The Good Old Days, When Things Were Mysterious

Actually, I think it's because of the Internet that I now feel MORE "surprised" when I see a figure in shops. It's rarer to see the figure you want in shops nowadays because usually somebody has scalped it to sell on the Internet before you have a chance.

In the old days I had no problem finding the figures I wanted in stores, so it was never that much of a surprise when I did.

Internet ruined collecting...scalping has increased like 500% lol.

And yes, I do remember the "good old days" of collecting...like when all I needed was the Galoob Sid Vicious and me and my dad looked everywhere for it as opposed to buying it on the 'net.

Even the early days of AFR (wrestleworld.com/afr) and RSC are golden to me...I remember seeing BCA protos and being SO excited.

LOL, remember figurezone.com?!

This floods bak a couple of memories from when i first started lol,

yeah i remember whenever i found a rock or hogan fig i went nuts. But i also missed out on alot of great rock and hogan figs by not knowing what was out except for who was on the back of the box.

I used to enjoy it. But i'm glad now so I know what i'm looking for.

yeah i remember when i was 4 i went into toys r us & saw bca edge i was so happy lol

What you're forgetting is that not everyone is the same age as you and not everyone has the same collecting timeline and habits. There are young kids now who aren't "collectors" but like wrestling figures, and they get their knowledge of current/upcoming releases from the back of the card rather than the Internet. If everyone that bought wrestling figures was on forums like this, there'd be no need to show figures on the back of the card.

As a kid, I used to love when there'd be new Hasbro WWF figures out. I remember going to Woolworths one Saturday and they had a new set. It included Bret Hart (who had just won his first WWF title from Ric Flair, it had been reported on Superstars the night before), the British Bulldog and I think Ricky Steamboat, amongst others. I got most of the Hasbro figures, apart from the ones deemed rare and I guess they stopped selling them here after a while - or at least stopped selling them in the same quantities. I think the last ones I got were Skinner and IRS, but my best friend got Yokozuna, Bam Bam, Luger etc. Then things went quiet here for wrestling figures for a while.

Another exciting time for me was when the BCA figures hit UK retail. From 1996, all we'd get was the occasional figure (or mini ring) in the Argos catalogue every six months but around the time of WrestleMania XV the figures started to hit toy and comic shops. I remember seeing the announcement in a wrestling magazine that UK distribution had been picked up, and they had tiny pictures of the figures there, and I was incredibly excited for them. I think they were "Fully Loaded" figures, I remember a Billy Gunn in green trunks with a shovel. Not sure if that's accurate but that's my memory of the magazine picture. I couldn't wait.

At first, there wasn't much choice. I remember buying STOMP figures of Marc Mero, Sable and Chyna because there wasn't anything else. Then shortly after, I regretted them (at least the Mero anyway) because the toys poured into the shops. All the latest ranges, and Forbidden Planet even had these fantastic boxsets - I think one was an Austin/Undertaker/Vince/announce table deal.

The Rock, Al Snow, Billy Gunn, those were the three I liked best. I only ever owned Rock at the time (and it's a terrible figure, I've got about three of them now and the likeness is atrocious), but I now have a Billy Gunn and an Al Snow on the way from eBay. I wasn't a fan of Austin at the time but I loved the later BCA likeness of him. His first BCA face looked like Dwayne Gill.

I remember seeing the "last of bone-crunchin'" on the boxes and I read in another magazine about the new Titan Tron Live figures with an entrance that played music. Wow!

Then the first wave of Tron figures hit. These were even more prominent, and I was appalled by them. The faces were even worse than the BCA figures and the choices of attire were horrible. The set I saw most was a Double Slam team set with terrible figures of Mankind/Rock (wearing some kind of outfit he NEVER wore on television and I think a baseball cap) and Big Show/Undertaker (who had his Ministry of Darkness hair/beard and a baseball shirt or t-shirt on!).

Then the real scan era started and they were a huge improvement. I think the first set of these I saw was a Chyna/Jericho two-pack. And since then, wrestling figures have been a staple of places that sell toys here. I remember there being millions of Stephanies, Jerichos and Tests on shelves in 2000.

