mattelelite

RS Rated: 3

Valdimir Kozlov

RS Rated: 7

John Morrison

This ain’t no make believe! I finally found JoMo! First things first the jacket. With all the furry awsomeness that you would expect from the Shaman of Sexy. It has deco on the back and the collar. His glasses fit perfectly under his hair and are decorated with great detail as well. You wouldn’t want to hand out to many of these to an ungrateful yuppie larva in the front row. His head scan is superior to his tag team basic release and his tights are well detailed with the deco and molded belt. He comes with rubber boot covers as well. The playability is a huge upgrade to his basic figure but that goes with out saying. Speaking of playability since he has no knee pads you can really get a good feel for how awesomely playable these figs can be. Come on Mattel fix those god awful knee pads!

RS Rated: 5

Kane

One of the longest working men on the SmackDown roster, the Big Red Machine Kane. Through hell fire and brimstone Kane marches through his first elite figure. He has an evil grimacing head scan. His large body looks so great compared to your shorter figures. He has elbow pads that are a bit different than his basic figure (note I swapped elbow pads from my basic fig so it is not pictured here). He has one gloved hand and has painted on wrist bands this time (instead of the originals that were moveable by Mattel). Now this figure serves as a great example of one that doesn’t have many accessories that he uses or wears to the ring but Mattel went creative to give us a reason to want to throw down the 18 big ones. First he comes with a hard plastic towel to cover his head. This is something that Kane wore when he first was unmasked to hide his burned hideous face. Although he hasn’t wore that for 5 years Mattel decided to give us our moneys worth. Personally I prefer actual cloth for something like that but this was an added perk. He also comes with shackles. Chains that reach his hands and both feet. This is very reminiscent of Jacob Goodnight in See No Evil. Some may complain that they would have rather had real chain or plastic links but these are soft rubber and work very well. The cuffs simply stretch over the hands and feet. A brilliant idea much easier than making small hinged parts. This makes me long for a set of rubber handcuffs for the Big Boss Man!

RS Rated: 9

WWE Mattel Elite Series 3

The Heart Break Kid Shawn Michaels

I must admit that each Elite figure I receive and play around with makes me like the line and figure style even more. This is by far the best current style Shawn figure ever. It blows the first basic HBK out of the water. The head scan is one that finally looks like the aging HBK. The body is nice and modestly muscled. The deco on the pants is very detailed. Not only with painting style but also with molded belt buckle parts, chap layering, and even laces. He has white wrist tape and even has deco on his boots. I really love the poseability as it allows you to do all the famous HBK looks. Mattel spared no detail as seen in his multicolored detailed tattoo. Since it is elite it comes with great accessories including a cut up purple HBK shirt and his trademark straw hat. The hat has all the details of his logo and the leather strapping. RS Rated: 9.0

Captain Charisma Christian

This was a figure that I was skeptical about when I saw the proto pictures. What I was not happy with was the head. This is a common complaint I have with Mattel figs and their poor head detail. But I have to admit this figure was an example of one that looks much better in person. One of my favorite head scans by Matty actually. Christian comes with black tights with the details of the C logos. He has a detailed tattoo on his shoulder and come with (mobility friendly) short elbow pads. He comes with one open fist and one closed one. I still am from the school of thought that hates closed fits. I mean they limit what you can do in play. With an open fist you can deliver a good punch and still wield a chair. Now for the coup de grass, the ring gear! Oh my good Gawd! This is worth the 15 bucks alone. The jacket is so amazing. From the silver spots to the great logo detail. The jacket and pants are simply awesome. Only complaint that I have is that the hood is permanently unzipped so he can’t wear it. But due to the overall awesomeness of the attire I can look over this.

RS Rated: 10.5

John Cena

This Cena figure is a little bit dated due to the HLA deco but what can you do. It’s hard to keep up with the marketing machine that is John Cena. This figure clearly differs from the others in the series that I reviewed as he has a significantly more beefy physique. Although he is beefier and does have jean shorts the elite treatment still has great playability. He has detailed deco on all his bands and even has detailed color on his belt and buckle. They also were smart in not suing real knee pads but still coloring and adding a mold under the shorts. Gone are the days of the Jakks guys missing such details. He comes with great accessories. He has the HLA t-shirt in the typical Mattel style, cheaply made but functional. They made a smart move and chose to make his hat plastic (gets shivers thinking of the horrid cloth hat from Jakks last CS 3 Pack). He also comes with his signature dog tags. Unfortunately the chain left some silver markings on the “champs” neck. Ok now for the things I don’t like. Once again the head scan. Yeah it’s ok but just something seems a bit cheap about allot of Mattel’s scans. The only other thing that I really can’t stand are his shoes. The sneakers mold that Mattel uses is just bulky and awkward. In addition to the strange look they have, they are also horrid for play making Cena look like he has some neurological disorder half way into a match.

RS Rated: 7

Elite 2

Matt Hardy

I need to start off by saying thanks to Mattel for going cloth! No more rubber jackets in the elite line. I wonder why they stuck with rubber for series one. I assume that they either didn’t have time enough to design large cloth coats for series one or they heard our pleas and scrapped the craptastic hard rubber accessories. The coat really makes this figure stellar. IT is soft black fabric with shinny metallic studs on the front and wrists. The head scan looks nice and has a slicked back look with a pony tail. Of course this presents a bit of a problem since it is all one hard plastic mold but since it is so thin it doesn’t interfere too much with head movement. Matt comes with wrapped arms and is my first mat figure with his new tights. The tights feature blue and silver key logos on the sides, front, and back. His boots are kick pad style with incredible detail.

