Monday, April 24, 2017

#802 INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP (IWC) GIANT FIGURE - HULK HOGAN (Around 1991)


This is a toy which I think should attract much interest, since there are many great wrestling collectors worldwide who probably have never seen this interesting knock-off of the famous Hasbro figure from 1990, only supersized.


This figure is probably inspired by the 12 inches (talking) figures by Hasbro, released also in 1990 but in another pose. I have taken the picture above for comparison purposes, in which the small figure is the original Hasbro figure from the regular line (series 1).

The plastic from which it is made is the same in which most dolls are made, some kind of slightly flexible and hollow plastic. it has articulations in head, waist, shoulders, groins (legs) but also half in the arms and half in the legs. Also note that the T-shirt is plain yellow, without text.

The cast is very similar to the one used for the small figure, very similar details, identic pose, I would say it has been bootlegged/copied.

The figure is completely unmarked, but I found out that the toyline under it was sold is IWC (International Wrestling Championship), not to be confused with International Wrestling Champions by Mannix. Nothing is known about the manufacturer, maybe they were hiding themselves from possible lawsuits and demands from the WWF.

Interestingly, there were a few figures made, all quite similar, and I could find some boxed examples on the internet. Despite it’s rarity, they are not very expensive, so I guess they are either not very well known or not interesting due to its size. This brand also had mini-wrestlers, which are also quite rare to see.

The following pictures were found on eBay. Note that the masked wrestler is made up using the same cast of Hulk Hogan except for the head.



UPDATE1 (Nov/2019): I got a wrestling belt in a mixed lot that looks very similar to the ones by Galoog in the WCW line. It seems NOT to belong to this line (does not appear in the pictures above), anybody knows?


FACTS and FIGURES:
  • Name: HULK HOGAN
  • Toy Line: IWC Wrestrling
  • Year: Around 1991
  • Company: Unknown toymaker (China)
  • Size of the figures: Approx. 30 cm.

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