Hulk Hogan And Mattel

40 year Hulkamania set

We have many characters in wrestling who seem to have plenty of figure releases, for the modern day fan, we seem to have a lot of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio and John Cena figures and as of late, we seem to be getting a big influx of Hulk Hogan figures. I have all of Hogan's Elite & Ultimate Edition figures released so far (except the Monday Night Wars one which hasn't made it to these shores yet) and I have just one basic of his which was the last one as it was very different. 

(Left) Defining Moments (Right) RSC Exclusive

Hogan had some issues in years gone by and was removed from the WWE universe basically and this subsequently meant he'd be getting no action figures from Mattel either. He would have a series of figures with Storm Collectables, I have just one of these. However, things were patched up with WWE and Hogan and Mattel got back on the Hulkamania train and started to churn out the figures once again.

(Left) Summer Slam series (Right) Elite 101 Mr America

Before the initial split, we had too many Elites, off hand, I can recall the Defining Moments one based on his look from Wrestle Mania III, there was a Ringside Collectables exclusive based around his 85/86 look which was different to his usual red/yellow look, when I see that figure I get vibes of Hogan when he appeared in the A-Team in the mid-80's. I also recall a Hogan figure in 'street' gear but with Hogan shirt/bandana and boas. Another one that came out under the original deal was in the Hall of Fame series, not quite street wear but not wrestling gear either.

RSC Exclusive WolfPac Hogan

Since coming back to the line, Hogan has had many Elite figures and as the Ultimate Edition series has now come along, he has been very prominent in that line too, we'll get onto that in a while. One thing Mattel has done is try and make the Hogan figures look different as there are so many, we have had some, shall we say, obscure looks for Hogan and in the UE line, as a SDCC exclusive, we had Hogan, the character as the character 'Rip' from the movie he was in 'No Holds Barred' which was released in 1989. The Rip figure comes with another figure, his foe from the movie, Zeus, which also bled into the WWF of the time too (Hogan teamed with Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake to face Zeus & 'Macho Man' Randy Savage at Summer Slam in 1989).

Rip vs Zeus ‘No Holds Barred’ SDCC set

Most of his figures since coming back to the line have been very good, there was one which I thought the head scan was horrible and that is the one that came out in the Survivor Series line, I think I may have switched the head on my one to be honest, but you can see here just how bad it was.

Horrid Survivor Series Hogan scan

I do wonder, is the deal with Hogan maybe coming to an end and I say that because we have just had a Hogan in Legends series 21, another banger and we are getting another, with a chase, in series 22 so they want to get as much out of him while they can or is it a case of they see he sells well and just want to pump out good selling figures? I hope it's the latter of course, I'll never complain about more Hogan figures especially if they mix them up like they have been doing. Series 22 should sell well regardless I'd like to think dues to the fact that other than the Hogan's there are two first time in the line characters being released.

Legends series 21

What Hogan figure/figures is/are your favourites? Of course, there have been some issues with the skin tone and torso choices but I don't get hung up on things like that too much, head scans are a different matter though.

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