by VaderBomb » Jan 21, '19, 12:06 pm
These were my firsts:
LJN: George Steele, Hulk Hogan, Brutus Beefcake and Hillbilly Jim were the only ones that I owned for a large portion of my childhood. Steele I had for as long as I can remember and was likely a hand-me-down from my brother or uncle. In the mid 90s when Jakk's came out with the "bone crunching action" set which is my favorite wrestling figure line, I used to pretend that the Steele figure was a giant monster. I can't remember the pretend name that I gave to him, but he won most Rumbles. Today, I have a few dozen LJN rubber figures. King Kong Bundy is my favorite one, you could kill somebody with that thing. He's denser and heavier than even the Andre figure.
Hasbro: I have a decent collection of these as well nowadays. As a youngster, the only ones I had were the Bushwhackers, Tito Santana (in matador gear), Crush and Hogan. My favorite one that I own is Dusty, which is also the most valuable one that is in my collection. Somebody stole my Undertaker and Kamala years ago. I still haven't found out who did it and never will.
Jakk's Bone Crunching: I was obsessed with these and still am. I own almost all of them in at least some form but am missing some repaints and a few earlier releases that are hard to snag these days. I still remember my mom bringing me to Toys 'R Us to buy my first batch as a birthday present. In one fell swoop I got Austin, Undertaker (with the purple tie and gloves), Bret Hart, Savio Vega, Crush, Shamrock and Sycho Sid. A few weeks later I got HBK, HHH, Bulldog, Rocky Maivia, Godust and Mankind. I still have every one of them.
The later Jakk's line ( the taller, completely plastic ones): I have a bunch of these but I was getting older and they're not quite as nostalgic for me. I can't remember the first ones that I got, but it was a pretty good bunch of them one Christmas. I also received the Titan-Tron play set that year. The one that had voice activation when you would place the figures right outside of Gorilla. I don't have that anymore, nor do I have my Jakk's Monster Ring from the earlier "bone crunching" series.