[RETRO] Grapplers & Gimmicks by Hasttel Toy

That Arn and Tully are such a massive step backwards.

Will be happy enough to charge £40 for them though I bet

I don’t buy the working on 30+ characters thing, no one asked him to announce signings as quickly or as frequently as he does. One thing he said is that he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes as the ones that came before him but it’s happening 10 fold because of constant bids to stay relevant.

The last figures released people were very happy with a big step forward, that should be enough to help with his next pre-order. Throwing sh*t against a wall and hoping ain’t gonna fly anymore

I appreciate this isn’t relevant to you at all but I started a rant and just carried it on 😂

Exact copy or not, he still has to pay for the mold to be made. Stealing the exact parts of old hasbros and Frankensteining them into “new” figures is not the most ethical thing. No one is arguing that. But I also don’t see who it is directly hurting and what is stopping anyone else from doing it (if they wanted to do so). As a collector, I really enjoy it. As a competing business, I would be irritated that I am doing things completely on the level but someone else in the same market is making more money by bending the rules.

As I was discussing with another collector recently…it’s just not an ethical world - both pro wrestling and in general. Not that the comparisons are direct but Epic did make and sell figures of someone who allegedly bit a man’s nose off. Worse yet, the other man who abused, drugged and forced intercourse upon at least one woman, abused animals, and so on. At least in his case, people hurt by him are making money off of his name and hopefully living a better life as a result.

His first Savio Vega looked terrible, but he fixed it. Maybe he will make some changes to Tully.

You’re right in that the cost savings isn’t being passed down. I didn’t get that you were going that direction from your original comment.

I was literally having this same conversation (about designs being used without permission), business ethics, and the ethics or morals of pro wrestling and life itself with a mutual friend of ours. I wasn’t throwing stones at Epic but more or less saying it is hard to have that conversation in this hobby because of how seedy wrestling is. I believe Epic has the highest standards of anyone out there but was pointing out that even they can be accused of something dirty despite being the cleanest ones in the game. It wasn’t in defense of Mitch; just an offshoot of a very similar dialogue I had hours prior.

Nah, you’re justified in those feelings. I wasn’t trying to create heat with what I said about Epic; I communicated that poorly on my end. Mitch is making improvements but it has become a trope now of releasing a design, getting negative feedback, and then fixing what many would agree are glaring issues that should have been resolved before any prototype or concept was shared. I love Mitch, I love the end result he has been delivering, but he didn’t get there by people lying to him. When things aren’t good, they need to be called out. It’s time to sharply refine the images shared before releasing them to the public. Every figure doesn’t need to have significant changes that your customers/fans have to point out. If some of these things aren’t obvious to Mitch, it’s time to get another set of eyes.

Arn could use a trip to the tanning bed. Tully could use a few months on weight watchers.

Where was this stated?

I have read SO much and listened to hundreds of wrestling figure podcasts, but have never heard this before.

I know they were talked about, but never to the stage of talk of using body molds. Are there any drawings like for Tugboat, etc? Who replaced them?

Arn and Tully were gone from the WWF by the end of 89. The Duggan figure wouldn’t have even been designed by that point.

The Duggan body has been used by customizers for Arn, but I’d say it’s more a lack of options than the appropriate size