WWE Legends Series 15 Lex Luger chase version review

I’ve made it no secret that one of my favorite gimmicks from Mattel’s WWE Legends/Flashback line is when they do a 2 in 1 figure. One that stretches across different eras for fans of a particular run of a wrestler.

With the Legends Series 15 Lex Luger, Mattel mixed it up a bit. Instead of an all-encompassing figure that doubled as both a 90s and a nWo Wolfpac era figure, they opted to make the 90s Lex the chase. Mattel chase figures haven’t been that maddening to find but for some reason this was an actual challenge to track down.

But a lot of persistence eventually paid off. Now I’ve got my 90s Luger to square off with the 1990-era 4 Horsemen and Legends 14 Mean Mark. Let’s see if he was worth the hassle.

Packaging:  The Legends line is my favorite of the WWE package set ups. I love the gold, brown and yellow color combination along with the classy iconic portrait of the character.

Unfortunately, that special dose of personalization doesn’t carry over to chase figures so the packaging features all imagery and bio from the standard figure.

Likeness:  The default head sculpt is the ponytail sculpt Luger wore for most of his nWo Wolfpac stint. It’s still accurate to the 90s as Luger would rock the ponytail occasionally as well.

I’m pretty sure this is a True FX enhanced version of the Bash at the Beach 3-pack set Luger that featured facepaint for the war against The Outsiders. It’s a very good sculpt even if it is appropriately a little older than an eight years earlier Luger.

I wish Mattel would revisit the muscular torso they used for the WWE Network Spotlight Vince McMahon figure. It’s the most ripped physique in Mattel’s repertoire and fitting for a guy like Luger, Batista or Kerry Von Erich.  The torso Luger has is pretty solid though with good definition.

Apparently, there’s a running change with the Luger that gives him bigger biceps. The ones Mattel originally used are just fine and didn’t need to be “improved.”

The rest of the figure is pretty standard with the muscular legs and tall boots.

Scale:  Luger stood at 6’3″ so he’s looking up at the 6’9″ Sid Vicious and 6’10” Mean Mark. He should eye to eye with fellow Dudes With Attitudes member Junkyard Dog and taller than the 6’1″ Ric Flair and 6′ Paul Orndorff. The latest Orndorff is badly over-scaled so he’s not a good barometer of Lex’s height.

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Paint: My favorite part of the chase is the classic 90s vibrant neon colors Luger rocked. In this case it’s orange. We don’t have a ton of that in the WWE collection, so this was a good choice.

Maybe we can still get a neon green or red with a longer 1988 hair sculpt? Luger wore white wristbands, black kneepads and white boots. It makes for a nice combination.

There’s not much for Mattel to mess up here and they don’t although I’d love to see some brown in the hair to give the appropriate dirty blonde look Luger sported.

Articulation:  Luger was all about the high impact power moves whether clotheslines, atomic drops, suplexes or powerslams.

You won’t have any problem pulling them off and thanks to the double-jointed elbow, a torture rack looks even better now.

Lex Luger has:

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

Accessories: The accessories are kind of a wash here. Easily the most important is the alternate head sculpt.

This is repurposed from the Elite 30 Lex Express figure and works just fine for a mid 1990 Luger after he cut his hair slightly.

He’s also got gripping hands for flexing. Finally, he’s got a Wolfpac T-shirt, which is completely useless for a 1990 Lex. At least it can be used for the other Wolfpac members we’ve gotten so far.

Naturally getting the US title would have been the ideal accessory, but I get it.

Worth it?  Target has now raised the price of Elite/Legends figures to $21.99. Of course, like every other 6-inch figure that was previously $19.99 I miss that savings.

Mattel did start accounting for higher retail prices figure with the addition of double-jointed elbows and alternate portraits, so it doesn’t feel like the cheat compared to some other lines.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I’m very hyped to get a 90s WCW star and appreciate Mattel finding a creative way to add to that roster of WCW. Luger’s a great addition and I’m hopeful we see more in the next year.