I bought both of these MOC Superstars Series 2 Ultimate Warrior figures from an eBay seller for a little over $14 shipped.
I figured about $7 each wasn't too bad for the Warrior Warrior tandem.
What with it being the second series produced by Jakks Pacific in the latter half of 1996, Superstars Series 2 was also Jakks' figure debut of the Ultimate Warrior.
An all-new torso mold was introduced for Warrior, to commemorate his return to the WWF at WrestleMania XII in a squash match victory against Hunter Hearst Helmsley.
And like his ring entrance, the Ultimate Warrior was gone in a flash after contract disputes with owner Vince McMahon in the summer of 1996.
However, Jakks was able to crank out two versions of Warrior from his second run in the WWF, the one shown here and another in green and yellow attire from the Survivor Series 1996 boxed set (Jakks' first ever boxed set, by the way).
This one has just a tad more detail to it, hence why WrestlingFigs.com forum members selected it as their favorite of the two.
If one were to compare it to the actual attire worn at WMXII, it stands no chance and does the job like, well, HHH did in their match.
Real life Warrior wore an incredible coat to the ring that night, and the closest thing to replicating that in figure form was Jakks' later Classic Superstars Series 12 figure (which also had a variant facing backward in the packaging).
Not to mention, this figure has a much simpler face paint and attire/gear pattern than does the prototype shown on the back of the carding (which is a greater likeness of Warrior's WMXII appearance).
I actually prefer the hair color of the final product, although neither truly captures the blonde-ish brown shade of Warrior's hair at the time.
The arm tassles are right on the money, but everything below the waist, and specifically the Warrior logos all over his body, is way off.
The logo on the back of his trunks needs to be large and centered, not small and off to the side. Also, the knee pads have no orange back side and the boot tassles are painted plain white, devoid of any necessary red.
Did I mention the detail is severely lacking?
Besides all of that, it is still a decent figure, believe it or not.
Jakks Pacific could have done a lot worse, and there's something special about this figure that is hard to describe. I remember the joy of playing with this figure as a kid and how loose the parts were on mine.
I finally bought it again a few years back on eBay from a Canadian seller, but it was loose and in mint condition.
Now, I've got one, or maybe both, to open all for myself.
My take: No official rating just yet from me, so I'll give my own personal take on this figure. It's good, not great, and I would have a hard time choosing many other BCA figures over this as a favorite of mine. This is a definite buy for any classic wrestling fan or new collector of the BCA line.
As evidenced by the price that someone before me paid for it (ouch!), it's hard to tell how valuable Warrior's debut Jakks figure will be five, ten, fifteen years from now. So, consider that if you will, but don't let it slip by if it can be had for less than $10 MOC.
Fun fact: Owen Hart's debut Jakks figure from Series 2 used a torso mold suspiciously similar to that which might have been used for the 1-2-3 Kid if he hadn't left the WWF for WCW in 1996. Rumors persist that the Kid was scheduled to be in Series 1, but was replaced by Goldust when he switched companies.
I don't know if we'll ever find out the truth, but the Kid certainly didn't have to wait long - just five series later, his re-birth in the WWF as X-Pac in the spring of 1998 was a success and warranted a Jakks Pacific figure as a part of Superstars Series 7.
And so it goes...
Until next time, thanks for looking and have a nice day!
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