#493 HASBRO’S WWF – BRET “HITMAN” HART, BRITISH BULLDOG, RICKY “THE DRAGON” STEAMBOAT and UNDERTAKER (1992)

The fourth wave is not such a wave as we would understand it, or as we usually imagine it… it was more an update of wave 3, since 4 new figures simply replaced a couple of old ones.

Wave 4 consisted of all figures in wave 3, except:

• Brutus Beefcake #2
• Macho Man #3

Which were replaced by:

• Bret "Hitman" Hart
• British Bulldog
• Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat
• Undertaker

The new figures were (as usual) popular fighters at the time. Interestingly, they are all first versions, or first appearances in the Hasbro toyline, and two of them are real legendary wrestlers:

The Undertaker (Mark William Calaway) is one of those legends, the fighter is still active after 25 years, putting their opponents in corpse bags once they’re defeated. It was really impressive to see him fighting because of his height and his look. In addition to that, he was always accompanied by Paul Bearer, who was also a quite dark character. His fights are among the most renowned ever.

The figure is also very nice, including his hat, his typical full body outfit and gloves. It performs the quite common punch/sweep waist turn move.

Bret “the Hitman” Hart is the second legendary wrestler I mentioned above. He fought  also very long, but is now retired. Most die-hard wrestling fans consider him as one of the best fighters ever.
The figure has the twist-punch action and is especially fragile, since both the black t-shirt and the boots are painted, so the paint loss is most probable than in other figures. The pink heart in the vest is also quite fragile and tends to disappear after playing with the figure regularly. The normal version has a pink heart, but there is a variant with a purple heart, that is quite rare (it was a factory error, the later mail-away version would also have a purple heart).

The other two figures were popular fighters at the time but later were for some reason forgotten.
Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat (Richard Henry Blood) had an amazing ring entry spitting fire, and a nice fighting technique with many jumps and acrobatic moves. His outfit was also quite nice, that’s why the figure came with detachable “wings”, and a very colourful trousers and some kind of harness. Its action feature is the classic “jump”.

And finally the last figure is the British Bulldog (David "Davey" Boy Smith), who was expelled from the WWF around 1994 for taking some forbidden hormones. He was a fighter who represented Great Britain, that’s why he usually came with a king’s cloak and brought some small bulldogs with him, which are two symbols that the Americans usually connect to Great Britain.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: BRET “HITMAN” HART, BRITISH BULLDOG; RICKY “THE DRAGON” STEAMBOAT and UNDERTAKER
• Toy Line: Official WWF (Wave 4)
• Year: 1992
• Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 12 cm