Transformers Alternators

Review by Loc

When you’re a kid, toys are there to strike your imagination. You create storylines, you manufacture environments, and you immerse yourself into the play-world of your design. Doesn’t matter if you’re talking about little green army men, fashion plate Barbies, eye-and-mouth-sporting potatoes, the toys of yore contributed to socialization skills and brain-exercising imagination. Then we grow up and put those toys away. We move onto things like clothes, purses, cars, all the materialistic crap you can imagine. Sometimes, your nostalgia pangs kick in and you hit Ebay for all the toys you threw out. And if you’re like me, you just buy the new stuff from the companies that are cashing-in on your nostalgic weak knees.

One company that is just printing money with nostalgia lines: GI Joe, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, is there any young-and-or-young-at-heart male license that they don’t own? For many of these lines, there’s a mixture of kid-focus and adult-collector sub-brands. And with the Transformers, there’s no doubt that kids are a big, big focus of their marketing dollars. The newest animated line is based off the Cartoon Network series and the movie line was a plethora of Michael Bay inspired insect looking bots.

However, the Alternators line was squarely aimed at the adult collector. These were highly articulated, highly detailed recreations of officially licensed cars. What? Huh? Officially licensed? That’s right, before we knew what the cars were supposed to be, but now, we get officially licensed Subaru Imprezzas, Chevrolet Corvettes, Ford Mustangs, and Jeep Wranglers. These “toys” are based on a 1:24 scale, which is what you find with so many high-end, die-cast car models you find on executive desks and glass display cases. And they’re awesome.

Starting with their vehicle modes, Alternators draws from a wide range of manufacturers. Aside from the aforementioned models, other licensed cars include the Toyota Scion b, the Dodge Viper, the Mazda RX-8, the Acura RSX, the Honda S2000, the Jaguar XK, the Honda Civic Si, and even the Dodge Ram SRT-10. Each of these cars is authentically replicated with accurate body types, logos and branding, and even detailed interiors. As model cars alone, these are great display pieces.

Then you get to the robot part, and these guys kick up the amp to 11. Transformations are complex but not overly difficult. The resulting robot is an amazing piece of engineering with copious amounts of articulation to allow dynamic and engaging poses. Moreover, the transformations utilized the existing car designs extremely well, integrating details like folding seats, pivoting tire axels, and opening trunks to offer further intricacies for the robot mode. Almost every robot utilized a transforming engine block to become a high-powered weapon. These are great robots in their own right as well.

As a kid, you tend to overlook things like details or poseability. Then as a grown-up, you realize the transforming car you had looked like a gigantic block of plastic when properly transformed. The collector community even coined the term “kibble” to describe the gross amounts of non-integrated vehicle details in a fully transformed robot. Oftentimes, a Transformer would look great as a robot from the front, but the back was full of kibble like hoods, doors, and tires that looked horrible. With Alternators, this practice is not only addressed, but all efforts are made to remove evidence of kibble. Again, the engineering on these toy designs are amazing.

Alas, the greatest disservice done to this line was its untimely cancellation. With the big-budget movie fast approaching, Hasbro halted development on these toys to focus squarely on the movie line. And while the movie toys proved to be a commercial success, collectors were left with little more than a bittersweet taste in their mouths. For a split second, they saw the potential realized in a Transformer line that serviced their appetites, only to have it taken away in favor of insectoid monstrosities from the movie. The final pieces produced were interesting additions based off the small cassette warriors Rumble and Ravage. The Jaguar XK transformed into a four-legged panther for Ravage, which didn’t look that great to be honest. The Civic Si became a double-pile-driving Rumble, a nod to his cartoon counterpart who had piledrivers for arms. One can only imagine how the Cadillac-based Megatron would have turned out, but we’ll never know.

In a traditional sense, Hasbro shared the development and marketing with the Japanese-based Takara company. In Japan, these were released as Binaltech and actually included a large degree of die-cast metal parts, again a nod to the original line of Transformers.

