Rebuilding my collection again....for the Third time

SOMEBODY BETTA CALL MY MOMMMA



E18 Brodus Clay

this was a figure that has no business being as good as it is 🤣 to be candid it was a random ebay purchase; i think it came out to something like $15 shipped for the figure loose--but it was mint so i splurged for that price. keeping with the 2012-era here, we have the FUNKASAURUS, TYRUS Brodus Clay. As i recall, he was a monster type heel character in nXt and when he made his main roster debut, he was given the dreaded dancing dinosaur gimmick by Vince. i feel like the Funkasaraus character couldve been handled right, i mean it is wrestling after all, but it was done in the PG era so it was just a non ironic dancing big guy. ANYWAYS this figure comes to us in the iconic red addidas style jumpsuit with BC footprint logos on the upper chest. im SO happy that these are softgoods and to be honest they are pretty high quality and they fit the figure great! the pants are high waisted and they look a little goofy, but its definitely on purpose and as i mentioned they make the outfit look great. Brodus comes with a silver chain and ed fedora hat; they both also fit and look great on the figure. underneath the jumpsuit, Brodus is wearing a red singlet with white trim and logos. the body sculpt is unique to brodus; he certainly has an eggy shaped body and they captured it quite well on his figure lool. the headsculpt on this figure is actually really good for the era. it captured Brodus in a smiling expression and even with that it looks really good. they captured his tattoos all well enough, too. im not an expert in Brodus clay's tattoos but i do remember his upper body being inked out and the paint apps to my figure all came out cleanly and crispy.
all in all, this is actually a great figure. the articulation and poseablity is what you would expect from a big guy, plus Brodus wasnt the most swift moving guy between the ropes, so no matter on that anyways. but the softgoods are amazing; they fit the figure great and as far as i can tell do not stain the figure whatsoever. the likeness, scale and bodysculpt all seem to hold true to Brodus/Tyrus and i just wish he wasnt given the dancing dinosaue gimmick on wwe main roster

^ yikes... I didn't realise he had such a giraffe neck!? I've kept mine MIB.

happy post christmas!

hopefully everyone had a great holiday and was able to see and share time with loved ones 🙏🏻

i hung out at home and binged on the Mandalorian series again 😅

i got my Ringside cyber sale figures delivered today! made an absolute killing on AEW figures, that was awesome! got my farmer Brock figure in from ebay, two demon finn balor figures-newest one from amazon and an older one from ebay, aaaand a couple of star wars figures in from amazon- my post christmas was way better than the real holiday 😭

anyways.... we gonna review the last figure today before i talk about the Legends Series 16, i feel like its Very appropriate leading in.....




E77 Viscera

Big Viscera!! 😤 this figure had eluded me for something like two freaking years. i placed an order for this figure on spamS and after a year of waiting they finally canceled my order due to item unavailability. i kept an eye out for this figure on the secondary market, but the prices were always just a bit above what i was willing to pay. finally scored a deal on ebay and locked in a big daddy V for the collection. as expected, Vis is a chonk of a figure; there is a lot of heft to this guy. Viscera comes to us wearing his trademark Ministry black..trenchcoat? longshirt? either way it looks great, i remember the material looking like a light vinyl or something, definitely not a heavy leather item and mattel captured that look perfectly on the sleeves and in the sculpt of the shirt itself. there are rows of silver buttons on the front and back of the figure, not sure why the designs arent symmetrical? the headsculpt of this figure is honestly pretty perfect. we get an angry Vis bearing teeth and scowling, they captured the look perfectly all the way down to his white eye contacts and bleach blonde mohawk. for accessories we got some interchangeable hands in the V Time shape and the Hardcore Championship belt.
all in all i honestly have no complaints with this Viscera figure. the size and scale of the figure seems decent, likeness is on point, poseability is what it is for a Viscera and the attire was done really well. a much needed member to complete the Ministry of Darkness lineup 🤔

happy wrestle wednesday 💪🏻

when i was fig fedding back in the day, Wednesdays would be for a show i named "Mayhem". Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were for main shows and Tuesdays and Thurdays were just for pure wrestling exhibition style matches and stuff that would work itself into the main shows 🤪 i do miss the fantasy booking of doing that it was so much fun, my storylines were amazing 😂

ANYWAYS

finally we are going to crack into the LEGENDS series 16 figure reviews. im usually really pumped for legends figures and lineups becasue im more of a classic era collector, this series had me 2/4 or 3/4 excited for what we were announced to be getting, ill get more into that as we peel through the figures in this series.



