Black Carded W.W.F. LJN Figures...

[Mr. Old School™]

Hey,

I just wanted to make a post about the MOC W.W.F. LJN Black carded figures. I believe I've got pictures of most of them with the exception of "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Miss Elizabeth and the apparent Black carded "Adorable" Adrian Adonis figure.

If I am using your pictures, I apologize, but they are the only pictures I've got of these super-rare figures. I haven't seen these pics anywhere else but on eBay basically. Take all the credit you want for the pics, I don't want it.

I just want other people to see them and to know that they exist, that's all.

If you do have pics of the Black carded Ted DiBiase, Miss Elizabeth or Adrian Adonis, PLEASE post them here because I have NEVER seen them and would love to see them after all these years!! Thank you.

Now, here we go with the pics.

First off we've got the super-rare '89 Big John Studd:



Next up, we have the rare '89 Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake:



Then, we have Jake "The Snake" Roberts on the '89 carding:



Up next, we have Randy "Macho Man" Savage on the '89 carding:



Here's the rare '89 "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan:



Then, we have "The Eighth Wonder of the World" Andre the Giant:



Here is King Haku:



Next up, we've got "The Greatest Intercontinental champion of all-time" The Honky Tonk Man:



Here is one-half of the former 3-time W.W.F. Tag-Team champions, Ax of Demolition:



Next up, we have the law & order of the W.W.F., The Big Boss Man:



Here's "Ravishing" Rick Rude:



One-half of The Powers of Pain, The Warlord:



Some consider this the "crown-jewel" of the collection, The Ultimate Warrior:



Here is both the White shirt Hogan '89 and the "Collector's Edition" White shirt Hogan:



Finally, we close out with the rare Red shirt "Collector's Edition" Hogan:



Now, if there is a Red shirt Hogan on the '89 carding, I haven't seen one. If you've got pics of it, post 'em here!!

Well, aside from 4 figures that aren't shown, DiBiase, Elizabeth, Adonis and Red shirt Hogan '89, that's the complete set of the entire Black carded W.W.F. LJN figures as far as I know.

If there is more that I am missing, let me know. Enjoy the pics.

[vandutch]

Thanks for the pics. I'd love if all the black card pics get posted.

What was special about the collectors edition black cards?

[joshvandam]

I have a picture of the black card Adrian. I do not own the figure and cant remember where I received the pic. Credit should probably go to an ebay seller. I have never seen pics of the other ones.

[Mr. Old School™]

^ Man, that's awesome finally seeing the Black carded Adrian Adonis. However, I'm not too sure it's authentic or not. What I mean is, as you can clearly see it is on a "Collector's Edition" Hulk Hogan card, but the side sticker in red looks legit and doesn't appear to have been tampered with. Like removed and replaced, but I could be wrong.

I just don't know why there would've been a Black carded Adrian Adonis because to my knowledge, he had already passed away by 1989. Adonis and two others, Pat Kelly and The Canadian Wildman all died in a terrible car wreck on July 4th, 1988.

Anyways, if you ask me, it looks like someone carefully removed the bubble from the original Adonis blue carded figure, as well as the red sticker on the side and just re-glued it to the Black carded "Collector's Edition" Hogan card backing.

Can anyone verify if this Black carded Adonis is legit or not??

[LeighD]

I'm not too familiar with LJNs so I apologize for this question, why were some black and many blue? Also is the Ultimate Warrior the rarest MOC LJN figure?

[Mr. Old School™]

leighd said:

I'm not too familiar with LJNs so I apologize for this question, why were some black and many blue? Also is the Ultimate Warrior the rarest MOC LJN figure?

Well, the earlier LJN's were on the blue cards and as the set was nearing it's end, then they put the final batch on Black cards for whatever reason.

As for The Ultimate Warrior being the rarest MOC LJN, I don't think it is. I'd say the Black carded Randy Savage or Jake "The Snake" Roberts are more rare MOC than The Warrior is.

I say that because on eBay, I've seen far less of them than I have of The Warrior. That's just my opinion on the matter. Other people may think otherwise.

The all-time rarest MOC LJN would have to be the Black carded '89 Miss Elizabeth. In over 20+ years I have yet to see one MOC. That's how rare it is.

I've been thinking for a while now that not one exists MOC anymore. If one does, then whoever owns it has it locked away in storage and refuses to post pics of it.

Seriously, if someone has the '89 Miss Elizabeth MOC, please post some pics of it. You have no idea how bad I want to see that one MOC.

I just want to know if one exists now or not, that's all.

[LeighD]

Thanks Old School for the info. No nobody on the forums has a complete MOC set of the LJNs or even a picture of the black carded Miss Elizabeth you're looking for?

[STOMWIJF]

had never seen pictures of the black carded Jake Roberts. the re-issue of blue card figures on balck card makes me wonder why LJN didn't bother releasing this figures as repaints instead re-releases.

Weird to see Adonis was released on black card though. I believe Adonis died in 1988 and I don't recall him wrestling for the WWF after Wrestlemania III in 1987. Odd he was still made.

[Mr. Old School™]

leighd said:

Thanks Old School for the info. No nobody on the forums has a complete MOC set of the LJNs or even a picture of the black carded Miss Elizabeth you're looking for?

I guess not. I guess a picture of a MOC '89 Miss Elizabeth doesn't exist either, let alone the actual figure itself.

[pandelis]

As a long time LJN collector - I can verify a few things.

1) Adrian Adonis black card was legit. I've owned it MORE than once, and don't suspect that they were CUSTOMS.

