WWE Ultimate Edition Series 9 Stone Cold Steve Austin review
Steve Austin is the common denominator in both of my favorite all-time matches. The first as part of the Dangerous Alliance against Sting’s Squadron in War Games and the second as Stone Cold vs. Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13. It’s actually surprising we’ve gone through eight WWE Ultimate Edition waves before getting ‘ol Stone Cold (Stone Cold! Stone Cold) in the line.
The drought is over and now we get the ultimate take on one of the WWE Mount Rushmore icons. Gimme a heck yeah if you’re hoping this is the definitive figure of Stone Cold.
Package: Wave 9 features the standard Ultimate Edition red and white color scheme. The red backdrop works much better for figures with contrasting colors.
The package art features a signature surly expression from Stone Cold. On the back, we’ve got a shot of the figure in his ring gear holding up the WWF title.
Copywriter Robert Rudman has what would be my dream job of being able to write awesome bios for figures. This one is excellent as usual and sums up The Rattlesnake perfectly.
Likeness: Stone Cold comes with three head sculpts. I’ll discuss the other two later, but the default one features an intense and fired up Stone Cold.
This is an excellent likeness of Austin and captures one of the main expressions I think of when I envision Austin.
Austin has the slighter lower torso piece and I’m still not sure if this setup is necessary since the lower torso doesn’t offer enough movement to warrant the jarring aesthetic break of pieces. Maybe Austin’s legs could be a big thicker, but they don’t look scrawny, which is more important.
The torso choice is right as it’s not overly defined, but reflects that Flair did work on his physique and cardio to some extent. He’s got the smaller sized kneepads, which I appreciate since they won’t interfere with his movements.
Scale: Austin is 6’2″ so he’s shorter than the 6’5″ The Rock and 6’4″ Triple H. The figure is shorter, but not by as much as he should. And we’re gonna need a sized-up Mankind UE figure soon too.
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Paint: Stone Cold made his career by dumping all the colorful trappings of Stunning Steve and just going with a basic, no frills black. This makes his paint work super easy.
The applications on his head sculpts are mostly good with tremendous fading of his goatee. There’s some random stray marks on the smiling head sculpt though.
Maybe the calf tattoo is a tad too big, but it looks good.
Articulation: You could pull off most of Stone Cold’s iconic moves with the Elite articulation, but the UE enhancements allow for more dynamic Stone Cold Stunners thanks to the double-jointed elbows and new butterfly shoulders.
They do limit the ability to just place Austin’s arms flush against his sides though.
I wish the torso had a bit better back and forth range, but for the most part I’m able to convincingly pull off Austin’s move set.
The double-jointed elbows do help with movement although they could stand being tighter to make it easier to hold moves like suplexes.
It is very cool to be able to pull off a mostly accurate Million Dollar Dream.
Ultimate Edition Stone Cold has:
- neck
- bicep
- ball-jointed shoulders
- butterfly shoulder
- elbows (double-jointed)
- wrists
- waist
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double-jointed)
- ankles
- feet
Accessories: Austin comes with the ideal alternate head sculpts.
One is a laughing one as he’s setting up someone for a DTA snapshot.
The other is a stern, focused expression that’s the same sculpt Mattel has used with most Austin figures. That allows for a wide variety of posing options.
He also comes with a mic for his promos and two swappable sets of hands — one with an index finger pointing forward and the other a set of fists.
Again, these are perfectly solid accessory options that make sense.
Austin also gets a cloth Austin 3:16 shirt.
As the other iconic shirt in wrestling history this had to be included and it fits snugly without the goofy life preserver look of the plastic shirts.
The coolest thing about the shirt is it’s got another Stone Cold shirt design on the back so you could switch the shirt you want him to rock.
I love this idea and hope it’s something Mattel does with other T-shirt heavy guys like The Rock and DX.
Since this is the Ultimate Edition, Austin also gets his trademark vest and thick gold chain.
This is the classic three-skull vest and doesn’t have any trouble going on and off.
Depending on your promo preference, Mattel’s also provided a Stone Cold hat. The skull tampo looks great at that scale.
Finally, Austin has the eagle championship with the unique blue strap he had for a brief period. This is a solid amount of accessories that warrants the Ultimate Edition presentation.
Worth it? I got Stone Cold for the standard $30 price tag. He’s got more than enough accessories to warrant the higher price tag over a standard Elite figure.
Rating: 10 out of 10
It’s gonna be hard for Mattel to top this Stone Cold. Unless you’re a big fan of some of his variant shirts and accent colors on his vests, you might not need another Stone Cold in this format.
Where to get it? The Ultimate Edition figures can be hard to find in stores, but this wave is just now hitting with the latest Target resets. You can order Stone Cold from Amazon or Target.