WWE Legends Series 18 Paul E. Dangerously review
The Dangerous Alliance is never going to be out of my Top 5 favorite factions of all-time. They didn’t last as long as the Four Horsemen and nWo, but for their yearlong run in WCW they were reliable for at least three good matches on every major show, Clash of Champions and at least a solid main event on every show. And they were responsible for my favorite WCW match in War Games against Sting’s Squadron. As such, I’ve been hoping for a legit Paul E. Dangerously figure for years.
Not just a sorta kinda workable stand-in from a Paul Heyman figure with slightly less balding look. A full on Psycho Yuppie from his WCW days when he managed Hall of Famers like Ravishing Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Mean Mark Callous, the SST and so many more.
With Legends 18, Mattel delivered one of my most anticipated figures with a classic Paul E. Dangerously figure. Let’s see if I need to make the call that this is one of my Top 10 WWE figures of 2023.
Packaging: The Legends line is the champ in terms of its presentation with the gold, brown and yellow color combination. And the artwork with an iconic portrait of the character gives the packaging a classy setup.
Paul E’s bio is really well done establishing his legendary path in WCW leading the Dangerous Alliance as well as name dropping his eventual historic path as the guiding light of ECW.
Likeness: Mattel hasn’t developed a big variety of suit bodies and they’re often too slim for the managers who’ve let themselves go over the years. This suit mold is fine for Paul E., who was younger and in better shape in the early 90s.
The head sculpt is solid capturing Paul E. in mid-smirk as if he amused himself during an interview or got away with clocking one of his faction’s opponents and the ref didn’t catch him. His hair wasn’t quite balding at this point and Mattel sculpted it slightly faded with more of a party in the back.
There’s nothing else special with the figure as we’ve seen the suit body a ton now.
Scale: Paul E. is 5’1″” so he’s looking up at his charges like the 6’4″ Samu, 6’3″ Rick Rude, 6’2″ and 6′ Fatu.
Paint: Paul E. tended to wear grey/dark grey suits. That doesn’t lend itself to extensive paintjobs, so this is fine.
Most of the detail work is done on his tie, which is very well done with the flurry of abstract pastels.
Going with inkjet printing makes the application important since them being slightly off-center can limit the coverage on fine details like the eyebrows. That’s partially the case with Paul’s figure, but not to the point it’s too distracting.
Articulation: Paul E. of course, was just a manager so he doesn’t need to have a ton of wild articulation.
In Paul E’s case all he really needs to do is be able to crank his cell phone up to his mouth to get some advice from his mysterious advisors. And if the situation might call for it, the “occasional” reaching out and smashing someone with the phone.
The extra hands are very helpful in this case for channeling an enraged Paul E. whether in promos or at ringside advising his charges.
Paul E. Dangerously has:
- neck
- bicep
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbows (double-jointed)
- wrists
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double-jointed)
- ankles
Accessories: Paul E. needs one major accessory — his old school, brick sized cell phone.
Mattel didn’t skimp on this either with its huge size and large antenna that fits in Paul E’s grasping hand with little issue.
In a cool touch, it can disassemble so you can simulate it getting cracked over someone’s head and being shattered into pieces.
He’s also got a matching left grip hand and pointing right hand in addition to a set of fists.
Finally, in a bit of foreshadowing for the future. He’s got an ECW hat.
That’s a nice bonus, but I still want a real ECW Paul E. with the scuffy bard, scraggly hair and open suit jacket to more accurately reflect that look, but this will help for now.
Worth it? WWE figures are now $22.99, which is not too difficult to work around given Target’s knack for timely sales and in a lot of cases, deep clearance prices for figures.
Paul E. seems to be the one figure from this wave that’s harder to find hanging around pegs longer than others so I wouldn’t recommend waiting until he’s under $10 like some of the others. I was able to get Paul E. with a current Target sale that has Legends at $16.99.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
My WCW shelf was going to feel very incomplete with just a custom version of the leader of the Dangerous Alliance. This is a very solid figure and is one of my favorites from Mattel this year.
Where to get it? Legends Series 18 is only in Target since they have an exclusive to the line. Paul E. is the lone figure from this wave not on the website so keep that in mind if you spot him on shelves.
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