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The Complete History of WWE Mattel Retro Figures
52 Plays5 years ago
Foley Family!!!! This was a patreon exclusive episode that Phil and frequent co-host of the show Mike Lanham did back in July of last year. Now it's available for all our listeners!
If you enjoy this episode think about signing up for our patreon. We have tons of bonus episodes plus weekly articles, unboxing videos, giveaways, and much more!
www.chickfoleyshow.com
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Transcript
00:00:14
Speaker
Patreon
Introduction to Special Episode on Wrestling Figures
00:00:15
Speaker
subscribers, welcome to a very special episode of the Chick Foley show. One of my favorite topics in wrestling figure collecting is the Mattel retro line, may it rest in peace. And we are going to deep dive into this bad boy and go through every single figure from series one to series 10.
00:00:35
Speaker
talk about some figures that were not made and some possible dream figures and all that kind of stuff.
Meet the Hosts and Guest
00:00:42
Speaker
I am the hot take kid Phil Gentile. Sheena Phelps is in Virginia kind of mediating this thing and we have Patreon subscriber Mike Lanham on the phone.
Is the Retro Line on Hiatus or Discontinued?
00:00:53
Speaker
Mike, your Twitter handle is at Mike Lanham and L-A-N-H-A-M. What's going on, Mike? Not a lot, Phil. How you doing, guys? Not too bad, man. Sheena, how are you tonight?
00:01:05
Speaker
I'm good. I don't appreciate the fact that you just went ahead and put the RIP stamp on the retro figures, man. They're just hiatus-ing, okay? It's just a hiatus. Can we keep the positive energy flowing? You went ahead and like, you know, undertaker their ass. Sheena, I've had enough women in my life tell me that we're on a hiatus. I know what that means, okay?
00:01:29
Speaker
We're on a break. We should have all wore black for this episode. We'll get into the future of the line because it is kind of speculative that they're going to bring it back. They didn't really say the nail is in the coffin yet, but with some of the prices and stores on the series that are hanging around, I'm
00:01:50
Speaker
too confident, but we'll get to it. So Sheena, like
Mike's Journey in Wrestling Figure Collecting
00:01:54
Speaker
I said, you're going to mediate this thing. I'll let you take it away. And we'll just kind of, me and Michael, go back and forth between, well, we'll start off and how it all started and all that kind of stuff and get into each individual series. Yeah. You know what? When we had planned this episode, obviously this was before the devastating news came that the retros were going to be on a quote unquote hiatus. So, you know, we had planned just to kind of talk about, um,
00:01:57
Speaker
not
00:02:21
Speaker
the line, what we wanted for the future of the line, and how excited we were for everything and collecting and whatnot. But honestly, now we're just going to kind of reminisce about the good old days of the retros. They were short-lived, but they were nice while we had them. So I
Phil's Collecting History and Retro Line Influence
00:02:38
Speaker
want to go ahead and introduce Mike Lanham. So Mike, just tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do, and kind of how your history is figure collecting, and specifically Hasbro collecting. Oh, man.
00:02:51
Speaker
I mean, as a kid, I definitely, uh, I come from a large family. I have a six brothers. I have seven sisters. Oh my God, man. Yeah. Uh, Catholicism. Uh, so I grew up in one of those families where, uh, I'm in the middle. So me and most of my brothers were very much into wrestling as kids. Um, and Christmas every year just kind of turned into that.
00:03:19
Speaker
what Hasbro figures are we gonna end up with? Because we were those late 80s, early 90s kids. So pretty much if you ever went through family photos and stuff, most of the time it was something
Scarcity of Hasbro Figures and Collecting Trends
00:03:35
Speaker
probably wrestling related. And obviously the fights between kids of who got what figures and what belongs to
00:03:42
Speaker
to this kid and that kid and stuff like that, so. Yeah, because I'm pretty sure with that many siblings, it wasn't like, you know, everybody's getting their own. It's like, hey, kids, here's a stockpile of stuff, like, you know, fight amongst yourself. Just like a trough, like just like they feed pigs and just throw like a bunch of toys and like, all right, just play with them. Go ahead. Go ahead. Right. It was it was definitely a group effort a lot of times. And then, of course, the birthdays would roll around and you'd probably end up with
00:04:10
Speaker
with some figures that way too. So, I mean, we probably had a pretty good chunk of the first, I'd say three or four waves of the Hasbro's. And then they just kind of became scarce. You didn't see probably the later series in the stores as much. Some of us got older and kind of grew out of it. And then all of a sudden they lost the licensing.
00:04:33
Speaker
And it was on to like the Jack's figures and it was kind of like it is now. It's like, once a series dies, do you really want to want to start something new? Yeah. That's what your parents told you. They're like, Oh, kids, sorry. They're not in the stores anymore. We can't, we just can't find them.
00:04:50
Speaker
the first ones, first ones to kill the, uh, the retro series. Yeah,
Future Speculations on Mattel's WWE License
00:04:55
Speaker
for sure, dude. Um, but it is funny how, like you said, like if once something kind of like, like ends, you know, like I feel bad for all the people who were like, you know, hardcore Jax collectors and, you know, and the future is unsure for Mattel. I mean, I'm very hopeful that they're going to retain the license, but what it comes up in like 2021. So we're getting pretty close to figuring out like what the future is with WWE and Mattel. So like,
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah. If Mattel loses the license, like I'm out, like I'm done. I'm going to complete what I want to complete with Mattel, but I'm not moving on. Like I'm not going to join, you know, if, if NECA or like Hasbro or anybody else picks up his line, like I just, I just can't, you know, I'm too deep into, into Mattel to turn back now and start fresh. But, um,
Series One Retros: Lesnar and Reigns
00:05:37
Speaker
Phil, so tell me a little bit about you as far as like figure collecting and stuff like that. And, you know, um, did you have Hasbro was that like a line that you collected as a kid?
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sitting next to my detail that's filled with them right now. That's right around when I started watching wrestling. It seems like me and Mike are about the same age. It was early 90s, late 80s. I was a little too old for the LJNs, but Hasbro's were in that sweet spot.
00:06:04
Speaker
And I probably had 20 or so, and I've accumulated, me and Mike have gone back and forth via all sort of social media messages, kind of like talking about our collections and what we need and where we find stuff and all that kind of stuff. So it's been fun kind of trying to build up the collection. I think we're both a couple away from completing it.
00:06:22
Speaker
But when the retros came out, I mean, I was just dipping my toe into the collecting waters. And retros are really what got me back into hardcore getting back into wrestling collecting. And I have all of them except for Series 9 now, both loose and on card. And I love them. I was pretty
00:06:42
Speaker
Pretty pissed off when they decided to put them on quote-unquote hiatus, but I had a feeling it was coming and I kind of talked about it on the show. They were very slowly trickling into stores, Mike, and 9 and 10 still had not even seen the light of day. Series 8 was only in the stores for a minute, so the writing was on the walls, unfortunately.
00:07:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't think any of us saw it coming that it was on hiatus.
Series Two Retros: Kane and Mankind
00:07:09
Speaker
I think we all just kind of attributed it to Mattel's distribution problems and things like that. But like I said, as of right now, it is official. We're recording this in the end of July 2019. So as of right now, yeah, they are on a hiatus. So hopefully the future, they come back. But if not,
00:07:27
Speaker
I like that we got a nice round number, right? Like a nice even 10. Yeah, that is nice. Instead of like stopping at like seven, that would have really bothered me. You know, like a series of 10, like I can, I can get behind, but yeah, if they would have been like, okay, series seven, like this is done, you know, I would have been like, oh my gosh. So do you guys, you know, I'll start with, I'll start with Mike. Do you have a, you, he said you're a couple of ways. So I'm assuming you don't have a complete set. What do you, what are you, what are you missing as far as like, what do you need to complete your set?
00:07:55
Speaker
On the Hasbro line are on the retros. Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah on the on the Mattel retros. I am caught up. Oh, you're complete. You're complete. What about you Phil? Do you have a complete set of retros? I have everything except for series nine, which I need to buy from ringside collectibles probably in the next month or so. But I have everything besides that series one through eight and series 10 now both loose and on card. So to make both sides of the Civil War happy.
