Post by michaelc on May 1, 2016 22:13:52 GMT -5
The History of LJN Figures (Part 5 - from 1997 presented unedited and unrevised!)
The WWF had amassed a considerable roster of talent in 1986 and continued the buying spree into 1987. This meant that new additions to the WWF stable would instantly become mid-carders or main event wrestlers. Therefore it was only natural that LJN would release figures of these new acquisitions as they were immediately recognised by the fans. The WWF had now instituted the four-week lead-in promo of new wrestlers through Superstars of Wrestling e.g. Outback Jack and The HonkyTonk Man and even had up to eight-week promos for the big guns i.e. Ted DiBiase and Mr. Perfect. Wrestling hit it's peak in this year with over 90,000 attending Wrestlemania 3. LJN came to the party with new characters that reflected the changing face of the WWF but LJN 1987 was the beginning of the end.
Hercules Hernandez was a second string member of the Heenan Family and was one of the early 1987 releases. We was garbed in his centurion outfit before he had morphed into the Mighty Hercules. His figure is quite faithful to the old gimmick, however Hercules had ditched the S & M gear, gone for a haircut and beard trim, acquired a chain and shrunk his trunks before his figure really hit the stands. Strike 1.
He was huge and had once claimed the world bench-press record of 705 pounds. Size-o-mania ruled in the WWF so it was only natural that the powerlifter Ted Arcidi came on board; in early 1986. He was gone by the end of 1986. However the Ted Arcidi figure was a part of the 1987 release schedule. This is a very well crafted figure, and like it's model is huge. The sculpt is faithful to his powerlifting physique except that it didn't capture the acne on his back. It did garb Arcidi in a lifting suit but unfortunately didn't come with elasticised shoulder straps to slide down the way Arcidi did after a few minutes in the ring. It must be remembered that there is considerable time lag between pre-production and release so LJN went ahead with plastic Arcidi anyway. Strike 2.
Throw another shrimp on the barbie; not Dave that is! Australian comedian and actor Paul Hogan had been commissioned by the Australian Tourism Commission to do a series of very successful ads to promote Australia as a tourist destination for plaid trousered Americans. He then had the worldwide hit movie Crocodile Dundee. Australia was flavour of the month. What the WWF needed was an Australian character. Apparently Australian Rules Footballer and part-time actor Mark "Jacko" Jackson; "Oi", had a tryout. In Australia, local wrestling was dead so they got some old guy, I don't know who, and brought him in as Outback Jack, 300 pounds and from Humpty Doo, Northern Territory. His sketches trying to work out self-opening doors were hilarious. LJN's Outback Jack was a well made figure complete with slouch hat and drafty smile. But unfortunately Jack never made it above preliminary status and his best moment was when Ted DiBiase stuffed a hundred dollar note in his mouth after applying the million dollar dream. But LJN Outback was released and survives to this day. And somewhere in Australia, as his kids watch The Heartbreak Kid he can pull out a very lifelike 8 inches of plastic and show those disbelieving youngsters that he used to be one of the circus. Strike 3.
The lack of charisma in the 1987 roster continued. Cowboy Bob Orton, King "Handsome" Harley Race, Billy Jack Haynes, Kamala, Johnny V. and even a company president; or is that a company president's husband? Balance this with the quality of the figures; the 1987 series are the best and most colourful of the lot.
Cowboy Bob "Ace" Orton had a prominent role in 1985 as Piper's bodyguard and he featured in the main event of Wrestlemania. However by 1987 he was now pairing with Don Muraco under the eye of Mr. Fuji and on a downward slide. Like Greg Valentine, his skills and style were not fully appreciated in the size dominated WWF of the time. LJN Orton was released with his trademark vest, but was portrayed with a rather inaccurate face and he was missing his real trademark, his arm cast. He did score a cowboy hat though.
Vince McMahon thought he had scored a major coup in 1986 by signing 6-time NWA champion, Handsome Harley Race. However Race had reached the end of his career and like Orton, his physique and ring style did not fit the WWF. That did not stop him from giving some marvellous interviews with Mean Gene and Moolah. Race was made into King Harley Race to lift his profile and the JYD was used to help push Race in the fans' eyes. The Race figure was one of LJN's best. The King was garbed in lustrous regal purple with white trimming. He sported a fine crown, (more headgear); and his face was captured accurately along with trademark sideburns. The Race figure has increased substantially in value recently. Perhaps people have recognised his significance in terms of wrestling history or maybe it's just for the crown? However I doubt that at the time kids would have sought out Race as eagerly as they are now doing as adults.
