michaelc
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Joined on: Mar 23, 2016 1:27:41 GMT -5
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Post by michaelc on Nov 6, 2017 2:47:20 GMT -5
Hi people
I haven't posted in some time but have recently being looking at a few threads to find out peoples' stories back from when they collected LJN figures - in the authentic wildlands - i.e. when they were first released from 1985-1989 (+a little). It can take hours to track some posts so I usually give up and get back to my work; especially when threads degenerate into online fights, etc.! So what I'm asking is for anyone to share stories of figures, etc. they got or bought - most likely when they were children - or teenagers. I'd be particularly keen to hear about the price and availability in stores or local areas. Information from non-US people would also be good to hear. I'm also interested in finding out about other merchandise from the Wrestling Superstars line and what might have driven someone to buy, for example soap!!!!, or if anyone had a party with the Wrestling Superstars party accessories or even if any aspiring Hulkamaniacs had or used the workout kits?
Anyway, just putting this out here and see if anyone is interested. If people get interested in this - who knows where it might lead?
For those who don't know I am from Australia - and we only knew what we knew because we experienced it at that time; but have since learned much more from the shared experiences of people from the epicentre of the Wrestling collector's world - the US.
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ozz
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Joined on: Aug 1, 2011 16:37:04 GMT -5
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Post by ozz on Nov 6, 2017 9:31:01 GMT -5
Ah, some of my favorite memories...which I barely remember!
I've shared them around here anytime someone asks, and I may get details wrong or miss some at times, but for right now here are some random points I can remember:
- neighbor at my grandma's house and I would get together and play with ours, often trading. I believe I got my Big John Studd from him for a He-Man figure. This would have been around 1987.
- my mom & grandma spent a few hours most weekends driving around for garage sales, and I'd often be dragged along. But I also got toys, so it wasn't always bad. The best of course were the times I found wrestling figures, and LJNs were the thing at the time. I don't remember too many, but once I came across Fuji, Bulldogs, and a couple more while on vacation in NY. Probably got them for 50 cents or $1 each, and Fuji had his cane. If I had to guess who else I got, I'd say Blassie w/cane.
- My dad used to have a business across the street from a K-Mart, and I'd often spend time there. One day I was dropped off and he had gone across the street to get me Macho Man to surprise me with.
- One year I got Steele, Bundy, and Hercules for my birthday from my grandma. She was probably responsible for getting me the most of them, as she was a huge wrestling fan herself. She got all her grandkids into it. I was the only one who kept into collecting figures, and I think the other 2 still think it's real - LOL
- Got Corporal Kirchner (smooth) at KB Toys at my secondary mall while out w/mom and gram again. They were awesome. Anyway I was playing w/him while waiting in line for some of their other errands, and I remember some lady asking me about my Army guy. I was pissed and told her he's Corporal Kirchner and he's a wrestler. I was barely older than toddler age, so that explains it. But c'mon lady, he's a poor man's Sgt. Slaughter!
- I'd always see Bruno, Captain Lou, SD Jones (both), Mean Gene, the refs, Tito on the shelves. Surely a few others, but those for sure. I never did get a Bruno or ref as a kid, but I vividly remember seeing them ALL THE TIME at one store (can't remember the name). It wasn't close to us but gram frequented it here and there; it was some dept. store but either a small-time regional or locally owned unique brand. That store is where I got my Elizabeth w/gold skirt, though. No memory of anything else besides her.
- At one point I had a neighbor to our back yard who had a good collection. We would always play together and often trade. I got his Killer Bees in trade, can't remember how. He also had a Ken Patera and some others I'd never seen in stores. I was jealous, but I had some he hadn't seen either. Trying to place this, I'd have to say it was 1987 based on release dates and figures I know I didn't have yet. Neither of us had the Harts but *really* wish we could find them. He had Ted Arcidi and we used him to beat up a lot of wrestlers. Ironic...haha
- Gram came through again with a visit to Toys R Us. My closest cousin and I were delighted to walk in and see Honky, DiBiase, OMG, and other 1988 release figures. At the time we didn't know they were coming, so we flipped out. I'm pretty certain we got 2 each: HTM and DiBiase for me, and OMG and I think Bam Bam for him. We had great choices then! I know for sure there were no white/red shirt Hogans, Ax, or Hacksaw. Never saw either of those in stores. Those were the last ones I saw in stores, and they were even up at the front instead of in the usual aisle toward the back. Must have been trying to clear them out before the '89 black card series even came around. Never saw those anywhere either.
