I have to admire the toy designers at Mattel, they certainly know how to take a concept and run with it. Whilst some wrestlers have great characters their actual looks can be pedestrian. After all, a plastic figure can only convey so much personality and when you’re working on a new mix and match toy line based on WWE wrestlers who frequently fall into a “guys in trunks” category, some creative licence needs to be employed to inject a little visual flair into the concept.
That is precisely what these “Create a Superstar” figures are all about, so much so that I actually love their taking a gimmick to new extremes to update my “head canon” more than their actual U.S.P. of being able to disassemble and re assemble them into weird and wacky new characters. Over the next few mini reviews I’ll go through my haul and why I like them so much starting with the one I admire the most, Ultimate Warrior.
Being an absolute cartoon character already it’s actually pretty incredible to get a new spin on Ultimate Warrior that feels totally thematic to his personal kayfabe. Think about it, what was the Ultimate Warrior, within the logic of wrestling storyline I mean. Here was a hulking brute, emblazoned with almost tribal painted symbols, screaming about being bestowed a power from ancient gods of a forgotten land no one has set foot in in ages. Maybe he was legit, maybe the power was something to be obtained, maybe there was an ancient civilisation who worshipped a chosen Warrior to go out into the world to fight, maybe somebody found it.
That’s where this figure comes in, here the Warrior is re imagined with the ephemera of an Aztec or Incan chieftain, his arm and boot tassles are now grasses and he wears a colourful cape and feathered headdress of someone of high standing. This makes perfect sense to me but I probably have too much of an imagination.
I will readily admit to spending a lot of time trying to think up kayfabe reasons behind offbeat gimmicks so anything that can set my story-sense tingling gets a pass from me. Not that this figure needs it as away from the backstory and combination fun, this is a pretty great polymer representation of the Ultimate Warrior that although a little taller than most, fits in well with the more traditional figures.
I utterly adore this one, and his brethren that’ll I’ll be spotlighting over the next 4 reviews. Real thought appears to have been made in injecting more life into the concept than perhaps this toy needed and I admire that. As esoteric as it is, the notion of giving me inspiration to concoct an actual cartoon backstory for the cartoon gimmick Ultimate Warrior is what I admire most and something that fires my imagination in a positive way as I struggle against being overcome with negative ones is extremely worthy of praise.
Thanks for reading.
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