tenup
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Joined on: Oct 2, 2007 14:00:40 GMT -5
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Post by tenup on Feb 13, 2021 22:04:29 GMT -5
Those who've been collecting since the inception of Mattel's WWE line I'm curious to know your initial thoughts. I first set my eyes on Mattel figures at Toys R Us (TRU) back in the good days of retail. Saw what was the original Elite series along with the basics. I was intrigued at the same time having mixed emotions on what was on display.
I vividly remember seeing the first basic Triple H and thinking to myself how scrawny they made him look especially coming off the roided out JAKKS line. I was unsure but drawn in at the same time. Then what sold me on the product was the first elite Undertaker. I was so impressed with the details that I dropped the $20 to add it as my first Mattel collectable.
I remember getting home and unwrapping it (would've made for good YT content) and admiring the level of detail never before seen from any previous toyline. From the life like face scan to the highly detailed tattoos and skin tone I was blown away. My only plight was not having anything to go with it as Jakks was nowhere near the scale nor detail of this piece.
The beginning was fun but frustrating all at once because of budget issues and not having a large selection to choose from. Not to mention the absence of title belts which Jakks versions were used as a place holder.
What was your beginning like?
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Post by LA Times on Feb 13, 2021 22:08:21 GMT -5
I bought my first Mattel a few months after the Jan 2010 release date. It was a Basic 1 John Cena. I was hesitant to make the change from Jakks.
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Post by BadGirlRyleigh on Feb 14, 2021 0:06:00 GMT -5
I was immediately impressed how detailed the elite Rey was and how much better it was than Jakks the moment I opened it.
When I first got a few Mattel’s I played with them and Jakks, but the more I got, the less I wanted to use my Jakks figures and I started hoping the Jakks guys I had would get elites so I would be able to use them in matches again
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Post by Bandalero on Feb 14, 2021 0:44:51 GMT -5
It was a breath of fresh air. Never could get onboard with Jakks, the scale, the balloon heads, thunder thighs, half paint decos ugh. So my first figure was Ricky Steamboat and I was floored by the amount of articulation at the time - wow wrestling figures that can actually be posed in a realistic Boston Crab!
But honestly Mattel has sat on this formula for too long, butterfly shoulders, double jointed elbows and knees, interchangeable parts, dumb-bell necks and torsos - all those things shouldn't have taken 10+ years to be introduced to this line. Hasbro is killing it with all their popular lines and it feels like WWE Elites are playing catch-up when they were industry leaders at one point.
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mrh
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Post by mrh on Feb 14, 2021 0:51:24 GMT -5
Those who've been collecting since the inception of Mattel's WWE line I'm curious to know your initial thoughts. I first set my eyes on Mattel figures at Toys R Us (TRU) back in the good days of retail. Saw what was the original Elite series along with the basics. I was intrigued at the same time having mixed emotions on what was on display. I vividly remember seeing the first basic Triple H and thinking to myself how scrawny they made him look especially coming off the roided out JAKKS line. I was unsure but drawn in at the same time. Then what sold me on the product was the first elite Undertaker. I was so impressed with the details that I dropped the $20 to add it as my first Mattel collectable. I remember getting home and unwrapping it (would've made for good YT content) and admiring the level of detail never before seen from any previous toyline. From the life like face scan to the highly detailed tattoos and skin tone I was blown away. My only plight was not having anything to go with it as Jakks was nowhere near the scale nor detail of this piece. The beginning was fun but frustrating all at once because of budget issues and not having a large selection to choose from. Not to mention the absence of title belts which Jakks versions were used as a place holder. What was your beginning like?
Were people doing YouTube toy unboxings in 2010? And you couldn't just record and upload from a phone well -- crazy how quick the world is changing these days
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Post by Kill Em' All on Feb 14, 2021 0:52:24 GMT -5
I kind of wishing Jakks still had the line; but adopted Mattel's ideas better. I wasn't fully sold on Mattel until 2011.
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Post by Chip on Feb 14, 2021 1:01:19 GMT -5
At the first protos I wasn't impressed. I thought the figures looked to skinny and small, wrestling has always felt like a "larger than life" form of entertainment, so I had ZERO issues with the way Jakks' figures looked. I spent years on this board countering people's criticisms about heads, heights and arms, etc. But in the end, Mattel's Elite line won me over big time, 90% of my Jakks collection is gone and I've got more Mattels now than I ever had Jakks RA/DA.
