WWE Legends Series 13 Jake The Snake Roberts (Chase) review

Jake The Snake Roberts’ WCW career was surprisingly brief, but historic. It started off hot with an ambush of Sting that resulted in Ron Simmons being the first black world champion. En route to his Halloween Havoc 92 showdown with Sting, Jake teamed with former rivals Rick Rude and Hercules (as The Super Invader) and future foe Vader in a fun elimination match against Sting, Nikita Koloff and The Steiners.

While the Sting feud puttered out with the Halloween Havoc match, Mattel decided to commemorate Jake’s WCW stint as the chase of Legends Series 13. Get your lasers locked in as I spin the wheel and see if this figure is a deal or a trick.

Packaging: Mattel’s Legends packaging scheme is still undisputed. I love the gold, brown and yellow color combination and the classic portrait of the character.

I wish the bio was tailored for the chase version to mention his WCW stint and feud with Sting. It’s just a reuse from the standard figure discussing his 1991 feud with Randy Savage.

Likeness:  Mattel now has three Jake head sculpts to utilize. This one, a TrueFX upgrade of the Legends 2 sculpt, works well for this period of his career as it’s older and more ornery.

Mattel continues to go with oddly slender torsos for Jake. He was always a lot thicker in his prime and definitely didn’t have a six pack. A wider torso would also break up the illusion that Jake is all legs.

In a nice touch this figure also has the snake handler glove he used in the early 90s to convey the more serious threat of his snakes post-Damian. And even better, it’s swappable with the plain right hand so you can go with both looks.

Scale: Jake was one of the taller wrestlers in his prime standing at 6’5″. That’s taller than the 6’3” Rick Rude and 6’2″ Sting. He’s also the same height as Vader.

Paint:  Jake only had a handful of matches in WCW, but he seemed to stick with this grey attire with a wraparound airbrushed snake. I wish the snake paintjob was better. It’s a little sloppy and Mattel didn’t quite nail its pattern right as it should ascend his right leg instead of just wrapping around it.

The snake also had a metallic style paint to it while the figure’s is flat without that pop.

In nice attention to detail, Jake didn’t regularly wear snakeskin boots in WCW. Instead, he wore regular black laced boots, which is reflected with this figure.

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Articulation:  Jake was never this heavy move set guy so he’s perfectly fine utilizing the Elite articulation model.

He’s basically a kick and punch guy with a knee lift, short armed clothesline and of course, the dreaded DDT.

You won’t have problems with Jake, but actually getting the horrible Mattel Sting figures to function properly is another matter entirely.

And with the addition of double-jointed elbows, it’s easier for a better-looking DDT and holding the snake sack.

Jake ‘The Snake’ has:

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

Accessories:  Jake started using a cobra in the 90s after Damian got squashed by Earthquake. This is another reuse from the Legends 2 figure. No problem with that since Mattel didn’t need to reinvent the snake.

And it’s giving me some ideas for a Cobra diorama for my GI Joe Classified Series figures. The snake also can be placed in the burlap sack Jake can carry.

Additionally, he has two pointing hands, which you can use to signal Jake going for the DDT, as well as the clutching non-gloved right hand.

Worth it?  Series 13 marked the last one you could get Legends at a pre-order price of $20. Now they’re up to $21.99. This is basically the same Jake the Snake we’ve gotten previously so it’s tough to say it’s a good value.

It’s a case where catching a sale will make the figure a better value.

Rating: 9 out of 10

This is a cool chase figure and it’s nice that Mattel is thinking outside the box to fortify the 90s WCW ranks. It’s not an essential addition though unless you just want any and all Jake variants.

Where to get it?  The Legends line is a Target exclusive, but they’ve done a great job of stacking the line on shelves. The pre-orders are currently sold out and there’s a 50/50 chance you’ll get the regular one, but you can always try Target.com.