UE 21 Shipping

For MOC collectors - I don't know if this is a problem with all UE figures or not but I had two sets shipped, one of which was in defenders. There was no damage to the outer box but the two figures that were in defenders had box damage in the exact same way, the exact same place. The one back corner was crinkled. However, the two not shipped in defenders were fully mint.



I'm leaving the damaged ones in the defenders though because you can't see the damage in the case and the Sami that came in the case has better presentation.

Sort of.



About that.



The screaming headsculpt on Sami... if you are a MOC collector, prepare to be potentially disappointed. The head doesn't appear to want to sit right in the box. Both ones I got, the head was slightly skewed in the box, but the one I'm going to open was worse. It's not the end of the world, and certainly not as bad as "YEP" Sami where the hat would end up in random places (until the running change) but for people with OCD it might be annoying.



Next: For people who hated the way that, for the basics, Kevin's FIGHT logo (on his shorts) was a different color than Sami's name, I'm happy to report this has been fixed for these releases. They're now the same color and same saturation of paint. Specifically, a dull gold metallic which, honestly I would have rather they normalized it to the Kevin basic's color, but that's just because I want figures that pop (rather than necessarily be perfectly accurate. I know, weird).

ETA: I looked it up. The paint on the basic Kevin WAS correct. They fixed it to the WRONG shade. GRRRRR.



BTW: If anyone was hoping for an eleventh-hour surprise of the PWG logos, yeah no. Come on, we knew they wouldn't be there. Moving on.



MOC Presentation - Honestly, while people commented that the boxes/windows feel "Empty", it's not as bad in hand. I don't know why really, but something about having them in hand, they don't feel as spaced out or empty as they did in photos. Much better presentation than I had expected from the reveals. That said, for people who want a uniformed, matched set, I'm warning you that, due to the nature of the different lettering/pants molds, you can see the duct tape lettering on Sami's pants but you really can't see it at all on Kevin's. In fact, unless you look closely, in box, Kevin's one leg looks unpainted. Annoying, but I haven't opened them up yet to see how big a difference on the placement there is. (Of note: BOTH sets are like this, so it's not a paint error).

In case anyone was wondering, the quote on the top for Sami is "Our bond is thicker than blood!" and the bottom is "Let's Go!" while Kevin's top quote is "Stun Owens Stun!" and the bottom is "The Prizefighter!". I really don't know how I feel about having Sami having a top quote that's about them being a tag team while none of the other quotes are, but frankly I don't know what else you would use for Sami's quotes seeing as how his tag team iteration didn't have a moniker. Plus, I kind of like the quote so it's fine.

Immediate thoughts upon opening Kevin.

His leg is rotated in box. Remember how I said you can’t see the KO in the package? It’s because both the ones I have, and I don’t know how many others, his thigh piece is rotated in the box so it’s hidden. When you take him out and straighten it back around, the KO (or rather, the O) can be seen easily from the front. VERY annoying to find out they did this, although them messing up the paint on the figure itself would have been worse.



Second thought: The belts are very flimsy plastic-rubber. Like, I don’t remember it being this flimsy on anything else, but it could just be me. I may have to go check other belts. But if you took the plates off these things, you could roll them. Again, may just be my bad memory and the Usos had this problem as well, but I can’t remember and I can’t get to them right now. Regardless, they’ll either be great or awful for posing, depending on your point of view.



Second-point-five thought; The belts don’t fit Kevin. But then I figured they wouldn’t. None of the other figures have been able to wear belts, even if you take the shirts off, why would this one be any different? It’s fine, he never wears the belts IRL either.



The tattoo placement: The right arm sleeve is great. It actually reaches the top of his shoulder this time so you don’t have that weird gap at the top. However, and I’m guessing this is from the strange, high wrist tape they gave him, the LIVE/EVIL tattoo is so high up on his arm that it’s affected by the elbow joint. The top of the L is literally printed *ON THE JOINT*. Really frustrating, but frankly I have no idea why they made his wrist tape so high in the first place, it seems weird to me. I don’t recall him wearing it this high and, even if he did, the tattoo obviously wouldn’t have changed positions on his arm.