I honestly wasn't going to collect Mattel's at first. Only select few and maybe upgrades, but the hobby sucked me in and I'm happy I made the change.
Still think some of their figures are too small for the guys they portray, but it is what it is.
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Post by warlord on Feb 14, 2021 1:12:16 GMT -5
Those who've been collecting since the inception of Mattel's WWE line I'm curious to know your initial thoughts. I first set my eyes on Mattel figures at Toys R Us (TRU) back in the good days of retail. Saw what was the original Elite series along with the basics. I was intrigued at the same time having mixed emotions on what was on display. I vividly remember seeing the first basic Triple H and thinking to myself how scrawny they made him look especially coming off the roided out JAKKS line. I was unsure but drawn in at the same time. Then what sold me on the product was the first elite Undertaker. I was so impressed with the details that I dropped the $20 to add it as my first Mattel collectable. I remember getting home and unwrapping it (would've made for good YT content) and admiring the level of detail never before seen from any previous toyline. From the life like face scan to the highly detailed tattoos and skin tone I was blown away. My only plight was not having anything to go with it as Jakks was nowhere near the scale nor detail of this piece. The beginning was fun but frustrating all at once because of budget issues and not having a large selection to choose from. Not to mention the absence of title belts which Jakks versions were used as a place holder. What was your beginning like?
Were people doing YouTube toy unboxings in 2010? And you couldn't just record and upload from a phone well -- crazy how quick the world is changing these days
Yes, some even further back actually. Some examples, ShartimusPrime and Pixel Dan have been doing it since 2008. AnthonysCustoms has been doing it since 2010. I remember watching the former while growing up towards the end of elementary school and the latter around 7th-8th grade.
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Post by Mr. Show on Feb 14, 2021 1:12:52 GMT -5
I collected Jakks from the BCA days, so when it was announced Mattel was taking over, I was pretty much ready to call it quits. Then I saw the first protos and was blown away. They looked so much more realistic than the cartoony Jakks line. But still, I wasn’t quite ready to start all over. I said I would buy JUST ONE to see if I liked them. Cut to December 2009, I found a lone Elite 1 CM Punk at Target and bought it. It was the first Mattel figure I had seen in person. I took it home, opened it up, and immediately it became my favorite figure. So I decided to keep it going, even though I wasn’t really even watching wrestling on TV anymore at the time. January 1 came, and I checked all the stores around me, but no Mattel figures. Until a couple days later when I hit the motherload at K-Mart. I filled up my shopping cart with Elite 1 MVP and Edge, Basic 1 Kofi Kingston, Big Show, and Evan Bourne, Wrestlemania Heritage John Cena, Stone Cold, Undertaker, Randy Orton, and Batista, Superstar Matchups Rey Mysterio, Two-Packs 1 HBK/Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes/Ted Dibiase, and Two-Packs 2 John Morrison/Miz, Finlay/Hornswoggle, and Carlito/Primo. It was definitely the most wrestling figures I have ever bought in one day, but hey, the economy was a lot better back then. Even though my salary was less than half then what it is now, a dollar just seemed to go a lot farther. Nowadays I might buy 1-2 figures per payday, tops. And even then I have to think pretty hard if they are worth it.
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Post by Nivro™ on Feb 14, 2021 1:19:53 GMT -5
It was a breath of fresh air. Never could get onboard with Jakks, the scale, the balloon heads, thunder thighs, half paint decos ugh. So my first figure was Ricky Steamboat and I was floored by the amount of articulation at the time - wow wrestling figures that can actually be posed in a realistic Boston Crab! But honestly Mattel has sat on this formula for too long, butterfly shoulders, double jointed elbows and knees, interchangeable parts, dumb-bell necks and torsos - all those things shouldn't have taken 10+ years to be introduced to this line. Hasbro is killing it with all their popular lines and it feels like WWE Elites are playing catch-up when they were industry leaders at one point.I think there's a fear on the corporate side to change uniformity. Honestly it happened with JAKKS, the move to DAs late in their run as well into the TNA run turned off a lot of the RA collectors and they stopped buying. I think Elites need to stay like they are for uniformity but Im ok with the introduction of things like Ultimates where you get more articulation.
