What was the figure landscape like back in the late 90s?

[4scoopzftw]

Just curious to hear some stories and details about what the figure landscape was like in the late 90s / early 00s at the peak of WWE / WWF.

As a kid, I didn't really know how the internet worked, and I was very limited to whatever figures my parents got me from KBs or the local retailer.

I am just interested in hearing some stories from that time about how the landscape was. Did you notice anything really different about it then compared to now? Some open queisons below but feel free to just add your own personal experience and anyhting noteworthy as you wish.

More supply / less supply?
How easy / hard it was to find things?
Prices?
How did you find out about news and upcoming releases? 
Was reselling on ebay popular?
What was the online figure landscape like? 
Etc.

Just an open forum I wanted to create so I can hear stories from other WWE collectors out there.

Thanks!

[Back to the Codyverse]

I just remember walking into Walmart, KB toys and Toys R Us and pegs were absolutely loaded out. I was a kid during that time so I'm sure there were exclusives and harder to find figures that I wasn't aware of but if it was advertised on the back of figure packaging then I usually saw it in stores.

Prices were cheaper at Walmart so I didn't get many things from KB and TRU but probably more TRU than KB. I remember a badass place called Service Merchandise, too. They always had the cool Batman stuff

[RSCTom]

Cool question, here's my perspective as someone who was really into toys as a kid but not in any way a MOC collector or anything like that:

I think because toys at the time were less 'adult collector' geared and definitely more kid based back then there were what seemed like endless amounts of action figures for endless brands and they were all cheap. I just used an inflation calculator to be sure but I feel like from the late 80's until the late 90's between 5 to 10 bucks was the sweet spot for pricing, so a 5 dollar toy would be roughly 12 or 13 bucks now and a 10 dollar toy would be 20. As you can see prices have gone way up haha.

But that's likely because toys are just infinitely more detailed now, with more resources being put into development. While there were great toys back then, the quality of art and overall look are definitely night and day compared to now, I know for sure I would have traded in all of my stuff back then for NECA 1990 TMNT of today or what have you.

Star Wars, Marvel, DC, TMNT, WWE/WCW, Power Rangers, Transformers, all the stuff you'd expect were there and pretty available. Rarity was a weird thing...I can remember finding a Psylocke figure hidden behind a bunch of bikes at a Wal Mart (I think) one time and feeling like I won the lottery because I had either heard at school or been told by someone that it was the rarest figure of the set (who knows for sure if that was even true). I do remember, specific to WWE, desperately wanting LOD 2000 as a teenager and only ever seeing Dr. Death Steve Williams on the shelf, so things weren't 'super' available but I'm sure it just depended on what you had around and admittedly I wasn't really into wrestling figures as much until a few years later and by then the internet was in full swing.

Even earlier in life than that, I remember the chaos of Power Rangers pretty well and when the Morphin' action ones came out, we were living in New Orleans and lined up at Toys R Us at like an hour before 9 AM to try and get them Saturday mornings. I can only imagine what it was like as an adult trying to get these things for their kids for the holidays, you might get a tip from a friend or a stranger that a toy store might have stock, but that was it. You were at the mercy of store hopping and just trying to find what you needed and hoping for the best, or calling on the phone and asking and hopefully being told the truth.

Scalpers still existed but mostly came from comic book/card shops...kind of the same people. They were definitely re-selling on eBay but that took off on a larger scale I would say way later, definitely in the later 90's and after the Beanie Baby stuff all happened. Also, the people looking at toys as some kind of investment took it even more seriously back then...they were almost like NFTs or something. I always give my dad a hard time because he bought like one extra of each Power of the Force Star Wars figure back then and knew all the variants like Obi-Wan having a long and a short lightsaber because he thought he'd make bank from them someday and that whole set is pretty much worthless haha. Not too far off from now if you're someone that still does that waiting or hunting thing, but obviously you can pay either a premium or well below on the internet nowadays and get pretty much anything you want, including people 3D printing and making custom figures, independent publishers and stuff like that.

That said nWp is right and I would say things did always seem loaded out. I think what gave people (or at least me, as a kid) the feeling of endless possibilities were just the regularly seen, obscure things that simply looked cool. There were always random lines that lasted maybe a year or two, but that seemed to be a pretty regular occurrence between movie and TV tie-ins and just stuff that found its way into the store.

Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars, Barnyard Commandos, Extreme Ghostbusters [after there being no Ghostbusters figures (or Ghostbusters anything for that matter) in what seemed like years and years]...there was a surprise energy to walking into a toy store and expecting the unexpected, almost a bit of mystery to it. Perhaps that was just the joy of being a kid, but it did seem different. I feel it every now and again heading to the toy aisle in a modern store but it isn't quite the same. Now you definitely know what to expect, especially if you're into toys.

A few things come to mind for me to make the case, one being the Addams Family cartoon figures. I didn't even buy them but appreciated the fact that they existed (I did pick up a Pugsley in college at a discount store). Also, I randomly found this Loch Ness Monster toy that I bought and absolutely loved in TRU one time and being obsessed with that story as a kid, to walk into a store and just find something that I was so into, so easily, was wild. Even in my teens, I also found these stylized Mezco Cryptozoology toys I loved (you can clearly see what I enjoy) of Bigfoot, Mothman and the Jersey Devil.

As for upcoming stuff, the fact that less people had access to the internet back then or weren't using it in the same way they were today meant you couldn't easily see new things coming up or interact with other figure fans unless you were a lot older (I was 9 for most of 1995 and had just started using AOL sparingly but admittedly I made my way onto some forums at a super young age). Even upcoming stuff, unless you had an action figure magazine or had seen it randomly on a commercial, you were at the mercy of just finding something on the shelf. There were Sears catalogues and stuff back then that had figure pictures in them but they were usually quickly out of date. Didn't stop kids from loving them though...a lot of times those magazines were as much fun as the toys themselves.

All that said, you did say WWE specifically so perhaps for wrestling figures it was completely different, but either way, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[TheNinthCloud]

Aug 22, 2024 13:47:18 GMT -5 Back to the Codyverse said:

I just remember walking into Walmart, KB toys and Toys R Us and pegs were absolutely loaded out. I was a kid during that time so I'm sure there were exclusives and harder to find figures that I wasn't aware of but if it was advertised on the back of figure packaging then I usually saw it in stores.

Prices were cheaper at Walmart so I didn't get many things from KB and TRU but probably more TRU than KB. I remember a badass place called Service Merchandise, too. They always had the cool Batman stuff

I remember running past that video game section on the right at TRU to turn the corner on the WWE aisle and look at all of the classic series figures. Good times.

[The Real Valbroski]

I remember really wanting a Jacqueline or Dr. Death BCA but I could never find either anywhere.

[CM Tusk]

I remember pretty distinctly going figure hunting all the time. I also remember seeing the proto pictures for Superstars Series 9 on Ringside. I didn’t use the internet a ton, seeing as I was 9, but I did occasionally get to look at wrestling related stuff including toys. Also had an older cousin that let me know of upcoming figure lineups. KB, Toys R Us, and local flea markets made it very easy to get my hands on pretty much every wrestling figure I wanted from 1998-2001. Honestly my favorite time to get figures.

[K5]

living in Canada, it’s always been the Wild West a bit for obtaining figures. Friends in Toronto and near borders got decent grabs but otherwise it was a complete shot in the dark wherever you went

that said, there were more comic boutique stores in small towns that would surprise you with the harder to find figures.

[4scoopzftw]

Aug 24, 2024 12:14:50 GMT -5 The Real Valbroski said:

I remember really wanting a Jacqueline or Dr. Death BCA but I could never find either anywhere.

Interesting...any particular reason for those specifically? 

[K5]

Aug 25, 2024 14:35:36 GMT -5 4scoopzftw said:

Aug 24, 2024 12:14:50 GMT -5 The Real Valbroski said:

I remember really wanting a Jacqueline or Dr. Death BCA but I could never find either anywhere.

Interesting...any particular reason for those specifically? 

no one wanted them. jacqueline wasn’t high demand and dr death’s brawl for all mishap ended the supposed Austin feud he had in line, and whatever push that was to come with it

[Deep Figure Value]

I never bought anything online at the time, but I still hopped on Ringside almost every day after school, hoping to see new stuff.

My first WWF figures were Hasbros, probably from around 1990-1992. I'd have been 5-7 at the time, so I certainly wasn't out hunting. Whatever came home for birthdays/Christmas is what I got.

