WWE Elite 98 Faarooq Asad review
Faarooq Asad was proof that Vince McMahon didn’t suddenly start making questionable choices. Ron Simmons was just a few years removed from being the first black heavyweight champion in wrestling history. Somehow, he got saddled with a weird gladiator gimmick upon joining the WWF in 1995.
To Simmons’ credit, he endured the gimmick long enough to get reinvented as the leader of the Nation of Domination. That led to him getting cracks at the WWF title and ultimately seeing his mentee, The Rock, become the WWF’s first black heavyweight champ. Still, it is cool to revisit the past and have a complete collection of a wrestler’s career. That’s the main reason I decided I did need to pick up the WWE Elite Faarooq Asad figure after all. And it’s fun to add more legit heels to my New Generation 1995 era display.
Let’s see if Faarooq Asad was worth the random splurge or if he should have stayed in the gladiator arena.
Packaging: It didn’t feel like Mattel kept this Elite packaging scheme around for too long. I liked the blue color scheme and Mattel reduced the package footprint of the large WWE logo. The picture of Faarooq Asad is pretty solid showing him ready for action. Over on the right side his name is slender, but prominent enough to make out from a higher peg. On the left side is the larger portrait from the front.
The back features another picture of Faarooq Asad along with his stats. It’s hard to knock Mattel’s WWE bio team for the brief synopsis since Faarooq Asad wasn’t too long for the WWF landscape.
Likeness: Previous Ron Simmons figures were marred by ridiculous skin tone choices. Only the Hall of Champions and Acolyte figures were spared that indignity. Thankfully, Mattel is fixing that issue with subsequent figures making it easier to appreciate the sculpts.
This one is fantastic doing a tremendous job of capturing Simmons at his most Jim Brown-like appearance. The head sculpt captures the stoic intensity Simmons had even during this tenure of his career. Faarooq never took off his helmet so Mattel smartly just sculpted it on instead of making it a removable piece. That was a smart move as it prevents against the helmet riding up every time you go to pose him.
While workshopping the look, WWE experimented with several iterations of the V-shaped vest/gladiator skirt piece. One look featured no flared shoulders. You could achieve that look by cutting around the lined areas of the vest piece. The linework is so precise on the sculpt that I wonder if Mattel considered that option for customizers when designing the figure.
The detail on the vest is impressive with exquisite sculpting of the seams and his belt buckle.
There is one major issue with the figure though. The size. I’m not sure if Simmons is even as slight and skinny as this mold. Mattel really should have gone with a thicker, wider mold like say the Rhythm & Blues Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine. This one is comically small for Simmons and seriously dings the overall score.
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Scale: Faarooq Asad is 6’2″, which puts slightly shorter than the 6’9” Sycho Sid and 6’5″ Vader. He was slightly taller than the 6′ Bret Hart.
Paint: One of the more interesting aspects of Faarooq’s attire is the lighter blue color scheme. It doesn’t make for a very menacing gladiator, but it does pop on the shelf. Ironically it helps make Faarooq stand out against the faces of this era like Sycho Sid, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart.
Mattel figures rarely have paintjob issues. In Faarooq’s case, the interior portion of his helmet gets an overspray of the brown used for his skin tone. That would have been hard to get just right for a mass market figure so it’s understandable. His arm and wrist bands are painted on cleanly. Again, it’s nice to have a proper skin tone for a Ron Simmons figure.
Articulation: Faarooq was a ground and pound, mauling brawler utilizing big power moves to decimate his opponents. Pulling off forearms, clotheslines, body slams and his finisher, the Dominator, are no trouble at all.
While it would always be nice for figures, Faarooq isn’t the kind of wrestler that really benefits from the Ultimate Edition additional accessory piece of butterfly shoulders.
Faarooq Asad has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow (double jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Faarooq comes with a pretty cool extra beyond the usual swappable gripping hands.
He gets an alternate portrait with a blue helmet. That’s a worthwhile inclusion as Faarooq would alternate his helmet color between the two. It’s the kind of accessory that’s just a nice touch even if no one would have complained if it weren’t included. I appreciate that kind of gesture from Mattel.
That said, it would have been even better if one of the portraits was an angrier, intense head sculpt.
Worth it? Faarooq was $22.99, but I was able to get him on sale for $14. That was a great price for a figure that was mostly worth the standard $20-ish price point. He’s currently available now for $20 BTW.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Mattel did so much right with the gear for Faarooq, but the slender body really does drag him down. And the skin tone shade is such that it’s not an easy conversion for another larger/wider figure.
Where to get it? Elite 98 is long sold out at stores, but you can still get Faarooq from Amazon.
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