Farooq and Bradshaw-the Acolytes

to be candid these were definitely my most anticipated figures of this series. first time in the line Ministry era Acolytes, hell yeah!!! the acolytes were a staple tag team in the attitude era, just always there kicking ass and taking names. they were the perfect henchmen for the Undertaker, two big bruisers who take no snuff and who werent afraid to get into a tussle with anyone. these figures come to us wearing their trademark black tights with silver/purple ministy symbolism on the legs. as i remember the prototype images showed Farooq wearing a different design on his tights which i really would have preferred over them wearing the matching gear. the Farooq figure looks great overall, the skintone looks much better than the ultra dark skintone that we previously saw on his earlier acolyte figure. the headsculpt looks to be the same as the APA figure, just Truefx applied and to be honest it looks great, Farooq wasnt a very expression forward guy, just looked pissed off and fed up all the time. farooq was given the tantaka/modern batista/ hall of champions farooq torso. i really like this torso choice for farooq, he wasnt actually that shredded in the abs, but he had that heavyweight thickness that really came across in this body recipe. moving down the figure we got his trademark bicep bands, black wristape and black fingertape. all in all this Farooq figure is pretty DAMN perfect. i think it would have been cooler to have different designs on his tights but it still turned out to be an awesome figure.
Bradshaw is a different story however. the headsculpt on this figure looks good, it captures bradshaw in that period when he cut his long hair, i remember it being super short for a time (1998?) but its longer and slicked back on this figure. he is wearing earrings and has a serious expression on his face. moving down the figure into the torso is where mattel frankly ruined this figure completely. they decided to give this figure the JBL torso- which already looks a little weird as it is- but it does NOT represent Bradshaw's physique during this era. they 10/10 should have chosen the old heavyweight/hilbilly jim torso because Bradshaw was THICC, i dont think he ever had ab definition. the JBL torso makes this acolyte head look too large on the body and its just all around too slim for Bradshaw, it really kills the figure. Bradshaw is wearing matching tights to Farooq, just his legs and lower body take advantage of taller parts.

all in all these Acolyte figures were much wanted and needed for the collection, but im really upset that they fumbled the body recipe on the Bradshaw figure; we were really this close to greatness. i also wouldve liked to have the prototype logos on the Farooq figure's tights and if i can nitpick, i wouldve like a little more variation in their chest symbols. i feel like each acolyte would summon different energies or fortify themselves with different strengths by choosing what kind of symbolism they take into the ring. by just giving each figure matching tights and extremely similar chest symbols, these figures feel a little bit watered down, but then again attitude era was IT for me so im pretty obsessive over the details and things presented from that time. at this time i feel like these are going to be the best version of the Acolytes that we will get for the upcoming years so i would recommend adding them to the collection--pretty sure theyre on clearance right now anyways.

Keeping up with the Legends 16 series reviews today is a guy who i feel like probably had the most elites released for the calendar year.....




Rey Mysterio

Legends 16 brought us a rey mysterio figure from ECW One Night Stand 2006 where he faced the homicidal, suicidal and genocial maniac, Sabu. Right out of the gate, im gonna say that i dont feel like this figure needed a spot in the legends line. we're getting a wcw era Rey with a cruiserweight championship in the main line elite series 100; i dont think a rey mysterio from a 2006 ppv needs to hog a spot in the legends line. that being said, im usually pretty open to buying most rey figures because they all tend to end up looking pretty cool; and this is another pretty cool rey figure. this Rey comes to us wearing a really nice softgoods entrance robe-its a cool iridescent white/silver color with a hood and a mask logo printed on the back. the robe fits the figure really well and its made of quality material. as mentioned this Rey figure is from ECW One Night Stand 2006 so he is wearing a predominantly black and red colorschemed attire. the headsculpt they chose was one that we've seen hundreds of times before, it works but would be kinda cool to see something new at this point in production. the mask is black with white details, red wings on the sides of the mask and white ECW logo on the back of his mask instead of the traditional Mexican medallion design. going down the figure, this was a 2006 rey so his tattoos were still kinda sparce. he is wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute armbands on each bicep and then his elbow pads have white mask and 619 logos on the right and left pad respectively. this figure is wearing black throwback styled tights with a large red question mark in the center of the tights and red wings going down the front of each leg. the figure bottoms out with some crisp white boots with red question logos on the front. although its true to the actual attire, there are no designs or logos on the back of the figure making it feel kinda bland--but as mentioned it is true to the actual look. for accessories we got the classic interchangeable gloved hands and a satin? finished heavyweight world championship belt. the non VAC belt was a weird choice, IMO, but i guess they needed to fulfill some cutbacks due to softgoods inclusion maybe.
all in all this is everything you could expect from a rey mysterio figure. the softgoods entrance jacket is very cool and very quality, all of the paint apps on my figure were applied cleanly and crisply, poseability is awesome coz its a rey rey figure. the figure itself is great---i just wish it didnt occupy a slot in the Legends line. given that we have and are currently getting flashback reys in the elite main line i dont think a rey from 2006 should be considered legends material. maybe their reasoning was that they could accomodate a softgoods jacket for the legends line and not main line? but i still would have rather had a new or different character. given that we got so many Rey figures this year as it is already, i cant necessarily say that this is a MUST HAVE for the collection.

