#537 WWF - MACHO MAN & AX/SMASH HASBRO'S KNOCK-OFFs (1991)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

 

I have no idea where these figures came from. They are not marked at all, and their quality is quite low. However they are very nice reproductions of the original Hasbro figures, and this turns that piece of plastic in a rare collectable.

Probably they were imported from China in 1991, maybe for the first pound/dollar/euro shops (at the time, in Spain, 100-pesetas-shop), although the only one I owned was purchased at a street market.

These figures are made of a rather soft plastic, much softer than the average PVC figure. Of course the figure has no action move, but it is still articulated (with classic ball joints). The paintwork is bad, but in most cases respects the colours of the original Hasbro figure.

The pictures are taken together with the original Hasbro figure. Note that the bootleg is slightly shorter than the original one.

Most figures from wave 1 plus a few ones from wave 2 were reproduced. There are around 8 different figures made.

UPDATE (FEB/2017): I also have the Ax figure from this bootleg series. Or is it Smash? I would say the body and head parts are based on Smash, but the hands added are those of Hulk Hogan, so at first sight, it may look more similar to Ax than to Smash. I guess the company behind these figures made just a few casts. If they copied the arms of Hulk Hogan #1, it wouldn't had made any sense to copy also Ax's arms, since they are so similar.

I also removed China as a country of origin, because it may also be Spain...

UPDATE 1: (Nov/2020)

I got two more of these bootlegs. One of them is another Macho Man, this time with black boots instead of yellow) and another Demolition figure, which I will call Smash as it has arms with fists and although the face paint resembles more to Hasbro's Ax. The arms, by the way, are shared with Macho Man, just with the black bracelet painted.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MACHO MAN & AX/SMASH
• Toy Line: Knock-Off of Hasbro's Official WWF
• Year: 1991
• Company: Unknown
• Size of the figures: 11 cm