Best LJN figure

...its gotta be the ultimate warrior, great pose, rare figure.

.... and his arm sticks out just enough to deliver a brutal clothesline on rick rude.........who cannot do anthing about it as hes got his hands stuck to his hips for all eternity. lol.

haku....if only he came with the crown

So many to choose from.

The only real bad figures in the line are because of likenesses not resembling the wrestler or because the scale was off.

Here are the scale problem figures. Do keep in mind that for that line, Andre the Giant and Big John Studd should be the biggest figures. When other figures are bigger or as big, then that is a problem:

Wonderful
Rude
Valentine
Beefcake
Patera
Boss Man

As for likenesses, there were few figures that just missed the mark:

Andre version 1
Snuka
Arcidi (in my opinion)


However, there were several dozen of these figures produced with only 8 listed above as being "bad". The first series had the mistake of those "squat poses" which made some figures hard to stand up (try getting Studd or Hogan to stand on their own)

Look at Jim Brunzell and tell me there is a better likeness anywhere. Heenan, 89 Hogan, Haku, Muraco, Bruno, Fuji, Ax, Slick. Those figures are damn near perfect likenesses.

My personal favorite is the 89 Hogan. It looks more like a sculpture than anything else and captures a classic Hogan pose.

Like I said though. There are so many good looking figures in that line that it's hard to choose.

I love being able to talk with other LJN enthusiasts that know what they are talking about.

Completely agree with every point you made. Especially the White version 88 Hogan. While the pose is as accurate as you can get, the color scheme for the red and white one is way off as you said. An American Made version LJN with the appropriate belt, would've kicked all forms of ass back in the day.

I do not like the Warrior figure because the hair is too compact to his head. A bushier hairstyle would've made the figure better and I cannot stand the tassles being molded to the body. Maybe a rubber accessory that would've snapped around the arms, similiar to the JYD collar, but except it would've wrapped around the biceps for the tassles to hang off of the body.

I generally find the black card series to be a mixed bag, ranging from excellent (Haku figure) to cartoonish faces (Warrior, Rude), to confusing (mixing Warlord's P of P face with his singles look of wearing trunks), to lazy (Heel Andre should've had a new facial expression instead of a smile).

As for mistakes, there are some obvious ones. Like Piper coming in red trunks when he always wore blue ones. The 1st version Hogan was way too thin and cut.

Aside from all of that, there are some EXCELLENT looking figures in this line. To name a few that are the cream of the crop:

Kamala
Adonis
Funk
Hercules (his gladiator look was captured perfectly)
Jimmy Hart
Mean Gene
Bam Bam
Hillbilly Jim
Koko
DiBiase
Race
Outback Jack

The above figures are just from the top of my head that stick out as having great likenesses to the actual wrestler.

There is no reason why these figures cannot be re-released as a "Classics" line all by themselves. They would be cheaper to make and you could have hundreds of them. Imagine the different versions of Steamboat you could have? The Original ninja version, the WM3 version, the fire breathing Dragon version.

Not to mention, you could make versions of people who are already signed to Legends Deals and finally get that Brother Love, Bad News, Bushwhackers, Smash, Barbarian, etc etc. An in-ring version of Honky and Dibiase maybe? A Giant Gonzalez? Imagine an LJN set of Kings that includes Race, Haku, Duggan, Savage, Lawler, Mabel, Booker. A Moolah? A Sherri? A Giant's set of Andre, Gonzalez, Big Show, Khali? In scale even?

I know collectors would mark out huge for these ideas.

Haku - I agree he's one of the best from the black card series. The detail on his tights is amazing; just like the ones he wore in Royal Rumble '90.

heel Andre - very lazy on their part. Not only leaving the smile, but how did they end up putting the strap on the wrong shoulder when the prototype pic below has it on the correct one:



Prototype LJNs usually look MUCH better/colorful than the finished product; such as Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, and George Steele. The one exception were the finished product looked better than the prototype is Rick Rude:



I am very glad they opted to forget about the simple green tights and plain white boots to go ahead with the multi colored tights and pink boots.



Some other LJN mistakes I just remembered:

Hart Foundation - black boots on both of them! Nope, 0 for 2

British Bulldogs - wrong color for the tights; they should have used a bright red color instead

Billy Jack Haynes - they paid so much attention to detail on his tattoos and wristbands that they forgot to give him kneepads. This figure would have been a perfect 10 if kneepads would have been included - green or yellow

Magnificent Muraco - they also forgot to give him kneepads.
He did wear red trunks, but very rarely. He should have been given blue or black trunks instead.

Cowboy Bob Orton - kneepads should have been black, not green. The face on the Orton figure is just off. It does not resemble him.

Big Boss Man - nice figure, but there is a small mistake. The "BIG BOSS MAN" patch is on the wrong pocket

Bam Bam - cool figure, but also very lazy. They did not even bother to paint the back of his tights. He also should have been given tattoos on his arms.

For me Warrior, Haku, Warlord and Bundy are the best bar a country mile.

I've always thought the Warlord, Ax, and Ultimate Warrior figures looked tremendous... but I never owned them, so I base that only on seeing them in pictures over the years.

Of the figures I owned, I always liked Jake Roberts. I thought it looked very cool, especially with Damien as an accessory.

I liked Koko B. Ware until I took him out of the package and it dawned on me that every "match" I put him in vs. other LJN figures, he'd be wearing his molded-on entrance jacket. For a kid, that's a pretty big deal. Although don't get me wrong -- molded jacket Koko was way better than no Koko at all!

Haku and Harley. For whatever reason the jacket, albeit inaccurate, never really bothered me.

-J\/\/

Funk and Dynamite Kid