S.H. Figuarts WWE Figures (First 5) Mega Review

Tamashii Nations S.H. Figuarts line has jumped into non-Japanese licenses with Marvel, DC and Star Wars, but those aren’t the only ones.  On top of video games like Street Fighter and cartoons like the classic Turtles, they also are doing WWF WWE wrestling figures.  Now, one thing Mattel has done well over the years in the boys figure space is wrestling, so it’s hard to jump in and convince folks they need a 50 dollar version of superstars they probably already have.  That being said, I don’t have many Mattel figs but do dig classic wrestling.  I’m a kid of the 80s so of course I was around for Hogan and the rise of the WWF.  In my college years, I rode the Attitude Era and watched Stone Cold, The Rock, and Triple H re-invent what wrestling could be.  These figures are based on that time, giving us Attitude versions of them along with Kane and Undertaker.  Five in all at the moment.

We’ve done a massive catch up shoot, showing off all 5 and what they can do.  Over 210 images.  Read on to check out some additional thoughts and all the glorious pics including a tag match between The Rock and Stone Cold vs Undertaker and Triple H!

Overall Thoughts

When these first dropped I wasn’t super duper excited.   The articulation is awesome, S.H. Figuarts is known for that.  But the Rock and Stone Cold had some issues that bothered me.  Each come with several heads/faces.  Some are good, some are not so good.  On top of that, the digital printing is hit or miss on The Rock and Stone Cold.  Now, when getting them in hand, you can see the mold is much better than promo shots let on.  But the digital printing muddied them up.  Stone Cold’s beard kind of hides all the subtle cuts of the sculpt.  With The Rock, his yelling face has some dark paint around the lips like he was drinking motor oil all day.

In regards to body sculpt, I think The Rock was a bit too thin.  He doesn’t have his stocky frame.  He has gotten more swol over time, but he wasn’t that streamlined even back then.  Stone Cold was on point here though, and the leg braces were well done, molded into the body so they didn’t fall down constantly.

So, those two things on the first two figures made me initially pass.  In hand, with certain faces applied, and the articulation available for posing, I’ve bumped them up to a pick up.   I’d really like for them to re-release these with fixed digital printing, or offer an alternate head pack for the 2 of them.  If you swap in some cleaner heads, these are much more worthy of their price and an easy recommendation.

Moving forward from here, Triple H, The Undertaker, and Kane – all superbly done.  It seems they got better as the line went on.  Faces are better overall, less duds.  Digital printing also better on most.  Triple-H’s yell face is sculpted a bit weird, it’s like he’s missing his chin, it’s really recessed.  The beard paint there is also too dark so it’s just weird.  But his other faces are on point.   Undertaker – all faces are solid.  Kane, same thing, tho his growl face looks a bit derpy.   Body articulation is SHF great, and extra hands and accessories fill it all in.  Those are all solid offerings and worth the price.  But if you are going to have the Attitude Era, you gotta have Stone Cold and The Rock, which need some work.  So they are a hard sell on their own.

The last issue I had – no belts.  Would have dug some in-scale belts to work with.  I had some pretty good ones from the Defining Moments Stone Cold figure from Mattel, and they work.  They’re just slightly too big to be accurate.  For casual display or some hero shot pics tho, they are good enough.

In the pics below, all feature the Tamashii Nations Stage Act Ring Corner.  You can get 1 and use as a display piece, or get 4 and set up a full ring.  The posts and floor have peg holes for stand arms so you can do hard to balance poses or flying maneuvers.   It’s really cool but for hardcore wrestling guys you’ll probably want a full fledged WWE ring. It’s a tad small for accuracy.  Great for displaying 1 or 2 figures on a shelf tho.

I also have to give props to Extreme Sets for the Arena Pop Up background.  This thing is GIGANTIC.  Solid, thick cardboard, 7 feet wide and 3 feet tall.  You can get upward shots of the wrestlers on the ropes with no issues, change your camera angle and still have the BG in frame.  It’s just plain massive.  Right now, it’s on sale for 20 bucks, and you can use code TOYARK at checkout for 15% off.

Bottom line, the S.H. Figuarts WWE figures are better than I expected.  Triple H, Undertaker, Kane – worthy of the SHF name and price.  Stone Cold and The Rock deserve a re-issue with some tweaked heads, or maybe new versions to get the Rock a new body.  That would set the stage for an ongoing line I’d be happy to keep up with.

Disclaimer: Bluefin Brands provided these figures for review purposes.

Check out over 200 pictures of all 5 figures below!