|
|
Post by Mr. Old School™ on Mar 12, 2011 23:05:47 GMT -5
Hey, I'm not sure if this has ever been posted before or not, but here's an article on WWF LJN figures from the June/July '85 WWF Magazine. Here are the scans from the article.      It's really interesting to see the different colors on the Snuka figure. If you look closely, you can see he's got yellow kneepads on the figure. Also interesting to see the prototype ring with table and microphone. I think that ring looks ALOT better than the one we did get. It looks like it's built more solid. It's cool to see all these old pics again. I love the old-school stuff!! ;D |
|
|
|
Post by Next Man’s Yeeter on Mar 13, 2011 5:38:23 GMT -5
Thanks for this, very interesting to see. I only got into wrestling in the Hasbro era, so I kinda missed out on the LJN days. The figures were $8.00? That's pretty weird to think of, that in twenty five years WWF figures have only gone up by a dollar or two (and at many points over the years, wrestling figures were cheaper than the LJN price).
|
|
|
|
Post by oldschoolsoldier on Mar 13, 2011 5:46:19 GMT -5
That is a cool find..and yes the ring as pictured was MUCH better than what we wound up with
|
|
Deleted
Joined on: May 20, 2024 0:09:17 GMT -5
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2011 5:58:04 GMT -5
great pics, have never seen before. thanks for sharing.
|
|
jason1980s
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 30, 2009 14:58:56 GMT -5
Posts: 2,312
|
Post by jason1980s on Mar 13, 2011 10:20:56 GMT -5
The ring is awesome. So many companies never got a ring correct. LJN was ok, but no room for wrestlers to wait on the apron for tag matches. Hasbro had room but the molded apron was not as good as the cloth apron in the 1991 prototype pictures. Jakks had the monster (ljn) ring in 1996 which was way to big for the Jakks figures, they re-painted it a few years later and of course, still too big. Toymakers and Galoob put out WCW rings that were too small on the bottom part. The AWA ring was probably the most realistic. It's amazing, 25 years ago how much work Remco put into the AWA figures, aside from the same bodies, with the cloth outfits and ring apron/cage and more.
|
|
akawildfire
Main Eventer
Joined on: Oct 8, 2005 13:38:29 GMT -5
Posts: 1,021
|
Post by akawildfire on Mar 13, 2011 10:26:08 GMT -5
YEAAAAAAA, So I am right (which I already knew) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D after all these years of people saying the stands came with the first line of figures and me being persistent saying they did NOT it finally is proven. The article clearly states (It's located under the Hogan/friedman pic) "The packaging Includes a cut-out "wrestling superstar card" and a poster of the appropriate wrestler." Obviously if there was a stand at the time it would have been mentioned here, plus you can see the toyfair display MOC images and there is no display stand in the package(s).......... The ring looks awesome, the turnbuckles look like the real scale ring now?  I wonder if the table/mic was ever really discussed to be produced or if it was just placed there for display for the ring at toyfair? (I think that mic was released with the Michael Jackson ljn figure line that they mentioned in the article so ljn would already have one on hand)? Thanks for posting this ad, it sure does bring back memories of being a kid and standing in the toy isle and looking and deciding which figure(s) to buy and for some odd reason I love the snuka figure when it's in the package but don't care for it to much loose? ?? |
|
redypiper
Main Eventer
bravery over timidity
Joined on: Jun 29, 2005 19:51:33 GMT -5
Posts: 2,946
|
Post by redypiper on Mar 13, 2011 14:20:33 GMT -5
thanks for posting this. i've never seen the ring with table and microphone pic before. would have been great if that ring had been produced.
|
|
|
|
Post by Smash Ventura on Mar 14, 2011 4:14:55 GMT -5
Mr Old School as a child of the 1980s with a nastalgic affection for all the good memories anything "LJN" brings back my hat is truly off to you here... thanks so very much for sharing these pics and the article are amazing! thanks so much  |
|
jason1980s
Main Eventer
Joined on: Sept 30, 2009 14:58:56 GMT -5
Posts: 2,312
|
Post by jason1980s on Mar 14, 2011 9:51:13 GMT -5
I wonder when the first 9 LJN toys came out. The back of the figures is molded the year 1984 but that article has February 1985 Toy Fair and lists the first five and an additional sixth figure of Hillbilly available in Fall. Not even a mention of the other three. In most pictures of the last three (Piper, Jyd, Nikolai) Nikolai is featured as a prototype with white socks under kneepads. So he may have been the last one planned.