I have far more accurate stories of collecting in the late '90s as a teen, and "discovering" many of the variants we all know today. If you were around back then you might remember a site called Big Boys Toy Museum; I wasn't THAT guy but we were close and I was one of the main contributors for LJNs. For some quick notes on that, pretty much ALL DAY LONG you could find mint/near mint Slaughters and black card figures for $50 each. Rude was often less. Warrior was often a bit more, and a complete Bossman would likely bring in a bit more too. Complete Hacksaws would go for $50, complete Race & Koko might reach $50 but often would be around $30-40. No clue what the market is for these guys now, but I know the black cards and Sarge have gone way up and I sold a loose nightstick and 2x4 long after that time period for $50 apiece.
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michaelc
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Joined on: Mar 23, 2016 1:27:41 GMT -5
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Post by michaelc on Nov 6, 2017 20:21:17 GMT -5
Thanks ozz I was hoping you'd contribute. Great recollections and just what I was hoping to read. As for "and I remember some lady asking me about my Army guy. I was pissed and told her he's Corporal Kirchner and he's a wrestler"...well that might have been a bit debatable about poor Mike K! How old were you back in that mid-late 80's period? ..And what do you mean about that 'real' stuff. Are you saying that wrestling is not real? ?
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michaelc
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Joined on: Mar 23, 2016 1:27:41 GMT -5
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Post by michaelc on Nov 6, 2017 20:24:45 GMT -5
I have far more accurate stories of collecting in the late '90s as a teen, and "discovering" many of the variants we all know today. If you were around back then you might remember a site called Big Boys Toy Museum; I wasn't THAT guy but we were close and I was one of the main contributors for LJNs. For some quick notes on that, pretty much ALL DAY LONG you could find mint/near mint Slaughters and black card figures for $50 each. Rude was often less. Warrior was often a bit more, and a complete Bossman would likely bring in a bit more too. Complete Hacksaws would go for $50, complete Race & Koko might reach $50 but often would be around $30-40. No clue what the market is for these guys now, but I know the black cards and Sarge have gone way up and I sold a loose nightstick and 2x4 long after that time period for $50 apiece. Do you have digital links or saved material from that site? I bought a number of black card series loose from a site around 97 or 98 I think, including Andre and Bossman with nightstick. You have mentioned this to me before in my thread from many, many months ago. If I saw the interface I would likely remember if was the site.
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akawildfire
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Post by akawildfire on Nov 6, 2017 21:51:16 GMT -5
First and foremost I was (still am) a die hard fan so the only thing I cared about when I was little was wrestling toys. I collected every and anything wrestling related. I came from a poor family but holidays (Xmas, birthdays,etc.) were always very large so I would really bulk up on items at those times and the other times I would do chores for the people in my neighborhood for $ to spend on wrestlers and magazines. I owned just about everything released from 1984 - 1988 (then I became a teenager and $ went to other things ) . Here are a few stories: My 1st figure ever was Andre the giant Which I got in the summer of 85 ( I had stated 84 earlier but after some research it was 85) , my 2nd figure was Jimmy snuka which I got about a month later (yes , sucked having two good guys and no bad guys) and that Christmas I got the ring, hulk hogan , iron sheik and big John studd. I know I'm the only person who is convinced on this but I believe the stands came with the figures in the 2nd wave of the 1st series because Andre and snuka I got in mid summer did not have stands but the hogan and studd I got at Xmas did have the stands (sheik didn't) I asked my aunt when and where she got the hogan figure and it was just put on the shelf where she worked Xmas week ( she managed the store ). Not because of the stand but because I couldn't believe I got hogan finally. I traded Michael Jordan's rookie card for the killer bees tag team set (Didn't know at the time it was his rookie but still would have traded it because I didnt care about non wrestling stuff at the time) Coming home from my buddies house one day I had a bunch of my figures in a plastic bag on my handlebars of my bike and King Kong bundy fell out of the bag and into my spokes and caused me to wreck lol ( bundy got a gash above his eye which pissed me off but was cool I could use it for a blood spot when fighting my figures .. lol. I could go on for days with stories about my figures back then. The last figures I remember getting were the hart foundation from my sister for Xmas . The strange thing is that I never even knew the last series of ljn figures existed until I found ebay in like 1997 or so ( whenever the sega dreamcast came out )..lol
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ozz
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Joined on: Aug 1, 2011 16:37:04 GMT -5
