Target LUE Vader is live

Yeah it's incredibly frustrating. I've been fortunate enough to find WM exclusives up until Eddie, Mankind and elites series 4. Crossfit Jesus hooked me up with a Mankind, other than that I'm gonna give up on DDP. Especially with all the QC issues

I had the intention of going to target today to see if I can find the chase but my store is already oos.

Same here. Never saw Yoko once at retail and my "store pickup" got cancelled - I never got Yoko.

Wasn't going to let that happen with Vader - ordered two on Day 1 and got both the chase and the regular!

The difference between Target and Walmart is indescribable. Target is nailing this, I WISH Walmart could do this.

You're always better off ordering online and hoping for the best. Not worth waiting for stores.

I can almost guarantee you most stores still have him they just say out of stock because someone places a pickup order and they aren’t on the shelf

Love this figure

Great figure. Now we need some Sting's to go with him.

This one would be amazing:

Can someone give me a history lesson on wcw title belts? I was a casual fan during the late 80s to mid 90s. The big gold belt vs the belt that Vader wore represented in this ultimate edition? Is is the same title lineage? Did it replace the big gold for a while?

I felt like Rick Rude had a world title during his wcw initial run 92 or so. Was it the same as the big gold or did he hold that one? Did Ron Simmons hold the one Vader carried? Thanks for the background.

Yes, it's the same world title lineage. In 1991, WCW wanted Flair to drop the belt (the Big Gold Belt which was the WCW world title) to Lex Luger. Flair said fine, but WCW needed to pay him the money they owed him for the belt. According to Flair, Jim Herd said no or scoffed at the idea. Flair eventually quit the company and signed with the WWF. WCW never paid Flair for the big gold belt, so he brought it with him to the WWF. With the big gold belt in the WWF with Flair, WCW created a new World Title Belt (the one that comes with the Vader figure). From 1991 to 1994, the belt that comes with the Vader figure was the official WCW world title. When Flair returned to the company in 1993, he brought the big gold belt back with him. Not sure if he ever got paid, but the belt was back with WCW. In 1993, they rechristened the big gold belt as the WCW International World Title which Rick Rude won (I forget who he defeated). In 1994, WCW decided to combine the two belts. Sting beat Rude for the International Title and Flair had previously beaten Vader for the WCW World Title. At Clash of the Champions 27 in 1994, Flair and Sting had the unification match with Flair winning. After this match, the big gold belt became the WCW World Title belt again, and the other belt was never used again. 


EDIT: It looks like Flair and WCW reached an agreement in 1992 with the money owed, and he returned the belt to WCW at that time. In 1992, the big gold belt was considered the NWA world heavyweight belt which Masa Chono won. Eventually, with WCW breaking with the NWA, and them now owning the belt, they then rechristened the Big Gold Belt the WCW International Heavyweight Championship until it was unified with the WCW World Title.

Here is some more information on it from wikipedia:

In July 1991, Flair and WCW parted ways while Flair was still champion. The Big Gold Belt left with Flair due to a dispute with WCW Vice President Jim Herd in which Herd refused to return Flair's $25,000 deposit, a deposit per regulations that was required of reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champions and was to be returned after the conclusion of their reigns. WCW was forced to strip Flair of their recognition of world champion and introduced a new title belt design to continue to represent the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. On September 8, two days before Flair's WWF debut, the NWA followed suit and also stripped Flair of their recognition as world champion.

Flair soon signed with the World Wrestling Federation and exhibited the Big Gold Belt there, proclaiming himself "The Real World's Heavyweight Champion" until WCW sued, upon which Flair instead used a WWF World Tag Team title belt, digitized out on television, on the (kayfabe) orders of WWF President Jack Tunney until Flair won the World Wrestling Federation Championship at the 1992 Royal Rumble. Flair stated on the 2008 DVD release of Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection that the $25,000 he initially deposited with additional interest totaling $38,000 was never paid back to him, and as a result, Flair kept the Big Gold Belt until a settlement was finally reached with WCW.

With its return to WCW, the Big Gold Belt represented the NWA World Heavyweight Championship once again, being awarded to Masa Chono after his August 1992 tournament final victory over Rick Rude for the vacant title in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Meanwhile the new WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt design that had been commissioned after Flair's departure also continued to be used. 

In September 1993, WCW formally seceded from the NWA and with that the promotional rights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship were returned to the NWA. With the Big Gold Belt remaining property of WCW, Ric Flair who won NWA World Heavyweight Championship in July was recognized by WCW as holding the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship, the world championship of a kayfabe subsidiary of WCW called "WCW International". The WCW International World Heavyweight Championship was represented by the Big Gold Belt until June 1994, when it was unified with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship.

The Big Gold Belt then represented the WCW World Heavyweight Championship again, remaining the top title in WCW until the end of the promotion in 2001.