I got back into it big right after the BCAs rolled out. I missed out on Superstars Series 1, but I was able to get most of series 2 at KB around the time Series 3 had dropped.
I remember this distinctly because the friend that got me hooked had just gotten his favorite wrestler (Mankind).
I think I went to KB that weekend and left with Warrior, Owen, Vader, and Undertaker from series 2.
I got Shawn and Bret from series 3. Eventually Goldust came out in the Signature Series and I got that one.
I never got Razor or Diesel until I was an adult.

Basically went all out on most of the mainline and secondary sets until Rulers of the Ring Series 4.
The very last figure I remember buying in stores for 10+ years was Rulers of the Ring Justin Credible.

[4scoopzftw]

Aug 25, 2024 19:32:15 GMT -5 Deep Figure Value said:

I never bought anything online at the time, but I still hopped on Ringside almost every day after school, hoping to see new stuff.

My first WWF figures were Hasbros, probably from around 1990-1992. I'd have been 5-7 at the time, so I certainly wasn't out hunting. Whatever came home for birthdays/Christmas is what I got.

I got back into it big right after the BCAs rolled out. I missed out on Superstars Series 1, but I was able to get most of series 2 at KB around the time Series 3 had dropped.
I remember this distinctly because the friend that got me hooked had just gotten his favorite wrestler (Mankind).
I think I went to KB that weekend and left with Warrior, Owen, Vader, and Undertaker from series 2.
I got Shawn and Bret from series 3. Eventually Goldust came out in the Signature Series and I got that one.
I never got Razor or Diesel until I was an adult.

Basically went all out on most of the mainline and secondary sets until Rulers of the Ring Series 4.
The very last figure I remember buying in stores for 10+ years was Rulers of the Ring Justin Credible.

As a kid, my older cousin had a Bret BCA and I always wanted one, but was too young at the time, and totally missed them in retail. As an adult, I finally went back and picked it up. 

Always loved the BCA figures as well. 

[fabulous1971]

In the very early 90s, when the WWF Hasbros were coming out, you never knew when a new wave was going to hit the stores. One day I went to Toys R Us and they had a whole wall with new Hasbros and I was shocked to see Roddy Piper on the pegs along with the others. It was exciting. Same with the 80s and the LJNs. There was always the first wave and then boom, the new ones were out.

[mcfclee]

Being in a country town in Australia it was rough in the mid 90’s and got better later on.

From green cards I saw nothing all the way up to the slammers jakks set with Faarooq and Austin in it. By the time I saw that it was so out of date as well. I remember getting the Austin to have something new, but nobody else in the set looked like that anymore.

The only other option I ever had was toyworld brought out the wcw set with Nash and the ref, Hall, Sting, Hogan etc. I remember getting the ring as no rings had been released here and I was still using my 1990 hasbro one I got in the UK. I didn’t watch any wcw so didn’t go nuts for this find.

Then one day I walk into target and almost eve re BCA with the Mania 15 backing was on the pegs. Austin, Rock, Kane, Mankind, Undertaker all there. Two packs as well. It was madness. I didn’t have a lot of money so likely grabbed 2-3 and prayed they stayed. I can’t remember which I got first but I know I hustled to get a lot of them.

[shanieomaniac]

I have many memories as a child of checking the backs of figure packages to find out what was coming out soon. This, depressingly, led to massive heartbreak when, no matter how hard I searched, I could never find the Stephanie McMahon figure.

The internet was tiny back then and I didn't know about figure communities, so I had no way of knowing that she'd been cancelled until after months of searching I finally found a KB Toys employee to told me she had been. All along I just thought they'd left her off the list or something because she HAD been on the back of a previous card.

[toomuchstuff]

MOTU-was-costly-Norway....BattleCat-was-299krones&mom-got-IIIk-salary
so-1/10-of-her-salary

That-was-80s,tho....but-still-costly

[TWJT]

Seemed like there were tons of figures everywhere. I had so many different attires of all the wrestlers I could have wanted. Bad thing is, I was a kid, so I had to depend on my mom for funding and travel. Wish I had my independent income of today, but with the figures of '99-'03, haha.

[JokerFC]

for wrestling figures it was nuts.....BCA, TTL and WCW by Toybiz were everywhere here in Ireland. You could pretty much get what you wanted...dont remember anyone I wanted being tough to get. 

Marvel, DC, Power Rangers, Transformers kind of made up the rest with assorted movie lines like Small Soldiers for instance.

[Nivro™]

Hasbros at KB Toys 3 for $10

We dont know how good we had it.