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Post by ozz on Nov 7, 2017 0:12:22 GMT -5
Thanks ozz I was hoping you'd contribute. Great recollections and just what I was hoping to read. As for "and I remember some lady asking me about my Army guy. I was pissed and told her he's Corporal Kirchner and he's a wrestler"...well that might have been a bit debatable about poor Mike K! How old were you back in that mid-late 80's period? ..And what do you mean about that 'real' stuff. Are you saying that wrestling is not real? ? I was born in '82 so when Kirchner was on the shelves I was 4 or 5. I'd guess more toward 5 just because 4 seems so young to remember! I have far more accurate stories of collecting in the late '90s as a teen, and "discovering" many of the variants we all know today. If you were around back then you might remember a site called Big Boys Toy Museum; I wasn't THAT guy but we were close and I was one of the main contributors for LJNs. For some quick notes on that, pretty much ALL DAY LONG you could find mint/near mint Slaughters and black card figures for $50 each. Rude was often less. Warrior was often a bit more, and a complete Bossman would likely bring in a bit more too. Complete Hacksaws would go for $50, complete Race & Koko might reach $50 but often would be around $30-40. No clue what the market is for these guys now, but I know the black cards and Sarge have gone way up and I sold a loose nightstick and 2x4 long after that time period for $50 apiece. Do you have digital links or saved material from that site? I bought a number of black card series loose from a site around 97 or 98 I think, including Andre and Bossman with nightstick. You have mentioned this to me before in my thread from many, many months ago. If I saw the interface I would likely remember if was the site.
Not sure it's the same site as not much at all (if anything?) was for sale through it back in the day, but maybe there was a time. I can't remember. I found this link that amazingly still works! Who would have thought? spams.tripod.com/BBWFMUSEUM - my pics and the entire site appears to still be up and available. edit: looks like the URL is blocked as spam here (smh). Put the abbreviation for "big boys toy shop" in the URL where it says "spams" and there ya go.
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michaelc
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Joined on: Mar 23, 2016 1:27:41 GMT -5
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Post by michaelc on Nov 8, 2017 1:12:06 GMT -5
Thanks guys these are informative stories. Please keep them coming if you have the time and interest.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Nov 8, 2017 1:14:42 GMT -5
My 1st figure ever was Andre the giant Which I got in the summer of 84 , my 2nd figure was Jimmy snuka which I got about a month later (yes , sucked having two good guys and no bad guys) and that Christmas I got the ring, hulk hogan , iron sheik and big John studd. I know I'm the only person who is convinced on this but I believe the stands came with the figures in the 2nd wave of the 1st series because Andre and snuka I got in mid summer did not have stands but the hogan and studd I got at Xmas did have the stands (sheik didn't) So you put the first availability at about mid-late 2014 then (I'm assuming US seasons), with the full first 9 and ring at Christmas 1984? because the WWF June/July magazine has them launched mid 1985? We got them in Australia in late 1985 but this is not indication of their official release time. So I'm keen to know when they first were available in the States.
Yeh I have seen the debate about the stands before...I can't help with that all.
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Post by Ruby Fusion on Nov 8, 2017 5:47:12 GMT -5
Well, since I never saw a moc LJN in stores I only have a little story. In 1987 I befriended a guy of my age who's dad was american. I had visited him many times mainly discussing and playing Commodore 64 games. Then one day in 1988 I saw a figure at his house: an LJN WWF figure! Now I can't remember if it was a bendie or a stretch wrestler, I'm 99% sure it was Ricky "the dragon" Steamboat and 100% sure I was green with envy!
Thanks to the internet I now own some LJN figures (loose and moc). My favorites are Bendies and I always preferred underdogs (despite being an Hulkamaniac), so my favorit is Corporal Kirchner!
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ozz
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Post by ozz on Nov 8, 2017 9:35:30 GMT -5
Ah, good idea. Non-standard figures! I never saw any tag packs in my area (New England, USA). We did have Bendies and stretch wrestlers, though the stretch ones were scarce. I had a couple bendies but don't ever remember buying them. They just...appeared. Thumb wrestlers were plentiful and I had a couple of those as well. The 16" figures, I never saw a Piper but oldest cousin had Hulk. I don't know of anyone at the time who had one of those, most kids seemed to just have the 8" standard figures and thumb wrestlers.
I also had a Winston Toys Hulk, which years later prompted me to search and figure out what that actually was, and led to my discovery of that whole line. Fun fact, at the time that all went down, only 3 were known throughout the collecting community to exist! Surely others knew about the 3 rare figures, but that was very non-shared information and the collecting community as a whole had no clue.