You can find these on Ebay, some pieces fetching a whole lot of money. The last two characters were tough to track down at retail and command a pretty penny. Other popular characters like Prowl or Meister, known as Jazz to American fans, fetch a large sum of money. Also, popular cars that didn’t last long on the shelves are tough to win, things like the Ford GT Mirage are very expensive. However, you can find some of the other pieces for little more than their $20 retail price. Japanese pieces will be more expensive, partly cause of their die-cast cost, partly because of the rarity in the US market. But if you want a sweet looking car to adorn your desk, or a cool-ass robot in your display case, or both, track a couple of these down and enjoy. You won’t be disappointed, except for the fact that you won’t be getting any new additions to the line any time soon.

SOTA Street Fighter

Review by Loc

I remember walking into the Regency Game Palace and seeing a slew of people gathered around a new machine. This was the closest thing we had to a local arcade, and it was actually pretty nice. Anyways, the new machine had all manner of teenager crowded around, watching the video screen where two unique combatants battled. With a variety of superhuman attacks, the colorful characters beat each other to submission, the fight ending when one fighter’s energy meter was drained. The winning player stayed on the game, while the next challenger deposited his quarter, chose from a half dozen characters, and began a new round of fighting.

This was how Street Fighter II took the gaming world by storm. The idea to offer a roster of “world warriors” wasn’t necessarily new, but SF II did it well. Characters were unique in appearance and in gameplay. Fighting styles and body types led to different strategies and tactics. Most importantly, special moves required some skill to perform, but were available at any time and for every player. All these factors brought out a unique strategy component in a fighting genre that usually required nothing more than button-mashing. In fact, SF II introduced a joystick-and-six-button configuration that brought out more complexity and dexterity than all other games at the time.

But this isn’t a history of video games article, this is a review of SOTA’s Street Fighter line of action figures. Over the years, Street Fighter has spawned multiple video game sequels and this has introduced more and more characters to the universe. As you can imagine, this wealth of source material has led to many toy incarnations. There was even a GI Joe: Street Fighter sub-brand that tried to capitalize on these world warriors. However, until SOTA’s line, nothing captured the characters in colored plastic all that well.

With the success of the Toy Biz Marvel Legends line, companies realized that collector-driven lines had come en vogue. The six-inch scale with high levels of articulation excited fans and collectors, and SOTA noticed. The company scooped up the Street Fighter license and decided to create a line of figures completely in-scale with the Marvel Legends. Not only that, it went out of its way to cater to the quality standards of the Marvel Legends line, committing itself to create highly articulated figures with beautiful sculpts and collector-standard packaging. It was a labor of love that served both Street Fighter fans and action figure enthusiasts to no end.

Starting with the sculpting, the Street Fighter figures were great representations of their pixel-based counterparts. From Ryu’s white gi to Sagat’s towering proportions and battle-scarred chest to Bison’s hulking mass and sadistic grin, this sculpts were amazing. Some have complained that the characters were based too much on animated or comic representations, instead of the actual in-game graphics. I say these look bad-ass and capture the essential essence of each character.

In addition, most characters came with a bevy of accessories. In today’s rough market, companies continue to skim on the extras and offer the bare minimum. Back in the day of the collector market, companies like SOTA tried to offer the highest value to their consumers. As a result, we got alternate heads, extra hands in various action poses, energy projectile attachments, and random tidbits to fully round out the character. For example, Guile would have been a fine display piece as a standard figure. The fact that he comes with an additional thumbs-up hand, a hand-comb hand, and a chopping hand allows you to recreate almost any fighting scene from the game. He even comes with a screaming face and two blue projectiles that attach to his fisted hands, recreating the fury of the Sonic Boom move at any time. It’s this attention to detail and willingness to cater to the target audience that makes this line exceptional.

