WWE Elite Collection Series 92: Charlotte Flair

 

The only figure I bought from Series 92 of the WWE Elite Collection is Ric's daughter, Charlotte Flair. I thought this was one of the best looking figures of Charlotte to date, if not women's wrestling figures. She must have sold the best in this series because I never saw her at retail, but found plenty of her wave mates. I had to resort to purchasing her online, but I'm glad I did because this is a great figure.

Charlotte is sporting her purple wrestling gear and white boots. Her hair sculpt looks great, draped over the sides of her shoulder and resting on her back. This is one of the better hair looking hair sculpts I've seen in some time. The silver paint apps on her gear are nicely applied and match the real gear. The sides of her boots sport her initials in purple paint.

I've made mention in several other WWE reviews that Mattel has done a great job with matching the wrestler's likeness with the head sculpts and Charlotte Flair is no exception. In fact, I believe this is one of the best looking likenesses they've been able to capture. If you look carefully just above her chin you can even see her mole (?). I love the cocky smirk on her face too as it matches her persona to a T. Just a great looking figure.

Another thing that Mattel has done well with in the Elite Collection is also capturing the wrestler's tattoos. Charlotte doesn't have a lot of ink, but she does have a tattoo on her ribs (ouch!) as you can see here.

Charlotte comes with a Women's Tag Team Championship belt. As I write this however I'm having a hard time remember who her tag partner was that she won gold with. Charlotte isn't exactly a team player after all. Its been awhile since I've purchased a figure that was packaged with a title belt. This one isn't too bad and fits around her waist or across her shoulder just fine. She also comes with an alternate set of hands, as pictured above. The hands that come attached to the figure in the package are more unique looking, as depicted in the picture below.

I feel this figure is the complete package. It's got a great overall sculpt, fantastic head sculpt and a nice championship belt. Women's figures seem to be hit and miss, but this version of Charlotte is a must buy.

WWE Elite Collection Series 90: Big Boss Man

I was more of a WCW guy back in the day, however I always liked the Big Boss Man. I was glad to see him included in series 90 of the Elite Collection and quickly added him to my Amazon shopping cart upon his release. I'm not sure what happened to the packaging, but mine arrived with a big ol' rip on the back of the packaging. Good thing I open my toys!

My first impression out of the package was mostly positive. I like big, hefty, chunky figures and Big Boss Man fits that mold. The light blue Police shirt looks good, as do the patches on the shirt. The pants aren't anything special, but works well with the rest of the uniform. They even left the top two buttons of his shirt unbuttoned to expose his chest hair as so often was the case. Where I feel this figure falls a little flat is the head sculpt.

Mattel has been hitting it out of the park when it comes to head sculpts, but there is just something off about Big Boss Man's capture. Maybe it's the smile? Or maybe the hair...I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I'm just having a hard time getting behind this head sculpt.

Packaged with the figure a few accessories. Two extra set of hands are included, one set of closed fists and one set of pointing hands, a hat, billy club and a set of handcuffs. I'm not too sure about this hat however. It fits snugly on his head, but it also makes his head look really large. Ever seen the movie Mega Mind?

I was so excited going into opening this figure, but now that I've had him in hands for a bit I'm a little disappointed. I don't think it's a bad figure, believe me I've see far worse, but it's not quite living up to my expectations. Maybe said expectations were too high to begin with? I'm not looking to sell the figure at this time, rather I'll add him to my WWE Legends subcollection, but I'm secretly hoping Mattel will take another stab at the Big Boss Man in a future series.

WWE Elite Collection Survivor Series (2022): Becky Lynch

The 2022 Survivor Series line once again was a Build-a-Figure wave and contained 4 figures. Rick Rude would be the figure you could build in this series. I had aspirations to pick up all the figures in the wave, but ultimately passed as I just didn't care for the others. I still may get around to picking up AJ Styles, but the young Drew McIntyre and Ultimate Warrior do nothing for me. Even Rick is a little lack luster in my book, especially when compared to some of the other BAFs released in the recent past.

On to our subject, Becky Lynch. When I first saw the solicitations for this figure I couldn't wait to show my daughter. Like I thought, she wanted it and ended up putting Becky on her Christmas list. I can't remember now who purchased this for her, but I ended up buying it off of her as she got so many figures for Christmas I guess this one fell out of favor with her for whatever reason. After I finally got her open recently, maybe she knew something about this figure that I didn't?

Becky's Survivor Series gear was different, especially those large diamond shaped knee pads. She had a look all her own that night and Mattel did a pretty good job capturing that even in toy form. Her ring gear is fairly simple being a long sleeved red top and briefs, red boots and of course the knee pads. Her hair is sculpted over her shoulders and back, which does effect the head articulation, but looks good. Fish net stockings are painted on her thighs...it's a good looking figure, but there was just something about it as I first held it in hand that I couldn't quite get.

The head sculpt is pretty spot on for miss Rebecca Quinn. This is an area where I feel Mattel is excelled. They do a great job capturing the wrestlers' likeness and this figure is no exception. Good paint apps and hair go a long way in helping with the overall look. Her facial expression is a different, but perhaps that's why this figure stands out from the other Becky Lynch figures.

