Dean Malenko was pretty much the Arn Anderson of the mid-’90s. An incredibly skilled wrestler overshadowed outside the ring by his flashier counterparts, but he was involved in some of the best matches of his era, whether in ECW, WCW, or WWF.
With the Flairs, Stings, Harts, and Savages signed, Mattel has now reached the point where they’re tapping into providing collectors more interesting “universe-building” wrestlers. Those main-event headliners are essential, but just as important are the guys who battled them and had great matches to kick off those Monday Night War PPVs.
Elite 37 brings us The Iceman, one of my favorites from the ’90s. Let’s see if we’ll warm up to this figure.
Packaging: We’ve already seen updated versions of the Battle Pack packaging, and the new take on the Elites can’t get here fast enough as I feel like I’m writing the same thing repeatedly.
We get the standard blue and grey packaging here with a nice-size portrait on the lower left half and a wide window to show the figure and all its accessories. There was a screw-up at the proofing factory as the front sticker says the figure comes with the US title, but it’s actually the same cruiserweight title we originally got with the Elite 32 Rey Mysterio Jr.
I appreciate Mattel has Malenko in matching attire from the back picture and reference point for the outfit. As a superior wrestler in his day, Malenko’s title highlight summary is pretty extensive, but it’d be cool to see his ECW TV and tag title reign mentioned as well.
Likeness: When Mattel sculptors are on their A game they can really deliver strong likenesses, and Malenko is a prime example. This is one of their best likenesses of the year because it captures the essence of Malenko — stern, focused expression ready to go in and completely outwrestle his opponent.
Body-wise, the figure matches up fairly well with Malenko’s appearance for the bulk of his career, right down to the little white socks peering out from his boot tops.
The only odd thing is the plastic used for Malenko doesn’t reflect his tan, giving him a pale appearance. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means, but it’s an odd mistake considering Mattel has parts with a slightly darker hue.
Scale: Malenko was billed at 5’10”, so he should be looking up to most of the other figures in your collection, especially the taller guys like The Giant, but he should still be taller than Rey Mysterio Jr.
Paint: Mattel was having some serious issues with trying to get Malenko’s stubble right, so instead of releasing it with a terrible paint job, they just scrapped the stubble altogether. That’s probably a better idea as people can add their own stubble.
Malenko wasn’t flashy, so the paint job isn’t especially complicated, but his “ice” tight design is faithfully captured and applied cleanly.
Articulation: Malenko sports the typical Elite articulation so Warrior’s articulation scheme includes neck, ball-jointed shoulders, elbow, wrist, torso, waist, hips, thigh swivel, knees, and ankle.
Accessories: Malenko actually fares pretty well in the accessories department. We get his trademark vest and a WWE cruiserweight title. This is one of the better belts Mattel has released since it first acquired the WWE license, featuring clean lettering and a decent amount of paint.
Worth it? Malenko is one of those guys that if you weren’t watching him at his peak in ECW and WCW and only saw him in the WWE, he’s not going to be someone you claw to track down. For those fortunate enough to witness the smoothness of Malenko in his glory days, this is an easy recommendation for the $20 Elite price.
I wish things hadn’t gone so horrifically bad for Chris Benoit in his final days so we could have a viable option of assembling the final group of Four Horsemen, but we’ll have to be content with the other aspects of Malenko’s career. When Mattel finally gives us a old school mid-’90s Chris Jericho, this figure is going to be in demand, so you’d better get it now before its value skyrockets.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Malenko isn’t the most in-demanded figure in the flashback series, but Mattel does an exceptional job bringing him to figure form. The pale skin tone is the biggest drawback, but otherwise this is one of the best Flashbacks we’ve gotten in 2015.
Where to get it: Walmart was the winner in terms of getting Elite 37 first in stores, but I suspect Target and Toys R Us won’t be too far behind.
Thanks for the news, I have no idea if you can ever get to ask about someone like Glacier at some point. For a guy who was not around that long, people seem to love his who sub zero/ninja gimmick.
I was hoping for some cruiserweights, as that was a special time in wrestling, and some of their costumes were mind blowing.
Malenko is cool though, but hoping for a WCW Flashbacks at some point, besides the usual suspects such as Sting, Vader, DDP, and Flair.
PS: I would play those Aki wrestling games to death as a kid…..Virtual Pro 2 over everything…..
I assume they chose Malenko because he’s a WWE employee.
But he could do LA Park, who is La Parka in slightly different gear
I actually spoke to the guy in charge of the line on the floor at SDCC and I’m 99% sure he said Psichosis and La Parka weren’t possible because of conflicting claims over who has rights to the characters. I KNOW he said they couldn’t do La Parks and I’m pretty positive he said Psichosis too.
(I’d asked if if there were any dream guys he personally had that they just couldn’t do.)
Which sucks ’cause I’d buy both in a heartbeat.
Malenko gives me hope of maybe one day seeing Lance Storm, Glacier, Psychosis…and so one.. But I wonder if they chose MAlenko because they do NOT need to do a major paint job. Guys like Glacier and Psychosis would require major sculpting and paints.
I am just looking at your pics and that cloverleaf looks like it just isn’t going to work.
I know my Bret Hard cannot do the shooter without double joints in the arm, and looks like Malenko is suffering also.
I agree, it’s either buy it or not, because typical Mattel, they do not care.
I will say, they have great paint jobs compared to Hasbro though….but wrestling figures need to be super articulated, not just okay. But it’s the minority vs majority unfortunately.. Some people are happy with anything.
he looks like what a movie version of marvels namor would look like in that out fit glad mattel has not forgotten him.
Because its just like being a DCUC collector. The line has been going on for years with zero advancement and it’s not going to change.
Mine is permanently tilted to the right instead of down
It’s not so much that the double joints wouldn’t help, it’s just that at this point Mattel isn’t changing the articulation scheme so we kinda know what we’re getting. I was able to get a fairly decent Cloverleaf off.
Yeah, Dean’s a great universe builder type guy, but not an essential character like your Hogans, Austins, Rocks or Flairs.
Me too. Don’t feel like I’m going to break him by removing it unlike most of the hard leather jackets.
I did. I just realized I didn’t add that in. It’s an odd issue with him.
I wasn’t too upset with the stubble as Malenko would appear a decent amount of times without it. I’m glad we didn’t get the first version though so if it was between those two options, I’d definitely just prefer to add it myself.
Double joints were definitely needed to pull of that Texas Cloverleaf. Not sure why no one complains about it?
A solid but unremarkable figure that was (much like Tito Santana) a new character that wasn’t really on my radar.
I like the softer plastic used for his vest though.
Did you have any issues with the head pointing permanently down slightly on The Iceman?
Re: stubble
It looked awful in it’s initial showing, fine at SDCC, and then disappeared. We know they can do a decent job from the way they paint Cena’s fade to even Scott Hall.