To capitalize on the color variations in the game, SOTA released numerous character variants. Some were simple color swaps, like a white gi for Ken instead of his traditional red. Others included nuanced changes, like the “green” Vega also included a different alternate head that referenced his appearance in the SF Animated movie. Others still were character variants, like Evil Ryu with black gi and red eyes. In all, these paint application chases offered SOTA a way to recoup costs on original sculpts while offering more variety to fans who never dreamt of getting something like a “translucent” electricity Blanka.

The actual toy quality is something to note as well. These are heavy pieces with a lot of raw material put into them. For a smaller company like SOTA, where resources are limited, the high quality product was a conscious choice to appeal to the collector.

Another great quality exhibited was its role as the fans’ company. Character selection for each series of figures was a balanced business decision that utilized the fans. For example, online polls were distributed to allow fans to voice their preferences on character selection. There were times when entire series were chosen by fans. In the same way, SOTA worked to get the most popular characters into the hands of the fans, sticking to its idea of delivering at least one “headliner” figure per series.

Early plans even had ideas like “accessory packs”, where you would be able to purchase a whole slew of energy accessories or alternate heads and hands, to be available online. Or having special figures available online that wouldn’t normally warrant mass production, but fans still salivated for: Bison’s Twelve Dolls, or Hugo and Poison 2-packs. These never came to light, but they were heavily considered strictly at the request of fans.

The sad fate of these toys has little to do with the toys, and all to do with the distribution. Early on, SOTA had delay issues with getting product into the fans’ hands. However, each series eventually hit shelves, delivering four series of characters. Yet, those early delays would be welcome today in light of the current state of SOTA. Nearly two years ago, founder Jerry Macaluso sold his stake in SOTA to pursue his interest in films. This could be compared to Steve Jobs’s initial departure from Apple as Macaluso was the creative force behind the line.

Since that time, SOTA has spoken of revamping the Street Fighter line. Maintaining the quality and style, but repackaging the toys is the idea, but only three “Preview” figures have hit the shelves in nearly three years. A new “Revolution” series is supposed to hit stores soon, delivering the final three characters of the original 12 found in Street Fighter II. For fans, completing the set of 12 would be a great way to continue supporting the brand, but the initial excitement and enthusiasm for the line have subsided.

Will the Street Fighter line find new life and new fans in its Revolution line? Time will tell, but signs seem to point to a slow and drawn-out death to this once-promising toy line. It’s a shame, too, because there hasn’t been many offerings that catered so faithfully to the fans.

You can find the older series, featuring Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, and the gang, online for pretty cheap. Be careful as the earliest series also saw a huge influx of knock-offs saturate the market. One of the biggest blows to SOTA was their dealings with foreign factories. After a falling out, the factory kept the original molds and produced more toys without SOTA’s consent. These knock-offs look very good, but helped kill off genuine hype for the line. And as stated above, a new series featuring Honda, Dhalsim, and Zangief are slated to hit shores any time now. With all things in life, the majesty of the SOTA Street Fighter line seems to be coming to an end. But in its prime, the line was a spectacle to behold.

Marvel Figure Factory

Review by Loc

Figure what? Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Marvel Figure Factory. Ok, let me take count, that’s one…two…four…alright, grand total of none. Yes, like the tagline says, toys you’ve never heard of. Wait, that’s not the tagline? Whatever, today we’re showcasing a little known line of evten smaller proportions. Marvel Figure Factory hit the aisles several years ago, got through maybe two waves of releases, and packed up shop. There wasn’t a whole lot of consumer support, probably because these three-inch mini-model kits cost you around $6. Spending $2 an inch is not a good proposition, at least not in this context. Snicker snicker.

OK, so what’s Marvel Figure Factory? These sets were packaged in miniature wooden-replica crates. In pieces. You popped them open, ripped the plastic baggy apart, and you were left with a mash of brightly colored pieces of plastic. Now, it took the dexterity of a four year old, but you had to assemble the character and its base to create a beautiful mini-statue. In essence, this was a model kit that required no painting or gluing, or it was a puzzle that required no pictures. Whatever the case, they were alight by me.