I never much bothered with wrestling figures in this era. The first Tron figures I got was a Rebellion series in early 2001, because they were buy one get one free in Woolworths. The Rock, Scotty Too Hotty, Kurt Angle, Tazz, and two others. I believe one was Undertaker but not sure. Then later in 2001, I saw Argos were selling a ring with announce table and JR and a referee, plus 10 figures (I don't recall if it was 12 figures in total or JR, ref and 8 more). I think it was £19.99 but that sounds like way too good a deal. I still have most of these figures, I found them a couple of months ago at my parents house. The Hardys, Big Show, Jericho, Triple H, another Austin, Edge, Benoit, another Rock... I guess there were 10 wrestlers, I don't remember who the other one was.

I think I was glancing at messageboards by the time the Unchained Fury figures hit, but it was cool seeing them in stores. Since then, I never really bought any figures until last year. I'd always look at the wrestling figures in toy shops and see the new lines - Ruthless Aggression and Unlimited and Flex-'Ems etc, but never was interested enough to buy. My friend was also collecting the old rare Hasbros he'd missed as well, Evil Crush and Adam Bomb and so on.

Then it was Argos that got me back into it. I saw the Micro Aggression ring. Bought that, got online, bought more figures (series 2 was just out then) and found sites like this one. My friend then started collecting Ruthless Aggression figures, so I bought an RA Kurt Angle on eBay to grow his collection (so we could eventually do a draft and federations).

I was also interested in the new Build and Brawl figures, but they seemed like a waste of money. When I was on holiday in Ireland in May, I thought "what the hell, why not" and bought a couple from Argos. Lashley and Undertaker. I was amazed by them. Even now I think Taker is by far the best B&B figure. I bought another two (Edge and Cena) a couple of days later, and before we came home I went to an Irish Internet cafe to look on eBay for more. Fortunately, I put winning bids in on a few cheap lots. The day we got back, I went round shops (Argos branches again) and hunted down HHH and Batista to finish off series one, and had series two within the next week.

This has all been long and pointless, but ultimately I don't know whether it was better as a mystery. As a kid that doesn't take it seriously, just going to a store with money for a figure and seeing a whole host of options is great. But it's also good to know what's coming out or what's out and tracking what you want down.

I was actually hit recently by a bit of "mystery" when it comes to figures, mostly by my own stupidity. The current Argos catalogue came out a couple of weeks ago. I looked through it and saw in the B&B figures, one of them listed was a John Morrison (in brown pants, no less). Now I know there hasn't been a John Morrison release yet in the line and series 4 isn't out yet. I also know (from buying series 1 there) that Argos just got the standard B&B figures. But what if maybe, just maybe, they had their own John Morrison. I quickly took a look at the local store's B&B range, and no Johnny. When I got home I found out that he'd been planned for series 2 and was replaced by a slightly repainted Batista, so Argos probably just had the proto image from then.

I even used mystery against one of my drunken friends on Friday night to get my second RA figure. Walking back from the pub, we headed to Tesco. I said "if they've got wrestling figures in here, will you buy me one?"
He said, "If you can name a wrestler and the figure is here, I will buy it for you. But if not, you have to buy me a case of beer."
I should point out that I had been to the Tesco a week before, and like every Tesco, it has loads of RA 30. My friend already had those same or similar figures of HHH, Cena, MVP and Mark Henry.
"Sandman." I said.
And now I have a Sandman figure!

...Well, it was either him or Boogeyman.

Looking at the figs & finding the one you want, like i wanted the RA32 Morrison & i couldn't find it, so i went into TRU about a month ago & quickly grab ECW4 Morrison!!!!! Thats my exitment about it & also putting them in my collection!

I remember looking at the back of one of the cards of a BCA figure and seeing the set with Hardcore Holly with the wooden table. I think it was Holly's first BCA figure and it was my first time seeing a wooden table. I brought it to school the next day to show my friends.