The only accessories included with the figure (outside the BAF parts) are a set of extra closed fists, which I prefer the look of these hands on the figure. Articulation is standard fare here, nothing to really complain about. I feel like I should like this figure more, but there is something about it that I can't put my finger on. I wanted to gush over how great this figure is, but I can't. I won't. I don't want to be that type of fan that never has anything negative to say. This isn't a bad figure, it really isn't, but this version of Becky just doesn't quite do it for me. Your mileage however may vary.

WWE Elite Collection Series 98: Rick Boogs

Last year during WrestleMania week I posted several WWE figure reviews and here we are again, WrestleMania week. I'm kicking off the week long wrestling week with a look at one the latest Elite Collection figures, Rick Boogs.

I don't recall when Rick made his WWE debut, but his over the top, loud character was something else. I thought his character was a little goofy, but when they partnered him up w/ Shinske Nakamura I started to enjoy his gimmick. After his injury that sidelined him for sometime, he returned to the WWE with a new look. His loud, boisterous character remained intact, but thus far his guitar (and ponytail) are absent. I'm so happy that Mattel decided to go with his original look for this first foray into the Elite Collection.

 

Rick Boogs comes in his original "denim" attire, a unique look for a wrestler. His pants are painted, however the top half of his overalls are a soft, rubbery plastic. I imagine it can be removed, but when I tried it didn't want to budge and I didn't want to risk breaking anything. The detail given to his outfit to mimic the look of denim is fantastic. The knee pads are also made of the same rubbery plastic.

 

Capturing the likeness of a person in toy form has come a very long way and Mattel continues to release some great looking figures, wrestlers in this case. Rick had a smile on his face most of the time, eyes squished up a little. Rick's signature look had to be his headband and his pony tail. All of these features have been expertly captured. Even the tattoo on his chest has been recreated.

Rick comes with a few accessories, including his signature electric guitar as well as two additional sets of hands - devil horns and fists. Like with virtually every action figure these days, the hands simple pull off allowing a new set of hands to be popped in. 

The guitar is actually two pieces with the connection point in the middle. The strap is cast in a soft plastic and molded in a way that it easily fits around the figure. It actually fits snuggly up underneath the ponytail and looks pretty great. Using the default "open" set of hands, he is able to hold the guitar quite well and even looks like he's playing. Too bad they didn't include a small guitar pick for him to hold as well.

Now we get to the portion of the post where I don't really excel in...talking about articulation and trying to show it off with dynamic poses. If you have ever handled a WWE Elite figure before, than you know what to expect. Double jointed elbows and knees, ankle rockers, ab crunch, etc. I'm sure you or others could pull off better poses than I have. However I am loving this figure and it's become one of my favorites thus far.

Matchbox Retro Series: 2022 Collection, 03/24 - 1984 Toyota MR2

1984 Toyota MR2

Matchbox Retro Series: 2022 Collection, 02/24 - 1970 Ford Capri

1970 Ford Capri

Matchbox Retro Series: 2022 Collection, 01/24 - 1970 Chevy El Camino

1970 Chevy El Camino

Transformers Legacy: Bomb-Burst

When I learned that Hasbro was making another attempt at bringing the Generation 1 Pretender characters into the Legacy line, I was beside myself with excitement. The G1 Pretenders have always been some of my favorite toys and characters, despite missing out on them when they were originally on retail shelves. When I first started to re-build my G1 collection the Pretenders were the first I went after. I always found the monster like Decepticon Pretenders to be more interesting and the monster vampire, Bomb-Burst, is a great example.

Bomb-Burst is part of the Core Class size of Transformers in the Legacy series. While I would have preferred him to be a deluxe class size, I'll take modern version of these characters however I can get them.

Pulling off a G1 Pretender type shell with modern toy making could be done I suppose, but Hasbro decided to go a different route and basically merge the shell and the inner robot together. Bomb-Burst retains the look of his outer monster vampire shell look, complete with large bat ears, snub nose and sharp teeth. The back of the figure does give you a peek at the inner robot's vehicle mode. I'm not wild about this "backpack", however I can live with it as the rest of the package is pretty awesome.

One of Bomb-Burst's pack in weapons just happens to be a smaller version of his classic sword.

The other included weapons are two blue, arm mounted lasers. On the G1 version these guns were wielded by the inner robot and a part of the robot's alt mode. With the Legacy version these guns double as the bat wings that were originally attached to the shell's shoulders. One side of the guns' fins are painted like wings. These attach to the nose cone "backpack", however said nose cone has to be positioned outward from the body, and well just looks a little odd. Looking straight on its not that bad, but viewing the figure from an angle or the rear you can see the flaw. The nose cone can also store the sword accessory which is a nice touch.

Hasbro nearly nailed the look of the G1 inner robot's alt mode, which you'll see more in some comparison pics below. It's not an exact 1:1, but it retains most of the look. From the maroon cockpit, to the VTOL engines on the top of the aircraft, it's still a jet that is formed by literally folding up a robot. By the way, the sword's hilt makes the gun for the ship's cockpit, wasn't expecting that.

I know that the original G1 toys aren't everyone's cup of tea. Some of them aren't that great and some of the toys haven't aged that well, however some of the designs and characters found in the original 80's series are fantastic. Hasbro found a way to bring one of the more obscure characters into modern form, and while I wish it was larger this is still a great toy. I hope we see more of the Pretenders brought back to life (in either scale), whether that be in the Legacy line or in a future Transformers series.