00:08:25
Speaker
I've got both. And I have some extras here and there that I've picked up because, as we'll get into it later, a lot of the Series 7s now that are in stores are for $3, $5. I've been picking up some of those just to see if anybody needs them in the Foley family and see if they go up in value in a couple of years. But yeah, everything except for Series 9. So when we get to that part of the show, I'm just going to put the mic down and get a beer and let Mike just talk for a couple of minutes.
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah. So just to give you guys a quick rundown, I'm pretty sure if you're listening to this show, you're, you're familiar with the WWE retros, but if you're like me, I don't personally, personally collect retros. Um, again, it's just like, I know it's not because I don't love them.
Modern Faces in Series Three: AJ Styles Discussion
00:09:08
Speaker
And let me tell you, heel husband is one of the biggest fans of Hasbro. Like that there, that there is, you know what I mean? He, he had every single one as a kid, you know, I mean, it was just like one of those things. Um, it's just, you can't scratch that figure itch unless you're ready to go all in. You know what I mean? So.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, we're completists and so it's it's just something that we didn't we didn't open that box We did get a Seth Rollins because duh, you know, we had it We had to get a Seth Rollins for the collection But that's the only retro we have and the only Hasbro we have in our collection is a Bret Hart surprise surprise But yeah, so in at San Diego Comic Con
00:09:42
Speaker
in 2016 which seems crazy 2016 seems a little bit longer than I thought like I don't know why I was thinking these figures came out a little bit more recently than 2016 but yeah it was all the way back in 2016 they revealed at Comic Con these retros and
00:09:58
Speaker
Man, I think it just kind of like set the figure world on fire because, you know, like you said, the Hasbro's are so beloved for so many figure collectors out there. And just to kind of see that that line be revived and be able to get your favorite superstars in this Mattel, you know, four inch scale. I think people were like so super excited about it. So they came out with a ring just like, you know, you had back in the day.
00:10:23
Speaker
Those retro rings are super cool. Phil has a nice little hoard of them that he's, you know, given to the collectors and sold to collectors and stuff like that who needed them. So he's been able to find them at a pretty good discount these days. But yeah, I'm super excited to go through the first series that came out. There were six figures. So which they later kind of like, you know, shrunk the line down to only having four figures for for each
Series Four Highlights: Ric Flair's Stand-out
00:10:48
Speaker
series. So
00:10:49
Speaker
The first series consisted of Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens, The Ultimate Warrior, John Cena, Roman Reigns, and The Undertaker. So, Phil, out of this series, which, I mean, it's a pretty well-rounded series. You got a couple of legends, you got your part-timers in Brock Lesnar, and you got Cena,
00:11:10
Speaker
Um, and then you got your two, your two more modern guys, like with Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens. I think it's a pretty good mix for this first series. What, what was your like star player of this first retro series?
00:11:22
Speaker
It's easy to say Roman Reigns, because that's been the hardest to get for people. I remember when those came into stores, I just bought one of each. And knowing what we know now, wrestlingtoytracker.com is a good tool to kind of go through prices and get an idea of how much things are worth. $95 mint on card is the value of a Roman Reigns retro right now, and $10. Is that the Superman punch version?
00:11:48
Speaker
I don't think it, it doesn't specify. Maybe that one's a little more, more rare, but I think just in general, the Midtown card is 95 and it's $61 loose. Gotcha. It's a, it's a great looking figure and it's, you know, it's probably my favorite of this bunch, but Mike, I want to get your thoughts. This is, I mean, they came out swinging with these six. The only head scratcher might be Kevin Owens, but I can't really think of another, you know,
Series Five: Distribution and Collecting Tales
00:12:13
Speaker
current wrestler that I would put in there. Maybe a Seth Rollins or an AJ Styles, but
00:12:18
Speaker
Man, I mean, besides Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and Bret Hart, you have some Hall of Fame names here. Right. And originally, there was a rumor that this was a one-off set. It was going to be six figures, and that was it. So for Kevin Owens to be part of that, six only figures, it seems kind of like an odd choice, especially when you have so many other guys.
00:12:46
Speaker
2016 styles had been around for a while. But he was still pretty new to the company. I mean, obviously you had Ambrose and you had Seth Rollins, they were kind of getting away from that that shield faction. But Roman and Cena were your were your top guys. So yeah, if that if it had been a one off six set, it's definitely a an array of guys, but it's got some some head scratchers there. And to think
00:13:14
Speaker
like Phil said, that Roman is that high in value. I can remember going into Walmart and that being the figure that there was 20 of. I know. It's like a huge regret because I remember seeing those
Series Six Unique Features and Availability
00:13:28
Speaker
Romans sitting on the pegs. I'm glad they probably went into the hands of collectors, which is what I always want. I'm not a scalper. I'm not a reseller. But man, looking back, I'm like,
00:13:36
Speaker
Holy crap, dude, if you only knew which figures were gonna like go up in value, and especially like I mentioned earlier, for those of you who don't know, when they originally released the set, they gave him Superman Punch action, right? So those were released, it said Superman Punch on the card. Well, then a later run of series one came out and it just said Punch, I think it was just like punching action because they couldn't use Superman Punch, obviously Superman is a licensed entity, so they can't use that.
00:14:05
Speaker
Um, so those people who have the mint on cards, Superman punch cards, like, I think those are like way, way valuable. So I don't know what the exact, uh, what the exact value of one of those is right now. But yeah, if you were lucky enough to get one of those and keep it in the pack, like you got a pretty good little piece on your hands. Yeah. I mean, I think the, the smart thing with, with bringing these back was, uh, it's kind of like everything right now it's, it's nostalgia from, from Funko pops to just.
00:14:31
Speaker
some of your basic action figures, a lot of the stuff NECA is doing for collectors and for a lot of its parents who want to introduce their kids to something that they were into when they were kids. So for a lot, this can be an excuse for why they own 45 more wrestling figures because they look like the Hasbro kids or figures they had when we were kids.
00:14:56
Speaker
If there's
Series Seven Critique: Angle and Michaels
00:14:57
Speaker
one thing I know about wrestling, wrestling fans in general is that they have a very strong.
00:15:03
Speaker
sense of nostalgia. Like we love nostalgia as wrestling figures or wrestling fans. Um, and even myself, like I'm nostalgic to so many things, not just wrestling. Um, but yeah, wrestling does pull on the heartstrings and they're really, really good at that, especially the WWE. Yeah. And just, just looking at that series one, um, I personally kind of gravitate towards the undertaker. I like the, uh, I like the purple, um, him, him originally coming in and that, that gray tone and they have
00:15:33
Speaker
Multiple Hasbro versions of that that gray so to do that purple That summer slam is probably one of the most memorable paper views for me when I was a kid with the undertaker versus undertaker So anytime I see that purple, that's just that's the undertaker. I've probably remember the most man. What is that was? Such a great build-up. Oh not a great match
00:15:59
Speaker
I agree with you. I love that they want to put the purple undertaker and I'm really just looking at these. I have the first two series here in front of me on my desk slash folding table because I haven't bought a real desk yet. I'm surprised these haven't like these are perfect because you hit them like you like you said you hit the nostalgia feel with the you know the older collectors and my son like he plays with basics and elites right now in his room
00:16:22
Speaker
But when I pull these out, he'll go on a week straight where he just wants to play with all my retros, and I have to hide them from him. But they're perfect for kids. They're smaller in size. They're more cartoonish looking. They really check all the boxes for people. But this series one is great. I think the Cena is really good looking. The Lesnar is good looking. I can see why, if they thought this was a one-off, they picked the right characters to go with more series here, for sure.
00:16:50
Speaker
Right, I also like that the the series one does not have any of the the jumper figures which which get a bad rap for Hasbro and Mattel and they sure decided to add plenty of them later in the series. Yeah, I think I think Phil you kind of nailed it on the on the head with
00:17:08
Speaker
by saying you know even if like so a kid walks into a store and he sees this figure on the shelf he doesn't have to know anything about
Challenges in Series Eight: Ryder and Strowman
00:17:15
Speaker
Hasbro he doesn't have to know anything about the past like this is a figure that is going to appeal to children and it's going to appeal to adults you know which is kind of a hard area to kind of nail down right because i think elites are more they're more scaled toward collectors right they're a little bit more of a premium figure
00:17:31
Speaker
the basics are nice but again when you're a smaller kid you know than that four five six seven range like this is like a perfect a perfect action figure for you um so we're gonna move on to series on to series two and um i i think this is a really really great series this was this was strictly a legends series so they didn't have any any modern guys in this in the series i mean unless you want to count
00:17:55
Speaker
you know triple h but i mean this is definitely not a modern a modern version of triple h so in series two you had cane mankind the rocks uh you had
00:18:06
Speaker
Crow Sting, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Triple H. So in the first two series, really quickly, I want to take note that Kevin Owens and Sting are the only two to have a double feature in the retro series line. So in these first
Series Nine and Ten: Accessories and Excitement
00:18:22
Speaker
two series, you have Kevin Owens, and then you have a different version of Kevin Owens in a later series. And then in series two, you have Sting. And then you're going to get another Sting.