2) There was once an eBay "will remain nameless" who claimed he had a Hercules Hernandez BLACK CARD. I strongly suspect he was pulling my leg, as he NEVER provided pic proof.

3) I'm almost positive I've seen a black card (card ONLY) of elizabeth on eBay before. It has the Miss Elizabeth sticker on it, but the bubble was detached, and the figure wasn't part of the auction. I believe it was a fellow Canadian from the WEST, but don't quote me on that.

Finally - it's nice to see someone has catalogued these pics (and yes, many of the pics are mine). I'm actually quite pleased to see my old collection online!

Ebay user:
No Spam

[Mr. Old School™]

^ Ok, how about the '89 Ted DiBiase and '89 Red Shirt Hogan?? Have you seen them around or have any pics to provide??

[pandelis]

I've seen them both. Can't verify with a pic, but I've seen them both.

I HAVEN'T SEEN - a Bam Bam Bigelow BLACK CARD. Apparently, it was also created!

[Mastermind]

ive heard that there was also a jyd,iron sheik,hillbilly jim,..snuka and piper also..so theres no telling whats really out there..

[JWLJN]

The "Collector's Edition" black carded figures were out years before the actual '89 black card set. My Collector's Edition white-shirt Hogan has Adonis, Kirchner, Kamala, Jones, etc. on the back, so it's not much of a stretch to think they may have released a few other figures on that card for whatever reason. I will admit I doubted a black carded Adonis' existed until seeing the picture, but since it's on the Collector's Edition card rather than an '89 card, it's much easier to believe.

I highly doubt any other authentic black carded '89 figures will show up aside from the ones shown above and the ones that were "new" in that series. Everyone shown above was shown on the back of the card, thus they were intended to be the ones "available" in the '89 series.

-J\/\/

[HHH316]

I've got a lot of LJN's, but never really researched them. Here's my question, I have Savage, Beefcake, & Jake (all of which are the same paint job) but am pretty sure they werent black cards. Did they just choose not to re-paint them? Also, is the card, like the main feature here? Because whats stopping someone from just saying they have these figures loose but they came off the black card?

[Mr. Old School™]

hhh316 said:

I've got a lot of LJN's, but never really researched them. Here's my question, I have Savage, Beefcake, & Jake (all of which are the same paint job) but am pretty sure they werent black cards. Did they just choose not to re-paint them? Also, is the card, like the main feature here? Because whats stopping someone from just saying they have these figures loose but they came off the black card?

Well, if you would have the '89 ones loose, then you would also have to have the mini poster that came with the figure and those are completely different than the original ones on the blue cards. Not to mention the '89 cardboard backing to go along with it.

[STOMWIJF]

Btw on fyi.... I have added all black cards shown to the Database.

Would like to thank Old School and Pandelis for providing them. (Bossman actually was my pic btw)

[Mr. Old School™]

pandelis said:

I've seen them both. Can't verify with a pic, but I've seen them both.

I HAVEN'T SEEN - a Bam Bam Bigelow BLACK CARD. Apparently, it was also created!

Geez, a Black carded Bam Bam Bigelow. Just when I think the rarest figure was the rarest, I hear about this one and the apparent Black carded Hercules Hernandez.

If I had to guess, I'd say that a Black carded Bigelow is more likely to exist than Hercules is.

I wonder if someone out there has a complete set of LJN's MOC, including some of the ones you just mentioned like Bigelow, Hercules etc.

Not that it's a Black carded figure or anything, but I also heard that a Hillbilly Jim with black under-shirt, instead of the common red, was also made.

I've only seen the proto pic of it here:



And, how about Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat in the black & red tights?? Was that made or was it just the prototype that ended up that way??



I'd like to know who has these prototypes in their collection. Someone's got to own them or have them somewhere. Maybe a former worker at LJN has them. Who really knows?? I'd love to own them, that's for sure.

[LeighD]

Is there any chance that LJN would have records of what figures were produced and on what color card? I mean LJNs came out long before the internet so there could possibly be many figures produced but were not seen by many collectors.

[Mr. Old School™]

leighd said:

Is there any chance that LJN would have records of what figures were produced and on what color card? I mean LJNs came out long before the internet so there could possibly be many figures produced but were not seen by many collectors.

Who knows?? I wish I could answer that for you, but I can't. Only an ex-employee or someone who REALLY knows their LJN figures could answer that for you.

Other figures that did at least make it to the prototype stage were one I like to call "The ugly Tito Santana" because that's exactly what it is:



And the elusive "Panther shirt" Roddy Piper:



These rare prototype figures are pretty much priceless as far as I'm concerned because there is basically only one of each in the world. They are all 1 of a kind.

If anyone out there owns these figures, I'd say it's got to be the ex-owner of LJN. I mean, he produced the figures, right? It would make the most sense that he would be the only one that owns them.

Either that or the wrestlers themselves. Sometimes the company gives the wrestlers the prototype figures. But I've never heard or read anywhere that these wrestlers own their prototype LJN figures.

It's funny that after all these years and years there are so many questions that still remain with the LJN series.

Why wasn't the Panther shirt Piper made?? Or Hillbilly Jim with the black shirt?? Did Brother Love, Bad News Brown, The Barbarian, The Bushwhackers and Smash make it to the prototype stage?? If so, why have we never seen prototype pics of them?? If not, then why bother showing them all on the back of the '89 carding??

I could go on and on with the questions. I wish there was someone who worked at LJN that could answer them for us.