Figure selection ran the gamut of marvel luminaries: Spiderman, the Hulk, Iron-Man, the Thing. In addition, more popular characters at the time made their way into the line. For example, the vampire-hunting Blade came in little pieces for your enjoyment, mostly due to his higher profile from the cinematic masterpieces he starred in.

One of the cool things about this line was the packaging. For the majority of each wave, you could see exactly which character you were buying and what pose they came in. However, some pieces were also delivered in “blind” packages, replacing character pictures with large question marks. In essence, you were playing a little game of chance, sorta like buying an unopened pack of baseball cards. Luckily, the majority of these mystery figures were also very cool characters or sweet poses. You might end up with guys like Thor or Captain America. One slightly crappy thing was the mystery figures also included repaints of the regular series. So you might end up with the Gray Hulk instead of the Green one, or an unmasked Wolverine instead of the cowl-clad slasher.

Honestly, these were cool little pieces but not worth the price. I only own a handful of them because one of the online outlets blew these out at $1 a piece. For that price, I happily gobbled these up. For $5 or $6, I can see why they didn’t last too long. You can grab loose pieces in online auctions for around a buck. Packaged ones might run you $4. Hell, you can buy my whole collection if you want. That’s all I have to say about that.

GI Joe: 25th Anniversary

Review by Loc

If there’s one toy line that dominated by childhood affections, it was GI Joe: A Real American Hero. These 3 and ¾ inch military marvels captured my imagination like no other. I still remember the first introduction into the line: my brother brought home four figures and a battle-pack vehicle. Gung-Ho, Torpedo, Destro, and the Cobra Trooper were destined to battle one another for weeks, and the S.N.A.K.E armor was the bad guys’ secret weapon. The following years saw countless trips to Toys R Us deliver more carded goodness, from Snake-Eyes to Storm Shadow, and big-ass vehicles like the Skystriker jet plane or the Tomahawk helicopter. Those were fine days.

As kids grew up, the line faded. Every so often, Hasbro would try to resurrect the brand, first with brand new characters, later with reissue anniversary packs. They even tried reinventing the line several times, first as Sgt. Savage, later as Extreme, and most recently as Sigma Six. Nothing ever recaptured the magic and glory of the original Real American Hero.

Until now. With the 25^th Anniversary line, Hasbro dipped back into the well and came out smelling like roses. New sculpts that paid tribute to the originals with today’s styling sensibilities adorn toy shelves. To spice things up, this line is carded like the originals, most even replicating the explosive card art that was so recognizable in the past. For collectors and nostagliasts alike, this line hit a homerun in a way they never anticipated.

Starting with the classic packaging, the 25^th anniversary figures come sealed like retro-goodies. The classic card art ushers a wave of warm fuzziness that hits close to those who grew up with the army men of yore. Some collectors have posed an interesting question: are people buying the card art more than they’re buying the toy? Possibly, but what a fine piece of trashy art it is.

The figures themselves are the perfect mix of new and old. Characters are sculpted with a strong nod to the past, retaining much of the source material for inspiration. From Snake-Eyes being packaged with his trusty wolf to Firefly’s opening backpack, the attention to detail is amazing. If you’re someone who prefers to open their toys, gasp I know, there are so many great things about the product, you won’t mind dropping the dough on these guys, at least not in the heat of the moment.

However, not everything is perfect. The updated sculpts may look and feel great, but little pain points do add up. First, the updated figures feature modern articulation. This is great as the figures retain their immense poseability. Yet, for some sculpts, the added molding severely limits the range of movement. The reissued Duke is notorious for his non-bending arms, a seemingly sweet forearm sculpt of rolled sleeves cutting his ability to grasp anything past 30 degrees.

In addition, hands are sculpted to hold weapons, but come packaged with clear rubberbands to keep armaments in place. This is because, even with great looking trigger fingers, these guys couldn’t grip more than a ball of jelly. Guns, knives, swords, whatever fall right out of their hands, making it difficult to fend off enemy attacks.