00:18:33
Speaker
which I think is pretty unique. Like you said, you were surprised to see Kevin Owens in the first series, and yet he's going to get another retro release later on down the line.
00:18:44
Speaker
For sure. We'll get to that. There was probably some reasons why that happens, but I mean, it is cool. I mean, it speaks to how much they have faith in him, you know, and you can tell it by watching SmackDown every week. Mike, the cane in this series is probably one of my top two or three retros. It's absolutely perfect. You got the one sleeve, the mask looks great. It's just, you know, a total like perfect homage to the like attitude era cane.
00:19:09
Speaker
And on the other side of the coin, not a huge fan of the Triple H number one. He has a jumper feature, which I don't like. I also would have loved to see the game instead of this Triple H, which really wasn't around for very long and wasn't very memorable. This is kind of like the tail end of his blue blood type of character. So that's the only thing I have about this. Other than that, I mean, this is six of the biggest wrestlers of all time. You can't really do anything but nitpick these.
00:19:38
Speaker
Yeah, this is a hard. This is like a Mount Rushmore series. I feel like it's definitely hard to argue with the the cane figure. The the bright red being the the original look for cane. They nailed it with this figure. I do like the mankind. I like the details of the knee brace on Austin. But yeah, I do agree the Triple H being that era and the jumper feature. If any figure was going to get multiple versions of a figure,
00:20:09
Speaker
It probably would have been Triple H eventually, and it still could be, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely, I mean, you know, obviously Triple H has strings to pull, but there's a lot of versions of Triple H. And like you said, I was kind of puzzled myself as to why this was, this was the variety that we got for Triple H. But yeah, the knee brace is a really great addition to Stone Cold. I love, you know, the, the claw feature on the, on the mankind figure. I just think this is a great series overall. The Rock, I mean, you can pretty much,
00:20:38
Speaker
I mean, he looks like the rock. He's wearing rock trunks and knee pads, black boots, got the people's eyebrow. So he's pretty standard for a rock figure. But yeah, overall, I think this is one of the more strong series of the entire release. So this is why they still had six. So we're going to move on to series three. And series three is where they decided to. See, real quick. Sorry, real quick. This was the series that I found this entire series at Ollie's for like $3.99 or something.
00:21:07
Speaker
And at that point, I'll put to that point, I'd already just been, okay, I'm just going to keep these in the package. That's it. And I found them like, and I bought them all like for like, oh, at $4. And I was like, okay, now I'm going to open these up. And that just opened up Pandora's box of like getting all of them loose. But I mean,
Imagining Series Eleven: Dream Figures
00:21:22
Speaker
we'll talk at the end of the show where you can kind of, if you don't collect the retros, if you want to get into it now that it's maybe on a hiatus, we'll give you some spots of where to find them for a little bit less expensive money.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah, I just wanted to touch on that because I was able to find them so cheap of just like I wish I would have bought the whatever they had at the whole store, but I didn't so yeah, so Mike are you a are you a MOC collector or do you collect loose so currently they are all mint on card and that because I kind of had that expectation that maybe this was gonna be like a 10 series type run and
00:22:00
Speaker
And at some point I plan on building some kind of display and kind of mixing them with the Hasbro collection when I finish the last few of those that I'm missing. But we're still brainstorming on what kind of display to make something that's a little bit different. So yeah, they won't stay mint on card. I do plan on letting them all breathe at some point.
00:22:22
Speaker
That's
Final Thoughts on Retro Collecting
00:22:23
Speaker
my boy. If I'm going to have all these Hasbro's displayed loose, then might as well do the Mattels also. Yeah, I agree. I think it definitely makes for, especially like you said, if you're going to have Hasbro's loose, it's going to make for a more cohesive display with them all being loose.
00:22:43
Speaker
I hope one day you don't regret peeling them all off the cards. I mean, you know, in my opinion, toys are meant to be played with. I don't buy, I don't buy figures to resell. So if I open them up, it is what it is. You know, I don't, I don't, I'm not trying to make money off of these things.
Closing Remarks and Thank You
00:22:56
Speaker
No, but man, when you see that like a hundred dollar mark for Roman reigns, you're like, what? I can sell Roman for a hundred dollars.
00:23:02
Speaker
Very true. Very true. Um, one time, yeah, we gave away one of the, the codes for the, oh my God, what's the game, the wrestling game that people play where you scant, like you get the codes in the figure. No, it was, it wasn't, is it mayhem? I thought mayhem was this. Oh, you're talking about the one that came with two K. Um, yeah.
00:23:23
Speaker
So we gave away like we gave away like we offered him on chick Foley one time we got him with our 2k game and he'll husband put him up on chick Foley and We were like is anybody want these codes for this game? And we got like so many DMS So we gave them to the first person then we looked him up on eBay and people pay like 50 to 100 and this was like a this was like a John Cena character that you can only get like, you know with with a special edition of 2k or something and people pay like $100 for these figures on eBay or for these codes on eBay I was like dang
00:23:54
Speaker
We screwed up, you know? But it felt good to help out another, you know, mark, but it was pretty funny when we realized like the value of that, you're just kind of like, oh shit, you know? But moving right along to series three, this is a more modern series. So we went from a pretty much all legends to almost all, all new guys with the exception of Goldberg. But at that time, you know, Goldberg was making, he was kind of a modern guy because he was making his,
00:24:21
Speaker
in-ring debut back and all of those things. So we have AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Goldberg. So out of this series, Phil, who would you say is the top contender? You better say Seth Rollins. Yeah, this is where everything took a turn because they must have seen the success of these first two series and pumped the shit out of these because some of these are still at targets in my area, which is
00:24:49
Speaker
We're on Series 10 now. Not a good sign. It was probably just because they just made a ton of them. I mean, you can't go wrong. I mean, four of the biggest names in the business now, you know, Goldberg, Goldberg excluded. But I do like the Seth Rollins. I just don't like that jumper. I just feel like it's kind of limiting. The styles is my favorite out of this group. I think it looks really good. I love.
00:25:10
Speaker
That's my favorite style of of the retros, the action where it's kind of you can make the clothesline, you can do the fish, you can like, you know, use it as like a suplex and it does like the twist so you can do like a clothesline with it. That's my favorite. So all of them are good looking. I've bought them all multiple times because I've you know, my buddy Mike Lanham here let us know that the game stops in our area. We're doing all the figures for five dollars. I bought a bunch of these.
00:25:36
Speaker
Uh, to keep mint and loose and give to people. So, uh, I have a lot of them. So this isn't a bad series, Mike, but I think they just mass produced it. And this is probably where things, uh, where stores just started thinking that these weren't selling. Yeah. I'm going to guess that series three was probably, um, when
00:25:55
Speaker
All the different retailers started carrying them because, uh, I think a lot of people forget series one was Walmart exclusive. Right. So series two, you probably didn't see a lot in target and stuff. They, it was probably hit or miss. Um, but like you said, this is the series I can go into my target right now and Seth Goldberg are probably still on the pegs. Um, and like I said, some game stops, I still see Dean Ambrose and styles at five bucks. So.
00:26:23
Speaker
Yeah, they probably were like, man, this line is doing really well. We should probably introduce this to as many retailers as possible. And I get that they're for probably the most popular people that were going at the time. But yeah, to still see them today, as much as everybody's wanting to collect and kind of complain about the series going away, or possibly these figures are still pretty plentiful and easy to find.
