WWE Review: The Wyatt Family (Elite Collection)

Intro:

            Welcome back to New Planet Cybertron. It’s been a while since I’ve posted any action figure reviews, even a longer while since I’ve posted a WWE review. This time, to make up for lost times, we are going to review not one, not two, but three action figures at one go – Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper – The Wyatt Family.

            To be honest with you, while I have been a huge wrestling fan for decades, I do not collect wrestling action figures. In fact, prior to The Wyatt Family, I’ve never purchased any. Having said that, these figures were not my first wrestling action figures; that honor belongs to Mankind – a figure by Jakks Pacific that I won from a contest, which I have reviewed years ago.

            Ever since The Wyatt Family debuted in WWE nearly 2 years ago (at the time of writing), I have been attracted by them. They have some of the most interesting feuds within those two years – the feud between Bray Wyatt and John Cena was intriguing; and so was the feud with Kane. However, the best feud so far that they had, in my opinion, was the feud against The Shield. Both teams have mushroomed somewhat concurrently, and both teams have been beating the crap out of WWE superstars, almost on a weekly basis, that it was only a matter of time before they collided, with the Wyatt’s emerging victorious from that feud, and The Shield would eventually disband due to infighting.

            Anyways, blabbering aside, what makes the acquisitions of these figures more significant was that it coincided with the Meet and Greet with The Wyatt Family, in conjunction with the WWE LIVE! in Kuala Lumpur.

            And yes, ladies and gentlemen, I got all three figures – I repeat – I got all of them autographed by the Wyatt’s and sealed! And I even managed to interact and also take photos with The Wyatt Family!!!

Autographed by The Wyatt Family, thanks to WWE LIVE! in Kuala Lumpur 2014

            I have to say, of all my wrestling-related collectibles, these are most definitely my most prized possessions.

            Anyways, let’s not blab too much and let’s get on with the reviews.

Bray Wyatt:

            What better way to start off with this review than with the patriarch of The Wyatt Family – Bray Wyatt. Among the trio, this is probably the most highly sought-after figure.

            A quick glance at the box reveals that Bray doesn’t come with his most iconic accessory – the lantern! The lantern is actually packaged together with Luke Harper. The fact is, the real Bray Wyatt actually has a lot of accessories closely associated to his character apart from the lantern, i.e. the Hawaii floral shirt, the rocking chair and the fedora. So most definitely, you can’t have all of that packed into a package – it would obviously exceed the individual budget cost. As such, these accessories are evenly distributed among the members of The Wyatt Family, thus ensuring that the three figures are meant to be sold in a set, which is exactly what happens in the market now.

            Anyways, for the Bray Wyatt set, only the t-shirt and the fedora are packed together.

            Now, for the articulations, I will only review it once for Bray Wyatt, but not for Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, because they are virtually identical to one another. The head is on a ball joint, but movements are severely restricted due to the presence of the long hair and beard. The shoulders have all around motions; the arms rotate at the upper arms; the elbows bend; the wrists rotate and flap in and out.

            There is also an abs-crunch joint on the main body, as well as a waist joint; universally-joint hips, though can be slightly restricted; the legs rotate slightly below the hips; the knees ben; the foot moves slightly in all directions.

            With those combinations of articulations, you can even put him in his signature spider walk!

            As with most Elite-class figures, Bray Wyatt is incredibly detailed. The tattoos, as far as I could remember, are kind of accurate. Despite the fact that the character is a heel, Bray always smiles, and the figure mimics that. However, somehow the smile depicted here is kind of friendly, unlike the actual sarcastic and evil smile often portrayed.

The Tattoos

            The painted-on black singlet is kind of detailed, with the chest pocket carved into it. I kind of wished that the ominous buzzard logo would have been painted onto that pocket, just like the real thing. I also like his shoes – kind of stylish if you ask me.  

            The Hawaiian shirt is made from actual fabric that you can have Bray wear it for his ring entrance, although making him wear and taking off the shirt can be quite tricky.