Lastly, part of the genius of this line is also part of the frustration. The old Joes were molded with generic body parts, allowing lots of mixing to occur. Slap on a new paint job, and you got yourself a new character. The 25^th Anniversary line keeps the tradition alive, allowing for multiple repaints simply by switching out body parts or exchanging limbs. For some character, the simple body swap does an amazing job of portraying a new soldier. Take the artic trooper Snow Job, who happens to share his body with the evil pilot Wild Weasel. Who would have guessed that a white-clad snow trooper would turn seamlessly into a red-drenched fighter pilot, complete with appropriate flight maps and gear.

However, with the good comes some bad. For some body swaps, the results are less than stellar. Collectors can’t groan enough at how a Zartan body, complete with chest and thigh armor, could be repainted into a Major Bludd. True, it doesn’t look that great, and maybe this was a time where the cost-cutting took its toll on the product.

Yet, by and large, the 25^th Anniversary line shines bright. Capitalizing on nostalgia is not a new thing, just take a look at all the geriatric bands that come out for reunion tours and rake in the dough. However, Hasbro has shown an uncanny amount of care in pushing this product out to the masses, nailing the right parts to usher the kid-at-heart back to the toy aisles.

You can find these now in your toy stores and department stores. Hasbro never anticipated this response, so initial prices were as low as $4. After hooking idiots like me, you’ll drop around $6.50 a pop on these guys. They’re not the cheapest, but they’re the finest. Yo joe!

McFarlane’s Sports Picks

Review by Loc

I still remember rolling into Toys R Us in 1988 one day and seeing action figures of the Oakland A’s. They weren’t great figures, mostly generic poses with semi-customized heads for Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. However, they filled the shelves, each packaged with worthless baseball cards. And in essence, they were the 3-D equivalent, collectable figures of your favorite teams, favorite stars. As these began hitting en masse, you could find all manner of teams, from the local favorites to the obscure stars that you rarely heard of back in the days before the internet. And soon enough, every sport was represented, from football to basketball to hockey. Ah, but Kenner’s Starting Lineups are a different story for a different time.

That’s because after over a decade of producing athletes from all major sports, Starting Lineups went away. And that’s when McFarlane Toys assumed the mantle of sports toy king. In place of small 4-inch, nondescript figures, McFarlane unleashed 6-inch, photorealistic toys more akin to miniature sculptures than action figures. Gone were the baseball card novelty, replaced by the adult-collector mentality of great sculpts, great packages, great items to display either in or out of their package.

Today, I’ll cover the majority of my collecting habits in this line: the local players. Growing up in the Bay Area, three things were true: the 49ers ruled the sporting world, the Warriors were forever lovable-losers, and the debate between A’s vs Giants raged across a Bay Bridge. Luckily, McFarlane has seen it fit to cater to the Bay Area collector, at least in some capacity. The local sports franchises don’t command the steady stream of Yankee or Redwings, but each franchise gets its fair share of sculpted plastic.

Overall, McFarlane releases 2-3 “series” for each major sport per year. That leads to 10-15 players being produced per sport per year, and the Bay Area usually sneaks in with 1 or 2 representatives annually. As you can imagine, having an Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Brett Favre, or Kobe Bryant every year will help sell pieces to your average fan. However, over the years the Bay Area has seen Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Barry Zito, Eric Chavez, Baron Davis, and Jason Richardson fill the pegs. Even Shark stars are represented for the NHL, I just don’t know any of them.

The Sports Picks line itself is a bit of a conundrum. It’s aimed squarely at the adult enthusiast, so things like articulation and play value go right out the door. Instead, you get highly detailed sculptures with ridiculous attention to details. From helmet logos to jersey manufacturers to equipment labels, each figure is as authentic as a 6-inch toy could be. In fact, the level of realism is so high that fans often quibble over the nuanced inaccuracies, displaying how high of a bar that McFarlane actually set for its own product.

