In a year where there was lots of reasons to write negatively about the sport I love, I wanted to remember some great times I had as a wrestling fan at Christmas. For as long as I can remember, every year I would ask for wrestling related toys for Christmas. If you were born before 1988, you probably remember the old school wrestling action figures made from rubber that didn't move. Those dolls topped my Christmas wish list every year.
I would spend hours playing with these dolls, creating matches, shooting angles, and even cutting promos.
One year in particular I remember well. On Christmas Eve I would sleep over at my grandparents and every Christmas Day there would be a present from Santa at the fire place. One year "Santa" gave me a Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior action figure. I can't describe how happy I was seeing those dolls, it made my Christmas that year as I played with them all day.
Sometimes when playing with wrestling dolls, things got dangerous. I was 4 years old when I was given my first toy wrestling ring for Christmas. My brother had given me a ring with Hulk Hogan and Hillbilly Jim action figures. I was a little too excited as I played with my new toys all morning.
All of a sudden, for reasons that I am still not sure, I stepped in the ring thinking I guess that I would shrink and become a 7" action figure. The ring was not made of the durable plastic that the action figures were and needless to say, it broke. My first toy wrestling ring lasted about 4 hours, but worth every second. As punishment for my stupidity, it took 2 years for me to get another toy ring.
The hard plastic wrestling figures evolved in the early 1990s to being these shiny movable dolls. For older fans who remember, the hard plastic action figures suffered from fading paint. These newer dolls were sharp and could be manoeuvred to actually perform wrestling moves. Unfortunately, the more you used this feature, the more likely you were to have limbless wrestlers. I was horrified when Randy Savage's arm fell off after landing his top rope elbow. Nothing beat those old school dolls.
After the age of 8 or 9, I grew out the wrestling action figures. With moving homes and numerous "spring cleanings", all of my childhood toys were either donated or thrown away over the years. However as I got older, the toys got more sophisticated. I started asking for wrestling related video games for Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and VHS tapes of PPVs topped the list. Wandering through the wrestling section of Toys R Us is still a bit of a thrill as I get to check out the action figures for a new generation of fans. Among my biggest regrets is that I don't have more wrestling memorabilia from my childhood but thankfully the memories from them have survived.
I stopped asking for wrestling related gifts at Christmas. I would love for someone to surprise me with a replica belt instead of the gift cards that I usually receive at this time of year.
If there is anyone with wrestling toy related memories from Christmas, please feel free to leave them in the comment section as I would love to hear from you. May your Christmas be a happy and safe one!
12 comments: on "Merry Wrestling Christmas"
Love this. It really hit home with me. I remember having the old Sting toy that was hard as fuck and didn't move. I fucking hated it. And, just like you, my Macho Man broke, except it was his leg. He involved in a bitter feud with Hogan and was gonna finish him with Hogan's leg drop, and boom, no more. A couple months later my Hogan's arm fell off, ironically. The other most common injury was there heads falling off lol. That ever happen to yours?
I remember my fondest Christmas wrestling toy memory was finally getting a ring also! I got the huge ass one with the ropes almost taller than the figures, but I didn't care. I used that ring for 6 years, even after it broke (The same way yours did actually!).
One Christmas in particular I remember my mom taking me to Toys R Us and buying me the entire new set of toys, including Vader and soon to be a favorite, Jerry Lawler. I was so excited.
I guess all together I had about 200 figures, with new ones coming every allowance, Christmas, and Birthday. I actually still have them in box here somewhere, I might just have to find them and go down memory lane this Christmas :)
I remember my wrestling ACTION FIGURES (not dolls)...
The first one i ever had was a worn out JYD, backwhen they were like 10" tall, my cousin gave it to me... used or not I cherished it..