00:26:51
Speaker
Yeah, I actually bought my Seth Rollins at a at a GameStop. So yeah, I mean, I remember specifically going into GameStop and finding and finding Seth Rollins. So there were several changes made to series three. So again, we talked about earlier that they went from a series of six
00:27:10
Speaker
to now they're only doing four um and this was they were trying to produce more series per year um and have the turnaround of the figures be faster right so they were trying to give us more of these they saw like you said with the success of the first two series
00:27:23
Speaker
trying to give us more figures quicker, that sort of thing, trying to get the distribution under control. And these were the first series that actually came with display stands. So they came with a little plastic display stands with a little foot peg for you to be able to stand your figures up on. And they also came with a
00:27:43
Speaker
this is when the mayhem app, we were talking about apps earlier, this is when the mayhem app came out and you could, you know, there was like a little code on your figure that you could scan and, you know, there was content in the app for you. So yeah, this series, like you said, I think it was just really, really overproduced because we still see it today, which is a shame because these are four great guys, but these are like, like you said, these are like your top pick.
00:28:10
Speaker
guys you know what I mean like these are like your your superstars that are on every shelf they have every basic every every elite there's gonna be a series with one of these one of these guys in it but what did you say was your was your favorite of the series Mike I'm gonna agree with the the AJ Styles I just yeah the look of it the gloves the mom haircut is is on point I do like the Dean Ambrose it's the the jumper figures just
00:28:37
Speaker
I don't know why they irk everybody, I guess, because they don't stand up. Hence why we have stands going forward. But kids love them. I've given my nephews figures over the time and they immediately want the jumper figure, I guess, just because of the way it moves and you can play with it. But I guess odor collectors and just stuff like that just do not seem to care for these as much. But yeah, I believe the styles just
00:29:04
Speaker
very detailed, even down to the tattoo and just the gloves and everything is definitely the high mark for me for the series. Yeah. Personally, I think the retro of the jumper figures, they just look strange. Like the legs don't look normal. It looks like they, it looks like they're like these big beefy guys who just like skip leg day.
00:29:24
Speaker
You know because they're like they're like big up top and then they go they like go Really really small down at the bottom and like you said which causes problems with them standing up and things like that But it does make the figure look awkward. And yeah, I wish Seth Rollins came with something other than other than the jumping
00:29:40
Speaker
action jumping action for his figure but series four we have these are again we have a mostly modern guys and we have one legend in this series and it is the one and only Rick Flair we have Finn Balor this is the second release of Kevin Owens so his first retro was the duct tape the KO shirt
00:30:02
Speaker
that we all know very signature t-shirt of Kevin Owens and then we have the fight Owens fight shirt in in series four and then we have a retro series for Sammy Zane so Rick Flair, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane. What would you say is the top figure for this Phil?
00:30:21
Speaker
the
00:30:39
Speaker
We saw it slowing down so much that these started showing up at five below and I grabbed them for five bucks all day and I was, you know, I was selling some of these Ric Flair's to some folks on Twitter and Instagram, you know, to help people out because they just weren't seeing them. And we never really saw some of these in stores for a while, but they were popping up at five below.
00:30:57
Speaker
Uh, they're all nice. I mean, uh, Michael probably get to it, but this is the second Kevin Owens. This was supposed to be Enzo Amore and they, you know, once he got released, they repainted it. Uh, they repainted the original series one Kevin Owens with a new shirt, uh, just to kind of fill the void there. But, um, that fits in with the Sammy Zane. I liked that figure, but the Rick flares, you know, kind of a classic eighties Rick flair, but the winner here for me is Finn Balor. Yeah. What about you, Mike?
00:31:24
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely like the paint job on Finn. It is a really nice looking figure. I'm gonna go with the Ric Flair only because the Hasbro Ric Flair is the worst Hasbro in existence.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah, this retro is definitely a step in the right direction. I love the blue. I love this version of Ric Flair. It's like my favorite version of Ric Flair. And again, the fin has the jumping action. So it does take him down a peg. Speaking of articulation, in series four, Sami Zayn had an extra point of articulation. So he had a kicking action.
00:32:05
Speaker
And this was the first time that we had seen that extra point of articulation. We would later see it in Series 7 with Seamus as well, but it is pretty cool that they did decide to add an extra point of articulation. And to your point about them getting rid of Enzo, I have a question for you guys. Is Enzo going to be the modern day Rhythm & Blues Greg Valentine?
00:32:28
Speaker
Cool, man. Somebody sounds like brainy. Do you guys remember the Hey Arnold brainy like breathing into the mic? I think that's Mike. Is that you, Mike? Mike, are you breathing into your mic? It's highly possible. Yeah, I feel like for you guys who don't know brainy, look up brainy on Hey Arnold. He like would always show up behind Helga and just be like...
00:32:51
Speaker
I think it's entirely possible. I don't know if there's a bunch of them made already or if they were able to catch it before he was released. But, you know, I've never seen one in person. I've never seen anyone have one. No. And it sounds like our buddy Zach Ryder will not be purchasing one if one does show up. So I'm sure nobody really likes Enzo.
00:33:11
Speaker
I do want to touch on the Finn baller since you haven't opened up Mike. It's a pretty cool. It's not the not your classic jumper So it's something where if you pull his arm back He his legs move up and down and then you can kind of move him up and down and his arm will move up and down If you push him down up and down, so it's great It's not the one on the back where it just kind of jumps. It's kind of a little bit different of a move. So it's pretty cool but
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah, this series was good. I think, like I said, the Ric Flair has my favorite action. And it does make up for that awful Hasbro with the black eyebrows. That doesn't make much sense. So I was a fan of that one.
00:33:47
Speaker
Yeah, the thing I don't like about this series is on the packaging. The cards actually look great, but then they have this giant mayhem logo right on the front. I don't like how big and boxy it is, and it kind of takes away from the card a little bit, because they kind of have that vintage feel to them, the cards.
00:34:07
Speaker
And then it's got this giant like app advertisement on the front of the card Which I think kind of takes away from it because they do have these beautiful like stands like you know We don't use the stands for any of our figures, but I do like the stands They have like the the superstars logo on them and things like that, but that freaking like app advertisement on the front really kind of irks me so when you display your elites you just have them free freestanding there's no you don't buy the elite stands from like ringside or anything and
00:34:35
Speaker
No, they are free. They are freestanding. The heel. The heel husband is a is like a freaking genius with like placing those things, man. I can heart like I can hardly get him to stand up sometimes and he's like placing them just perfectly. Yeah. But if you ever went in there and like, you know, did a did a freaking stomp around in the in the market, did the earthquake move? Yeah.
00:34:57
Speaker
If you like did if you did the earthquake movie would definitely would cause like a Royal Rumble type situation everybody would like go overboard But yeah, we're looking for a new way to display them. But yeah, we've never used figure stands. We always just trash those things But yeah, that's us freestanding but moving on to series 5 this series contains the entire new day so you have biggie and
00:35:20
Speaker
Kofi and Xavier in in the pink and blue gear, which I like I don't know how you guys feel about it But I do I do love the the OG kind of like pink and turquoise Unicorn gimmicks that the that the new day had and then you've got macho madness macho man Randy Savage So what out of these figures would you say is the is the strongest of the series? I'll let you go first Mike I
00:35:49
Speaker
I like the New Day as a set. I like that they put all three of them together. I feel like you probably couldn't get away with not introducing all three at the same time. Maybe nowadays, if they were just now being introduced, you may have gotten Kofi by himself first. But yeah, the madness macho man, especially for them to go a different direction with him since he already had
00:36:11
Speaker
what, three or four iterations in the Hasbro collection. So to introduce him in the WCW gear, that black and white paint just really stands out in this collection. This was probably also the first set I remember seeing
00:36:29
Speaker
the talk of the retro ring coming out when they started talking about these figures. And then everybody was pretty much all in on starting to grab these figures up and collecting and having the ring and everything just because of how hard those older rings are to get in good condition these days.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah, this Macho Madness figure is awesome. I love that they went with the NWO Macho Man. It just kind of harkens back to that WCW time, which we don't get too much of in the wrestling figure line from Mattel. I don't know. The New Day is great. I'm glad they did them all together. But this Macho Man was super hard to find, Mike. I don't know about you.
00:37:10
Speaker
I had trouble finding it. I was able to track it down eventually. I forget where I did find it. Probably a buddy through Facebook and just making connections to some of these Facebook groups. This was the first series where these things were not readily available. It was tough to get.
