All Elite Wrestling dropped the major news on Wednesday that its first line of official action figures, titled “AEW Unrivaled” and created by Jazwares, would be hitting retail later this year. The company then sent out a press release showing off the new figures — which include The Young Bucks, Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, Dustin Rhodes and various other stars — before putting them out on display over the weekend at the New York Toy Fair. Throughout the weekend various AEW stars spoke with ComicBook.com to give their reactions on the figures, starting with Matt and Nick Jackson.
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“You have to hit a home run on the first batch,” Nick said. “There’s a lot of pressure going into the first wave because everyone’s waiting for it. So, if you give something that’s underwhelming, then people are going to be already mad about it, right? So it was very important. They put a lot of detail in these things. They wanted to get it right right away and they drilled this thing. They nailed it, it couldn’t have been any better. I was shocked to see how great of quality they came out.”
Matt credited Dana Massie, AEW’s chief marketing and merchandising officer and his wife, with setting up AEW’s deal with Jazwares to create the figure line.
“She made the decision to go with them. Man, I’m so happy that she did,” Matt said. “It was funny how secretive this whole thing was. Under my own nose, in my own household, I had no idea that this was even going on and that’s being honest. She really took this serious. And they wanted things to be discreet and she didn’t share it with her own husband. So, I would ask her, ‘How are they coming along?’ She [says[, ‘Oh, they’re great.’ I’m like, ‘Well, can I see the pictures?’ She’s like, ‘Absolutely not.’ It’s actually been a really big surprise for even me getting to see these things for the first time.”
The looks for The Bucks, Omega, Jericho and Rhodes are all based off the ring gear each wrestler used at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view last May.
“I had no idea it would turn out as detailed as it did,” Matt said. “They really nailed down every little detail with the bedazzles, the buttons, the logos,” Matt said. “The jacket I saw for the first time today in-person. It really blew my mind. It really holds true and it’s authentic to what the real one looks like, feels like. I think that jacket with the hanging red tassels really makes our action figures stand out from the rest of the pack in wave one.”
Here’s what a few other stars told ComicBook about their figures:
Kenny Omega: “I mean, I was shocked. I’ve seen some of the figures in the past, especially big league where it’s just, you get the generic body with the generic face, you have the blondish hair, and all the articulation that we have on ours is just something on a completely different level. And we have the exact costumes that we wore for the Double or Nothing show. The details are to the point where you have the signature of my designer on my tights, my curly hair. Every defined curl is sculpted similarly — eye color, my torso, my arms, they’re different than Hangmans, which are different from Cody’s, different from Jericho’s. Everyone has a unique sculpture, a unique build. To me it just really shows that high quality level of product.”
Hangman Page: “You know, it’s crazy. … I guess you just don’t expect them to get it right. I guess you’re assumption, it’s not really going to look like you because I’ve known myself my whole life. I know what I look like, I figured it was going to look like me as much as I do. And they got it right. There’s a lot of attention to detail, to stuff I never would have thought about if I were making my own figure. So they killed it, they’re incredible.”
Dustin Rhodes: “This one stands out because it in my past figures I’ve always been covered with the body suit completely. You know, it was with a character that I didn’t have a lot of freedom with. And this one, this is my touch and everything. Me not having the sleeves and my daughter pointing out that the tattoo on the arm is such a great likeness of the real tattoo, it’s just very special to me. I mean, these figures are not cookie-cutter figures. They’re very detailed, and they did an amazing job with the cool toys.
AEW returns to pay-per-view on Saturday with the AEW Revolution event at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
