Mattel’s WWE Brand Team have outdone themselves once again this year with San Diego Comic-Con exclusive offerings. This years offerings brings us two WWE Legends inspired from the 1989 film No Holds Barred, which was Hulk Hogan’s first feature film. In the film, Hulk Hogan plays Rip, and a TV-network boss pits him against Zeus. While this was a film, these events actually continued in real life in the wrestling ring, where Zues feuded with Hogan as he was upset that his character lost the match in the film. Zues was active in WWE from just before Summerslam to The Royal Rumble in 1990, where he made his final appearance.
This set will be offered at San Diego Comic-Con at No Holds Barred IRL on July 20, and online at Mattel Creations on July 22. This set is priced at $70 USD and is limited to 2 per person.
Thank you to Mattel for sending along their SDCC 2022 Exclusive – WWE Ultimate Edition No Holds Barred Figures for review.
Availability: July 2022
The packaging comes in a black and red shipping box, with some artwork including the Ultimate Edition, No Holds Barred and Mattel logo’s, images of Rip and Zeus, and the words What’s That Smell on the top. Inside the box, is a another box consisting of even more artwork and images, including images of the figures on three of the sides, logo’s and a description. This part of the packaging is also a slipcover with a VHS-style packaging inside, with some more artwork, logo’s and the figures can be seen inside. The front and back have the detailed artwork of a VHS cassette tape, including a label on the front with credits of all of the amazingly talented people at Mattel responsible for bringing this offering to life. The front part of the VHS-style cane be lifted up and removed, revealing the two figures inside, and at the bottom is a second box with their accessories inside. The figures are packaged in a plastic tray and easy to remove as there are only a few pieces securing them to the plastic. The accessories are also inside a plastic tray inside that smaller box, including the heads, hands, and entrance gear.
Zeus and Rip (Hulk Hogan) are each given the Ultimate Edition sculpt and features some shared and newly tooled parts. The base of the body is the same, which is one of the standard bases for the line that we’ve seen, including the butterfly shoulder articulation given to select figures. This base continues to be an impressive sculpt for the Ultimate Edition line, which offers more articulation compared to the Elite’s, better likenesses, accessories and deco. Interestingly enough, they seemed to have used two different types of plastic as the torso’s have a slight difference shade compared to the arms and legs. In the video, I specified this for Rip, but after taking a bit of a closed look on Zeus, it’s also the same difference for him as well.
Rip comes in a blue fabric entrance gear shirt, with velcro in the front, and the words Rip ‘Em on the front, blue trunks, white wrist hands, white knee pads, blue and white boots. He also comes with the World Championship belt, a headband, and three sets of interchangeable hands. The three head sculpts each have different facial expressions, including the “What’s that smell?!?!” head.
Zeus comes in his entrance jacket that is molded, including black and grey deco, a belt, two sets of hands and two head sculpts each with a different facial expression. Zeus includes a screaming head where you can see the inside of his mouth, and they captured this likeness extremely well.
The entrance gear on these figures looks great, and captures the likenesses extremely well. For Zeus, the belt fits under the entrance jacket, and Rip the Championship belt can fit over the shirt.
Both figures are fully articulated and includes a ball jointed head, ball jointed torso, ball hinged shoulders, butterfly shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, swivel-hinged wrists, swivel waist, ball jointed hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, swivel boots, hinged and rocker ankles and hinged toes.
Overall, this is one of the most memorable matches in WWE history as it was not only Hulk Hogan’s first movie, but also continued in real-life where Hulk and Zeus fought in the wrestling ring after the events in the film. This is surely a set that all WWE Legends fans won’t want to miss as it offers two great athletes from the golden age of wrestling. This will be sold at SDCC, and online after the show on 7/22 for $70 USD.
Purchase:
Mattel Creations
