Picture this…
It’s Thanksgiving Day, 1995.
8 year old Tommy loves wrestling. He never misses WCW Monday Nitro. His grandparents ask him what he wants for Christmas.
“WCW guys!” he shouts enthusiastically!
His grandparents dutifully head to Toys R Us and pick out one figure, since they’re on a budget.
On Christmas Day, little Tommy opens up the package, and finds… this.
A lousy Jimmy Hart figure.
“Oh well…” thinks Tommy with a sigh. “At least now I have a guy for all my bad guys to beat up”.
Poor Tommy.
And poor anyone else who was stuck getting this as a gift or buying it at K.B Toys because all the good figures were already sold.
I would be very happy to get a Jimmy Hart figure.
Eat your heart out, Rick Springfield- no one ever made an action figure of you!
Point! 🙂
With amazing lip stretching ability so Jimmy can kiss Hulk’s backside from any position. “Beautiful baby beautiful you’re the best champ. Brooke is the best singer/actress in the world. You and Brutus were the greatest tag team of all time, even better than the Hart Foundation, Rhythm and Blues, even the Glamour Girls.”
Between figures, video games and costumes I feel like I own/owned 80-85% of the crap posted. I love the nostalgia and also shake my head in disbelief. Between my face paint, BWO shirt and coincidentally my Hogan suitcase I can’t help but laugh. And yes we all owned managers, refs and announcers. Lol Now you can have Vince say “Virgil could win the 1993 royal rumble!” All from the comforts of home.
You’d better believe that Virgil was the champion of my Hasbro Wrestling Federation. 🙂
Admittedly, Virgil was my “Million $ Champion” after leaving the soul crushing clutches of Ted DiBiase…But my Hasbro Champion was shared from top of the card stars like Savage, Hogan, Hart, and Taker…to bottom rung scrubs like Nailz, Demolition Krush, Koko B. Ware, and Repo Man! I even recall running an “angle” where Repo Man actually “repossessed” the WWF Championship from Demolition Smash after he ousted the reigning champ, Rick Martel! Ha! I thought I was a GENIUS! I look back now, and realize that my booking expertise mirrored an un-McMahon filter much like WCW/TNA Vince Russo!
Now I feel awful for keeping my Hasbro Figure Title around boring guys like Hulk, Savage, Warrior, and Sid for pretty much the entire time. I think I lost track at reign #11 for Hulkster. I can’t imagine the endless possibilities of shattering the glass ceiling.
WrestleMania Main Event: Skinner vs. Koko B. Ware for the HWF Title!
You must have been the booker for the AWF.
Wait wait wait, so you had Barry Darsow steal the belt from his past persona, Jozzy? Sounds like a Twilight Zone time travel story. You were quite the sophisticated young booker!
That’s what I’m saying! If they’d made a Blacktop Bully and a Hole In One Barry Darsow figure I could’ve formed one helluva stable!
I loved this line of WCW figures, they were retro, very LJN like. Also, only line of action figures that had a Bobby Eaton figure!
Classic booking, lol. My only rule was ironically almost a Vince rule. No figures could face off unless they were size appropriate. Hence no LJN vs Hasbro or San Fran toys vs Jakks Pacific. Only Hasbro vs Galoob and LJN vs S.F. Toys. Also like Vince, what do I do with Japanese figure? (All kidding aside, but they actually are smaller then most companies figures mentioned. Not stereotyping a culture intentionally. Lol 🙂
P.S.- WCW’s vibrating late 90’s figures never happened. Thank you
Posing? What’s that?
I would have been psyched to get this figure 🙂
Yeah, I loved displaying Jimmy Hart next to Ric Flair, Kevin Sullivan, Vader, and Arn Anderson. In opposition to Hogan and Macho Man.
I’m afraid you’re in the minority, Paul! 🙂
Heenan, Cornette, Hart (but without a garish Hogan suit)…I woulda liked Hasbro manager figures. It wasn’t until Jakks took over that there were manager figures. I think they gave Corny a tennis racket, too!
(Heck, Jakks even made a Clarence Mason!)
LJN made action figures for managers and also announcers. I remember having Mean Gene Okerland with mic in hand and a Slick figure. They were made in the mid 80s
Neat, here’s the Slickster, with removable hat!
http://wrestlingsuperstore.com/wweljnslickcarded8inchfigure.aspx
Apparently LJN made refs, too.
Just disappointed it doesn’t come with a slow rollin’ coffin or ‘strap of dubious Native American heritage’ 😉
Fun fact – the first version of Jimmy Hart accidentally had him painted as an African American manager!
https://38.media.tumblr.com/ad532052e71bdb879a1d2e6bc59c92ef/tumblr_naqermRWzF1qzp5ffo1_400.jpg
Whoops.
Needs a megaphone.
I have this, and all the figures from this line except the Blue Bloods. I still look for them! The Vader and Big Bubba figs were favorites.
This is the best thread ever because of all the action figure booking stories. My favorite events were Survivor Series and Royal Rumble (I did shoot drawings and used a real timer).