WWE Ultimate Edition Series 7 Hollywood Hogan review
Before discussing the Ultimate Edition Hollywood Hogan — one caveat: I hate having to make the caveat of the importance of Hulk Hogan the wrestling character and Terry Bollea, but what’cha gonna do?
In still the greatest San Diego Comic Con showing since holding the license Mattel revealed Defining Moments figures were coming for debuting A-listers Hulk Hogan, Sting and Razor Ramon. To avoid any delays for collectors who preferred his heel run, Mattel also revealed a Hollywood Hogan figure as well.
For various reasons, Mattel trickled out other random variants of Hogan that weren’t as highly demanded as his 1991 Hulk Rules era, an early WCW version and the already teased Hollywood Hogan. Then that tape came out and Hogan became persona non grata with no merchandise including that dangling carrot of the Hollywood Hogan figure.
Hogan completed his apology tour and said all the appropriate things to get back in WWE’s good graces enough that the E was back in the Hogan business, which meant we could finally get the Hollywood figure. Learning their lesson, Mattel revealed that Hollywood Hogan was going to be featured in an upcoming Ultimate Edition wave.
With most of the core nWo roster in figure form, the Hollywood was a no brainer as one of the signature pieces for a WCW display. With so many delays to actually getting this figure, the expectations are high. Let’s see it’s worthy of chopping a mountain with the edge of its hand or instead comes crashing down.
Package: Mattel might eventually change up the packaging, but for now they’re sticking with the stark white with red accents and a die-cut window. I still think it’s some wasted space and some parts of the figure and accessories are obscured. I love the figure/reference pic setup of the rear.
As always, the bio is well written with a good comprehensive take on the character. The stat card is largely solid although I hate that the career highlight is being WWE Champion instead of WCW Champion in this case.
Likeness: Hollywood Hogan was a pretty expressive guy where he could be the cocky heel exploring this new walk on the dark side with tough back up in The Outsiders. He could also be irritated when things weren’t going his way and every so often rise up to show some of the charisma and heart that made him a beloved icon to millions.
The default sculpt doesn’t capture any of those emotions. It’s too smiley and happy looking more like the Hulk Still Rules era phase of his career where he’s appreciating the fans have gotten behind him again. This sculpt lacks the sneakiness, slyness or devious smirk that would sell a Hollywood Hogan smile. Fortunately, there are better options.
The legs are the right size — not too big or too skinny and his arms are also reasonably defined if they aren’t 24″ any longer.
Scale: Hollywood Hogan was 6’7” the same height as stable mate Scott Hall. That should have him looking up at the 6’10” Kevin Nash and 7′ The Giant. He’ll look down at the 6’2″ Sting and 6’1″ Ric Flair.
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Paint: Mattel looks to have Hollywood’s skin tone down as it has a bit of a tan without being beat orange like his WWF prime. The fading of his painted-on beard looks good and the shade of platinum blonde for his hair and mustache came out just right.
My favorite is the work on the boots with the airbrushed Hollywood on the outside and nWo on the inner portion. This came out very sharp and definitely captures that trademark detail of his boots.
Articulation: Mattel continues to push the limits with this line as Hollywood gets the new addition of butterfly joints.
This greatly enhances figures that were already a major improvement on the standard Elite figures. The butterfly joints is an articulation gamechanger for wrestling figures.
For Hollywood, it allows for better flexing while for others it’s the difference between making submission moves look really accurate.
Ultimate Edition Hollywood Hogan has:
- neck
- bicep
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbows (double-jointed)
- wrists
- waist
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double-jointed)
- ankles
- feet
Accessories: Hollywood Hogan was one of the guys Mattel wasn’t going to run out of options.
It’s mainly his accessories that distinguish the Hollywood era. With Hollywood, I’m more partial to his early nWo phase look with the Terminator logo and still in progress nWo logo specifically the one that resembled barbed wire. That’s merely a preference and going classic cloth nWo shirt was clearly the best option for the first Hollywood figure. Although it’s annoying that yet another Hogan T-shirt is ruined by the Velcro for the shirt-ripping feature.
He also has a pair of white sunglasses. These were more a look he consistently rocked in the nWo wars era into the Wolfpac and WWE nWo run. Ditto for the white and black boa.
This symbolized the end of Hollywood’s most effective run in WCW and the time when WCW needed to stop making him a focal point as he was no longer the champion. I think this would have looked fine in cloth, but the boa sculpt looks good and drapes over the shoulders well.
Naturally he has the nWo spray painted WCW world title. It looks just fine as do the swappable fists. Hollywood’s weight belt is also removable and has a basic nWo instead of Hollywood on the back. That’s OK, but not my preference.
Per the norm with the UE figures, we get two additional head sculpts. One is a hyped-up angry face and the other is a neutral expression. Either of these are improvements over the default smiley head.
Worth it? Hollywood Hogan clocks in at the standard Ultimate Edition price of $30. Still finding him at that price? Good luck. Considering the accessories and further enhancements to the UE articulation scheme, this figure warrants the extra $10.
Rating: 10 out of 10
It took way longer than we’d like to get the head honcho of the nWo, but Mattel made the wait worth it with an exceptional take on Hollywood Hogan.
Where to get it? You can still get Hollywood Hogan online from Amazon.
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