00:37:27
Speaker
Yeah, this this might have been the first series I bought from ringside. I don't recall buying these at a store. I bought him probably from ringside and then a few months later is when it was probably you feel was like, oh, these are at five below and I was like. I feel like I paid a lot more. I need to go to five below and and maybe have backups and stuff like that. Cause then I started thinking man, can I get a loose animate on card series out of these?
00:37:57
Speaker
my five below I think honestly outside of maybe like series two or three never saw any more of them so I know we talked so much about distribution for these figures and it's so hit or miss and we've even seen it I guess as late as this week with people looking for the Pat Patterson and some of the newer figures you go into one Walmart in California and they've got 10 of them and you go to
00:38:20
Speaker
One in Baltimore or Virginia, and they have bare walls, so it probably continues the frustration of trying to find figures when everybody's seeing them in one city or one state, and then the same figures for a year straight in another.
00:38:37
Speaker
It is super frustrating, but both of us were able to find the entire series. And I have stories about where I found some of these. You have stories, whether you bought them from different stores or websites. And people complain about it on social media. And if you don't like it, go collect tunicans or go collect soda cans or something.
00:38:56
Speaker
So many cans. Are you like 100 years old? Half the fun of this is like trying to find these things in the wild or getting a buddy to find them for you or trading or something like that. I mean, we'll get into this next series, Series 6. I walked into a Kmart randomly. It's closed now, but we had one Kmart in my Baltimore area here.
00:39:19
Speaker
and I don't even know why I went into this store and they had this entire Series 6 on the pegs and I was like, oh, okay, cool. And I didn't even know Kmart sold, you know, met retros or anything like that. So it was just, you know, it's just...
00:39:35
Speaker
You'll find them eventually, whether you have to spend a little bit more on eBay or what, but I think this line did suffer from some serious distribution problems, but at the end of the day, it's kind of the thrill of the hunt, for sure.
00:39:50
Speaker
Yeah, so in Phil's words, if you don't like hunting figures, you should go collect wooden nickels. Imagine if everyone's Walmart had like five Pat Patterson's. No one would give a shit about Pat Patterson, right? I don't care about Pat Patterson, but the fact that it's rare makes me want one.
00:40:09
Speaker
much like the Harley race figure it's it's no one wanted it until they couldn't find it. But guys you can you can say that all day long but it's not just it's not just those figures it's not just Sherry it's not just Harley race it's not just Pat Patterson this is a problem with like all series like you know I mean standard release elites I mean remember the NXT elites
00:40:32
Speaker
I mean those were like I mean those are standard release or not I mean they're target exclusives but I mean no targets Adam if only one store is supposed to get these figures you think that one store would have them you know like if this if this is a if this is a line of figures that is made specifically for one location how can we not get
00:40:52
Speaker
figures to this one location. You know what I mean? Very true. I think the biggest thing for figure collectors is just to open up your avenues and not feel so limited like you can only buy if you're buying from a store. There's so many websites out there. There's eBay, there's Amazon, there's Ringside.
00:41:09
Speaker
freaking megalopolis there's i mean there's it's countless ways for you to acquire figures or space book communities and you know all of that so there's ways to get them other than just hunting you know so i think if you just be open and patient patience is a virtue you guys um you will find them you know um
00:41:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think let the hype die down a little you know everybody wants to be the first with social media now Everybody wants to post a picture or that they have they bought it before everybody else. That's the thing. That's what it is The slim gelma macho man next week you'll see plenty of pictures everywhere of everybody
00:41:49
Speaker
getting theirs in the mail and then obviously the people that are still looking for one probably in a week or two when they realize they probably won't ever see one available again so yeah i think i think by the time series five came out you were probably all in on these figures and so it was just the
00:42:08
Speaker
The hunt for these figures going store to store. I think there's a Walmart right behind me from work. There's another one about a mile from my house. So once or twice a week I would just kind of walk in walk past the toy section and and hopes that they would have some of these figures and normally if you caught it one of the first few days, you might be able snag.
00:42:27
Speaker
All four at once and be done until the next series at the store. So yeah, the thrill of the hunt is definitely there and I think it's kind of that's probably what helped get me back into collecting these figures was just.
00:42:40
Speaker
They weren't just everywhere. You actually had to go out and look for them. And then once I was dedicated to wanting to have all of them, that's where it was like, man, I don't want to miss out. So I'm going to buy this one off ringside or buy this one off Amazon because I don't want to miss out on it or not be able to find it when the next series comes out.
00:42:59
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. And you know, I mean, and that's what that's what collecting is all about. And I think a lot of people forget that, you know, I mean, that's what I mean, if it like you said, if they were everywhere on every shelf, nobody would give a crap. There would be no sense of urgency. And I mean, you got to think also like Mattel is a business.
00:43:15
Speaker
I don't agree with everything they're doing now. I feel like there's a demand for figures and they're not supplying that demand. But at the same time, they have to be smart with what they put out because they don't want to be stuck with 700,000 Xavier Woods retros sitting in a warehouse somewhere that aren't selling. You know what I mean? They have to be very careful about what they produce, what they distribute, and those sorts of things and where they send them.
00:43:41
Speaker
That was kind of an aside. We're going to jump on to Series 6, which is another great series of retros, in my opinion. We have an awesome-looking Bray Wyatt. We have Daniel Bryan. We have Shinsuke Nakamura. And we have our second release of Sting, which is a Wolfpack version of Sting. So Mike, I'll let you go first. Which one of this series stood out to you the most?
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's the Bray Wyatt. I love this figure. This is probably right when he was probably starting to really see his singles push, I would say, outside of just being with the rest of the Wyatt's. The details on the tattoos, just the look of the figure and the beard and the hair, they really nailed this figure. The Nakamura is really good too. This is one of the better sets of four probably out there.
00:44:35
Speaker
I know it's basically a repaint of Sting, but to add that Wolfpack Sting, I mean, you've got so many other figures out there that have had different paint jobs and stuff, it's really hard to leave out two different versions of Sting.
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think you I think with it with the character like sting you can get away with that obviously, you know, I would have loved to see a surfer sting Come into it come into the line, but at the same time. Yeah, I don't think I don't think anybody was mad to get crow sting and Wolfpack sting same as I bought I bought you know, the the elite form of both of those guys, you know, I was not mad at it What about you feel what which one stood out to you? I
00:45:17
Speaker
Yeah, with him, it's a great series. They're all really well done. I love the Shinsuke Nakamura. The hair looks perfect, has it shaved on one side. You can do the, what's the finishing move? I can't ever pronounce it. Kinsasha. Yeah, it does that. No, it's not Kinsasha. King Sasha. King Sasha Banks.
00:45:40
Speaker
The hibachi, hibachi Sasha. No, the Bray Wyatt. I mean, the tattoos on the Bray Wyatt. I'm holding it right now. It looks like an elite figure. The head's really well done. Has a good Cape Fear type of look to it. I love the wolf pack sting, even though it's a jumper. I mean, they're all well done. And this series is one of my favorites, too. It's probably my second favorite series after series, too. So yeah. Yeah, series seven. OK, so series seven.
00:46:09
Speaker
This, in my personal opinion, again, I don't collect these, so I don't really have a hardcore opinion either way. But I feel like this is one of the weaker series of the bunch. And we got Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels, which, I mean, I know this is probably hurt and feels feelings, because this is the series that contained Kurt Angle. But we got Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, and then Seamus. This series just really didn't excite me.
00:46:36
Speaker
Um, but for, uh, Phil, what was your favorite? I think I already know the answer. Come on, Sheena. Come on. I have four of these current angles now at this point. I just bought a whole set the other day for $5 each. The Shawn Michaels is one of the worst wrestling figures of all time. Uh, the face on it looks just like a, I can't even describe it. P it wouldn't be PC. Um, it kind of looks like Bob Backlund.
00:47:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty bad. I mean, these are warm in the pegs. And for anyone who thinks that this line should be canceled, the stores will point you to these four figures because no one's buying them. I don't know if they got too many of them. Nobody wants Seamus, you know, Chris Jericho now with AEW. It just, you know, they all look really good except for the Shawn Michaels, but they just didn't move. And they're still, you know, you can probably find them at your Walmart right now for five bucks or three bucks.