HAPPY 2023 EVERYONE 🎉🎈🎊🥳

i wanted to do my own little year end wrap up for my thoughts and ideas on my favorite or least favorite products that mattel gave us this year.

im gonna be taking the knowledge of the 2022 releases from the voting survey thats currently active.



E89

Sgt Slaughter was MY MVF for this series. E89 was a pretty cool set, its unfortunate that they used Nia Jax as the chase figure because her figures sold notoriously bad. the Drew figure in the kilt with the sword was EPIC, Goon figure was an unexpected surprise, but i guess the real gem of this series was the Damian Priest figure. it looks really cool with the purple color and all of the unique sculpts to the attire came out really well.



E90

Bronson Reed and Bossman were my MVF for E90. Bronson Reed's figure came out looking incredible; size, scale, poseability, color, softgoods, great headsculpt-all around amazing figure. Bossman / The Boss figures were an awesome addition to the collection-The Boss figure in all black looks really cool. the only other figures i got from E90 were mustafa Ali and Reckoning-they were cool figures but didnt blow me away. 10/10 salty about the Chief Jay figure being cancelled i wanted that figure really really bad.



E91

RVD.Tiger Stripes.end of story. i think we all have our own personal reasons for loving the tiger stripe attire and im so unbelievably grateful that mattel just gave it to us right out of the gate. once again im SUPER salty about the chase figure being cancelled. oh and also the Ruthless Aggression era hogan was highly anticipated from myself-just really let down at this torso choice debacle that mattel is doing with hogan figures.



E92/E93

both E92 and E93 were pretty flat series for me. i feel like everyone was clamoring for the new adam cole figure in E92, but the WCW era flair was what garnered the most interest from me. E93 was another kindof 'meh' series for me; Karrion Kross was the MVF in E93 just due to how awesome that figure came out looking overall. i thought T-Bar looked cool, and i really wanted the WCW TV title that came with Steamboat.



E94

gotta give the MVF in E94 to bret.

so i havent had a chance to review anything from E95,96,97,98 or 99 so i dont really want to jump the gun on discussion for those figures but i do have a bunch of figures from those waves and i like alot of them.



We got quite a few BAF waves this year; honestly and truly i rank all of them 2/4 on excitement levels. every single wave i genuinely only wanted 2/4 figures from the waves but just for the sake of the BAF i caved and completed them all. Dakota Kai was my MVF from all the waves, shockingly. she had the best overall figure IMO from all the BAF series; the Summerslam Sherri gets a huge shout out for being over the top unique, and also a shout out to the Royal Rumble Vader figure- the new masked headsculpt looks great. it was cool to get a new Vince figure from WM3, Jimmy Hart was a welcome addition, Rick Rude was a great addition to attitude era and i genuinely didnt care for the Dom Mysterio flashback figure.

i was really impressed with all of the legends figures we got this year. legends 13 came out swinging hard, and began the releases of the DX army figures. i am really struggling to pinpoint ONE figure from the legends line that i liked the most. Mean Mark was the most 'Legends' figure by definition, it was a great time to get DX figures, Stacy Keibler, Acolytes, i liked them all but to ME, nothing really stood out amongst the pack as the BEST legends figure of the year.

