Alright WWE Legends fans, are you ready to finally rock & roll and strut & stroll with most neon-clad duo (and that is saying something) to ever fly high in tag team ranks? Good! After much delay the Rockers have finally landed for sale at Matty Collector (and for a few of us very lucky ones, on Mattel Shop) and you can now bring back better times between Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty where feathered hair and the WWE Tag Team Championship was all that mattered. The invaded this Fwoosh satellite office just before Thanksgiving and overall, they are something to be thankful for.
You know, I have always had a soft spot for the Rockers and I really don’t know why. I was always more of fan of the heels back when I watched wresting as a kid so guys like Demolition, the Brainbusters, the Colossal Connection and the Hart Foundation were alway more of my bag. But the Rockers were always fun to watch with their high-flying exploits, even though you already knew they were probably not going to win the big matches. In fact, if I recall correctly, they never actually held the tag team title during their run and perhaps that was one of the major frustrations that made Shawn send Marty through the glass on the Barber Shop. I realize that Shawn went on to be a major star (even to this day) but poor Marty just never really had the pizzaz to make it one his own. However, this is how I remember them, right down to the outfits so I am really glad they have joined my modest Legends tag team stable.
I might be in the minority here, but I always liked Marty the best out of the duo. I am not sure why, because that was the case even before Shawn turned into a rockin’ jerk. So, while you have had a few chances to own a Mattel Michaels figure, the is Marty’s big debut. While the WWE Legends license hangs down at about the fourth or fifth slot in terms of my favorite lines I currently collect, they certainly account for some of the very best figures and both Marty and Shawn fit right in.
I really love the WWE base body library that Mattel has going for them. The all look good, the articulation is great and the construction is really sold. It is funny that in a line like this, when you want to put all of your favorite superstars performing their signature moves, you always think you are going to stump the figure. Well, I have found that more times than not, these guys can be posed pretty convincingly in some of their most well-known maneuvers. I think the base used for both figures is very appropriate as the Rockers were always known for their acrobatics rather than their physique.
Their costumes are also some of the best Mattel-produced outfits to date and I rank them right up there with Demolition. Their pants are the perfect shade of eye bleed-inducing yellow and I love that their zebra print boot thingees are actually a separate piece around the shin and not just painted over the boots. The attention to detail also comes through in that they even have the correct (and non-matching) wrist bands. I don’t think I have ever noticed that in my entire life until I was looking at the these figures and sure enough – in this costume Marty wore yellow and pink while Shawn sported a light pink and a dark pink. That type of attention to detail alway wins points with me. The one piece of plastic costuming that I continue to hate is the giant knee pads that are used on these two. Granted, they move very well, but they are just so unsightly to me so I hope Mattel finds something different than these for future figures.
The big winner of the costume though comes in the removable shirts. They are one of two soft good pieces on the figures (along with their belt/waist sash thing) and I normally detest soft goods. For some reason though, I don’t mind them in this line and the shredded sleeve Rocker shirt is probably one of the nicest fabric pieces I have ever seen on figures this size. The cut is perfect and the sleeves and shredded just enough to create the effect without being fragile. The screen print is also crazy accurate down to the detailed positioning of the wind-swept hair. Very cool.
Both figures share their near-trademark feathered mullets, but I think Shawn’s is a little more successful in the translation. Marty’s do is a bit too big and bulky around the sides in my opinion, but you can judge for yourself. I also think that Shawn’s overall head sculpt is more on-model than Marty’s but they are both pretty good. My Shawn is a bit of a cross-eyed thing going on so I will be interested to see if that is a common error or more of a one-off.
Overall, I am very pleased to finally have the Rockers in my WWE Legends collection and I am glad they were so easy to get (I STILL have had no luck with Legends 6, Bret Hart or Papa Shango). I am glad that most of the futures Legends will be available on Matty Collector, but I hope we will continue to see more Legends make to retail as well. There are a ton of superstars both single and tag team alike that I am going to need to feel like I have all of my bases covered. I am glad that Andre is coming in January as he is a big one (pun intended).
If you have not gotten a chance to order your Rockers, head on over to Matty Collector. I am hoping that this avenue will be successful for them and that we will be seeing a lot of Legends in the years to come.
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