Post by Bandalero on May 3, 2016 23:12:15 GMT -5
Like most of you, I too received my DM GAB Sting today. Yes he had the correct boots (thanks RSC!) and I did do some minor tweaks to the figure, but I still want to give an objective review of this figure now that I have it in-hand.
Before I do, I think I have to let you know that Surfer Sting is my all-time favourite wrestler. I can't remember exactly when it started, maybe it was reading about him in UWF via those Apter mags, but definitely Clash of the Champions I solidified that he was my hero! Flashy tights, face paint, he was electric! Sure Hogan had "Hulkamania" scratched across his bandana and Macho Man had his iconic three-star trunks, but Sting had a wicked looking scorpion on the side of his tights, it was awesome! Now that most of us are adults here, I don't know if you can remember that feeling of being on the edge of your seat whenever your favourite wrestler was wrestling - that's the sort of response he elicited in me. Ahh kayfabe. So I couldn't wait for Mattel to crank out Surfer Stings when he signed on.
I even started to make my own with available parts and Toybiz's head from his Evolution of Sting 4-pack. It might have been 10-15 years ago but they captured the essence of Stinger's expression nicely. You can see how my tweaked DM GAB Sting measures up with my old parts selections:
So these long-tights legs are the ones Mattel also went with, a bit skinny in my opinion but it works. They also went with white Del Rio/Slater/Lawler boots much like I did with my yellow-tights Sting, however I do prefer the Ziggler/Gunn boots instead. I'm not sure why they went with a Batista torso because I felt either a Macho Man or SCSA torso was far more appropriate and scales nicely with the other existing NWA-Mattel figures like Anderson, Blanchard and the Road Warriors. The head is ever-so-slightly too big but that's nit-picking. What's not nit-picking is that this is a disappointing head scan. Even if they were going for his grimace/taunt they sculpted an overbite!
DM-wise? The rubber jacket was insane to take off - I kept having flashbacks to Undertaker Series 1. And I don't care how much budget was allocated for the figure, but it's absolutely inexcusable not to include the big gold belt - my gosh that was the match where he won it for the first time after 2 years of running after it!
So, not the best attempt by Bill and Co. in this humble fan's opinion. I promised myself I would collect every single Mattel Surfer Sting, even ugh Basics - again it's disappointing to see his neon-green tights in Basic when it would have been amazing as an Elite but the kicker for me is this funky head scan - it's not Sting and I hope they take another crack at it eventually.
Before I do, I think I have to let you know that Surfer Sting is my all-time favourite wrestler. I can't remember exactly when it started, maybe it was reading about him in UWF via those Apter mags, but definitely Clash of the Champions I solidified that he was my hero! Flashy tights, face paint, he was electric! Sure Hogan had "Hulkamania" scratched across his bandana and Macho Man had his iconic three-star trunks, but Sting had a wicked looking scorpion on the side of his tights, it was awesome! Now that most of us are adults here, I don't know if you can remember that feeling of being on the edge of your seat whenever your favourite wrestler was wrestling - that's the sort of response he elicited in me. Ahh kayfabe. So I couldn't wait for Mattel to crank out Surfer Stings when he signed on.
I even started to make my own with available parts and Toybiz's head from his Evolution of Sting 4-pack. It might have been 10-15 years ago but they captured the essence of Stinger's expression nicely. You can see how my tweaked DM GAB Sting measures up with my old parts selections:
So these long-tights legs are the ones Mattel also went with, a bit skinny in my opinion but it works. They also went with white Del Rio/Slater/Lawler boots much like I did with my yellow-tights Sting, however I do prefer the Ziggler/Gunn boots instead. I'm not sure why they went with a Batista torso because I felt either a Macho Man or SCSA torso was far more appropriate and scales nicely with the other existing NWA-Mattel figures like Anderson, Blanchard and the Road Warriors. The head is ever-so-slightly too big but that's nit-picking. What's not nit-picking is that this is a disappointing head scan. Even if they were going for his grimace/taunt they sculpted an overbite!
DM-wise? The rubber jacket was insane to take off - I kept having flashbacks to Undertaker Series 1. And I don't care how much budget was allocated for the figure, but it's absolutely inexcusable not to include the big gold belt - my gosh that was the match where he won it for the first time after 2 years of running after it!
So, not the best attempt by Bill and Co. in this humble fan's opinion. I promised myself I would collect every single Mattel Surfer Sting, even ugh Basics - again it's disappointing to see his neon-green tights in Basic when it would have been amazing as an Elite but the kicker for me is this funky head scan - it's not Sting and I hope they take another crack at it eventually.