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Post by hulkjoegan on Sept 27, 2023 8:04:15 GMT -5
Just reading some replies here got me thinking. I don’t think Hasbro lost the licence as much as they let it run out. Wrestling was in the toilet from around 93-late 96. Certainly thru 95. I think that’s why the green card and orange cards featured no new tooling. Booger with painted in straps on n Earthquake body wouldn’t have set the world alight Another thing is, why were companies so opposed to making Neidhart figures. The Hart Foundation didn’t get Hasbro figs (even as tag champs, long run, heavily featured). Arguably the best tag team of their era (in WWF). Hasbro made Bushwhackers (which I get) and the likes of RnB Hammer considered. Then Neidhart got his fig in his short lived New Foundation gimmick. He returned in a heavily featured angle thru 94 and still wasn’t considered. Odd choices. Then with Jakks BCA he was prominent throughout his run and still no fig. And Jakks made *everyone*, certainly in their first 2 years of th licence. What am I missing here? That's why when we have these types of threads and we all post our opinions on who we think Hasbro would have made, it's pretty much all pointless speculation, though fun. Hasbro showed many many times that they weren't really about making the guys we'd have expected them to. So if they did continue, besides the top guys, it's literally anyone's guess who else they might have chosen to make. So then the topic becomes not about who they might have made, but who they should have made, because, truly, they MIGHT have made anyone. I’m not sure that that’s strictly true; when you consider that they were only around for 3-4 years, we got a pretty comprehensive collection - including the random lower card guys. This is kind of like the Star Wars world building approach in some ways. I think most of the guys who we didn’t get had more to do with timing - they only had limited slots each series and by the time the next series was ready to go, wrestlers had often left the company (such as Anvil). I don’t think Hasbro or Jakks thought about not marketing certain wrestlers at all. |
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Post by MKSavage on Sept 27, 2023 8:26:53 GMT -5
Just reading some replies here got me thinking. I don’t think Hasbro lost the licence as much as they let it run out. Wrestling was in the toilet from around 93-late 96. Certainly thru 95. I think that’s why the green card and orange cards featured no new tooling. Booger with painted in straps on n Earthquake body wouldn’t have set the world alight Another thing is, why were companies so opposed to making Neidhart figures. The Hart Foundation didn’t get Hasbro figs (even as tag champs, long run, heavily featured). Arguably the best tag team of their era (in WWF). Hasbro made Bushwhackers (which I get) and the likes of RnB Hammer considered. Then Neidhart got his fig in his short lived New Foundation gimmick. He returned in a heavily featured angle thru 94 and still wasn’t considered. Odd choices. Then with Jakks BCA he was prominent throughout his run and still no fig. And Jakks made *everyone*, certainly in their first 2 years of th licence. What am I missing here? I think that was the rumor, at least I remember reading that Hasbro wanted out of the license around 1992 because of all of the scandals that the WWF was facing at the time. If you look at how they treated the line after wave 4 or 5, it looks like they were reducing cost as much as possible. With the exception of a few figures (Yokozuna, Doink, Papa Shango, Giant Gonzalez) every figure from series 6 on had re-used parts. As for Anvil, they were going to release him in his Hart Foundation attire with the second wave/set of Tag Teams (with LOD and Nasty Boys). However, by the time the set would have been released, the tag team had already split up for about a year, so they went with his singles/New Foundation attire instead. A similar thing happened to the planned Tugboat figure, he was supposed to have a figure in wave 3, but by the time the set was ready to be released, he was no longer Tugboat so they quickly changed him to Typhoon for the release. As for 1994, by then, Hasbro had already lost/let the contract expire, so that's why his return in 1994 didn't get him a Hasbro figure. Plus, even if they had the license in 1994/95 still, Anvil didn't last long with the company so he probably wouldn't have had a figure released anyway. He came back in the summer of 1994 and was gone by January 1995. For Jakks, are you talking about their run in 1996/97? If so, probably a similar reason as listed above. He came back in the spring of 1997 but was gone by December of 1997. Sometimes the WWF will let a figure still come out even if the wrestler is no longer with the company, but usually not when the wrestler signs with another big company like WCW. |
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walter7paisley
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jan 9, 2022 17:57:13 GMT -5
Posts: 1,713
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Post by walter7paisley on Sept 28, 2023 7:37:55 GMT -5
That's why when we have these types of threads and we all post our opinions on who we think Hasbro would have made, it's pretty much all pointless speculation, though fun. Hasbro showed many many times that they weren't really about making the guys we'd have expected them to. So if they did continue, besides the top guys, it's literally anyone's guess who else they might have chosen to make. So then the topic becomes not about who they might have made, but who they should have made, because, truly, they MIGHT have made anyone. I’m not sure that that’s strictly true; when you consider that they were only around for 3-4 years, we got a pretty comprehensive collection - including the random lower card guys. This is kind of like the Star Wars world building approach in some ways. I think most of the guys who we didn’t get had more to do with timing - they only had limited slots each series and by the time the next series was ready to go, wrestlers had often left the company (such as Anvil). I don’t think Hasbro or Jakks thought about not marketing certain wrestlers at all. I agree, Hasbro were just going with the flavours of the times, to some degree, but I think that trend would have been the same had they continued producing figures, and timings for production and release would have still played a big part in who got figures and who didn't. There were some questionable releases along the way, too. I still don't feel we can confidently predict who would have gotten made across 1994 and beyond when we base it on the run they did do from 90-93/94. I think we'd have all probably been surprised. I think those 12" dolls might have taken centre stage over the 3.5 inch figures, though. |
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Post by chaz on Sept 28, 2023 10:55:25 GMT -5
Unless it was a significantly long departure, I don't think Hasbro had particular concern about releasing a figure a year after the wrestler left or was relevant. There's no real pattern to the schedule under which they released figures, seeing as we did see people like Anvil, Tugboat, R&B Valentine, WM9 Beefcake changed or scrapped - Steamboat (1991, released in 1992), Anvil (1991/92, released in 1993), Sid (1991/92, released 1993), Warlord (1991/92, released 1993), Flair (gone Jan 1993, released mid 1993), Berzerker (gone by Feb 1993, released mid 1993), Nailz (fired Dec 1992, released mid 1993), Hacksaw 2 (gone by Aug 1993, released early 1994), Giant Gonzalez (gone by Aug 1993, released mid 1994), Borga (gone Jan 1994, released late 1994). Personally, I think Hasbro would have kept the line as is. The drop in quality towards the end was in all likelihood because they knew the deal was coming up, but in this scenario, it's not.  |
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master_fuji
Mid-Carder
AGES: 4 & UP!