00:47:30
Speaker
You know, it's none of them were really spectacular. They were just kind of blah
00:47:37
Speaker
Yeah, what I do appreciate about this series, though, is this was the first series that they took the mayhem app thing, the thing that I was complaining about earlier, and they made it much more discreet and less invasive on the packaging. So that is one thing that I do like about it. They did change the packaging a little bit. They went back to blue.
00:47:59
Speaker
Um, but yeah, overall, like, I mean, these things sat, I mean, I saw these things in several stores where I'm at and they just kind of like sat there and sat there and sat there. Um, and I think these kind of clog the, clog the shelves because in store, I never saw, you know, series eight, series nine. I mean, I never saw any of those. So it's like, you know, uh, I think this was kind of the stopping point where they were like, Oh yeah, maybe we shouldn't send out any more of these things.
00:48:28
Speaker
Yep, exactly. Yeah, they've been warming the pegs for sure. What about you? It felt like they went from series three to series seven. No one ever saw four, five, and six really in stores. You might have seen them once, twice, and immediately to seven, and still warming the pegs. That's Shawn Michaels, like Phil said, is terrible.
00:48:55
Speaker
I mean, the body and the pants and everything look good, but that face scan, you would think if there's probably anybody in the WWE, they could have a good face scan of, it should be Shawn Michaels. The Jericho is kind of the same way. The face isn't nearly as bad. You can kind of tell it's a Chris Jericho figure, the scarfs and ice touch and stuff just to throw something different in there. But yeah, I'd say that the Kurt angle, even though he looks like a,
00:49:22
Speaker
Saturday morning American gladiator Kurt Angle is definitely the best figure. I like that they went with the older or younger Kurt Angle, the Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle instead of the bald look. We probably will see him or eventually we'll get that other Kurt Angle or general manager Kurt Angle. But yeah, I do like the just the look of that figure with the singlet
00:49:47
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So we won't we won't harp on this series too long because if you want to see it, I'm sure you can just go to your local discount retailer and find plenty of them to check them out. But moving on to series eight, which is actually I like this series a lot. It's Braun Stroman, Jeff Hardy, Zack Ryder and Iron Sheik. You know, first of all, I want to say I feel like Zack Ryder
00:50:14
Speaker
No shade to Zack Ryder. Obviously he's the $1,000 broski to Michael Jordan of figure collecting. But I feel like the only reason he got a retro is because of his level of, you know, like,
00:50:27
Speaker
figure collecting and his influence in the figure community. I mean, am I wrong in assuming that? Because there's no other reason that Zack Ryder would be in this line, right? No, he admits it on a show too. He said there's no reason about this TV time that he should get this. And they use the kind of the Long Island, I see old school Zack Ryder instead of, you know, a current day one. So I guess they can get away with it. But
00:50:50
Speaker
I mean, it fits. The dude has done a lot for, you know, if you listen to his show, he's done a lot for the wrestling figure community and brought into the forefront front. And he probably kept these retros going longer than they probably should have because those guys support it so much on their, on their podcast. So, uh, sure.
00:51:06
Speaker
I'm all for it. I love the Braun Strowman figure, Mike. I think that was the prize of this series. And I was looking forward to seeing what they can do with that body sculpt with other people that they use the diesel for in series 10. But you finally have a big guy that looks a little bit different. The iron chic, I thought was going to be I thought that was going to be the one that people were going to be hard to find in stores and be like the kind of the next Roman Reigns as far as value. But
00:51:36
Speaker
It really hasn't. I mean, nobody's really been clamoring for these. Even though they haven't really shown up in stores, they're still available on Megalopolis and Ringside Collectibles, if you want a better website. Yeah, it's, you know, they're all really good. The Jeff Hardy looks good. I was, you know, hoping it would be more kind of old school Jeff Hardy. But, you know, it's a good series, Mike. Yeah, there's really not a bad figure in the series. They all have a good look to them. I mean, it is kind of some
00:52:07
Speaker
if they, when they announced these figures, I'm sure a lot of people were like, what a random assortment of four guys. But that's kind of part of it is you're going to have your current two or three guys, you're going to have your retro look with your Long Island IC Zack Ryder, and then you throw in your Hall of Famer or your throwback figure with Iron Sheik. So yeah, they all look really good in this set. I like the Braun Strowman a lot.
00:52:36
Speaker
For one, the scale they used, a larger figure, I don't think they've really done that before. Even if you go back and look at the early cane or undertaker, they're about the same size as all the other figures. So to use a larger sculpt on
00:52:51
Speaker
on Braun really worked for this figure with the beard and just the tattoo and the look and stuff. So yeah, I think he's probably the standout for me for the series. But yeah, I love all four in the series. Sad that we never saw these in stores. We might by the end of the year when people have kind of given up, but hopefully something like that might help push along a future series.
00:53:17
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I definitely think that Braun Strowman is the standout of this series. I think, you know, like you said, I like that they use a bigger body sculpt. I think it just only makes sense. I think Funko really missed the mark with their Braun Strowman because I feel like they made him the same scale as everyone else. They should have used like, I don't know if you guys, you know, Harry Potter marks, but like they have a Hagrid Funko Pop that is like giant, right? And I'm like, they needed to use that Hagrid scale
00:53:46
Speaker
for for Braun Strowman, you know, instead of just keeping him the same size as everyone else, he should have been like a six inch figure, you know. Yeah, they're going to do that. We've had Andre the Giant Funko, I think the second version. So that will look cool. But then all of a sudden, your other big guys look out of place, but I like that they're doing that. I think it's a Walmart exclusive, but that one will be a cool for the Funko collectors when it releases.
00:54:14
Speaker
For sure, for sure. I definitely feel like they should re-release, release brawn in that one. But so moving on to series nine, series nine, we have Goldust, Randy Orton, and Macho Man Randy Savage. I think if I'm not mistaken, wasn't Cesaro slated for this series? Yeah, I want to say he was originally announced and then this is where you got another version of Savage instead. Yeah. I'm not mad at that. No.
00:54:41
Speaker
I'm not mad at the oh, so oh, sorry, Samoa Joe. So I'm missing Samoa Joe. So it's Goldust, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton and Macho Man Randy Savage. So it was supposed to originally be Cesaro, but you got a different a different version of Macho Man instead of Cesaro, which yeah, like you said, I'm not mad about. I mean, there's nothing really spectacular about Cesaro's look that would make me want to have him as a as a retro. This is pretty cool. So Goldust has a removable wig.
00:55:09
Speaker
which is the first time we've seen a removable accessory for the series, which is kind of a cool little addition, right? You can have your regular gold dust, or you can have your pimped out gold dust. Yeah, it's cool. I'm surprised it took them until Series 9, and if their line was coming to an end, I'm surprised they spent the extra money to do that. But I mean, it is cool. I mean, it would be cool if we got that going with every series, one person had something extra, and take the Undertaker's hat off,
00:55:37
Speaker
you know stings jacket or something I don't know but you know can't complain too much it is it is cool that the the gold dust hair comes off there Mike like I said I don't have any of these figures that I'll be buying them very very soon but you don't you have them still in the package which which one stands out the most to you I do like the gold dust figure he just kind of sticks out from the rest of them it's this is another good
00:56:03
Speaker
lineup of four. The Orton tattoos are well done. Joe has a good look to him. I think originally they had announced him in one color and then they made some changes to it before it released. The Savage is based off, I guess, an unreleased Hasbro prototype that never happened with the green shorts instead of his traditional orange or purple. But yeah, the Go Dust is just a solid looking figure for the series.
00:56:33
Speaker
Back to the Cesaro being cut out. I don't know if that was originally he was just playing maybe because Seamus was was in the other series and they just kind of wanted to have them back to back, but I'm not really sure why they chose to get rid of the Cesaro and and introduce another Randy Savage instead.
00:56:50
Speaker
Yeah, especially since they already had their throwback in Goldust. It wasn't like they needed a legend. They had Goldust. So yeah, I'm really curious as to what the reasoning was behind that. And maybe it's out there. Maybe Bill has talked about it before. But yeah, I would definitely say Goldust. Goldust does well on our Patreon episodes. I think he won the natural entrance music, got a really good push on our bracket. And then what was the other one? It was his entrance.
