Let’s take a look at the Brian Pillman figures we have had from Mattel, well, the Elite ones.The first one we got was way back and he was wearing the tiger design on his tights which us that have been watching him since the early 90's will remember. It's a decent figure, looking back, maybe with new technology, the head scan maybe could be improved, it came with a rubber t shirt, be good to see a re-release with new scan, updated joints and cloth shirt.
The next one we got was the Legends one, it came out in series 3. Bit of a different scan on this one. The figure as a whole was based on his WWF run around 1997 which of course was also the year he passed away. It is a good figure and there was a very long wait until we saw another but this was one I was glad to have in the collection.
Next up was the one many of us had been waiting a while for. One of the real highlights of his career for me was his time in the Hollywood Blondes with Steve Austin back in WCW. There were always rumours that they were split up because they (someone in WCW) didn't want them to get over anymore than they already were. Although I enjoyed the match, it was a bit of an anti-climax because of outside interference from Barry Windham but their match against The Four Horsemen combo of Ric Flair & Arn Anderson was great but the build-up to the match was tremendous, check out this appearance of the Blondes on Flair's chat show, A Flare for The Gold, hilarious.
Our next version of him was in the Monday Night Wars line, coming in jeans, a vest and Hart Foundation shirt this one was very good and for most people, I think their favourite but I can't speak for everyone.
And out final offering from Mattel was recently in Legends series 32. It has the same head as the MNW one but he has red tights and a Four Horsemen shirt as he had joined them in 1995, this led to the angle where all the inside terms were being used and between himself and Eric Bischoff, they 'worked' the boys. This saw Pillman face Kevin Sullivan in a 'respect' match and mid match he just stopped and said to Sullivan " I respect you booker man" as Sullivan at that time was a big part of the WCW creative. Pillman convinced Bischoff to give him his release to make it look more realistic. Bischoff did this and then, eventually, Pillman was able to sign for the WWF, it wasn't plain sailing beforehand, that's well-documented but between WCW and WWF he had a short spell in ECW, he didn't wrestle but was extremely entertaining.
So that's it from Mattel as far as Elite figures of Brian Pillman but now I'm going to add something extra. Zombie Sailor Toys released a line of figures and they called it the 'Pinnacle Series' and on of those figures was a Brian Pillman and it was based on one of his looks in ECW and it is simply outstanding. For a company that doesn't have the resources of WWE/Mattel, the head scan they have produced for Pillman is amazing and the figure as a whole, blows the Mattel ones out the water.
So, from the Mattel ones, what is your favourite and the ZST one, thoughts on that?
Thanks for reading, please share this with your wrestling figure collecting friends.
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