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WWE Review: Mankind (Jakks Pacific Titan Tron Live)


Intro:
             Well, it’s that time of the year again for wrestling fans all over the world. It’s time for the grandest stage of them all. This is like the World Cup for Football & Rugby; the Olympics; the Commonwealth Games; the… well, ehem… you get the picture.
            Well, it’s time for WRESTLEMANIA!!!
            Typically, the night before Wrestlemania, WWE would also host its annual WWE Hall of Fame Induction ceremony, and this year is not an exception. This year’s Hall of Fame inductees truly worthy of their induction into this elite group, although I do question the logic in the induction of Donald Trump? Why? Just because he’s BFF with Vince O’Mac?
            Anyways, the lineup for this year’s induction are truly amazing, each of them are legends in their own right – along with the aforementioned Donald Trump, Bruno Sammartino (the man with the longest title reigns in history – 7 and 11 years respectively, and also touted as the man who made famous Madison Square Garden); Bob Backlund (the man with the second longest undisrupted title reign in history with 5 years); Trish Stratus (arguably the best female wrestler in past 20 years); Booker T (6-time world champion, with a record of 11-time World Tag Team Champion – one half of one of the greatest tag teams in history, Harlem Heat).
            Last, but it’s sure damn well ain’t the least, the Hardcore Legend himself, Mrs. Foley’s baby boy – Mick, who is known all around the world with his 3 wrestling personas – the hardcore-crazed and trigger-happy Cactus Jack; the hippy chick magnet Dude Love; and the deranged Mankind.
            Of all the characters, my personal favorite would be Mankind. This is a character, with character. He’s probably the sickest and craziest of the trio. My fondest memories of Mick Foley as a wrestler and there are 3 of those: first was during the 1998 Royal Rumble when Mick participated the Rumble under all 3 different personas.
            Second was when Mick won his first of three WWF Championships on Raw is War, back in January 4, 1999, when he beat The Rock to the title; and thirdly, who can forget that most memorable match of all time, and probably had gone down in history as the greatest Hell in the Cell match in history – a match with The Undertaker in the 1998 King of the Ring.
            That was definitely my most favorite match of all time.
            I think that you all can see the pattern building now – in all three of those memorable matches, they involved the character Mankind.           And so, what better way for New Planet Cybertron to pay a tribute to this wonderful and fearless performer – probably one of the resilient individuals on this planet, based on the physical abuses that he has taken throughout his entire career – than to have a special review on him.
We don’t usually do wrestling reviews, but we’re willing to make this an exception.
This particular figure – that of Mankind – was a figure that I got way back in 1999, when I won 4th place in a contest held by The Star newspaper, in a weekly column called Ring Post. I had won the 3-Faces of Foley documentary DVD (or was it CD?), a poster, and best of all, this particular figure.
This was from a time when Jakks Pacific still held the rights to produce action figure for WWF/E wrestlers.
So I think, we have had quite an intro already, so let’s get on with the meats and potatoes…

Action Figure:
            This figure has very detailed designs. I absolutely love the amount of design considerations that they have infused into this figure.
            The head sculpt is pretty darn good, and they got the hair and mask perfectly right. The outfit that he wears, as a nod to his hardcore tradition, is custom faded with that classic torn and worn out look.
            He even has a necktie!

            Articulation-wise: the head turns left and right limitedly – the shirt collar is clearly blocking Mankind’s chin; the shoulders are on some sort of a universal joints that allows all range of motions – they are not ratcheting, but they are relatively tight, and for a 14-year old figure, the joints are still damn good; there are no elbows articulation, unfortunately, but he does come with rotating wrists.
            Mankind has different left and right hands: the right being a fist, while the left being an open palm. The legs move front and back at the hips; the knees bend into 90°; and finally the ankles tilt up and down limitedly.
            So yeah, the articulations kinda suck, but do bear in mind that this figure was from a time when articulations were not in much demand. Most of the focus was in his physical appearance and details.
            While I do love how this figure looks overall, my only qualms for this figure would be the accurateness of his physique depiction. In all of my time watching wrestling, which has been for quite some time, I do not recall Mick Foley ever having a heavily muscular body, as depicted on the figure.
            Just look at the figure’s arms! Was he ever that muscular?
            I don’t think so.
            Anyways, that aside, Mankind is still a quite nifty action figure in his own right.

Accessories:
            This set only comes with one accessory, which is a worn out and bended pipe, made from bendable rubbery plastic.
            The pipe is as detailed as Mankind himself, custom-rusted with what appeared to be the galvanized coating peelings.
            The one downside of this figure is that there is no way for Mankind to hold his frigging weapon. At most you could do was place the pipe on his open palm, and hope it doesn’t fall over, unless of course you want to stuff Mankind’s thumb into the opened hole on the pipe, which I am pretty sure that you won’t.

Overall:
            This is a classic figure, and with Mick Foley soon to be inducted to the Hall of Fame, wrestling fans would probably go the distance to get their hands on a Mick Foley/ Mankind/ Cactus Jack/ Dude Love action figure, and one of them would be my pal Big Daddy V.
            Plus with the rarity of this particular figure in review, a lot of people would probably wanna look for him. If you’re a fan of Mrs. Foley’s little boy, then you’d probably love this figure.
            Highly recommended.

            Final verdict: 9/10

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