The Entrance Greats

Hi all, seems like a long while since I wrote something on the blog when in fact it's only been a few days. Anyway, today I want to write about the Entrance Greats, the first run was before I was collecting Mattel figures, so they had been and gone before I started to collect and to be honest, despite most of them looking great, the fact they were basic figures takes the shine off a little and they are not figures I have tried to track down.

So, they were released in series, the first featuring Triple H, Rey Mysterio & Shawn Michaels.

Triple H was based on his look from Wrestle Mania 22 where he faced John Cena, Triple H in this one, as you can see by the image had somewhat of a Conan The Barbarian look. It looks pretty decent and like many in the original run of Entrance Greats, would've been great as an Elite, I am sure, like with many in the line, people have taken the entrance gear and added it to a future Elite figure.

Next up was Rey Mysterio, also based on his look from Wrestle Mania 22, where he would end the night as world heavyweight champion. It's an amazing looking figure with the Aztec headdress, yes, you know what's coming, shame it wasn't an Elite.

The final one in the first series was Shawn Michaels based on his Wrestle Mania XII look, the night the 'boyhood dream came true' after he defeated Bret 'Hitman' Hart in overtime following a 60-minute stalemate in an Iron Man match. This one doesn't look too good to me; the outfit just doesn't sit right.

Series 2 had 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, 'Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBease and Chris Jericho.

The Roddy Piper looked excellent, complete with 'Hot Rod' t shirt, kilt and bagpipes and the head scan, while not showing much of an expression is one of the best head scans for Piper figures I think Mattel have done.

Ted DiBease looks outstanding, and this is one that if I could get, I would transfer the outfit to the Elite that came out in the Hall of Fame line. I know, with the suit on you couldn't tell if it was a basic or elite but I would just do that anyway.

And finally in this series, Chris Jericho based on his debut look when he came out and interrupted The Rock on RAW back in August of '99 but like with the Michaels, I don't think the outfit sits too well on the figure, not sure what you guys think?

The third and final series from the first time round featured just the two figures, The Rock and The Undertaker.

The Rock figure was based on his look from when he faced Mankind at the 1999 Royal Rumble in that crazy 'I Quit' match and again, the outfit on this one doesn't sit right.

And the very last figure in the first run of Entrance Greats was The Undertaker based on his debut look from Survivor Series 1990, the head scan is tremendous, the coat looks a bit shiny but overall, looks very good.

In essence, the Entrance Greats ended however, the Defining Moments line (which I covered previously on the blog) replaced them, these also were based on notable moments in the wrestlers' careers,  but just didn't have the music boxes that would play the wrestlers theme music but what made the DM figures better was the fact they had elite articulation.

 

They brought the line back in 2018 which was announced at the San Diego Comic Con of 2017, these had new style music boxes and the figures were elite style however, the ones released didn't really have cloth material entrance gear, the cloth accessories included in the line I'll mention as we go on.

So, the first was not only a favourite Entrance Great of mine but a favourite figure full stop and this was Kurt Angle based on his WWF PPV debut at Survivor Series 1999, the only thing this figure came with was a couple of medals, but I really like this figure.

Next was Jeff Hardy based on his look from Armageddon 2008, people got very excited thinking this was pretty much a re-release of the infamous Elite 1 Jeff Hardy (this never got a release, officially, but there are some scattered around the world loose and some MOC. Also, there were many bootleg ones too, I have one of these but would like an original of course) but alas, this figure, although close, wasn't the same as the Elite 1 figure. It is a nice figure though and comes with a nice cloth t shirt, like that Elite 1 did.

We also got an NXT based Entrance Great, and this is a great display piece, it is Bobby Roode, I spoke about this more on my blog about NXT figures last week, and I have it loose and MOC so if you're on the lookout for a MOC one, hit me up. So, this figure in its, glorious robe, pun intended, really is a nice figure. Based on his NXT title match with Shinsuke Nakamura from NXT Takeover Orlando, the event that saw the first showing of the new style NXT title but, this figure didn't come with that belt, it came with another Bobby Roode figure which I covered in the aforementioned NXT series blog.

Then we got Demon Finn Balor, there always space for Demon figures however, this wasn't the original plan at this point in the line, the original plan was to release Asuka but for whatever reason, that was decided against. This figure is OK however if I have any gripe, it's that the head scan on it is very solum. It doesn't need to be an over-the-top scan but this one was quite boring to be honest. It was based on Balor's match with AJ Styles at TLC 2017, we would of course later on get a two-pack with both Balor & Styles where they both have the 'Too Sweet' hands which they did at the end of the match as both were former leaders of the Bullet Club in NJPW where the hand sign was a moniker of sorts of the group.

Into 2019 we got Goldberg in the line. The only Goldberg elite we had got from Mattel up to this point was one that was released with a ring and was based on his look of the time so his beard was grey. This one is pretty much the same but with the darker beard as it's based on his time in WCW, the figure comes with the big gold belt that he had won from Hollywood Hulk Hogan on July 6th 1998, would have been a great time to first introduce the US title which eventually did come out with Goldberg and Bret Hart in a 2020 two-pack as on the night Goldberg won the world title from Hogan, he went in as US champion.

The final Entrance Great was Elias, not really a big star but the figure and set up for what it is was a very good figure.

So, that's it, all the Entrance Greats from the start with the basic figures to the end when they were elites, what do you have out of all these figures? I only have the elite ones, interested to hear if any of you have any of the first run EG's, please, put them up on twitter/instagram and tag me in.

Until next time, that's it. Please share this piece anywhere you think suitable and you can find all my links, social media, figures for sale and ways to support me if you can HERE and if you want to advertise on the WFUK blog, please, get in touch.