            The signature fedora, unfortunately doesn’t exactly resembles the actual straw fedora that Bray used to wear, but I can live with that since even Bray doesn’t wear the exact same things throughout his 2 years career as this character – he only maintained the theme. I do however wish that the fedora could have exhibited the buzzard’s logo, which unfortunately is missing here too. The fedora doesn’t exactly fit tightly onto the head, so it might just fall off when you move the figure.

            The Bray Wyatt may be fun on its own, but you’d definitely feel that something is missing, especially without his lantern; and you know that in most of his signature posters or cut promos, it’s just not the same without his fellow family members, which brings us to his “first son” – Luke Harper.

Luke Harper:

            The Luke Harper is noticeably bigger than Bray’s. The set also comes with Bray’s iconic lantern and his own flannel t-shirt.

            Similar to Bray’s action figure, Harper’s action figure is equally detailed. The white singlet has that signature sweat marks on the chest, as well as paintjobs depicting chest hairs.

            The head sculpt is good, especially with the wide-opened eyes. Nice work on the tongue-poking as well. The beards are significantly bushier than Bray’s.

The Wrist Bands

There are also the black wrist bands and the small handkerchief at the back pocket.

The Handkerchief

            The flannel shirt can be removed as well, although you need to really be careful in doing so. One wrong move, and you might even rip the whole thing off I reckoned.

Flannel Shirt

            The accompanying accessory – the lantern, has the glow-in-the-dark features. I’ve tried the feature before, but I can’t really say that I’m satisfied with it. It wasn’t bright enough, nor was it lit long enough – it faded away way too quickly for my liking.

Just ain't bright enough

Luke Harper's Shoes

Erick Rowan:

            From the “First Son”, we move to the “Second Son” – Erick Rowan. Erick Rowan is big. In fact, he is the biggest figure in the trio.

            He is bald and he had the bushiest beard of the three, with a different color.

Knee Articulation

            Rowan comes with 2 accessories – his signature lamb mask, and Bray’s rocking chair. I guess, the rational of having the rocking chair packed with him, is because in almost all Wyatt Family ring entrance, Erick would be the one dragging the rocking chair to ringside for Bray.

            I like the lamb mask, and it really fits snugly onto Erick’s face. It’s a rather common mask really, but somehow Erick managed to make it as his own signature.

            Unlike the other 2 sets, you need to put a little bit effort into this set, as you need to assemble the rocking chair yourself – very, very simple if you ask me, that you can even ignore the instructions.

            Maybe it’s just me, but the head sculpt kind of reminds me of some stereotypical Russian big guys – bald, bushy eyebrows and beard, bald, and ill-tempered.

            Overall, he is a rather simple figure – what would you have expected from a guy who wears at entire 1-piece jumpsuit!

Erick Rowan's Shoes

The Wyatt Family:

            To be honest, this is the reason why I bought this set. Individually, they might not be that interesting, but when they are together, that’s when you can do some really exciting things with them.

            Together, they have all the accessories commonly connected to The Wyatt Family stable, and with those, you can recreate and reenact all of their most famous cut promos and promotional poster poses.

The Future and Deserving Tag Team Champions

            Personally, I had so much fun recreating those scenes, and I was literally trigger-happy!

            I can only imagine that if you have a complete WWE ring playset, along with members of The Shield, you can relive and reenact that memorable feud. If there is the commentators table set, it would be just perfect, and you can also recreate the scene where Luke and Erick put Seth Rollins through the table.

            Possibilities are endless.

Summary:

            I love this set – even more so since I’ve managed to get the real Wyatt Family to sign off these figures, they are absolutely my most prized possessions.

I’ve watched wrestling for a long time, and I have seen a lot of team stables come and go – some was great and iconic, while some were just so-and-so. It’ll take some effort to recreate such influential factions of old such as the nWo, D-Generation X and the Four Hoursemen, and it’s still a long way for The Wyatt Family to deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as these legendary factions, but no one can take the fact that they are kind of unique, in a way how the Ministry of Darkness, and the Broods.

            This is definitely an absolute must to all Wyatt Family fans.

            Highly recommended.

Rating – 10/10