TAG TEAMS

The second wave of Hasbro’s WWF action figures came with some news. From this point on, Hasbro would offer two figure pacts for its most famous tag team wrestlers.

As we saw in the entries dealing with wave one, the figures of Ax and Smash were sold separately, although they belonged to the same team.

But what is the reason for this change? I can guess this decision was taken because of many factors.

The first reason could be, that this toy-line comprise only figures and a few rings. Since you normally only bought one ring through the entire collection, Hasbro though in two-figure packs to offer another product in another price category. This way, people willing to spend a bit more of money in toys for their children would have the chance to do it. You may argue, they could also buy 2 “single” wrestlers, but there was a risk that parents buy only one or one plus another figure from a competitor. The new tag team blister cards were quite exactly twice so expensive as the single carded wrestlers. Apart from this, it was the only way to get the figures, so children’s whose favourite wrestlers were the Bushwhackers (they were very funny), the Rockers (the good guys) or the Demolition (the bad guys) were forced to buy these double packs.

Another reason could be that when two figures are very similar, some parents have problems when buying them, and their children got one figure twice.

During wave 3 there were also 2 tag teams available in “double packs”, but since wave 4 to the cancellation of the toy-line not a single double pack more was released. Some of the figures were parts of those tag teams, but they were released separately. For example, the Steiner Brothers (series 9), the Headshrinkers or the Bushwhackers version 2 (series 10) or the Gunn Brothers (series 11) were sold in single cards rather than in double packs.

Other wrestlers that teamed up sometime were Koko B Ware (series 3) and Owen Hart (series 7). Their figures were released with their “High Energy” clothes, but not the same time, so for obvious reasons, they were sold separately.

BUSHWHACKERS:

Let’s start with the pictures of the Bushwhackers, Luke and Butch. These figures are among the cheapest and easiest to find in the entire collection. According to the backcard. Butch is the figure with the stomp action feature (Down and Out Blaster) and Luke is the other one. The action feature of the second figure (Down Under Pounder) is quite mysterious, I always thought it was the movement these wrestlers always did when marching to the ring, but it is actually something else. It is not the best move, and to my knowledge it was never reused in another figure, except Luke v2 (series 10).

In this first version of the Bushwhackers, Butch and Luke carry grey and black camouflage trousers, while in the second version, they came with brown “camo” trousers. This second version will be shown some other time in this blog.

DEMOLITION:

The demolition tag team was released in both the first and second wave. The figures in the first wave were Ax and Smash, but since Ax left the team in between, it was replaced by Crush in the second wave of toy figures. Smash figure, however is identical to the one released in wave 1.

The most interesting thing about this tag team, is that it was sold with two helmet accessories. These are today very hard to find, and increase the value of the figures radically. I have included pictures of the helmets from every angle, in case you don’t have them yet. Although I cannot remember the blister card with the helmets in toy shops, it seems that there is no version without them.

As a Bonus, I include here the original filecard in English, and part of the blister card.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BUSHWHACKERS (BUTCH and LUKE) and DEMOLITION (CRUSH and SMASH)
• Toy Line: Official WWF (Wave 2)
• Year: 1991
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 12 cm or 4,5’’