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.
The lineup in Elite 47 is amazeballs. You have the three ‘First Time In Line’ figures from AJ Styles, Asuka and Tatanka, and solid figures of Big Boss Man, Kevin Owens and Cesaro. This lineup could be the best of the year.
We give our thoughts on each figure and include some pictures.
AJ Styles – This one will be red hot, so it will be really hard to find at first. The attire is from his debut appearance at this year’s Royal Rumble. He is one of the hottest wrestlers on the planet, so collectors have been waiting on this elite since the Rumble.
Asuka – She is the most dominant female wrestler in NXT history. Bill Miekina, the lead designer for Mattel’s WWE line, went out of his way to get this figure correct. He said he had to make quite a few new molds. This could be one of the best figures released in awhile.
Tatanka – This line is full of amazing figures. Tatanka is one of the guys I’ve been waiting on for awhile. I remember seeing him tweeting out of a picture of him signing a merchandising deal with WWE. I was a fan of his run in the mid-90’s. The headscan looks great.
Big Boss Man – I enjoyed getting the original Big Boss Man elite off eBay last year, but I’ve been pining for the Corporation Boss Man from the Attitude Era. I like that it comes with the facemask.
Kevin Owens – Some would say it is too soon for another Kevin Owens elite, but this is the first elite to come with the new Universal Championship. For that reason alone, this one will be a hot seller. I wouldn’t be surprised if some bastards steal the title out of this figure at retail. It happens WAY too often and I point the finger at Grim, who is a popular YouTube personality.
Cesaro – I like this figure and is a nice companion figure to go with the fairly recent Tyson Kidd elite, but this one could collect dust at retail. Cesaro elites are a tough sell, plus the fact that this entire set is such a home run, collectors may pass up on Cesaro to get something better from this series.
Elite 47 is expected to hit retail early in 2017.
There is an in-between series before Elite 48 called 47.5 that hits soon after this series. It has some solid figures and I will be writing something up immediately after this post.
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.