Billy Jack Haynes was a bodybuilder from Oregon who joined the WWF roster around May '86 and was given a mid-level face push. Unfortunately Billy Jack suffered from a lack of charisma and just about anything else resembling talent and ended up feuding with Hercules in the "battle of the full nelsons" before teaming with Ken Patera. LJN produced a very lifelike and accurate figure of Billy Jack with golden trunks that had Oregon emblazened across the back. Haynes also came with a hat, I believe this is a trilby, making the fourth for the series. Perhaps this was at the time when Jesse was making most comments about McMahon's "rug" and may have prompted the over-compensation in hats. Regardless, Billy Jack remains to this day one of the finest LJN figures.
The most revealing or rather, risque, figure that was released was that of The Ugandan Headhunter, Kamala. Kamala debuted in September 1986 and was gone less than a year later. McMahon had just started his method of rotating monster heels through the number 1 contender spot and subsequently, Kamala had a run against Hogan. The Kamala figure, along with Bundy, is one of the largest produced and the Ugandan Giant is captured with intimidating face and body paint. However his loin cloith leaves very little to the imagination. Kamala the Ugandan Eunech is revealed in all, or more accurately, none of his glory as the artisans at LJN did not bother to conceal his crotch. Thankfully Kamala the wrestler was not as unabashed as his plastic counterpart.
One of the biggest crowd pops at the time was that of the fans' reaction to preliminary high flyer, "The Birdman", Koko B Ware. Quite short by WWF standards he played the role as successful prelim wrestler but unsuccessful mid-carder. He was, however, given the lead vocal spot on the second wrestling album, "Piledriver" and was always accompanied by his faithful companion, Frankie the Macaw. Koko was colourful but 1987 was before he himself actually started to resemble his pet. The LJN figure was quite well made although he wore an exaggerated and overly-toothed, goofy, Jerry Lewis type smile. Koko is captured in a flying pose and comes complete with detachable faithful Frankie on his arm. Unfortunately, for the loose figure collector, many a detachable Frankie has flown the coop and headed back to the Amazon. Like Race, Koko has experienced a recent rise in value, which must be in part credited to the presence of Frankie. Luckily for LJN and Titan Koko did display longevity even despite his win-loss record starting to resemble that of S.D. Jones', his fellow prelim wrestler.
A watershed figure release was that of "The Adorable One" Adrian Adonis. Long before Goldust existed there was Adrian Adonis. Adonis, managed by Jimmy Hart had a rugged street-tough image but was not respected by fans due to his smallish stature and rotund physique. Adonis was pushed using Uncle Elmer as a stepping stone and went through a metamorphisis into "The Adorable One" as part of the Roddy Piper face turn and retirement, and the Brutus Beefcake face turn. Adonis hosted his "Flower Shop" replacing Piper's Pit and showed very good microphone skills. His persona grew into a cross between Georgeous George and Exotic Adrian Sweet as the happily married Adonis adopted a gay persona. LJN produced a very accurate figure of Adonis, resplendent in pink tights and boots and, bleached golden-blonde hair. Adonis was given eye makeup, a severe pout and posed with a "kink" in his body. This causes severe problems in plastic Adonis as he has difficulty standing by himself. Adonis carried this difficult persona very well and this is reflected by his plastic self being given a whimsical throwaway wave of his right hand. Unfortunately the curse of the 1987 LJN series continued as Adonis left the federation in April soon after Wrestlemania 3. There have been reports of variations in Adonis' eye makeup on his figure but I have not been able to confirm any of these.
The most charismatic release was that of Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Jake had been turned face and pushed into Intercontintental title contention as the federation capitalised on his huge popularity with the fans. Heel jobbers started to quake with fear as they now had to suffer the slithering of the massive Damien after a savage D.D.T.. LJN released Jake "The Snake" Roberts with Damien draped across his shoulders and the figure accurately portrayed the maverick wrestler's face and physique. Jake came in two variations: One had Jake garbed in plain green tights and the variation included purple snakes winding down his tights. Jake's release with Damien saw the number of personalised accessories climb to six as the WWF had started to push the character of the wrestler, more-so than the wrestler itself. Jake demonstrated longevity on the roster which meant that after the inappropriateness of many of the 1987 releases, in hindsight that is, LJN produced one of it's more successful figures.
