Thunder Rosa!

 Thunderrrrrrr Rosaaaaaaa!!!!

I've gotten into Professional Wrestling more in recent years than I have ever been in my entire life. AEW is a big reason, I really enjoy how they put on a show. One of my favorite wrestlers today is Thunder Rosa, and I'm happy to have found her debut (as far as I know) action figure at Target the other day!

I haven't opened this one yet but I intent to. The sculpt and face paint look incredible!

Ok, you may have noticed that I've been away from this blog for years. Or you didn't/don't care. Cool either way. But the internet, and how we interact with it, has changed in many ways since I started this blog, and while some of those changes have been flashy and fun for a while, most have been at best antithetical to the reason(s) I started doing this blog in the first place, and at worst completely lacking in any soul or emotional value whatsoever.

Since moving away from blogger, I've lost a lot of the comraderie and brotherhood that came from this format. Not that returning to this format now will ever bring back the glory days of old, but it's not going to be found on Instagram either, so what the heck. Might as well put my effort over here for a minute or two again, and if nothing else, someone might be able to use a search engine and actually find some real heartfelt toy loving content for a change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In This Corner: Andre the Giant

I have to admit, I didn't follow wrestling when I was a kid. I had friends who did, so I was certainly aware of the now iconic wrestling personalities of the eighties, but I just never could get into the scene. These days I'm a huge fan of Lucha Underground, so I've been paying a little closer attention to the whole professional wrestling shebang, which of course also means paying closer attention to the toys! That said, as of press time, there are no Lucha Underground action figures. But I for one am hoping that issue is rectified soon!

As for WWE (or whatever WWF is called nowadays, since losing the copyright to those damn animals!), Mattel has been pumping out figures for a few years now, and they recently released the one and only Andre the Giant. Of all the wrestling legends, Andre is, quite literally, the biggest. I remember seeing him in matches when I'd be spending the night at a friend's house, and being amazed at the massive, imposing figure Mr. Giant cut.

Andre later cemented his place in pop culture by playing the lovable giant Fezzik in The Princess Bride. This specific version of Andre was part of a Target four pack, which I picked up on clearance and sold or traded off the other figures in the set. The only one of the set I knew or cared about was Andre himself!

My nephew had a bunch of wrestling figures when he was into wrestling a few years back. I've always been impressed with the sturdiness of their wrestling figures, it always seemed a notch or ten above any of the DC comics stuff they put out. Andre is no different, and is a great all around action figure. I need to pick up a few more so Andre has someone to challenge him!

"Waitaminute, you're not Bone-Saw!"

Ringside Collectibles Casket Playset

When I first caught sight of Ringside Collectibles' Casket Playset I fell in love with the concept. Fans of professional wrestling are pretty used to seeing this level of melodrama on stage, especially when it comes to characters like The Undertaker, so it's a natural for the hugely popular wrestling action figure scene.

I don't collect wrestling action figures, but I knew the playset would come in handy with some of the in-scale action figures I do own; every superhero worth their salt has died at least twice!

So when Ringside Collectibles offered to send me this Casket Playset for review I nearly died (hahaha get it?) Ok, enough gallows humor - let's dig into this thing...

The casket playset is available in either black or silver. They come packaged on a blister card just like all your favorite action figures.

Each set includes an urn, a shovel, and a 'breakable' tombstone to beat your opponent over the head with!

I opened up the black casket, because I figured I'd probably be most likely to display it with a Batman action figure (now I'm wishing I had picked up that Vampire Batman action figure when I had the chance!) and when Batman dies you know his casket will be black.

The casket itself is pretty sturdy. The door is split just in case your action figure leaves behind a pretty corpse. If they didn't, feel free to slam that door down on their smushed up face!

The inside is padded in a soft purple (in the black casket) material. You don't want your action figures heading off into eternal slumber with a crick in their necks, do ya?

The Mattel Batman of Zur-En-Arrh action figure seemed appropriate for this photoshoot, since Batman took on this personality around the same time Dr. Hurt buried him alive. I just can't remember at this moment if it was before or after he was buried alive. I need to go re-read that storyline.

"Batman is NOT dead!"

As you can see, the tombstone 'breaks' into three parts. It holds together nicely when assmebled too. The casket opens and closes nicely, and both doors hold together when opened. Even with his plastic cape, Batman was able to fit inside fine even with the doors closed.

My intern thought this guy looked a little dead, so...

"In you go, Mr. Ugly!" SLAM!

Yup, even MOTUC figures fit well in the casket playset. The casket is wide enough for their broad shoulders. In fact, on the Ringside Collectibles website they state "Large enough to fit Andre the Giant or Great Khali" - now I may not be up on my modern wrestlers but EVERYONE knows who Adre the Giant is! So from your smaller wresting figures like Rey Mysterio to your larger ones like Andre, Undertaker and Khali, you can expect them to fit just fine when they finally go to that great wrestling ring in the sky.

The Casket Playset is a lot of fun. It probably makes more sense to use it with relevant wrestling action figures, but it works just fine with most 6-ish inch action figures. If it doesn't become a part of any permanent display around here it will definitely be making an appearance every Halloween!

*Toyriffic was sent this set for review from Ringside Collectibles. You can get yours at RingsideCollectibles.com

In This Corner...

There's a great little thrift store in my town that I'm always gung-ho to dig into. The place always has a ton of junky (and sometimes great) toys. They also always - ALWAYS have a sign out front that reads "Today only - everything 50% off." - They never don't have that sign. It's hilarious.

I duck in as often as I can and almost always walk out with something in my pocket that cost a quarter or two. Tonight I came across this groovy bootleg Masters of the Universe/wrestler type figure:

And of course - today only - he was 50% off! Haha!


This line is called "Wrestling Champions."


The toy's design is clearly inspired by the original Masters of the Universe line.


The card art is pretty colorful; looks like that Luchador is really giving Hulk Hogan what-for! There's no date, but the art and the figure have me thinking it's from the late eighties, but he could be from any time since. At the top right it reads "For ages 5 and up" and under the title it reads:

Twisting Head & Waist
Moving Arms & Legs
Removable Championship Title Belt

Under the figure it reads "Made in China."


On the back we are prompted to "Collect the Whole Range."


There are some cool looking cats back here. The card art makes it appear that the only difference in figures would be the head. Maybe they had different colored skin too. Who knows. Wish the thrift store had more.


Looks like my guy is named "339/4" - sounds tough!

Well, there's only one way to find out: Ring the bell!

DING DING!


"In this corner, weighing in at 350 lbs, all the way from Memphis, Middle Earth...


...the World Heavyweight Champeeoooooon of the Woooooooooorld - Rex "339/4" Robinowicz!!!!!"


While Rex "339/4" Robinowicz looks like an MOTU recast at first glance, a closer examination shows that he is an all original mold - highly influenced by the original MOTU and about the same size, but not a direct re-cast ripoff. His head also appears to be completely "original" and is solid as well, not roto-cast and soft/hollow like older MOTU figures' heads. He's made up of solid hunks of plastic, with movable arms, waist, legs and head (but if you read the card you'd already know that.) He's surprisingly sturdy, and may need to challenge my nephew's WWE action figures in the ring someday. The only markings on the figure is the word "China" on his back.

His waist turns (but does not have the spring-loaded punching action of original Masters of the Universe figures) and he has this spiffy belt he won whilst wrestling guys five times his size!

Three cheers for Rex Robinowicz!