I had the pro wresting magazines which featured the famous LJN ads, most famously the one w/the 87/88 figures and introducing the '89 black cards. "New" Hulk Hogan was there for me to see for the first time in his white shirt, King Haku, etc. $11.99 per figure, $16.99 per new one. We all realize how insane that was for the time, which is why I never did send in my order form. I had it filled out with a few wishes though, including Hacksaw, the Harts, new Hulk (still wasn't aware of the red shirt), Ax, and probably Ultimate Warrior. It's hard to track time going back so far, and months seemed like years at the time, but the LJNs began to disappear from shelves and eventually Hasbros popped up. Still remember the day Gram brought me into TRU for look for wrestlers and we walked upon little plastic ones where the big rubber ones should have been. I could go on and on about Hasbro stories too :laugh:
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Nov 10, 2017 23:01:39 GMT -5
So that's 2 votes of confidence for Corporal K. One more and we have one for each variant!
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Nov 10, 2017 23:03:34 GMT -5
We had Bendies and thumb wrestler-a-plenty out here in Australia. Got my first Bendy in 1988. King Kong Bundy. From Safeway in Eltham. Just across the road from where I had started my first "professional" job after university. He cost $5 bucks. He lasted much longer than my job of course.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Nov 10, 2017 23:08:57 GMT -5
Yep Ozz, how many hours were spent by youngsters marvelling at those images of all the wrestlers they didn't know existed on the back of PWI. $16.99 was a lot of money back then. And of course, we had to realise that (HAKU does not come with crown as illustrated.) Ive read some interesting stories on here about people sending off to The Wrestling ring and what they got back die to out-of-stocks.
And of course. My LJN Haku does have a crown!
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Nov 10, 2017 23:28:17 GMT -5
... so that $16.99 in 1989 is about $US33.50 in todays dollars. Back in 1989 that purchase represented 4.4% of an average weekly wage for the US. In 2017 that adjusted amount would be 3.7%.
For Australia that $US16.99 equated to about $22Aud; or about $45Aud in 2017. In 1989 that purchase of $22Aud presented 4.2% of an average weekly wage for Australia. Today the adjusted amount would be about 3.7%.
So actually not a huge difference. But gee, it did seem like a lot of money - especially for those who were still kids at the time!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2017 20:40:44 GMT -5
I grew up in the Philadelphia area. I had almost all of series 1 through 4, but Curiously, I never saw any series 5 or 6 in the stores. I ordered the white shirt Hogan through an add in the back of a wrestling magazine.
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jason1980s
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Post by jason1980s on Nov 11, 2017 21:05:18 GMT -5
I think everyone had a Corporal Kirchner LJN (I know a few of my friends did) but didn't have any others AND no one seemed to know who he was. Maybe the kids really wanted GI Joe, the parents wouldn't buy them so they got the knock off. I definitely broke the internet looking at Mansonozz and Big Boy's sites! They were ahead of the times for LJNs and most of the things we know about LJN is what we learned from their sites.
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Nov 13, 2017 9:13:59 GMT -5
This is surprisngly enlightening about Coporal Kirchner! Muraco and SD were never easy to find down here in the 1990s which suggests not many were sold/available in 1986 to 1987. Was that your experience in the US?
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michaelc
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Post by michaelc on Nov 13, 2017 9:15:36 GMT -5
...also for those from the UK. We're there any LJNs that ever made it over there at the time?
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ozz
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Post by ozz on Nov 13, 2017 10:49:57 GMT -5
This is surprisngly enlightening about Coporal Kirchner! Muraco and SD were never easy to find down here in the 1990s which suggests not many were sold/available in 1986 to 1987. Was that your experience in the US? I remember seeing Muraco here and there in stores, but not much. I obtained mine at a garage sale at some point. SD Jones, I had the red shirt and recall seeing the Hawaiian shirt in stores a lot (at least KB Toys, I can still perfectly picture rummaging through the Brunos, Titos, and Hawaiian SDs).
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jason1980s
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Post by jason1980s on Nov 13, 2017 21:27:22 GMT -5
There was a video of LOD going into a Toys R Us with Mean Gene and that particular TRU having pegs and pegs of bendies and Slick and Bob Orton LJNs. I wonder if that was the real stock of TRU or if WWF had just sent a bunch of leftovers for the taping. Around the same time, the local TRUs had LJNs but it was one here and there, never bunches.
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