I’m a self-confessed vintage toy nerd. I collect vintage wrestling action figures from the 80’s & 90’s. I started purchasing some vintage toys out of nostalgia. Well, WWE and Mattel sucked me into their new stuff. I now buy a few figures a month. You can view photos of my collection on my Instagram account.
Mattel has been including more flashback figures, which I love. I think it’s largely due to the success of the Target exclusive Hall of Fame series (by the way, series four should be in stores later this year).
Elite 42 is in the unfortunate position to follow the stacked lineups from Elite 40 & 41. The lineup in Elite 42 isn’t bad, but the last two series have been all-time greats. The WWE Superstars included in Elite 42 are Xavier Woods, Neville, Kalisto, Triple H and the Nasty Boys.
We give our thoughts on each figure and include some pictures.
I already received Elite 42 set late last month and I’m proud to have them in my collection.
Kalisto – The current United States champion could be the hottest figure in the series. His first basic flew off the shelves and went for a premium on eBay. I’m cool with it coming with the same stand Rey Mysterio came with last year, but the entrance mask is a bit weak. I would have loved a Lucha Dragons shirt instead.
Neville – This is exactly what I expected the first Neville elite to look like. The entrance cape is a nice touch and the plastic cape displays better than if it were cloth. This elite could also be hard to find. His first basic was a pain to find for a decent price on the secondary market. Although, by the time this comes out, he will have already have had two basics hit the market, so maybe the market could be saturated and this one sits for awhile. I doubt it, but it could happen.
Xavier Woods – The New Day is the most ‘over’ tag team in a long, long time. This will be Xavier’s first elite. His first figure was in a Battle Pack with R-Truth and then he just recently had another basic released. I would have liked the attire to be the blue/pink gear New Day has been wearing the last six months or so, but I still dig this gear. Also, as a fellow trombone player, I enjoy it came with his Francesca. Kofi and Big E have elites coming out later that will match Xavier’s attire.
Triple H – This elite’s attire is from his Wrestlemania 31 entrance before his match with Sting. It’s an homage to the Terminator movies and I think his entrance was actually a paid advertisement by the Terminator movie that came out last year. Even though this attire only happened once, it’s still a pretty bad ass figure.
The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) – I love that the Nasty Boys are finally getting some love from Mattel. I have a full set of WWF Hasbro figures from the 90’s and Mattel has slowly been knocking out wrestlers from that set. The only thing I fear about this Nasty Boys set is that it may not sell well. Individual tag team elites like The Usos and Los Matadores still collect dust at retail across the country.
Elite 42 should be found at retail some time in early-May.
The official lineup for Elite 43 has been released and there’s already proto images out, but I will wait until packaged prototype pictures are released before I write about them.
You can pre-order everything at RingsideCollectibles.com. I’m not getting paid to plug them (although it would be nice to get a nice discount – wink wink). I just highly recommend them. I’ve been pleased with every purchase.
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.