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カMute09
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Post by カMute09 on Feb 14, 2021 1:26:59 GMT -5
Life was rough for me at the launch of the Mattel line. I stopped collecting at the end of jakks due to my family falling on hard times. My mom and I were living in a hotel. On our way to building our way back up when the line started. It brought me joy at a very dark time. The joy I felt finding those figures early at target. The shakes as I put them in the cart. It was that day I decided to never give up collecting again.
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Deleted
Joined on: Jun 18, 2024 8:30:36 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2021 2:03:45 GMT -5
My beginning, like yours and many others, was with the SDCC Undertaker. So I’m going to move on to a more intriguing chapter... the moment I realized that my Jakks collection was a waste.
It was doubly annoying because in 2009 I made a big jump into scooping up pricey figures like OG LOD, RA Steiner, etc. I really padded my collection that summer. And then a year later Mattel comes in with a vastly superior product.
It was bittersweet for sure. Seeing all those figures and accessories instantly lose value both financially and spiritually was a gut punch I wasn’t ready for... although Jakks gave us as much preparation as possible with the no f**ks given run with they went on at the end.
Now, while I was 100% on board with Mattel early on, I didn’t buy a whole lot in the beginning because a lot of their opening roster and/or attire selections were poor (a tradition they have yet to abandon lol). My interest in the WWE program also started declining at a more rapid rate at that point so most of the modern figures were of no interest to me.
That all being said, I’m going to enjoy Mattel as much as I can while they’re here. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited at the prospect of the license going full circle and Hasbro getting another crack at it. Something tells me Undertaker won’t have laced boots with them.
I love you.
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mrh
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Post by mrh on Feb 14, 2021 4:27:34 GMT -5
Life was rough for me at the launch of the Mattel line. I stopped collecting at the end of jakks due to my family falling on hard times. My mom and I were living in a hotel. On our way to building our way back up when the line started. It brought me joy at a very dark time. The joy I felt finding those figures early at target. The shakes as I put them in the cart. It was that day I decided to never give up collecting again.
Amazing story -- can't imagine how hard that must have been as a kind. Thanks for sharing -- and hope you are doing well now...
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Post by RuthlessFigs on Feb 14, 2021 7:20:48 GMT -5
I remember being disappointed and 'scared' when i found out that Jakks was finishing up with WWE, and Mattel was taking over. I was so used to Jakks & loved them when they were putting out good products. So not knowing how the Mattel's were going to look had me doubting whether i'd keep collecting.
Fast forward to when i saw images, i was disappointed at first simply because they looked so different to Jakks, and hated how there would be two different scales in my feds. Regardless of that, i was still interested enough to want them. In November 2009, on a typical trip to Toyworld, i saw the entire set of Basic Series 1 except Cena & Bourne, so i got Triple H, Kingston, and Big Show.
I remember still being somewhat disappointed at the different scaling, but i was impressed with how good they looked, and how much detail was on them. Triple H for example, having the logo's on the back of his Elbow pads impressed me a lot, and i thought it was so cool. I wasn't the biggest fan of the head, but it was still good. After this, i ended up Pre-Ordering the Elite 1 CM Punk on the RSC Ebay page. Since Punk was my favourite at the time, i had to get it, and I loved how it was in a good attire that hadn't been made yet, the fact that he finally had Kickpad designs after so long, and the cloth shirt was a great accessory. The tattoo detail amazed me too. When it arrived, it quickly became one of my favourite figures.
Not too long after that, I found the Elite 1 MVP, Undertaker, and Edge at Toyworld. I loved the accessories on all of them, and how they looked with the exception of Edge's head. After this, i started warming up to Mattel a lot, though was still somewhat disappointed that Jakks was done. To drown out that disappointment though (Momentarily), finding out that Jakks had the TNA licence had me excited since i loved TNA at the time, and it meant that we'd still get figures of guys like Jeff Hardy, Kurt Angle etc... and finally get good figures of Sting, and TNA homegrown talent like Abyss, Styles, Joe, Beer Money etc...
In the end, i'm glad Mattel took over the WWE line. When they try, they put out some of the best looking figures made. And now that they've been around for so long, they really make you realise how dumb Jakks figures looked in terms of scaling. But with that said, i still love the Jakks figures, they served their purpose for the time they were around, they were fun to play with, had superior accessories & sets, had superior headscan's for a lot of guys (Edge & HBK as two examples), and still bring back memories.