RS Rated 9.5

Randy Orton

The first thing I notice on this figure is the t-shirt. The logo is awesome and it’s nice to see a shirt in a color other than black for a change. But once again the quality of the Mattel shirts is lacking. The back has no hemming of where the Velcro is and the edges are all frayed. The head scan is the same has his heritage figure but he has far more tattoo detail matching his current style. The sleeve tattoos are just incredible. He has short style knee pads which are my favorite due to the playability. He features black trunks with blue logos.

RS Rated: 7

Elite 1

Rey Mysterio

MVP MVP hits up the elite line with his first Mattel figure. He doesn’t come with many accessories which is a bit of a disappointment only coming with a removable headband (sorry not pictured) and two necklaces one with MVP and one with 305. The head scan is great and in my opinion far superior to that of Jakks. It even has a matching blue breath rite nose strip. His outfit looks very sharp in blue and black. It features a painted on zipper on the font along with the MVP logo and blue highlights. The left sleeve has “Protect This Ring” down the arm. The detail on this figure is awesome but my favorite part is the detail work on the gloves.

RS Rated 8.5

Well as you can see I gave the elite figures a second chance. The result was a bit of disappointment mixed with some reassurance as well. The good thing that I learned from this was that the superstar scale appears to be legit. Rey is much smaller than any other figure that I own. The first disappointment however was the removable mask. Now in the proto pictures and even the package I thought this was a cloth mask. Unfortunately it is made from that hideous hard plastic and is even a bit warped. It is half purple and half black with a scull design and the typical Rey mask on the right. It even has a real open eye whole so that you can see the eye of the figure underneath. One of the most disappointing pieces in this figure is the shirt. First off the quality of the shirt is very poor. It just doesn’t seem to fit Rey well and the logo is really rather poorly done. I guess I just expected more from the people that make Barbie. This figure is great. He has a small body with smaller arms. He has a great likeness and black gloves. He has one elbow pad which is quite small making it great for play. I normally don’t like the over articulation of the legs but I like the legs in Rey. The reason I prefer the articulation in this figure is that it is much more playable compared to that of the pants mold of Shawn Michaels. The pants are well detailed and the tattoo work is simply incredible. This is, by far my favorite Rey figure ever made.

RS Rated: 9

CM Punk

This T-shirt on this figure is much better fitting than Rey’s. The logo is great and just like that of Punk’s real shirt. The sleeves are done well but the edges of the sleeves, the bottom, and the neck are really rough around the edges. This is a bit of a downer but at least it isn’t a turtle neck like seen on some Jakks shirts. The back is sloppily done as well having Velcro only partially down the slit. One huge improvement on this is the use of this new sleek micro thin Velcro. The head scan is okay getting a B grade from me. The detail on the attire and the tattoo work is amazing. Of course some tattoos were omitted due to legal reasons but the ones that were done look incredible even down to the drug free knuckle tats. The boots have great detail too. The one thing that bothers me about this figure is the large knee pads. Just so restrictive, Especially for a figure that is supposed to have more articulation. These pads just ruin it. RS Rated: 8.3

Undertaker

Well we were told that the Elite line would be extra detailed and that they would be in the same scale as the basic line and both seem to be lies or at the very least half truths. Lets look at the height first. It seems to be the same problem that came when deluxe aggression came out that the added knee articulation lead to taller figures. Now I know that the Undertaker is a tall guy but the figure is taller than his RA. I don’t know, I’m just a bit skeptical about this scale issue. Now lets look at the other lie the extra detail. This series costs extra (about 16 bucks compared to 10 for a basic and 17 for a basic 2 pack) which is due to the added accessories and articulation. Now I can see paying extra for cloth accessories and such but an extra 7 bucks is a bit steep. But the craptastic accessories that came with taker is just sad. He comes with a solid unmovable long jacket. The thing is hard plastic and basically useless. I mean it has no motion at all. One of the things I like to do with my figures is pose them and with a jacketed undertaker I always like to pose him to raise the house lights as he does during his entrance. Well with this figure it is impossible. Now on the plus side, unlike Jakks’ molded jackets this one is not permanently on the figure and can be taken off but it’s not easy. I am not crazy about the head scan but it is at least good enough. This figure also has the problem of the stiff long hair. The tattoo work is amazing covering his fall arms and even his tattoos on his traps. His tights feature a copper devil logo on the left leg and a skull TX rosary necklace on the left. Taker has MMA style gloves with thick wrist bands. Unfortunately Mattel forgot to paint underneath the connection point of the glove and wrist. The only reason for the increased price tag of this line is the increased articulation. There is a joint on the torso much like that of the DA line. There is also the split and pivot action in the upper legs and the rotating part of the upper thigh as well. Taker also has an added knee joint much like the DA figures. So there is more playability with these figures but that’s about it. Taker comes with a extra large elbow pad which doesn’t fit under his coat and is horrid as far as playability is concerned. He comes with a great hat that is molded to fit his head perfectly. It is also made out of the hard plastic that the pads are made from. There is nothing wrong with this hat but there is a potential for problems with it in the future. Cause when we eventually get a new head scan for taker or a classic scan there will be the problem of the accessories not possibly not fitting. I pictured taker in the Jakks coat just to give you a feel for the cloth. Over all the figure is okay but the accessories are not what I expected when I purchased an elite figure.