00:57:20
Speaker
Best gimmick, right? Best gimmick, yeah, it was best gimmick. Yeah, I can't remember which one, but yeah, Gold Test does really good on our, on the cheek fully Patreon. Our next gimmick is, our next bracket is the, the best finishing move. So we'll see how the curtain call does in that one. I don't know. That one might not last too long.
00:57:40
Speaker
Um, so moving on to, to series 10, um, we had this one. Um, I actually just did an unboxing for, and then I sent, uh, I sent them to Phil, uh, because, you know, again, I don't, I don't like these guys and I was happy to pass them along to somebody who would love them, but we do have.
00:57:55
Speaker
J. Y. D. Junkyard dog we have Elias Matt Hardy and this is probably I think this is probably the figure that got most people excited for the whole series right they waited till the very last to give people what they wanted and they gave us
00:58:11
Speaker
a diesel figure that was previously unreleased in the Hasbro line. So that was super exciting. And then we got Elias with an accessory. We got a guitar with Elias. So that was pretty cool. So out of this series, Phil, since you have it in the figure protector cases, all nice and minty, what would you say is a standout?
00:58:32
Speaker
Man, it's tough that Elias, I unboxed these for our Patreon page, and you gave me the ones from Ringside to keep fresh, that Elias is so legit. I mean, I love the breakaway guitar, the guitar breaks in half, but it's gotta be the diesel. I mean, the diesel and the junkyard dog are really nice. The diesel that we've been waiting for for years and years, it fits in perfect with the Hasbro's.
00:58:56
Speaker
It's just it's just a great looking figure, man, and it's perfect. It's perfect. It's early diesel, too. It's not it's not Big Daddy. Cool. It's just like bodyguard diesel, you know, so. Yeah, yeah. Super cool. What about you, Mike? Yeah, it's hard to argue. Yeah, it's the it's the figure everybody kind of clamored for for 15, 20 years. That was this diesel that we never got. And if this was to be the end of the series, they can say, hey, we gave you the figure that we always promised.
00:59:26
Speaker
Yeah. Phil, did you ever get the guitar back together? Is it still falling apart on you? Yeah, I put in the bag just all the pieces. It's awful, yeah. Yeah, it's a good looking Elias. I think you could have thrown in maybe the scarf like Jericho has, but since you already had the one accessory, it definitely works. He's a good looking figure. The junkyard dog, I mean, anytime you get one of those
00:59:51
Speaker
Those retro figures of somebody you grew up with, especially if it's not like your top of the line big name, it's always cool to always cool to see a figure like that. For sure, like you said, I think they I think they sent us home happy regardless. You know, nobody's happy to see these things go on a hiatus, but it is one of those things that you know they're like it's like it's like when you're watching a pay-per-view and the whole pay-per-view sucks.
01:00:14
Speaker
And you're like, God, this is the worst. Like, why did I spend four hours in my life? And then it has like a killer main event. And you're like, oh, man, this was awesome. You're like, Extreme Rules was the best pay-per-view ever. And you're like, wait a minute, the whole show sucked. But then the main event was awesome. So you just kind of get that recency bias. But how terrible and how pissed off would the retro collecting community slash Hasbro collecting community been if they teased the diesel
01:00:42
Speaker
and then never released it. Oh my God. That would be, that would just be cruel, unusual punishment. Um, I think this was the perfect place to stop. Like you said, if they were going to stop, um, it's, it's a great line of figures here, Mike. I'm one, I mean, series nine and 10 have not hit stores. I don't know if they will hit stores or if they're just going to go. I mean, I got to think there's a warehouse full of these things somewhere.
01:01:06
Speaker
And where they're going to sell them, I don't know. I got a feeling during the holidays, we see a bunch of these in five below. I would not be surprised at all. Right. If you're if you're on hiatus for future figures, are they still producing any of the ones that have already happened or are they just sitting in boxes waiting to be shipped out?
01:01:27
Speaker
I think they're sitting in boxes. These things are created and produced so far in advance. It's not like they're making these things on demand. These things come out months before they're even released. They're sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be released. Does that make you think that maybe there are Enzo's setting somewhere? Have they been destroyed or are they holding on to them for some odd reason?
01:01:55
Speaker
Well, I mean, my thing is, is like they didn't release him, but I don't think they ever put him in the line. You know what I mean? I think it may be. We just saw a prototype. Right. The mock up figure, a prototype. And that was it. Yeah, you know, and he he was a pretty cool figure. I mean, I'm not going to lie. I mean, regardless of what you think of Enzo Amore, I mean, he had a little microphone. He had like his hair in the bun and like the leopard print, the leopard print. Like it looked really good. He was over to I mean, we've talked about this on the show. I mean, he was one of the biggest stars. You know, when he came out on Raw those days, he was
01:02:25
Speaker
the crowd would pop, but- No, nobody chanted louder than me whenever he would come out. Like if I was at an NXT show or a show and Enzo and Cass came out, like I was doing the whole shtick. You know what I mean? Like the whole entrance shtick. Like I loved it, you know? And they were so over. But yeah, it's a shame to see how their star has fallen. And unfortunately, that affected our ability to get an Enzo-Mori retro.
01:02:52
Speaker
I was about to say something and I totally f-ing forgot. Series 10. It'll come to you. That happens to me all the time with mom brain. So keep that thought open. And while you're thinking of that, I want you guys to
01:03:09
Speaker
Um, be hopeful, right? I want you guys to keep the hope alive and I want you to fantasy book a series of four, um, retros for series 11. So I'm going to let Mike go first, uh, and give me what you would want for your four, for your four retros in series 11.
01:03:28
Speaker
They talked about at Comic Con, was it last year, about introducing the female superstars and hopefully maybe we're going to see the light of day on those. I just kind of look at these figures and try to imagine how they're going to do a women's series of these, like what the figures would look like, how size-wise they would be done compared to the standard figures. So maybe that was part of the problem of doing it, like how small do you make them compared to the
01:03:58
Speaker
The male superstars. I feel like your easy answer if you're going to do females right off the bat would probably be Rhonda and Becky. I'd like to see a a Miss figure. Maybe like yeah, maybe I did not expect to hear Miss.
01:04:15
Speaker
Oh, I'm I love the miss even no shape to the miss. It's just funny. I don't know why I was like, oh, I'm not expecting to miss. Can we all agree that Mrs. is a Hall of Famer? Oh, yeah. OK, yeah, good. Yeah, there's no there's no way he's not going to be once he's done. I think we'll really appreciate what he's done. But yeah, he's a Hall of Famer. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I'm not. He's like Seth. I don't love the face version of him. He's better as a hill, but he can get over.
01:04:43
Speaker
anyway he needs to. His introduction is video package at mania27 is still probably one of the best things I think WWE has ever done. So I just feel like he is perfect for this series. Any look they want to give him, I feel like you could probably do the red looking trench coat or you could just do him in the trunks maybe. I think there's a couple different ways they could go.
01:05:12
Speaker
I think it's kind of kind of cheating. I feel like perfect for this line would have been a double pack. I think you could have started introducing tag teams. I think right off the bat. Usos would have been perfect. Even if they looked very similar to figures, you've done it with a lot of the other ones in the old Hasbro line, so they're twins. So yeah, you know.
01:05:33
Speaker
You would have made some little subtle changes or whatever, but I feel like they would have looked really good together. But I feel like you would have had to sewed them together. You kind of sewed them as individual figures. It definitely has to be a two-pack. I was actually going to ask you guys if you could fantasy book a tag team, what would you have? And I definitely agree with you. I feel like Usos would be the first ones right off the bat to get that double pack up.
01:06:00
Speaker
But I'll take the Iconics all day too, if you want to give them to me. But yeah, there's so many options there. And I have another one, but I think Phil has already alluded to it. So we'll let Phil talk about the four he'd like to see. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it. I don't want to steal your thunder, Phil. It's a great idea.
01:06:17
Speaker
Well, I don't know if I'll actually say it, but here's mine. If they come back out with the retros, you have to hit the ground running with these. And here's what we're going to do. NWO Hulk Hogan. Okay.
01:06:33
Speaker
Brett Hart, Brett Hart WCW. I don't know how you make it look WCW, but you have to, uh, you make it a loser. Sorry. You have the gold, maybe the chest plate, maybe have the chest plate on it. The fiend Bray Wyatt.
