Three Decades Of Raw

I still remember sitting down to watch the first episode of WWF Monday Night Raw. How in the world was that thirty years ago? It does feel like a long time ago, but three full decades? I would imagine that some reading this blog weren’t even alive then. Those of us who were around and collecting never could have imagined the figures that we would have today. I miss those days. As we all know by simply looking at the news, the real world is three times worse now. At least we have fun toys to get us through the doldrums. One of those items is our topic in this entry and what a way to mark the 30^thanniversary of Raw!

A Target exclusive, Mattel’s Elite RAW 3-pack contains three characters fairly ubiquitous with the early days of Raw as well as a set piece that many of us have wanted for years. Handsomely packaged in a large window box, you get to see everything included. For whatever reason the extra floating hands and other accessories don’t bother me as much here as they do in single release figures. I’m actually not sure why that is. Maybe because there’s more in the window that your eyes are drawn to? Nonetheless it’s a great box and I’d love to see similar ones done with older stars, perhaps in the classic baby blue motif?

Included in the set are The Undertaker, Razor Ramon and, per the box, The 1-2-3 Kid. We’ll get to my phrasing in a moment. For some the really big sell for the set is the inclusion of the large “R,” “A,” and “W” letters that made up the Raw entrance for several years. Honestly, I’m not sure that I would’ve jumped on this initially if it weren’t for their inclusion. I’m a huge fan of set and diorama pieces. That, coupled with some great discounts through the Target app and I couldn’t go wrong. Full entrance gear for Taker and Ramon are included as is the $10,000 money bag as well as handfuls of money. Why the money bag? Because Razor had to lure the Kid with money in order to get a rematch back in ’93, that’s why!

The Undertaker will be the draw for many. Personally I greatly limit my purchases of him. In fact, I usually only get new figures of him in manners such as this, where he’s part of something else. I have nothing against him, I just wasn’t ever a huge fan and there are countless figures of him. This is a good one and one that I’m glad was included with something that I was purchasing anyway. The duster, tie and hat are all removable and done very nicely. The former two are soft goods which is always a plus. He has two sets of hands, one set being for his “raising the lights” entrance pose. The hair in front of the face is great and the legendary gaze from behind is spot on. Fans of The Undertaker will honestly want this set for this figure alone.

Next up we have “The Bad Guy” clad in green! It’s a nice figure and comes with the oft-requested “thumbs up” hands. Mattel, if you still have the rights to Hacksaw Jim Duggan we need an update, pronto. How about inclusion in the Legends line with a chase? One version can be black trunks with white kneepads, the other with the classic WWF blue and blue? I’m giving you ideas and you’re throwing money away. We need “thumbs up” Hacksaw! Anyway, back to Razor. The head/facial likeness is fine but I do think it could be better. Scott Hall figures never look 100% spot on. I’m a huge fan of the green here, though, and it definitely fills my need for brightly colored figures.

Onto the 1-2-3 Kid. Let’s get something straight. This is an entirely new character. I know they can’t/won’t market it as such, but this is a never before done wrestling figure. This is not the 1-2-3 Kid. This is The Lightning Kid. We’re talking GWF vintage, here. I love this. While I initially thought that the Raw entrance set was my selling point here, for whatever reason I didn’t realize until I opened the set that Mattel actually gave us L. Kid. As I’ve documented in the past, I’m a huge fan of what Mattel would call a “deep dive” into a wrestlers past. While The Lightning Kid was pretty high profile for a few weeks until he became “The 1-2-3 Kid,” I’m still considering it a good inclusion into this small subset.

Last but not least is the Monday Night Raw entrance. We all knew going in that the letters would be a tad smaller than real life, but that doesn’t bother me a bit. They could’ve cheapened out and given us some kind of heavy stock cardboard, but they didn’t. These are full molded plastic. Six rubber-ish “stands” (two for each letter) are included and pop on to prop up the entrance. I think that the stands should be just a little bit longer as I’ve had some tipping, but I still love this. The letters are separate so you can spell out “RAW” or “WAR” or “ARW” or whatever you please within the confines of the three letters.

I like this one. It has a little bit of everything and was released at a perfect time, just as the early days of Monday Night Raw are on the nostalgic minds of many. For as big as he was, Razor is still a tad underdone in the figure world. He has a lot, but not as many as you’d think. I do feel that he’s one that falls under, “if you weren’t around then you wouldn’t understand how popular he was.” Beloved for sure, but you had to be there. The Lightning Kid is my sleeper here and nearest and dearest to my heart. I love first time legends, even if Mattel isn’t marketing as such. Will it be hard to find? With the current climate of many items being produced in large quantities it could be plentiful a bit, but there’s just no way of knowing. If you like any of the characters or want the fun entrance pieces it’s worth it for sure.

Time to get RAW!