Joined on: Mar 18, 2010 14:30:05 GMT -5
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Post by master_fuji on Sept 28, 2023 12:07:26 GMT -5
Hasbro started reusing parts (and reducing the size of each series) because it was simply taking too long to produce individual sculpts for every figure.
Toy stores were struggling to move all of the old stock which made the product appear stale. To try and freshen things up, Hasbro's idea was to knock out series after series in shorter periods - see the "Undertake Em All" ad as an example.
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Post by Chicago on Sept 29, 2023 2:50:55 GMT -5
Just reading some replies here got me thinking. I don’t think Hasbro lost the licence as much as they let it run out. Wrestling was in the toilet from around 93-late 96. Certainly thru 95. I think that’s why the green card and orange cards featured no new tooling. Booger with painted in straps on n Earthquake body wouldn’t have set the world alight Another thing is, why were companies so opposed to making Neidhart figures. The Hart Foundation didn’t get Hasbro figs (even as tag champs, long run, heavily featured). Arguably the best tag team of their era (in WWF). Hasbro made Bushwhackers (which I get) and the likes of RnB Hammer considered. Then Neidhart got his fig in his short lived New Foundation gimmick. He returned in a heavily featured angle thru 94 and still wasn’t considered. Odd choices. Then with Jakks BCA he was prominent throughout his run and still no fig. And Jakks made *everyone*, certainly in their first 2 years of th licence. What am I missing here? My understanding is that, in ‘97, Neidhart was not under contract, he was being paid per appearance. That and the short window he was there likely sealed his fate for getting a Jakks BCA figure. |
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jamesdean28
Mid-Carder
Joined on: Oct 20, 2020 19:55:10 GMT -5
Posts: 85
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Post by jamesdean28 on Sept 29, 2023 5:27:24 GMT -5
Just reading some replies here got me thinking. I don’t think Hasbro lost the licence as much as they let it run out. Wrestling was in the toilet from around 93-late 96. Certainly thru 95. I think that’s why the green card and orange cards featured no new tooling. Booger with painted in straps on n Earthquake body wouldn’t have set the world alight Another thing is, why were companies so opposed to making Neidhart figures. The Hart Foundation didn’t get Hasbro figs (even as tag champs, long run, heavily featured). Arguably the best tag team of their era (in WWF). Hasbro made Bushwhackers (which I get) and the likes of RnB Hammer considered. Then Neidhart got his fig in his short lived New Foundation gimmick. He returned in a heavily featured angle thru 94 and still wasn’t considered. Odd choices. Then with Jakks BCA he was prominent throughout his run and still no fig. And Jakks made *everyone*, certainly in their first 2 years of th licence. What am I missing here? My understanding is that, in ‘97, Neidhart was not under contract, he was being paid per appearance. That and the short window he was there likely sealed his fate for getting a Jakks BCA figure. Ah right well that makes sense. Thanks for the info. I am still surprised that we ever got a Hasbro Hart Foundation 2 pack tho. There was about 2 years there where it lined up |
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walter7paisley
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jan 9, 2022 17:57:13 GMT -5
Posts: 1,713
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Post by walter7paisley on Sept 30, 2023 2:02:15 GMT -5
My understanding is that, in ‘97, Neidhart was not under contract, he was being paid per appearance. That and the short window he was there likely sealed his fate for getting a Jakks BCA figure. Ah right well that makes sense. Thanks for the info. I am still surprised that we ever got a Hasbro Hart Foundation 2 pack tho. There was about 2 years there where it lined up It's entirely possible that the merch consultants at WWF/Titan Sports felt that the New Foundation would be a hit, lol. That's the thing we often forget, I suppose, that at the time, Hasbro were cranking out the most(ly) up to date guys, production time permitting. WWF also weren't really thinking about the omissions we now all talk about, as it was simply a then current toy line to give kids the chance to play with the guys on TV at the time. That's the difference between then and now. Now we've got independent companies who have the benefit of hindsight and fandom for the toys and the sport... So we really should be getting those omissions and the figures we could have gotten back then. There's really no excuse, besides certain guys' estates not being up for grabs, why we shouldn't be getting the figures we wanted in the 90s... And yet Mattel are largely dropping the ball and so many independent companies are putting out podcasters and current indie guys... |
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