When you start getting down on Mattel, Never Forget...

There will always be Jakks apologists, but we could really go on for dozens of pages with these sort of pics. From baffling parts/design decisions, to the balloon heads, it was truly frustrating at times to be a collector. I still remember buying the 2pk series where they decided to give the figures TTL era arms.

Lol the one and only Luthor Reigns figure!


I think Jakks made great figures. I grew up with LJNs which had no articulation. Then Hasbros which had limited articulation. Jakks did some neat stuff, including the classics line. The Classics line, which btw, Mattel failed miserably at. The way I see it, ever toy company comes in and improves upon what already existed. It'll be interesting to see who takes over after Mattel, and what gets changed.

And lastly, that Classics line was half the price that the current Mattel line costs. That outsiders two pack was 19.99. The one Nash Elite is 24 on RSC. So, yes, you might see Mattel as the better of the two, but Mattel is charging a lot more for the toy.

Oh don't get me wrong dude. Mattel has had more than their share of inexcusable ups.

Brown-haired, ponytailed RSC Nash. Constant issues of hair color and correct boots. Sting still having a goddamn wooden bat. And of course the paint mishaps and loose parts that have emerged over the years.

But in spite of all that, it's still miles better than Jakks. And I don't excuse Jakks to the degree you do. But I do get it somewhat. I think low standards were to blame more than anything. They basically stayed in the lowest common denominator in terms of effort as long as it sold. And they completely phoned it in their last couple years. I feel like Mattel challenges themselves more to keep the line fresh. That isn't experience as much as it is just giving a shyt, something that Jakks seemed to stop doing after a while.

Every single toy line has areas worthy of honest criticism. There's nothing wrong with discussing that, and having a few laughs at some of the confusingly bad figures that get released. Younger company or not, Jakks deserves plenty of the criticisms they routinely get. My fondest wrestling figure memories comes from their products. As a youngster, playing with their BCA figures right in front of the TV every night during Raw is something I'll always remember with great joy.

With that said, there's 0 doubt that Jakks simply did whatever the hell they wanted most of the time lol. Especially during the later RA/DA days, regardless of how much toys were advancing. I often wonder where WWE toys would be today if Jakks had maintained control over the brand.

Was just about to point this out. Inflation is real.

And Mattel didn't start off too much more expensive than CS. Not only that, but the packaging was more elaborate and they had display stands. Then it all went away because economy.

And just like everything else in this economy, quality keeps going down, yet price keeps going up.

I have a soft spot for Jakks but even I'll admit that Ruthless was a line that was well behind the times. Those figures were occupying shelf space at the same time that McFarlane toys was making amazingly sculpted mini-statues, Mattel had the clean and well designed Masters of the Universe and Batman lines, Bandai Gundams that were marvelously engineered, and Toybiz blazing trails with the Marvel Legends. Paint apps were across the board better on most toys as was articulation. The leap from TTL to R3 was logical and showed progress. RA was a huge step back. The small handful of bucks used helped increase the number of releases and cut tooling time down. The motto of the day was definitely quantity over quality. There are few things as hideous in this worlds as the cruiserweight body they used on so many of the guys like Jericho.

That Nash head is ten times better then all of the Nash head's mattel has put out.

I won't say that every aspect of Jakks is bad, but I can't fully agree with the statements that Jakks was using old technologies and Mattel isn't. Its not like Mattel started today, they started in 2009 so they're utilizing technologies that Jakks had the ability of utilizing towards the end of their run. Though the main important thing that they didn't utilize was the concept of scale, which I'm sure has been around for centuries when mathematics was founded. The fact that Paul Bearer is as big as Kane in that three pack is part of why I hate Jakks figures.

I started collecting after Mattel had started but I went with Jakks, unfortunately. Bought tons from eBay and Amazon and after I was in too deep, I realized, there's something wrong here, all these guys are mostly the same size? During the beginning, I received an Elite 23 Macho Man as a gift and should've realized then I needed to cease buying these and switch but I didn't and continued for a year or so more.  Then I, myself, bought a few Mattel elites and finally a light went off and decided these are the figs I should be buying considering this company is making them presently and look MUCH BETTER. I was able to sell of my Jakks but took a major hit. Lesson learned and I am able to say I experienced the Jakks "bad proportions" experience!