Collecting Wrestling Action Figures Made Us Bigger Wrestling Fans!
To steal a line from The Wedding Singer, “We are living in a material world and I am a material girl… Or, boy.” Adam Sandler quoting Madonna in a movie about 80’s nostalgia less than 8 years after the end of the 80’s! Well, here we are 36 years since the end of the 80’s and my nostalgia for pro wrestling of that time has only grown. In fact, it is the gems that you sometimes find from that time period that makes it worth to continue to watch and collect wrestling things.
In a lot of ways, collecting your favorite wrestling merchandise helps intertwine you with the sport itself. In other words, I wore so many Hulk Hogan T shirts in grade school, I was known as “the wrestling kid” for most of my school years. That was, by the way, a fair descrpiton of me. But, it wasn’t just T shirts that wrestling fans collected. We collected autographs, home videos, trading cards, and action figures. I could write an editorial on any of the above subjects. But, today, lets put the focus on professional wrestling action figures.
If you grew up a wrestling fan especially in the golden era that I grew up in, you probably remember the first action figure you got as a kid. I started watching pro wrestling in 1986 seeing Hulk Hogan and the Junkyard Dog take on the Funks on a WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event. I was a kid that wasn’t feeling well that went downstairs late at night and pulled that knob on the big wooden box style TV and by the grace of God, NBC was left o and I saw the Hulkster and JYD hamming it up. Until then, I had no idea what pro wrestling was. But, I knew from that experience, I liked it. And, 4 year old me is still here, still loving pro wrestling 40 years later. So, it should surprise nobody that my first wrestling action figure was the original LJN Hulk Hogan with the yellow trunks and red kneepads. For Christmas the next year, I got my second fiure and that was he strong-man Ted Arcidi. When I interviewed George “The Animal” Steele shortly before his death, he joked that when people gave him his LJN figure to sign, he’d refuse if the paint was chipped at the back of the boot instead of the front of it. Because, well, it meant the kid that played with it had him lose! Well, Ted Arcidi’s boots had a lot of paint worn off at the heals! No disrespect to the WrestleMania II Battle Royal competitor. But, he was having to go against the power of Hulkamania. He didn’t stand a chance!
I collected a ton of the LJN figures. In fact, I have my Tito Santana, the original one, signed by Chico himself in a box frame with other Tito goodies and a picture of he and I together. For that matter, I have a Roddy Piper signed one with kilt in a frame right next to it. I kept them all! All that I collected.
One of the true gems of my collection is my Andre the Giant singlet on a black card action figure. Because I’m stupid, the card isn’t in mint condition. But, I knew when I got it that it was hard to come by and could be valuable someday. That figure has never felt the room’s air. It is still on the card in the plastic bubble!
If you grew up in this period, you probably remember that the black carded figures were impossible to come by. And, you remember wondering why that was. Then, you walked into the store one day and instead of seeing the big rubber WWF LJN figures, you saw the much smaller WWF Hasbro figure line. The change was just about overnight! And, if you were a kid, your first thought was probably… I NEED TO GET ALL OF THESE! And, I did! Well, almost all!
The Hasbro line didn’t look as close to the superstars as the LJN line. In fact, I’d still argue that the best looking action figures, including the modern WWE figures with all the new technologies used to make them, were the LJN line. But, the Hasbro line had a playability aspect that the LJN’s didn’t have. They had springs and did moves. Hulk Hogan could do the gorilla press slam while the Ultimate Warrior could do the big shoulderblock jump thanks to a massive hunch on his back you’d push down. There were other designs, the headlock punch that Rick Rude and later Ric Flair and the 1-2-3 Kid had. There was the “Macho King” punch/clothesline action that later was given to guys like Razor Ramon. The windmill punch that was given to the Million Dollar Man. The Texas Tornado spining punch was a cool feature and later that function was also given to Tatanka. Man, these figures were so cool to play with when I was a kid. And, they stay fun to collect!
I don’t think you can underscore how important the toys of pro wrestling were to wrestling fans. If you were going to the eye doctor or dentist, you might be able to bargain with your parents that if you do what the nice Doctor man says, you could get a new action figure on the way home. I vividly remember having my eyes seen to and they put those drops in it that make the iris of your eye about six times the original size. Do you know what I am talking about? The drops that allow them to shine a flashlight in your eyes and see inside all the while leaving you with flying saucer looking white visions for the next several hours. Then, you step outside onto the surface of the sun and find your way back to your car looking like Jake Roberts under the hood in the blindfold match from WrestleMania VII? Oh yeah, I hated those drops. In fact, I used to bring 2 pairs of sunglasses to put on after I’d get those drops so I wouldn’t have the intense pain of the light sensitivity to deal with. Well, that day, I walked in and through the haze of the Toys R Us store lights, I found the second Ultimate Warrior figure that had the classic gorilla press action. That was my reward for not screaming like Tom from Tom and Jerry when he slams his finger in a window and not running out into the lobby likely tripping over stationary chairs in the waiting room because I couldn’t see a thing. That was 1991 and has stuck with me for 35 years! My guess is every wrestling fan has some sort of story just like that.