The sculpts themselves are often great. There are more generic poses which capture a player’s general physique and tone, but even these are usually based off of photo-references. However, using these more generic poses allows for the company to reissue older pieces with new head sculpts and paint details to create a new player. Known as a “repaint”, these figures sometimes hit the mark and sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Especially when your favorite player is reduced to a simple retread of a formerly released piece. For example, Eric Chavez was initially announced to have a brand-new sculpt, playing off the immense foul ground area of Oakland’s playing field. However, after suffering several injury-plagued seasons, the Chavez figure was initially delayed then finally released, but only as a repaint of the Scott Rolen piece. Sure, it’s nice to have Chavez adorn my desk, but it’s a shame to know that there were greater ambitions for his figure early on.

The repaint practice also gave life to the “chase” figure. In an effort to increase the collectability of these figures, McFarlane Toys produced variations of standard figures to create secondary editions as well. For example, players issued in their “home” jerseys may have been issued with a new paint application in their “away” jerseys. Some of the earliest figures have the most desirable chase figures. For example, Ken Griffey’s first figure was a wall-climbing sculpt in a Reds uniform, and the chase featured him in an iconic Seattle Mariners uniform. One figure high on my list of unattainables is the NFL Series 5 Jerry Rice figure in vintage 49er gear. The standard was issued as a Raider, but we all know Jerry is a 49er in spirit.

However, the chase figure has led to as much controversy as it has provided joy. At one point, chases were issued to almost every figure of a series. Once McFarlane Toys decided to issue only chases per series, collectors groaned at the impossibility of seeing their favorite players in different uniforms or from different eras. Another move that drew the ire of fans was the introduction of the “super chase”, a figure produced in extremely small quantities to ensure its status as an ultra-collectible. NFL players were issued without their helmets, making a “no helmet” Tom Brady extremely valuable, but also extremely difficult to find.

Most recently, the company decided to revamp the chase figure, noting that new pieces would feature subtle changes to classify as chases. Larger changes like jersey alterations would then be left for future series, which antagonized collectors on two ends. First, future chases would mean fewer new figures in subsequent series, hardly a crowd-pleaser to the diehard. Second, the minor changes have been viewed as nearly insulting, changes such as the removal of “eye black” on a player’s face or the addition of a small jersey patch seem beyond insignificant. In one of the most puzzling uses of the term “chase figure”, the latest Ichiro chase figure would actually include less than its standard counterpart, being packaged without a baseball.

Moving away from the collectible aspect, some of the Bay Area pieces have been great representations due to their “legends” status. As a way to expand their standard series, McFarlane Toys introduced the concept of retired players, such as the Cooperstown series or the NFL Legends. With these figures, all first run players are unique and new sculpts, ensuring their iconic visages would be captured in 3-D glory. Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, and Dennis Eckersley each have a legends figure. In addition, Joe Montana will be receiving a second legends piece, posed with his trademark hands-held-high-TD stance. Excellent choice that I’ll be purchasing.

Overall, the McFarlane Sports Picks lines are very nice sculptures. They are “toys” in the sense that you find them in the kids section at Wal-Mart, but they don’t much more than sit on your desk in a dynamic action stance. There’s little evidence of articulation, and if you do find a joint, it usually offers no value in creating a new pose. It was probably there because that was the best way to recreate the sculpt on a mass scale in a plastics factory. I’m sure I’ll revisit this line and provide more depth in the non-Bay Area pieces. However, if you’re a sports fan and like little desk decorations, these are pretty good at doing the job. You can find current pieces at your department stores for around $12 each. The older ones are Ebay material, with some of the chases reaching the triple digit mark. Or you can contact me and I’ll sell you some of the stuff lying in my closet. Enjoy!

WCW Smash n Slam

Review by Loc

I’ve bought lots of crap in my life. Some of that crap happens to be toys.Look, I’m no 40-year-old virgin…I’m like 30. However, much like Steve Carrell’s character, action figures sprinkle my surroundings, some open, some still enclosed in their pristine packaging, some stowed away in ziplock baggiess. Regardless of their state, they all have one thing in common: I bought them with money that could go towards things like automobiles, electronics, or houses. So, rather than enjoy them all by myself, I’ll showcase them for you as well. It’s like community service for all to relish.