01:06:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And DoubleJ Jeff Jarrett. Right. Which, yeah, so what outfit would you have, DoubleJ? And, like, the stripper gear? No, the white with the orange, you know, like, the top hat, the orange jacket, the white jacket with the orange fringe and the lights and all that stuff, yeah.
01:07:09
Speaker
I just think that that hits like kind of current day collectors and it goes back to kind of, you know, more Hasbro type figures. You already have the diesel. I could see a China would be cool, too, if you want to do so. The women are going to be tough because these figures are real chunky. You know, they're not like very petite.
01:07:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's something you know I hadn't even considered I don't even know why until Mike had just said that like I had because I was like why they do women like I'm so pissed like you know why haven't they done any women and I'm like yeah that's kind of a that's kind of a difficult you know bridge across because it's like like you said I mean the body types are totally different for for women than men and
01:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, I never even considered that. We could do an awesome Kong or like a Nyla Rose or you know, those would be easy. Nia Jax. Yeah, they could do a Nia Jax. Yeah, there you go. Yeah.
01:08:03
Speaker
But yeah, I was just like looking, I was like scrolling back up looking at some of these retros trying to find a body type that could work. And maybe like the Kurt Angle body type or like even the Shawn Michaels body type. But yeah, other than that, everybody else is so beefy, you know?
01:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, larger than life, larger than life. Um, but that takes us to our, our final series and we completed series 10. So we are at the end. We fantasy book series 11. Um, I'm going to let Phil take, take the mic for a minute and let you guys know for all of you guys, if you're listening to this episode and you don't collect retros or you haven't, or you're trying to complete your collections.
01:08:43
Speaker
just some places where you can find them and things like that. And again, just connect with your local figure collectors too, because again, like some of these guys find them, they scoop them up because then they can pass them along to people who need them. So I'm gonna let Phil give you a rundown on some hot places to find retro figures.
01:08:59
Speaker
Yeah, obviously eBay is going to be the place for retro series one and two. Those are going to be the hardest to find. A couple stores are going to have them if you go to, at this point, Marshalls, Big Lots, some of these kind of stores. I don't know if you have Tuesday mornings where you live, but there's one in my area that still has a Triple H hanging around that I might go by tomorrow. Retro series three is still in some targets. Some of these targets in Walmart still have some of these series discounted.
01:09:28
Speaker
So you can pick them up anywhere that you can find them at Walmart and Target, but Ringside Collectibles, Megalopolis, those are going to be the best bets for some of these later series, and you can use code Chick Foley at ringsidecollectibles.com to get our 10% off there. Obviously, you probably already know that.
01:09:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's the thrill of the hunt. There's a ton of good Facebook groups on Facebook, obviously. There's a couple of Twitter accounts you need to follow. It's at WWE Retro Stars. It's an awesome source of information for anything and all, Retros and Hasbros. And there's a good guy that made a graphic, kind of a checklist of all the different ones we talked about today. His Twitter account is WWF Classic, and he's a good follow on Twitter. So be sure to follow him or he'll yell at me.
01:10:17
Speaker
Yeah, and also message us if you need any help with anything. There's a bunch of people in the community that will help you find stuff and people always up for trading things. So it's never too late. That's the best part of being on a hiatus right now, Sheena, is you can kind of collect at your own pace and find stuff.
01:10:37
Speaker
I was just about to say that I was just about to say you know now there's no hurry you know it's not like oh my god do I need to spend money on this one that I missed because there's going to be a new series coming out now you can kind of like budget yourself and figure out which figures that you want or if you're a completionist you don't have to be in any hurry
01:10:54
Speaker
Um, but I do think if you are interested in, in collecting these retros, like grab them now, because the longer you wait, they're only going to go up in value as these things get harder and harder to find. Even the ones that are warming the pegs right now, um, you know, eventually those things are going to be hard to find. And, uh, you're going to be, you're going to be sad when, uh, when you miss the boat, you're like, damn it, why didn't I, why didn't I grab that freaking, uh, Seamus figure, you know, or that Shawn Michaels figure when, when I had it.
01:11:21
Speaker
But thank you guys all for listening to this. And we always appreciate all the Patreon support. You guys are our fully fam. We love you. And I'm gonna let Phil wrap it up and take us home.
01:11:32
Speaker
Yeah, I want to give a shout out to Mike Lanham, who is a guest co-host tonight, obviously, and he's killed it, but he's also made a couple retro rings for me and Sheena. I'm going to post a picture of the King of the Ring one that he made for me. It was super dope. Are you still making these men, or was it a one-time thing, or did you just do that as a hobby, or what?
01:11:51
Speaker
I mean, outside of the two for you, I did a Halloween Havoc orange and purple ring for myself. And I think I'm not sure if both of you do or not. If you follow JB Toys on Instagram, I did one for him also. So yeah, it was just something.
01:12:11
Speaker
to try and trial and error, and I'd probably like to do more. We obviously don't have Kmart around here anymore, so $5 rings are hard to come by, but it's something fun. It's kind of something easy that everybody can do. It's just kind of finding the stickers, and there's different places online. You can order them if you don't have the way to make them yourself or print them yourself. But yeah, just something different to kind of change up that look and not just have that basic blue
01:12:40
Speaker
that blue ring that you remember, but yeah, I like having it too, but yeah, fun to try. So yeah, super, super mage. And yeah, I can't, I can't speak Michael Adams praise high enough. He's definitely been a, a good friend to the, to the Foley fam over here, the Phelps Foley fam, um, you know, with his, with his GameStop connections and I like, I mean, he's the best.
01:13:02
Speaker
We always call and ask him, his husband will hit him up and be like, hey, do you know, can you check the stock of this or can you see this? And Mike's always got our back, you know? So yeah, we appreciate you so much, Mike, and thank you for coming on here and offering your expertise and your advice. I love hearing from you. Anytime I can help if anybody needs anything, just hit me up or say something to Sheena or Phil and they can get in contact with me. If I can do anything to help the Fig Fam, I will.
01:13:30
Speaker
Yeah. And again, you can follow Mike at Mike Lanham on Instagram. That's M I K E L A N H A M. No, no underscores Phil. No, I love it. I love it, man. Just, just the old Mike Lanham. That's a unique enough name where you don't have to like, there's not like a hundred of you. So you don't have to do like, yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't ever have to worry about getting in trouble with anybody in the future about my, my
01:13:54
Speaker
Twitter handle or anything like that. Yeah.
Engage with the Hosts: Listener Interaction
01:13:56
Speaker
Very nice. Well, yeah, you killed it tonight, man. And also, like we always say, reach out to us if you guys have any questions, it's askchickfoli at gmail.com. You guys know where we are on social media. We really appreciate everybody listening. Be a Patreon member. Mike is a Patreon member too. He's just like you guys. So if you have an idea for a show that you want to come on with us and do,
01:14:16
Speaker
And we're all about it, man. We're a community here.
Community Collaboration and Gratitude
01:14:20
Speaker
We're just like you guys. We're not trained professionals here. We started this podcast because we have a passion for this, just like you do. So if you have an idea or you want to do something with us, we'd love to hear it for sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. So guys, thank you so much for listening again. We won't take up any more of your time, and we look forward to doing more Patreon-exclusive episodes for you guys in the future. Stay classy, Marx. We'll talk
Lyrical Transition: Themes of Love and Ambition
01:14:43
Speaker
to you soon.
01:14:55
Speaker
We can go together. It doesn't really matter. We can get there. We can do it every try. You know that I love you, but no one knows.
01:15:10
Speaker
We ain't gotta work
01:15:26
Speaker
Laid out on the island, she Hawaiian Wonder if she let me slide in, the OG make a noise like a fire truck Flew in, touch down, then we light em up I been saying that they click, there's a lot of us They talk shit, but nobody else on top of us Got popular, it's the real she Get in the face with a full clip Get in the A, niggas don't slip
01:15:46
Speaker
With a case just for sellin' it I know them gorillas I hang with them killers They paint them as villains When really they livin' We got a bar This is World War III I'm the new Jay-Z I ain't write shit down I'ma steal that crown I'ma do that thing, girl You sweeter than mango How we cool and confident With hair like Django How we walk in the room And the girls they notice Cuz they know you bogus I'm the man you notice And we can go together Doesn't really matter We can get there We can do it if we try You know that I love you
01:16:46
Speaker
right I'm gonna show you how to do this it's easy when you let go let go didn't mean to make you nervous