The WWF had amassed a considerable roster of talent in 1986 and continued the buying spree into 1987. This meant that new additions to the WWF stable would instantly become mid-carders or main event wrestlers. Therefore it was only natural that LJN would release figures of these new acquisitions as they were immediately recognised by the fans. The WWF had now instituted the four-week lead-in promo of new wrestlers through Superstars of Wrestling e.g. Outback Jack and The HonkyTonk Man and even had up to eight-week promos for the big guns i.e. Ted DiBiase and Mr. Perfect. Wrestling hit it's peak in this year with over 90,000 attending Wrestlemania 3. LJN came to the party with new characters that reflected the changing face of the WWF but LJN 1987 was the beginning of the end.
Hercules Hernandez was a second string member of the Heenan Family and was one of the early 1987 releases. We was garbed in his centurion outfit before he had morphed into the Mighty Hercules. His figure is quite faithful to the old gimmick, however Hercules had ditched the S & M gear, gone for a haircut and beard trim, acquired a chain and shrunk his trunks before his figure really hit the stands. Strike 1.
He was huge and had once claimed the world bench-press record of 705 pounds. Size-o-mania ruled in the WWF so it was only natural that the powerlifter Ted Arcidi came on board; in early 1986. He was gone by the end of 1986. However the Ted Arcidi figure was a part of the 1987 release schedule. This is a very well crafted figure, and like it's model is huge. The sculpt is faithful to his powerlifting physique except that it didn't capture the acne on his back. It did garb Arcidi in a lifting suit but unfortunately didn't come with elasticised shoulder straps to slide down the way Arcidi did after a few minutes in the ring. It must be remembered that there is considerable time lag between pre-production and release so LJN went ahead with plastic Arcidi anyway. Strike 2.
Throw another shrimp on the barbie; not Dave that is! Australian comedian and actor Paul Hogan had been commissioned by the Australian Tourism Commission to do a series of very successful ads to promote Australia as a tourist destination for plaid trousered Americans. He then had the worldwide hit movie Crocodile Dundee. Australia was flavour of the month. What the WWF needed was an Australian character. Apparently Australian Rules Footballer and part-time actor Mark "Jacko" Jackson; "Oi", had a tryout. In Australia, local wrestling was dead so they got some old guy, I don't know who, and brought him in as Outback Jack, 300 pounds and from Humpty Doo, Northern Territory. His sketches trying to work out self-opening doors were hilarious. LJN's Outback Jack was a well made figure complete with slouch hat and drafty smile. But unfortunately Jack never made it above preliminary status and his best moment was when Ted DiBiase stuffed a hundred dollar note in his mouth after applying the million dollar dream. But LJN Outback was released and survives to this day. And somewhere in Australia, as his kids watch The Heartbreak Kid he can pull out a very lifelike 8 inches of plastic and show those disbelieving youngsters that he used to be one of the circus. Strike 3.
The lack of charisma in the 1987 roster continued. Cowboy Bob Orton, King "Handsome" Harley Race, Billy Jack Haynes, Kamala, Johnny V. and even a company president; or is that a company president's husband? Balance this with the quality of the figures; the 1987 series are the best and most colourful of the lot.
Cowboy Bob "Ace" Orton had a prominent role in 1985 as Piper's bodyguard and he featured in the main event of Wrestlemania. However by 1987 he was now pairing with Don Muraco under the eye of Mr. Fuji and on a downward slide. Like Greg Valentine, his skills and style were not fully appreciated in the size dominated WWF of the time. LJN Orton was released with his trademark vest, but was portrayed with a rather inaccurate face and he was missing his real trademark, his arm cast. He did score a cowboy hat though.
Vince McMahon thought he had scored a major coup in 1986 by signing 6-time NWA champion, Handsome Harley Race. However Race had reached the end of his career and like Orton, his physique and ring style did not fit the WWF. That did not stop him from giving some marvellous interviews with Mean Gene and Moolah. Race was made into King Harley Race to lift his profile and the JYD was used to help push Race in the fans' eyes. The Race figure was one of LJN's best. The King was garbed in lustrous regal purple with white trimming. He sported a fine crown, (more headgear); and his face was captured accurately along with trademark sideburns. The Race figure has increased substantially in value recently. Perhaps people have recognised his significance in terms of wrestling history or maybe it's just for the crown? However I doubt that at the time kids would have sought out Race as eagerly as they are now doing as adults.