the Ringside exclusives for WWE this year werent all THAT amazing for me as a collector. the Wolfpac Hogan was my #1, the tomasso ciampa exclusive looks cool fully geared out but after removing the entrance gear its just wearing black tights. Undertaker figure was a neat attempt at a new thing but i think the final product was a tad too janky- i just didnt like it. the Cameron Grimes figure is cool and unique, i do like it but i still need to review it.



the Ruthless Aggression line is a HIT with me. i love it, lets get it to series 50. Batista has been my favorite release so far due to nostalgia reasons. once i get the RA series 2 RVD that will easily overtake this but i have a soft spot for this batista.



i think my ELITE FIGURE OF THE YEAR has to go to the Top Picks Rock figure.
there was just so much awesome going on with this figure. it was a bunch of nostalgia bundled up into one figure, the softgoods jersey came out looking great and the fact that we FINALLY got a flashback Rock in the Blue tights was IN-FKN-CREDIBLE



Ultimate Edition gave us some really cool stuff this year. my MVF are EASILY Kane and the Fan Takeover Shawn Michaels figures. UE 13 Hulk Hogan is an amazing figure those headsculpts are uncanny. UE14 Jeff Hardy was a very welcome addition to the collection i loved those white pants. Target Exclusive Batista and nWo macho figures came out looking amazing and were great choices and additions to the UE line. im glad we got a Goldberg UE figure although they really could have done up that figure so much better and finally a shoutout to the Coliseum Collection figures, the Hulk figure once again came out looking amazing.

it was a great year for figures and frankly im really excited that we are now seeing double jointed elbows and improved headsculpts in the elite line as the standard.

my biggest gripes for the year are wonky trueFX applications, especially on womens figures. these are action figures made in the likeness of someone specifically. if the eyes are printed wrong or the entire apps are not aligned, it will ruin an entire figure and i dont think mattel is willing to send out new heads for print errors (although it would be a GREAT idea 🤔)
another issue that i seemed to be running into on the newer figures was stubborn shoulder joints. i feel like with the addition of the double jointed elbows there was some new tooling that took place to the shoulders that makes them slightly incompatible with the existing torsos. the shoulders themselves seem too beefy and i have trouble either fully extending a figures arm outward (T-pose) or bringing the arm all the way inward to the figure (Finn Freeze).
i guess an ongoing issue we all have are some of the confusing choices made in the body recipes of some figures (torso choices, kickpad styles, etc) id like to think that by now mattel realize that the wwe collectors are pretty serious and particular about the final product of the figures and i think they could be making some much better choices with what they have available.

all in all im very happy with the state of the collection. it been getting bigger-MUCH bigger so that means mattel is doing something right 😅

🔥 Happy scorching Sunday 🔥

We're still enduring 20° temps out here, but our theme and figure today was SCORCHINGGGGG




RSE Kane Unmasked

this was a figure that i remember buying brand new back in the day and it held a favored spot in my collection until it fell victim of the mass sell off 😭 i was able to lock in this particular figure for $25 shipped loose on ebay and i felt that was a steal. this figure was missing the chain and black head towel accessories, but i feel confident i can secure some loose on ebay to complete this figure. this Kane figure has one of my all time favorite headsculpts/paint apps; i love the angry facesculpt and the black around the eyes of this figure just looks amazing. Kane looks so menacing and evil with that black around his eyes, i wish all Kane figures with removable masks had this paint app. ive already reviewed the DoD and the newest Legends Series Kane, so alot of the attributes or complaints apply to this figure aswell. always was hoping for the straps to be sculpted on this attire, torso and arms should have been buffed up more. ive compared this figure against the newest Legends Kane figure just to see the differences between one of the first releases of this look and the newest. i think i really enjoyed the removable mask back in the day, but looking at how it fits on the figure and comparing it against the masked headsculpt, it would have been cooler to just have the interchangeable heads; the mask could still have been included as an accessory but i think the sculpted masked head looks better.
all in all this IS a great figure from the early years of mattel collecting. the headsculpt with paint apps looks killer, IMO and the rest of the body of the figure isnt terrible. just the staple design flaws of early mattel figures where they all seemed to have been sculpted really skinny. maybe they did this on purpose because the jakks figures were too jacked up so they wanted to go the other way 🤪

i wouldn't mind seeing that triple h re-released or upgraded as an ultimate. they need to fix the jeans though.

wouldn’t mind??? I’d cream my pants thank you very much!!!!