Then I moved on to the motionless wcw action figures... I always hated Sting's useless pose... Him and the semi-motionable Rick Rude had great matches either way
The motionless steiners were cool cause they could still pull off their tag team finisher
I remember santa brought me the WWF ring and it was nice and standard, but my aunt got me the WCW ring with the cage, bell and springboard ring steps... DOPE!Dual ring Battle Royals
Belts were even sacred back then...
My wrestling figures were without a doubt my favorite toys... even when I got my NES then my Genesis and all the wrestling games available... the action figures still had their place
Nothin beats my Koko B. Ware with Frankie the parrot able to be perched on his shoulder. Or how about the Honky Tonk man with a guitar that came with it. I've got a whole bucket of those things that I'm gonna have to dig outta the attic.
Y'know it's funny cause I hated those motionless action figures, but I soooo wanted to have wrestlers so I would improvise and use my He-Man figures. They were a little shorter I think but they worked great for wrestling moves, and you aint seen shit till you've seen an elbow drop from the top of Castle Greyskull. And yeah, I cut alot of promos with them. Since there was no belts they were usually fighting over Teela. Besides they had way cooler gimmicks, a skull for a face?! Hell yeah! hehe
I remember those motionless ones, I had those of Hulk Hogan and George Steele. They were secondhand because of my age, but I was fine with it.
Good article. Hopefully karma kicks in and someone will get you a replica belt this year.
As far as wrestling figures go. Since I'm the youngest...second youngest, forgot about Plunkett, all I can say is TITAN-TRON LIVE!!!!!
I just recently started collecting the newer ones. By the time I'm done I hope to have a line around the top of room. I'm too cheap to go buy a shelf, well cheap and don't have the time to find stud's in the wall and what-not.
I'm fortunate enough to have a 5 year old nephew who loves wrestling, so I've been able to buy several figures over the past year and a half. It's hilarious watching suplex's that throw the other figure towards the ceiling and then end with a simultaneous leg-drop.
Does anybody else enjoy the sound effects provided by 5 year olds?
OMG....how many times do I have to tell people that boys play with wrestling figures and not wrestling dolls!!! LOL.
I have the whole LJN collection of hard rubber wrestling figures from the 80's in a trunk in my basement(when the paint chipped off I tried to touch them up but to no avail). My very first 2 were Piper and Snuka and I also had the ring too! Those were the happiest days of my life!
Oh, and Fatty? I just bought myself a NWA/TNA X Division title belt that set me back around $225, but it was worth every damn penny!
I am proudly wearing it right now with only my Fruit Of The Looms on!!! Merry Christmas to all!!!
I had a blast with my wrestling figures, someone in my family would ask what they should give me for Christmas, and I over heard, wrestler figures, because I had so much fun playing with them.
I remember getting Goldust one year, and after several months his head fell off after a deadly chop from Bret Hart.
Bret and Taker were my first two I got, and I used Power Ranger & Batman dolls improvising them as wrestlers till I got more.
I still have my collection of wrestling figures, I think last time I counted I had 156 of them.
Man, I had so many random ones. I tried stealin' a few from my cousin but he knew not to leave them 'round me. Hell, he didn' even watch wrestlin'! I thought I deserved 'em. I loved the ones that you stuck your thumb up. That was the only time Duggan was a winner.
Got the Sting & NWO Hogan wrestlin' buddies eventually. Beat Hogan everytime Nitro was on. "Arrrgh!!!" he'd scream as I put him in the world's tiniest Scorpian Death Lock.
Best toys though were the ones that sweat. Even though they all looked like they were chissled from stone by Greek gods I still loved 'em. Stone Cold and Kane were my favorites. I tried puttin' red juice in 'em for blood with...mixed results. "By, Gawd, Kang! Sumbody outta stop this match!"
Lol I still have all of my like 200 wrestling men even some huge sting toy
I totally had a Titan Tron for the Titan Tron Live toys. Remember, I'm younger than you DJB.
That IS right youngun. I've still a bunch of mine in the out building in rubbermaid containers.
Post a Comment