Monday Night Wars Figures - An Overview

We are 3 waves in and we know what we have for the 4th, so let's take a look, have a bit of a ranking of the ones we have had.

The first wave saw Scott Hall based on his WCW re-debut from 1996, it wasn't perfect with the colouring of the outfit but I was happy enough with this one, a long time coming. Also from the WCW side we got a Hulk Hogan, we have had a ton of Hogan figures, especially over the last 12 months and we have more to come so it's always a case of what Hogan can they give us next and the one we got in the first wave here was based on him on a Nitro after the Bash At The Beach PPV where, what would go on to be the nWo would be formed, all decked out in black, a VERY different look for Hogan. On the WWE side in this wave we had a 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin which was pretty much a re-release of his first Defining Moments figure from years ago with some suttle changes, gave the collectors who missed out on that one previously a chance to have a very similar figure. The final figure was an Undertaker, not the most exciting figure but of course, was a big player during the Monday Night Wars. And each of the 4 figures came with parts to build another and that was Lex Luger based on his re-debut in WCW when he just showed up at the Mall of America on the night of the very first Nitro, interesting deep cut figure and a good way to get that version of Luger into the line.

Wave 2 saw Kevin Nash based on his re-debut in WCW two weeks after Hall, decent figure, not overly happy with the face scan with him smiling but a decent figure and one I am happy we have. Also from the WCW side we had another Rey Mysterio Jr. this was originally supposed to be an unmasked Mysterio based on his look when he was part of the 'Filthy Animals' complete with horns but this was nixed by someone, not sure who but I imagine it was WWE or Mysterio himself. The figure we did get was decked out in the same gear that the one that came with the doomed Nitro stage but that of course would've been in Ultimate Edition form. We have had tons of Mysterio figures but was happy getting this one as it matched the attire he wore for his WCW debut. The WWE figures we got were a Triple H, mine was a bit off as the hair wasn't where it was supposed to be on the head, this led to me changing the head, we also got a 'fake' Diesel, of course, this was Glen Jacobs before he became Kane. Real deep cut figure this and of course, if you have a spare Diesel/Nash head you can make yourself another Diesel as I have done if you buy a second 'fake' Diesel. The BAF with this set was a bit of a letdown for me considering what they did with the first wave, it was Teddy Long as a referee. Long has had a BAF previously based on when he was Smack Down general manager, one I don't actually own.

This most recent wave that hit Smyths online here in the UK and is finding it's way to stores and the first wave in this series that has a chase, no, two, chase figures. We are getting Harlem Heat in black outfits and those chases I mentioned of course are Harlem Heat in blue. they are being hard to track down for some, I see online some are finding Stevie Ray, some are finding Booker T and there are some that are really lucky and finding both. As I type this right now, I still don't have the Booker T chase but I am hoping it'll be here by Monday as I bought one of one of my followers on Instagram. On the WWE side, we have an Rob Van Dam based on his debut on RAW is WAR. Many don't like the face scan and, the legs on the figure are just all wrong. The final figure was The Rock, we don't have enough of those, I kid, there had to be a Rock in this series somewhere, like Undertaker, played a big part in the MNW's. Comes with an extra head as he shows him basically rolling his eyes which happened during a Nation of Domination promo back in the day. Does come with a first time in the line t shirt though which is cool, even though it just has an R on it. I have picked up another one in fact, display him without the shirt on and the eye rolling head. The BAF is this one is OUTSTANDING, this is another one of Ed Leslie's many gimmicks, this one is the Disciple when once again, he was hanging on the coat tails of Hulk Hogan, the other day I wrote a blog on the Top 5 Ed Leslie figures, feel free to have a read.   

In the next wave we have another Austin, the Big Boss Man,  Curt Hennig which was shown with an nWo t shirt as well as a cowboy hat and guitar so it could be a 2 in 1 as he was in the nWo then of course was in the West Texas Rednecks, DDP rounds off the set and is a chase too. The BAF is Shawn Michaels from his commisoner of RAW days, we had a BAF of him in that guise previously which was really hard to complete for collectors as the parts came in that Flashback set that featured 'King' Harley Race the first time around, this new Michaels is probably better as it doesn't have him wearing a suit with a tie which doesn't really suit, pardon the pun, Michaels.

We also have a ‘Best of’ set coming, not including figures we’ve had in this line but figures we’ve had over the years from Mattel that cover the Monday Night Ward era, one of the figures is the Best of Attitude Era Triple H which you can see pictured below, I prob have all the ones in that set so I guess I won’t be picking them up which is crap because they will have BAF parts to make an nWo Vincent.

So with that, let's ranks the first 3 waves.

17. Triple H

16. Undertaker 

15. Stevie Ray

14. Booker T

13. RVD

12. Teddy Long

11. Stevie Ray (Chase)

10. Booker T (Chase)

09. The Rock

08. Lex Luger

07. Fake Diesel

06. Rey Mysterio Jr.

05. Kevin Nash

04. Steve Austin

03. Hulk Hogan

02. The Disciple

01. Scott Hall

That's my list, won't be to some/most tastes but it can't be wrong as it's my list, let me know yours if you feel the need to.

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