First up, a semi-classic line that rarely receives its due: Toy Biz’s WCW line. In the late 90s, pro-wrestling experienced a renaissance of sorts. Can you really use the word renaissance to describe professional wrestling? Another question for another time. Back to the 90s, where characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, HHH, and Shawn Michaels entered pop culture iconography. At that time, two of the very popular wrestlers “jumped ship” from the World Wrestling Federation to Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling. When Kevin Nash and Scott Hall introduced the concept of the NWO to the world, the big Monday night wrestling wars began and led to combined viewership in the tens of millions. That’s a lot of eyeballs and a lot of fans tuning in every week.

So of course, toys were bound to come. Toy Biz had been making its name producing superhero toys from the Marvel universe. Spandex-clad characters like Spiderman, Iron Man, and the Hulk were their bread and butter. Ah, but they took a flyer on the red-hot wrestling world and unleashed WCW figures to the world. And these were some damn fine figures with lots of play value.

The first series was dubbed “Smash ‘n’ Slam” and included some of the biggest names on the WCW roster: Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Sting, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, the Giant, Macho Man Randy Savage, and Lex Luger. These figures were extremely cool and the included extras that made these fun-filled packages.

First, the figures had great sculpts. Whereas action figures in general and wrestling figures specifically were usually indistinguishable chunks of cut-joints, Toy Biz applied their Marvel expertise to these grapplers. Sculpts were great for the time, each wrestler actually embodying defining characteristics of their living counterparts: Scott Hall’s hair curl or Sting’s stoic, expressionless facepaint. In addition, the 6-inch scaled figures had distinct body types, from Kevin Nash’s towering height to the Giant’s hulking mass, these figures delivered individually designed sculpts.

Second, the articulation and action features melded well to make these toys playable and fun. Most of the figures utilized a leg-squeeze activation to swing arms in signature gestures. Scott Hall could be posed with his arms spread to deliver the Outsider’s Edge. Kevin Nash’s arms swooped up to drop an opponent with a Jackknife Powerbomb. One of the most unique action features was the Giant’s Chokeslam, where squeezing his legs lifted his right arm while simultaneously closing his right hand to grip his opponents neck. In addition, the articulation found on each figure was more than enough to recreate great in-ring action. Most figures included knee and ankle joints, elbow and neck joints, and shoulder joints were usually incorporated into the action feature.

However, the best thing about this first series of WCW figures came in the nuanced extras included. For some wrestlers, a secondary figure was included. In the case of Kevin Nash, a generic referee was included to feel the wrath of the Powerbomb. With Goldberg, a semi-rubber “masked wrestler” could be hoisted into the Jackhammer. Yet, the best add-in was the Giant’s “masked wrestler”, who actually had limited arm articulation, a surprise for a simple add-in accessory. This “masked wrestler” also had an extending neck to allow the Giant to properly grip his victim for the Chokeslam. Extending neck action feature, just too surreal and hilarious. A little tip to you, both “masked wrestlers” were actually simplified, unnamed versions of Rey Mysterio. That dude got no respect.

Other accessories included ringside items like breakaway tables, folding chairs, or ring steps. All good weapons when battling in the squared-circle. Also, certain figures included championship belts that actually clipped onto wrestlers. What better way to recreate your fantasy match-ups and imaginary wrestling leagues than with title belts that could be exchanged after tough-fought matches.

Yes, this first series of WCW toys were a huge leap in the genre and offered great value to kids and collector’s alike. Future series kept trying to innovate with more action features, more themed lines, and more great add-ins. However, nothing matched that initial wave in terms of excitement and freshness.

While these can be found for cheap on Ebay nowadays, their initial value was sky-high and matched the energy of pro-wrestling at the time. Track them down for reminiscing, enjoy them for maintaining their fun-factor and play-value 4-life.