That said, and this is very important: HE IS MISSING THE HOCKEY SKULL ON HIS LEFT HAND. No really, if you want an accurate 2023 Kevin for this, you’re gonna have to find a spare hand from the Elite 101 figure because they left the hand tat off ENTIRELY. On ALL THE HANDS.


*screaming into the abyss*


Articulation is great but in case anyone was wondering, he does NOT have pinless knees. Also, the rotation on the butterfly joints seems restricted, which may be a thing for the new torso as a whole (I guess we’ll see when more people get them, or when the Mankind one comes out)

Swapping heads is a bit tight so beware those neck pages. Better than the loose af heads I’ve had on other recent Kevins though.

Of note: To anyone who hated the paint apps on the eyes for Elite 101, I’m excited to report they appear to have been fixed. The heads here look very lovely, no funky rolling eyes here at all.


Overall, the figure looks very nice. There are problems and, I agree, the shoulders are boxy, even under the shirt, but the shirt is too nice for me to notice too much. They actually printed it in metallic ink! So cool.



Anyway moving on to Sami.

Immediate thought. The ‘smiling’ headsculpt looks much nicer in hand... but he doesn’t look like he’s smiling. That’s not a smile, at least not a happy “Sami Zayn” smile. He sort of looks like he’s chuckling wryly about something. Kind of devious. It’s nice that it doesn’t look weird like the photos did but also, I wish there had been a way to have a lovely, happy smiling headsculpt for Sami considering how happy he seems to be a lot of the time.

OK, comparing Sami’s name (that’s what the Arabic says in case anyone has ever wondered. It says “ZAYN”) to Kevin’s “FIGHT”, the Zayn is definitely placed differently. It’s smack dab on the front of his leg whereas Kevin’s is slightly to the side. No, it’s NOT like that on his actual gear, I have no idea why they would do that here. Also, due to the extreme sculpting of the pants (grrrrr, not getting into that again), you can’t rotate the leg to make it look better. Annoying.

Sami’s shirt, as opposed to Kevin’s, fits GREAT on him. Probably the nicest fit I’ve ever seen on a Sami shirt, although that may have to do with how the shirts on both of them are stretchy.


That’s right.

The shirts have stretch to them.

Thank GOD.


Sami still has the low wrist tape which, INFURIATINGLY is lower than Kevin’s. No, really I’m not joking, they gave Kevin high wrist tape and Sami low wrist tape. It should be noted that Sami’s wrist tape was lower than usual at Wrestlemania, but it was definitely a bit higher than Kevin's. Also, the writing isn’t on it which, while I’m sure whatever he had written on there was personal and was left off for a reason, I’m a bit sad because it means I don’t have an easy, clear reference for trying to translate it. Ah well, it’s not for us to know anyway.


Articulation... Don’t move Sami’s hips. Don’t do it. It’s not worth the risk. I don’t know if they literally just used the same legs as Elite 106 or what, but his hips don’t and won’t move safely. His knees bend fine (again, pinned joints) but seriously. If you are hoping for hips that bend, you’re gonna break your figures. As it was, just testing them out, the joint made a popping noise.


I mean it.

Don’t bend him at the hips.


Note about the screaming headsculpt: I don’t know if I got a factory error (it looks like it on the inside) or if other people’s will be like this, but if you want to put the screaming headsculpt on him, you’re gonna need to heat it up. I haven’t tried heating it yet but you can’t put it on the figure with any amount of pressure that doesn’t risk snapping the neck peg. It looks like the inside of the head is misformed and too small. Just a warning to anyone who wants to put the screaming head on. Either heat it up first, or get your dremel out to widen the hole.


But hey! At least his beard isn’t brown this time! (On any of the heads actually, I’m very pleased about that!)


Really, the Sami headsculpts, the two new ones, look much better than I expected although, for the reasons stated above, I can’t test the screaming one on the body just yet. And really, the legs aren’t the worst thing ever. With the almost solid black color, they look WAY better than the upcoming Survivor Series one (which is just horrible, I’m gonna have to make a custom of that one……)

All in all, Sami isn’t the worst figure I have of him. Elite 106 is much worse. Not needing to repaint the heads or wrist tape on this is a godsend, although I’m frustrated by the placement of the “Zayn” on his leg. Can’t fix that though. Not till someday when I master decals, at which point I will do both him AND Kevin to add the PWG/Super Dragon logos.