Billy Jack Haynes was a bodybuilder from Oregon who joined the WWF roster around May '86 and was given a mid-level face push. Unfortunately Billy Jack suffered from a lack of charisma and just about anything else resembling talent and ended up feuding with Hercules in the "battle of the full nelsons" before teaming with Ken Patera. LJN produced a very lifelike and accurate figure of Billy Jack with golden trunks that had Oregon emblazened across the back. Haynes also came with a hat, I believe this is a trilby, making the fourth for the series. Perhaps this was at the time when Jesse was making most comments about McMahon's "rug" and may have prompted the over-compensation in hats. Regardless, Billy Jack remains to this day one of the finest LJN figures.
The most revealing or rather, risque, figure that was released was that of The Ugandan Headhunter, Kamala. Kamala debuted in September 1986 and was gone less than a year later. McMahon had just started his method of rotating monster heels through the number 1 contender spot and subsequently, Kamala had a run against Hogan. The Kamala figure, along with Bundy, is one of the largest produced and the Ugandan Giant is captured with intimidating face and body paint. However his loin cloith leaves very little to the imagination. Kamala the Ugandan Eunech is revealed in all, or more accurately, none of his glory as the artisans at LJN did not bother to conceal his crotch. Thankfully Kamala the wrestler was not as unabashed as his plastic counterpart.
One of the biggest crowd pops at the time was that of the fans' reaction to preliminary high flyer, "The Birdman", Koko B Ware. Quite short by WWF standards he played the role as successful prelim wrestler but unsuccessful mid-carder. He was, however, given the lead vocal spot on the second wrestling album, "Piledriver" and was always accompanied by his faithful companion, Frankie the Macaw. Koko was colourful but 1987 was before he himself actually started to resemble his pet. The LJN figure was quite well made although he wore an exaggerated and overly-toothed, goofy, Jerry Lewis type smile. Koko is captured in a flying pose and comes complete with detachable faithful Frankie on his arm. Unfortunately, for the loose figure collector, many a detachable Frankie has flown the coop and headed back to the Amazon. Like Race, Koko has experienced a recent rise in value, which must be in part credited to the presence of Frankie. Luckily for LJN and Titan Koko did display longevity even despite his win-loss record starting to resemble that of S.D. Jones', his fellow prelim wrestler.
A watershed figure release was that of "The Adorable One" Adrian Adonis. Long before Goldust existed there was Adrian Adonis. Adonis, managed by Jimmy Hart had a rugged street-tough image but was not respected by fans due to his smallish stature and rotund physique. Adonis was pushed using Uncle Elmer as a stepping stone and went through a metamorphisis into "The Adorable One" as part of the Roddy Piper face turn and retirement, and the Brutus Beefcake face turn. Adonis hosted his "Flower Shop" replacing Piper's Pit and showed very good microphone skills. His persona grew into a cross between Georgeous George and Exotic Adrian Sweet as the happily married Adonis adopted a gay persona. LJN produced a very accurate figure of Adonis, resplendent in pink tights and boots and, bleached golden-blonde hair. Adonis was given eye makeup, a severe pout and posed with a "kink" in his body. This causes severe problems in plastic Adonis as he has difficulty standing by himself. Adonis carried this difficult persona very well and this is reflected by his plastic self being given a whimsical throwaway wave of his right hand. Unfortunately the curse of the 1987 LJN series continued as Adonis left the federation in April soon after Wrestlemania 3. There have been reports of variations in Adonis' eye makeup on his figure but I have not been able to confirm any of these.
The most charismatic release was that of Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Jake had been turned face and pushed into Intercontintental title contention as the federation capitalised on his huge popularity with the fans. Heel jobbers started to quake with fear as they now had to suffer the slithering of the massive Damien after a savage D.D.T.. LJN released Jake "The Snake" Roberts with Damien draped across his shoulders and the figure accurately portrayed the maverick wrestler's face and physique. Jake came in two variations: One had Jake garbed in plain green tights and the variation included purple snakes winding down his tights. Jake's release with Damien saw the number of personalised accessories climb to six as the WWF had started to push the character of the wrestler, more-so than the wrestler itself. Jake demonstrated longevity on the roster which meant that after the inappropriateness of many of the 1987 releases, in hindsight that is, LJN produced one of it's more successful figures.