Mattel Basics

Basic 7

Michelle McCool

McCool has an expressionless head scan with long curly hair. The head scan is a decent representation of her but a disappointing choice for how dynamic of a character she has become since turning heel. She has blue ring gear with black boots that is accented with crosses all over. Quite a bit of deco detail.

RS Rated: 8

Basic 2

Vladimir Koslov

Sure his attire is now inaccurate but the is still a menacing figure. He is much taller than many other figs which gives the figure real presence. The head scan is not bad and he comes in his dull white attire. He comes with large elbow pads that are nice and flexible.

RS Rated: 8

Mattel Basic Series 1

The Big Show

The first thing that catches my eye about this figure is the head scan. I’d give it a B grade meaning that it is good enough to tell it’s the Big Show but not good enough to be considered great. I prefer the Jakks scan and believe it to be more realistic. Big show is in his old black single strapped singlet with the short leggings that took Jakks years to produce but Mattel hits it right on the first try. The singlet is a great mold and even shows fabric wrinkles. He has great detailed tattoos on his legs and shoulders. My main complaint about the figure is the right hand. It just isn’t what I like for a choke slam or Shows threat of a choke slam. I would rather a more open hand than that grip to fit the necks of other figures. The height is well done making him the tallest of the current figures but not towering over people. He is much taller than HBK yet only slightly taller than the undertaker.

RS Rated: 8.0

Kofi Kingston

Under certain lighting Kofi’s skin tone has a strange orange hue to it. Kofi has a smiling head scan with his dreads tied back with a green head band. The scan captures his likeness quite well. He has yellow and green wrist bands and his attire is very detailed. He has kick pad boots with sock extensions and green knee pads. All are painted with a continuous palm tree logo. The body of the Mattel figures is pretty comparable as far as articulation to Jakks with two main differences: the ankle has a lot more movement and we now have the ability to rotate the calf area of the leg. Other noticeable differences are the much smaller arms. This is something I am a fan of as they look more realistic and are much better for playability. One thing that interferes with playability is the knee pads. They are made out of a very hard plastic that is barely flexible. In fact they are so stiff that I have not been able to remove them from the figures so this may be a customizer’s nightmare. It may be easier if you boil the figure some to soften it up, but this is not something I have tried yet. His trunks have two lion’s on the side and have his last name across the back. As far as scale is concerned they are pretty close to RA. Not perfect but close. The height of this figure is less than half an inch shorter than his RA version which isn’t ideal for me but is really close. This may be due to what Mattel is referring to as Superstar Scale. So that there are different heights within the series. This will be addressed further later. Every figure comes with an oval display stand with a peg and a cardboard name plate that slides in the top. The stand works fine but for me it’s useless. I personally would rather have some quality accessories than a display stand. I mean the way I think of it display stands would be for collectors that don’t play. But a stand is useless for MOCers. My other complaint about it is that the cardboard name plate needs to be glued in to be really secured. I know they are a throw back to the LJN figures and the early days of the BCA line but for me they are just a waste of space and plastic.

RS Rated: 7

Evan Bourne

The detail on this guy is incredible. I really must say that I am a fan of the arm tooling. They are so much more contusive to play. The head scan is great as well. I would even go as far as saying that it is superior to Jakks. He comes with a right closed fist which is something I have never liked do to it’s limiting for play. He has a nice tight yet open fist on the left. You can see that he has great detail on his boots which are completely unique with this tooling. He has red bands on his arms and a detailed belt. His tights feature his Air Bourne logo. No knee pads on this figure so there are no restrictions to his playability. I truly can’t say enough about this figure. Great way to kick off the line Mattel.

RS Rated: 9

Triple H

The first thing you will notice about this figure is that he is pretty much 1:1 the same height as his RA counterpart. Thank you for that Mattel. The head scan is a nice likeness of “The Game” but the hair color is horrible. It is this pasty yellow hair color that is reminiscent of the color used on some of the early pre scan HHH bca figures. The torso mold is etched from stone and a bit over the top for my tastes. He comes with the same restrictive knee pads as mentioned above and has elbow pads to match. The difference is that the elbow pads are pretty small and a bit less restrictive for playability. The one thing I do have to say concerning both the elbow and knee pads is that, unlike Jakks, they stay put. Sure they are virtually impossible to remove but this also means that they are going to stay put and not slide off your figures during an epic matchup. His tights have logos on the front and back. Logos even appear on his boots and his elbow pads. His right arm is taped as well ahs his left wrist and fingers. His right hand has an open yet tight fist and his left hand has a nice open c clamp grip. I must say I was very pleased that the figures did not have the overly exaggerated shading that the prototypes had.

RS Rated: 8

Shawn Michaels

The heart break kid gets is first modern head scan in over 6 years thanks to the fine folks over at Mattel. The scan is a great likeness. He has a pony tail that is molded to the head. It is not an insert piece as seen in many Jakks figures. I must say, however that I am not happy with the tone of the hair. You can see that he is visibly shorter than his RA version. He comes in cream and brown colored pants with cross logos and a detailed belt. The belt has detail on the clasps, eye holes, and even the loops. Mattel goes the extra mile by painting logos even into the joints of figures. The pants even has HBK on the back and the shoe strings to tighten them in the back. The boots are brown with silver accents. The ankles have the normal articulation with the addition of a ball joint to rotate them (making up for the lack of boot calf articulation seen in there other figures). The one thing that bothers mea bout the figure is the knee joints. IT just seems to me that they are not placed properly. I feel that the knee should be down more. Instead, the lower leg is much longer than the upper leg. The other beef I have with this figure is the pants mold. The legs are really close together, severally limiting this figure’s playability. This is much similar to the tight pants mold that was used for a couple Rey Mysterio figures. One thing that is a bit of a disappointment is that his tattoo is monochromatic.

RS Rated: 6

Batista

This figure is slightly shorter than the Jakks version but this is a very slight difference. His head scan is great. One thing about the Mattel scans is that they seem to look much better in person than in photos. He comes in plain black attire with logos on the front and back. He has elbow pads with logos and those hideous large restrictive knee pads. He has Batista style buckle boots. The tattoos on this figure are amazing and even go under the elbow pads. He even has a multi colored back tattoo. I love the playability of this figure. Get a hold of one and feel the power of a Batista spear with this figure. It just works so well.

RS Rated: 8.5

Chris Jericho

The savior of the modern day WWE makes an appearance in Mattel’s line. Now I’m a little bit confused about what series this is from. According to my sources he is not a part of Basic 1 but he was in basic style packaging when I found him at Wal-Mart. So I’m a bit perplexed. Anyways. He is in his purple and silver gear with 360 degrees of deco. The back of his tights and his boots have “Save Me’ written on them. He comes with black wrist bands and black knee pads. These knee pads are much smaller and make the knees function much better than the large pads. The worst part of this figure is the head. Now its not that the scan is bad cause it’s not. This is a great likeness for Jericho. My problem is that he has 0 expression! I mean this is one of the most animated performers in the recent WWE and his face looks like he’s at a funeral.

RS Rated: 8.0

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Collectors Guide

Just wanted to share a little bit about this pamphlet that was included in some of the Wal-mart figures. Many of the Wal-mart figures were packaged as exclusive to the store and included this booklet. The booklet has a figure check list as well as pages with the names and photos of different wrestlers finishing maneuvers.