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Post by BadGirlRyleigh on Feb 14, 2021 7:56:05 GMT -5
It was a breath of fresh air. Never could get onboard with Jakks, the scale, the balloon heads, thunder thighs, half paint decos ugh. So my first figure was Ricky Steamboat and I was floored by the amount of articulation at the time - wow wrestling figures that can actually be posed in a realistic Boston Crab! But honestly Mattel has sat on this formula for too long, butterfly shoulders, double jointed elbows and knees, interchangeable parts, dumb-bell necks and torsos - all those things shouldn't have taken 10+ years to be introduced to this line. Hasbro is killing it with all their popular lines and it feels like WWE Elites are playing catch-up when they were industry leaders at one point.I think there's a fear on the corporate side to change uniformity. Honestly it happened with JAKKS, the move to DAs late in their run as well into the TNA run turned off a lot of the RA collectors and they stopped buying. I think Elites need to stay like they are for uniformity but Im ok with the introduction of things like Ultimates where you get more articulation. Elites desperately need to change, and it goes beyond the uniformity of torsos. Mattel used to pull out all the stops but somewhere along the way they got comfortable and stopped. The constant use of the same parts when better ones exist/using existing parts instead of making new ones, the lack of toy evolution (which now results in AEW looking light years better than WWE and AEW being more collector/custom friendly with the easy to swap torsos). I buy elites basically for the cool attires and nostalgia at this point. If they don’t overhaul beyond just double joint arms Im going to slowly drift to just collecting Unrivaled and 1997-2006 attires.
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omartheterror
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Post by omartheterror on Feb 14, 2021 12:15:48 GMT -5
I think there's a fear on the corporate side to change uniformity. Honestly it happened with JAKKS, the move to DAs late in their run as well into the TNA run turned off a lot of the RA collectors and they stopped buying. I think Elites need to stay like they are for uniformity but Im ok with the introduction of things like Ultimates where you get more articulation. Elites desperately need to change, and it goes beyond the uniformity of torsos. Mattel used to pull out all the stops but somewhere along the way they got comfortable and stopped. The constant use of the same parts when better ones exist/using existing parts instead of making new ones, the lack of toy evolution (which now results in AEW looking light years better than WWE and AEW being more collector/custom friendly with the easy to swap torsos). I buy elites basically for the cool attires and nostalgia at this point. If they don’t overhaul beyond just double joint arms Im going to slowly drift to just collecting Unrivaled and 1997-2006 attires. So I’m not one go really criticize Mattel. Like I don’t care if they give someone laceless boots when they shouldn’t or if their torso isn’t quite as ripped as it should be. But when you think about it some of the best elites IMO are 10 years old. I’m not sure what that says.
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Deleted
Joined on: Jun 18, 2024 8:30:36 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2021 12:21:00 GMT -5
But honestly Mattel has sat on this formula for too long, butterfly shoulders, double jointed elbows and knees, interchangeable parts, dumb-bell necks and torsos - all those things shouldn't have taken 10+ years to be introduced to this line. Hasbro is killing it with all their popular lines and it feels like WWE Elites are playing catch-up when they were industry leaders at one point. Agreed with all of this. I know people have a religion to defend when it comes to Mattel WWE but Mattel should have gone further than just basically adopting the RA/DA articulation from the start. I remember being disappointed that the Elites didn't have the butterfly shoulders, double jointed elbows or the articulated fingers that a lot of the Toybiz TNA figures had.
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Post by slappy on Feb 14, 2021 12:25:58 GMT -5
I planned to stop collecting when I saw the protos. I was at Toys R Us before Christmas in 2009 when I saw the first set (they weren't supposed to be out until 2010). I grabbed Big Show and Triple H just to see all the fuss. I opened them and immediately knew I was going to keep collecting. That Big Show is still one of my favorite Mattel figs.
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kinnikuman
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Post by kinnikuman on Feb 14, 2021 12:26:38 GMT -5
I can still remember getting S1 of Jakks BCA.
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Post by Mongo Bears on Feb 14, 2021 12:33:09 GMT -5
My beginning was with the first elite honky tonk man. Before then I had never owned a wrestling action figure and I don’t believe there was any product made that could’ve pulled me in. Since then I’d wager a few figures have come out that would’ve got me to buy. (1st Ric Flair Dm, 2nd Savage Dm, slim Jim macho, Retrofest honky, L9 DiBiase, and maybe one or two more I can’t think of now)
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