It is neat seeing the Snuka with yellow kneepads as featured on one of the early LJN WWF commercials posted here before.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Old School™ on Mar 14, 2011 10:44:24 GMT -5
It is neat seeing the Snuka with yellow kneepads as featured on one of the early LJN WWF commercials posted here before. Yeah, it is neat seeing that version of Snuka for sure. Even neater is seeing a nice, close-up shot of that prototype.  Full rights and image are courtesy of Woodrow's Toys. They've got a nice selection of various WWF LJN prototypes on their site. Just do a Google search of "WWF LJN prototype" and they should come up. |
|
|
|
Post by Smash Ventura on Mar 14, 2011 23:51:28 GMT -5
YEAAAAAAA, So I am right (which I already knew) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D after all these years of people saying the stands came with the first line of figures and me being persistent saying they did NOT it finally is proven. The article clearly states (It's located under the Hogan/friedman pic) "The packaging Includes a cut-out "wrestling superstar card" and a poster of the appropriate wrestler." Obviously if there was a stand at the time it would have been mentioned here, plus you can see the toyfair display MOC images and there is no display stand in the package(s).......... The ring looks awesome, the turnbuckles look like the real scale ring now? I wonder if the table/mic was ever really discussed to be produced or if it was just placed there for display for the ring at toyfair? (I think that mic was released with the Michael Jackson ljn figure line that they mentioned in the article so ljn would already have one on hand)? Thanks for posting this ad, it sure does bring back memories of being a kid and standing in the toy isle and looking and deciding which figure(s) to buy and for some odd reason I love the snuka figure when it's in the package but don't care for it to much loose? ?? as jessie the body ventura would say, "I get to be the spoiler!".. lol just kidding but the bases did come with the first line..you are right that no bases can be seen in the moc pics there next to hulk but could of been a rolling change that they made before mass releasing them much like the ljn ring was changed entirely before mass release... heres a couple pics of jimmy snuka... one we all know without the base and then one clearly showing the base in with him... first the one without...  now the one with the base  as a kid i recall some ljns having trouble not falling over...like you i had my doubts these bases ever existed due to any pics surfacing after all these years...but as the above proves and the great pic of the first version of the ljn ring provided by mr oldschool its clear that pictorial evidence is finally begining to surface on alot of things... i would of like this proto type mean gean that was originally suppose to come with the ljn ring and what look like announcer cards...  |
|
akawildfire
Main Eventer
Joined on: Oct 8, 2005 13:38:29 GMT -5
Posts: 1,021
|
Post by akawildfire on Mar 15, 2011 6:24:24 GMT -5
YEAAAAAAA, So I am right (which I already knew) ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D after all these years of people saying the stands came with the first line of figures and me being persistent saying they did NOT it finally is proven. The article clearly states (It's located under the Hogan/friedman pic) "The packaging Includes a cut-out "wrestling superstar card" and a poster of the appropriate wrestler." Obviously if there was a stand at the time it would have been mentioned here, plus you can see the toyfair display MOC images and there is no display stand in the package(s).......... The ring looks awesome, the turnbuckles look like the real scale ring now? I wonder if the table/mic was ever really discussed to be produced or if it was just placed there for display for the ring at toyfair? (I think that mic was released with the Michael Jackson ljn figure line that they mentioned in the article so ljn would already have one on hand)? Thanks for posting this ad, it sure does bring back memories of being a kid and standing in the toy isle and looking and deciding which figure(s) to buy and for some odd reason I love the snuka figure when it's in the package but don't care for it to much loose? ?? as jessie the body ventura would say, "I get to be the spoiler!".. lol just kidding but the bases did come with the first line..you are right that no bases can be seen in the moc pics there next to hulk but could of been a rolling change that they made before mass releasing them much like the ljn ring was changed entirely before mass release... heres a couple pics of jimmy snuka... one we all know without the base and then one clearly showing the base in with him... first the one without... now the one with the base as a kid i recall some ljns having trouble not falling over...like you i had my doubts these bases ever existed due to any pics surfacing after all these years...but as the above proves and the great pic of the first version of the ljn ring provided by mr oldschool its clear that pictorial evidence is finally begining to surface on alot of things... i would of like this proto type mean gean that was originally suppose to come with the ljn ring and what look like announcer cards... No, Don't get me wrong. I knew the bases existed but the base did not come with the 1st run of figures (which has always been the argument) they were added in awhile after the figures were at mass retail (I'm assuming the ljn stands came into play after people complained about the figures not standing on there own, and then was scrapped after only a few short runs of them). And the figures in this article were already produced for mass production (Obviously they would not have that many packaged figures if they were not already mass produced, and the article mentions nothing about a stand), so as I stated earlier, I'm correct on this when saying the stands WERE NOT in the 1ST RUN as many people thought... The only reason I was persistant about this topic was because I got Andre the Giant the day it was released and the stands didn't come into play until way later in the year (my personal guess is around the 4 or 5th release of series 1 is when the stands were included in a short run, they were not in the 1st released run........).....ps: don't get production run confused with series ....plus keep in mind that ljn series were overlaped (series 1 five backs were still being released when series 2 was released.. |
|
|
|
Post by Smash Ventura on Mar 15, 2011 12:51:24 GMT -5
very good point man |
|
|
|
Post by hulkhogancollector on Mar 16, 2011 0:20:25 GMT -5
the old school LJN ring was awesome
|
|
