AEW Unrivaled Chris Jericho figure review

Chris Jericho has proven to be one of the most adaptable and versatile wrestlers in history. He constantly reinvented himself in the WCW and WWE so it’s no surprise his latest incarnation as Le Champion in AEW has proven to be very popular. There was no chance Wicked Cool Toys was going to releasing its first wave of AEW Unrivaled figures without the demo-god. Let’s see if he’s worthy of a little sip of the bubbly.

Packaging:  I’m a big fan of the Unrivaled packaging with the bold gold used as it makes for a great contrast to the black and helps the figures pop on the shelves. The joke of course is you’ll never actually see him on the shelves.

Again, I wish the back packaging was more involved. It’s so sparse with the large picture and photos of the rest of the wave. More details like the match attire such as height, weight and title history/notable accomplishments would be welcome.

Likeness:  I get the expression WCT was going for with Jericho, but it’s not a great one for him. It’s like Jericho posed for a picture with a grimace despite that rarely being how he looks in his matches let alone coming to the ring. WCT would be better off going with the expression shown on the package. Besides Kenny Omega, that is a more signature look for the character.

Jericho’s nose seems a bit too big as well, which further distorts the likeness. The hair is well sculpted though. On the positive side, Jericho is likely to have several Unrivaled figures and provided WCT changes the head sculpts, like the Little Bit of the Bubbly figure, they’ll eventually get a great likeness.

Jericho gets a wider, bulkier body fitting for his late in his career stage physique. The Unrivaled figures are overall beefier than the standard Elite figure from the Mattel line and the proportions look better.

Scale:  Jericho is at 6’ the same height as Omega meaning he should look up a bit to the 6’1” Cody. It’ll be interesting to see how he looks next to the Unrivaled Jake Hagar. So far the height for the figures is pretty much the same. I’m a tad worried WCT will care about scale as much as Jakks did.

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Paint:  Jericho tends to stick more to black tights with some accents these days fitting his aging rocker gimmick. The tight design isn’t terribly exciting, but it’s what he wore at Double or Nothing. It’s also not like a lot of figures in this wave are just wearing black tights so it doesn’t look like everyone’s rocking the same color scheme.

Consistent with the rest of the wave, Jericho’s skin tone is more sickly pale than a normal tone. WCT did a pretty decent job with Jericho’s tattoos even incorporating the various colors. That’s impressive work for the first wave in a line.

Articulation:  I’ve been pretty impressed with WCT’s articulation scheme for this line that’s further benefited by sturdy joints and a good range of movement.

Jericho can easily do his Judas Effect finisher and his Lion Tamer.  He’s not flying around so much in this stage in his career so the flashier moves aren’t as prevalent in his repertoire and you won’t have trouble posing him pulling off a basic move set.

And as a bonus, the kneepad doesn’t restrict his knee articulation at all.

Chris Jericho has:

• neck
• bicep
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbows (double-jointed)
• wrists
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hips
• thighs
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankles

The one move that even the WCT articulation scheme can’t completely pull off convincingly is the Codebreaker. It’s close though.  I can’t stress how much more fun these figures are to pose than the regular Mattel Elite figures.

Accessories:  Jericho gets a ton of accessories, but annoyingly not the one you’d actually expect from AEW’s longtime champion.

He’s got his ring gear — the Mattel hard plastic special jacket. This is one those deals where the details are so precise and sculpted that the plastic is mostly acceptable. If only there was some way to incorporate the sculpt with moveable sleeves like the enhanced Mattel Ultimate Edition figures.

He also comes with his trademark scarf that’s made of some nice shiny material and his hat. It fits well enough on his head. Jericho also comes with a pair of swappable gloved hands for his full ring entrance look.

But how do we get a figure of Le Champion without the AEW title belt? Sigh. That comes with the LBOTB Jericho figure, but it seems like a huge misstep to not make the title part of the first wave of retail instead of an online exclusive.

Worth it?  I got Jericho for $20. That’s a fair price compared to Mattel assuming you can find this wave at retail. The trouble with them is they’ve pretty much sold out of the first limited wave and aren’t getting restocked apparently. That means paying more. I’d wait until the line is more plentiful before paying much more over the $20 mark.

Rating: 9 out of 10

With a better head sculpt (and the AEW title) this would be a home run, but it’s pretty close for a figure in the first wave. WCT has a huge hit on their hands if they tighten the skin tone issues, scale and availability.

Where to get it?  Theoretically you should be able to find these guys at Wal-Mart, the exclusive home of the AEW line at least for 2020. They’re out of stock so you can try eBay or hope your area gets lucky.