If like myself you collect action figures, this article is for you. If you are a parent and has a child who is also obsessed with collecting action figures then this article will also be for you. If you do not collect action figures but are jealous of people who do then do not keep reading it will only make you sadder.

In the late 1980’s, Hulk Hogan under the World Wrestling Federation brought professional wrestling back into the mainstream of the entertainment industry. Thanks to Hogan’s popularity, the WWF became a household name worldwide which meant Vince McMahon had created his market which to this day continues to be the leading company in sports entertainment. One of the biggest aspects to the WWF in the 90’s was it merchandise and more importantly they’re numerous toy lines. LJN produced the first wrestling action figures in 1984. These figures were made of solid rubber and were very accurate in appearance to their real life counterparts, however they did not have any articulation. The figures stood at 8″ tall. In 1989 LJN closed its toy division, and the WWF contract was awarded to Hasbro.

This week I’m looking at the Hasbro Mr Perfect. These figures can go for big bucks online and there’s a good reason for that. Hasbro took WWF figures to new depths with nearly every wrestler under the WWF banner receiving their own figure if not numerous.

1.) Packaging – These lines of figures always had very slick pictures of the superstars on the front. Evey box had a really nice pose on it. I mean imagine walking through the toy store and seeing Mr Perfect point at you, if that doesn’t sell I don’t know what will. The front has some nice features on it: it has a printed Mr Perfect signature and a graphic showing you what exactly the figure can do (yes it is the Spanish version). The back of the box is where the real magic happens. It’s on the back where you can see all the other figures in the line you can collect as well as a really cool cutout superstar profile that I guess you could collect if you don’t want to keep the packaging mint condition. The only thing that lacked with the back images was the lack of colour, it’s almost as if Hasbro forgot they had to colour in the back of the box. Nevertheless the packaging still looks great to this day and just reeks of classic WWF.

2.) Head Sculpt/Likeness – While it’s not a Hot Toys figure for likeness it still is pretty impressive for it’s time. You can clearly see it’s Mr Perfect all the way down to the face sculpture. Even though kids in the 90’s probably didn’t pay much attention to likeness it still benefits having the figure actually match the real life star. From the blonde hair to the eyes, the likeness on this Mr Perfect figure is sound. There isn’t anything negative to say about it. You couldn’t really break through the roof with design in those days so Hasbro done a pretty good job and kept it basic at the same time.

3.) Body Design/Articulation – There wasn’t much in the room for movement with these figures, the legs don’t move at all so it’s not as if you can put him in  a Boston Crab type of move if you were playing with it. Both arms move forward and backward but are stuck in the same pose and can’t be changed unlike more modern figures. It’s not a bad thing as I like the pose they give this figure. You can pose Mr Perfect showing off his muscles which is good representation of the character on screen in WWF. The body swings a little in case you really want Mr Perfect to freakishly look as though his upper half is falling off his entire body. Weird but still good that it can move, it gives the figure a more flexibility. Let’s talk about the design. It has everything you could ask for in a Mr Perfect figure: it has a yellow singlet which he wore frequently, his knee pads and boots. All of which match what you would see him wearing on television .I must note that the yellow singlet is one of many variations Hasbro released, the majority being the same figure only in a different colour singlet. What makes me laugh about the body is the six pack almost ripping through the singlet or was it Hasbro equpping them with bulletproof vests? Either way it’s just a weird but awesome feature.

Overall – These Hasbro figures are just the business. Although they may not look great compared to ones on shelves today they still fulfilled the reason they were made. To be played with. The Mr Perfect figure is just one of the many great releases Hasbro had created for the WWF. You can’t really argue with what the figure does or looks like based on when it was created but even on that you have to give credit to Hasbro as they did some pretty groundbreaking stuff that no one had really seen before in these WWF action figures. So to conclude I’d say any wrestling fan would need at least one of these Hasbro figures, doesn’t matter who it is but just to have that bit of nostalgia in your life is a collector’s item for anyone. All of these figures didn’t disappoint kids growing up in the 90’s and they certainly don’t disappoint the common wrestling fan today.