Joe King
In 1989, Hasbro would buy the WWF toy license from LJN and would start producing toys & other merchandise from 1990 through 1994. I still remember the first day I ever seen the new figures. Me & my cousin Benji were in Kmart in Waycross, Georgia. He found them and ran me down and showed me. That first day, I got my mother to purchase me Jake “The Snake” Roberts & “The Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase. I was hooked from that point on. To me at the time…these were definitely the greatest action figures ever made!
Not only did Hasbro make figures, they made all kinds of different toys. A few of the things they would produce were Arena/Ring Playsets, Inflatable Bopping Bags, Stencil Kits featuring your favorite Superstars, Jake “The Snake” Roberts’ Snake Damian with Bag(iconic piece I remember owning), The Winged Eagle Championship Belt, Talking 12″ dolls of The Ultimate Warrior & Hulk Hogan, and so much more!
Each WWF Hasbro figure would feature a “Signature Move” action and include awesome trademark accessories with their figures, such as The Mountie’s “Shock-Stick” and Macho King’s Crown & Scepter, Brutus Beefcake’s Sheers, Demolition’s Hoods, & “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan’s 2×4.
It seemed everyone on the WWF roster at the time was given an action figure. Everyone from Andre The Giant to Bart Gunn, & Undertaker to El Matador all got to be immortalized by Hasbro. They would produce 11 different series of figures, Tag-Team Sets, Minis, & WWF Magazine Exclusive Mail-Away figures. The Tag-Team sets included legendary teams such as The Nasty Boys, Legion of Doom, Demolition, & The Rockers.
The WWF Hasbro line still remains very popular to this day & is considered one of the greatest ever made. Some go for big bucks these days, such as the Green Card 123-Kid(whose eyebrows were shaved off the night before the Hasbro photo shoot by Mr. Perfect!) & the Moon Belly Variant Kamala. There were some unreleased prototypes that have resurfaced as well. This was definitely an amazing time to be both a kid & wrestling fan.
When this licensing deal was done, Jakks Pacific would come on board and being releasing WWF figures starting in 1996.
Luke
You have no idea how many racks of these things I scavenged to find that damn Rhythm and Blues Greg Valentine. Never found one…
The best wrestling figures of the day were G.I. Joes + a little imagination. I even had a ring made out of an old bicycle wire basket.