Mattel Declares For The Royal Rumble

Do they really do that? My joke in that title, that is. My modern viewing has been limited to putting the Rumble and parts of Mania on my iPad while I watch entertaining stuff on the real tv, but all I ever see in headlines is that such-and-such “declared” for the Royal Rumble. Do they come out and say “Well, I declare!”? It just seems so absurd to me.

So, anyway, Mattel has decided to attempt to make some thirty-plus-year-old dreams come true in their latest venture into the retro wrestling figure universe. A Hasbro-sized Royal Rumble ring? Brother Love? Sherri and Liz? All here. Shortly after I took it I texted several folks the “glamour shot” of the entire set that you see above. As a kid I truly had dreams of finding a lot of those items in stores. The Brother Love card back, in particular, is exactly how I’d always envisioned it using the same image. If we look at that picture and not much further, it truly is a dream come true. It’s also a company banking on nostalgia. I have no problem with that if it’s done right. Was it? Well, some of it.

Both sets are available at Mattel Creations. Brother Love and the ring clock in at $40 while the four-pack of Hulk Hogan as Rip, Zeus, Miss Elizabeth and Sensational Queen Sherri is priced at $60. There’s also a bundle option that saves you. Priced at $100 the bundle saves you from having to click twice to add both items to your cart. Yeah, that’s all that it saves you. Not even $5. I’ll tell you a pretty likely way to save more, if you don’t feel the need to jump the gun as I did, at the end of the entry. Are the bootlicker reviewers who are all the rage giving you tips like that? Of course they aren’t. That’s why their “influencing” is coveted by the companies and my true reviews are ignored in this day and age. Ah well, I had my moment. All of fifteen minutes.

Let’s take a look Brucie and the ring first. These are the items that mostly came out as closely as I imagined them had they existed in the Hasbro line. The ring is another reuse of the standard Mattel retro ring, but you know what you’re getting into here. Like last year’s WrestleMania ring release you can choose which sticker is in the middle of the mat the WWF logo (without the F, of course) or the Royal Rumble logo. Of course you’re choosing the latter. Unlike with the Mania ring, I don’t really understand the inclusion of the basic logo sticker. Because of the color the ring stands out and will like great with a “Rumble” going on, but there was a major change here from previous retro ring releases. The ropes are the “gummy” rubbery style that I last remember being included with the Mattel War Games set. They can, and will, snap. They’re absolutely terrible. If you’re going to display this thing for any amount of time I would recommend going to eBay and finding one of the various sellers who produce “replica” ring ropes for a retro ring. Not only do they look and feel better, but they won’t snap.

Brother Love himself, like the ring, is pretty much how we all imagined. The microphone (we’ve all seen plenty of jokes about its shape since its original release) and The Book of Love are reused from the Mattel Legends figure. Brucie boy doesn’t stand too well with the book in hand which is why he’s picture here without it. I was able to get him to stand elsewhere with it, so your mileage may vary. I’d read some early complaints about the face being too red. He looks fine to me but I will say with the way that I tint my photography it may appear darker here than it actually is.

Going into the four pack you have to start with the champ. This time we get Hulk Hogan as Rip from “No Holds Barred.” It’s pretty much a repaint of the earlier red and yellow Hulkster retro, but I think that it looks great. Would No Holds Barred figures have been at the top of my list? Not necessarily, but in my view they’re the best figures to be released from the movie as this is how I would’ve envisioned them. We finally have a retro stylized belt to go onto the belt holders that have been on every ring. I never liked using the modern belts with the retros as Mattel seemed to earlier suggest. I’m hoping to see this one reused and remolded in different colors and for other classic belts to be given the same treatment.

Zeus is by far the worst item in this “bundle,” largely because of his height. Because of the mold used he looks tiny (Lister?) compared to Hogan. He’s supposed to be imposing. A completely different mold should have been used for him. It’s honestly a waste of a slot with this decision being made. All-in-all, if they wanted to keep to the ’89 theme and aren’t able to use Savage, I’d have been fine with a Hulk Rules era Hogan and a new Beefcake to join Liz and Sherri. It even baffles me, but despite being a No Holds Barred collector (owning many rare promotional materials and even a screen used prop), it’s never been one of my favorite movies. I like the memorabilia due to the connection with the golden era.

The Sensational Queen is next and this is the second retro of Sherri in this gimmick that’s been released in the past several months. One of the boutique retro wrestling figure producers released their own version which is in more of a statuesque design. Honestly, there’s room for both in my view. There’s never been any talk of intentions by Hasbro to release anything but wrestlers in their original line. We haven’t even ever seen design concepts. That being said, we have no idea what Hasbro females, managers and announcers would have looked like. Therefore, any produced today to reflect what they could’ve looked like can’t be wrong. This version, complete with what would’ve been a “Real Wrestling Action,” is definitely the “wrestler” version of Queen Sherri.

Devoid of any previous retro releases from any company I would have to say that Miss Elizabeth was the most anticipated from this set. The likeness is great and I wouldn’t mind seeing it on a new full sized figure. The hair is spot on and I think that the facial likeness is close to how Hasbro would’ve captured her. For non-wrestler Liz the stance is odd, but who’s to say that Hasbro wouldn’t have done the same? The stance hurts the skirt and, honestly, it looks like she’s taking a squat. Still, I think we all have to agree that this is probably what Hasbro would’ve given us.

For me, buying this “bundle” was worth pulling the trigger on. There are items that I wanted and, while I was fairly certain that nothing would immediately sell out, I didn’t want to wait. My feelings on the previous retro set were different. The only figure that I wanted out of that one was Alundra Blayze. I waited and ended up getting that entire set off of Amazon for $40. I’ve also waited on the nWo and DX retro sets and ended up getting them on Black Friday sales. The advice I promised earlier? I highly doubt you’ll miss out if you wait for these. Mattel, as of yet, seems to have no intention of limiting their exclusives as they used to. They know where the money is at for them and it certainly isn’t in making a limited product for scalpers to scoop up.

Now where else do you get advice like that? From a kowtowing “influencer?” I think not. I thank all ten of you who read this, you loyal readers, you.