I also collected the other lines of toys. I had the WWF thumb wrestlers where you sodomized your favorite superstar and apparently used them to wrestle the next guy’s favorite superstar as they sodomize them as well. These were simpler times, folks! I also had the stretch action figures which were rubber bodied action figures put out by LJN that stretched sort of like Stretch Armstrong. That set had only a few choices though. Those included Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, Junkyard Dog, and Ric,y Steamboat. One day, I stretched the Hulkster’s arms around Ricky Steamboat and his chest burst and a white powder filled the room… Cocaine was everywhere in the 80’s, kids!
The WCW Galloob line came out shortly after the WWF Hasbro line. They were about the same size which was cool because you could use use your Hasbro ring with the WCW guys and even have them face off with some imagination. But, the Galloob figures had no points of articulation. If you don’t know what that means, it means they didn’t bend or have joints at all. They were basically Hasbro sized versions of the LJN figures. But, they were very cool to play with and like the LJN’s, looked incredible! They really did!
I also had the AWA Remco figures. I still have a few of those including Steve Keirn. I later got Keirn as Skinner in the hasbro line and brought up the action figures when I interviewed him in 2022. You want to talk about unsung heroes? Keirn is one of them! And, the Remco line really deserves a lot of credit for helping launch this whole wrestling action figure thing.
Anyway, as Hasbro checked out of the WWF toy line and Jakks checked in, my collecting started to slip a little. I collected the WCW California Toy Company figures including the LJN style figures. I have some of the really rare ones of those including Sting in pink trunks, Sting in the weird body suit, the Blue Bloods, and the “chase” Jimmy Hart. These were the ones before they brought out the weird ones with the big red button on the side that made them vibrate. I bought one of those when on vacation and my cousin jokingly asked if she could borrow one of those figures that night. I half understood what she meant. At least, I understood the remark to be dirty. And, now, as I say it out loud…. Things that make you go… Bruh!
So, here we are in 2026. Toy lines such as the TNA line and possibly even the AEW line have come and gone. WWE dropped Jakks who ended up making some amazing action figures including and, for me, especially the WWE Legends line of which I collected many. WWE now has Mattel, the Barbie Doll originals, making their toys. But, you can still find that old LJN and Hasbro style out there if you know where to look!
In fact, just today I was in a Target and saw the Jessie “The Body” Ventura redone LJN. I have the original and while this is almost identical, it is different as well. I didn’t buy it… I will buy the Ultimate Warrior one because I never had the LJN Ultimate Warrior when I was a kid. But, seeing that packaging with those letters and that style of figure on a store shelf was a very cool experience. Almost as cool as opening my “Macho Man” Randy Savage Big Rubber Guys figure this past Christmas morning!
Matt Cardona and Brian Myers have created a toy company called Collect Major. These guys, both being around my age, sought to recreate the magic of the classic toy lines by releasing their own figures of available trademarks not currently gobbled up by the WWE juggernaut as part of the WWE Legends contracts. I realize that Cardona is back with WWE now but for several years, Collect Major released some of the nicest looking “Big Rubber Guys” figures I’ve seen since the original LJN’s. I have only purchased two so far – the “Macho Man” with the skyward point and the “First Lady of Wrestling” Missy Hyatt figure. Back when I’d have Missy Hyatt on my podcast nearly weekly, she told me how much she wanted to get her own wrestling figure made. Even though I haven’t spoken to Missy on that level in a few decades now in spite of meeting her the past few years in person for the first time, I knew how much the figure meant to Missy to get made up. So, I made sure and ordered myself one. This one’s for the “Walking Riot!”
I’m a little off point here. So, let me bring it back to my point.
A few weeks ago, I was speaking with KWK Kayfabe Collectibles and mentioned that I would love to review their recent releases. Well, in the mail a few weeks later were a few KWK releases in the style of the classic WWF Hasbro figures. The ones I got were Barry Horowitz, Ox Baker, and Nord “The Barbarian” AKA The Berzerker. This was awesome and the nostalgia seeing a fresh faced new Hasbro put me right back in that Toys R Us in 1991 with blurred vision picking up the Ultimate Warrior figure. The nostalgia of seeing these figures and having them in hand was almost an other worldly experience. In fact, I filmed a video about the experience which you can watch below.
KWK has done a wonderful job. But, there are other types you can get as well. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! And yes, Virgina, there is wrestling action figures outside of the WWE line. We strongly suggest that if you are enjoying what I have said here, you should check out KWK’s collection!
https://shopkwk.com/
You can also check out www.collectmajor.com, www.rushfigures.com, www.hasteltoy.com, and several other sites to find more non-WWE branded figures that feature worthy stars to receive action figures.
All in all, I find collecting pro wrestling goodies keeps me a fan even when the product is less than stellar. For example, right now! I’m far more excited to go to Target and see a big rubber wrestling toy than I am to watch WWE TV and see a dead crowd, except for singing the stupid entrance music, watching a long, boring product or watching AEW with every match being 30 minutes in length with no real feud to lead to said matches and everybody is in a stupid, unmarketable faction with a level of being a heel to each and every wrestler because the inception of words like “tropes” are in the pseudo intellectual vocabulary of those who make decisions there. I could write an article explaining why everyone being in some sort of faction makes everyone matter less. But, that would be a conversation for another day. For now, I hope my post about wrestling toys brought a smike to your face and maybe made you think of how important these are to your wrestling fandom.