The Chella Toys Nick Aldis Action Figure review is available in both video and article form. Please check out the embedded video below, but also do read the article as they both vary in their content and compliment each other to give a fuller review. Enjoy!
If you’re a fan of professional wrestling, and you’re of a certain age – around mid 30s, you may remember the WWF action figures that came out from the very late 1980s until the mid 1990s. Produced by the company Hasbro, this particular line of figures is perhaps the most iconic line of wrestling toys in history.
Released at the height of Hulkamania and into the Bret Hart lead ‘New Generation’ era of WWF, the figures were much smaller then the rubbery LJN figures that came before them in the 80s, and each also came with some kind of special wrestling move that was built into the design of the figure.
After the fall in popularity of pro wrestling in the mid 90s, the Hasbro line of figures came to an end with super valuable and hard to find green card series. A new wave of WWE figures started a year later from Jakks and between Jakks and Mattel there have been wave after wave of thousands of wrestling figures ever since.
These new figures are generally larger in size (but not as big as the LJN series) and are much more posable with 20 or 30 points of articulation. These new figures are great for kids to play with, and let’s face it the number of adults who collect action figures may be equal or near equal to the number of children who play with them. But, as good as they are, as the kids of the 80s and 90s have grown up, there is clearly a sense of nostalgia for a return to the classic style and designs from their childhoods.
This has lead to a whole community based around making custom figures of modern wrestlers in the Hasbro style, and it was only time before the toy makers began making official figures in the old style. That started in a big way with the official WWE retro style Mattel figures for which we’ve had a bunch of releases over the last four or five years, and as good as they are (or sometimes aren’t) there are still many wrestlers who are unlikely to get WWE Hasbro style figs made of them.
This is where Chella Toys enters the picture. A new series of figures is being released in a very similar design to the Hasbro style, and will give figure collectors everywhere the opportunity to grab some new collector’s pieces based on stars that haven’t had Hasbro style figures before.
The first of these figures is the subject of today’s review and is of current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis, and is a great debut for this new line of retro inspired figures.
Much like how it’s become very popular to see “new” old style Star Trek figures which aren’t as well designed as figures would become in later years, this Nick Aldis figure has all of the “flaws” of the Hasbro figures which make it fit perfectly with your Hasbro and Retro Mattel figures in your collection. The figure has slightly disproportionate design with a big barrel chest and slightly shorter legs then they should be to be a true likeness.
The paintwork on the figure is limited to just a few colours and isn’t quite as detailed as many figures are. These may sound like criticisms, but they are spot on for the style of figure from the time.
For comparisons sake, the figure is about the same height as my Hasbro Bushwhacker Luke and Dusty Rhodes, and my Mattel Retro John Cena, but there are a few ways where I felt Chella Toys could improve upon their formula for greater authenticity. The Nick Aldis figure feels like he a slightly too big head for his body even by Hasbro standards. His forehead in particular feels a tiny bit too prominent, and his feet are particularly small.
I did also feel that the paint work on the eyes lacked the definition of an outline to show eyelashes. These feels like an easy improvement that could be achieved in the future and it’s worth noting that the drawings and artwork of this figure on the packaging does look slightly better and more defined than the actual figure itself. Mostly that the shape of the forehead looks more spot on to the actual Nick Aldis and the beard and hair look more accurately defined. Again though it’s very common that figures have their ideal form shown in artwork or perfectly lit photos in advertisements.
The packaging of the figure states that it is limited to 2000 pieces, so this is firmly in the collector realm of figures, and I expect that most people who get one will keep theirs in the packaging. For those who do open it will find that Hasbro style advertised special move, in this case the King’s Lynn Cloverleaf doesn’t relate to a built in or spring loaded action. This is fine, and as mentioned this is a collector’s piece more than anything, so it’ not likely that many people will be playing with it out of it’s packaging. For full disclosure I’ve not removed this one from the packaging, so am relying on a friend with one who did unbox it (how could they?) to know that there is no spring or mechanical move built in.
It’s also worth noting that a Cloverleaf is a submission move and a leg lock at that so technically those who do want to play with their figure to pull of the move can do so just as we did with Bret Hart doing his sharpshooter back in the day…by positioning two figures legs intertwined and filling in the blanks with our imagination.
Taking a look at the rest of the packaging, they have done an incredible job to capture the classic style of the Hasbro figures, and it’s actually a much better job than the WWE Retro Mattel Figures have done.
To begin with the card is much thicker than the Mattel ones, which are super flimsy, and this is much closer to what the original Hasbro figures cards were like. The front also uses a near identical layout to the Hasbro figures with the ‘Real Wrestling Action’ special move being almost identical in it’s presentation. The stars in the background and shape of the borders are all spot on, and even the shape of the cut out where the figure would be hung on a hook in the shops is correct to the original where as the Mattel WWE figures differ.
There are some differences of course. The WWF logo is swapped out for an old school WWF block style logo which is a strange amalgamation of a W and M to stand for Wrestling Megastars, and amusingly where the original figure would say ‘ages 4 & up’ this Chella figure says ‘ages 15 & up’. I’m not sure if there’s a design choice which meant this is a regulation that it is literally only safe for 15 year olds and older, or if this is just a cutesy way to say this is a collector item and not for kjds.
The back of the card is nigh on identical to old school WWF figures, and features the black and white outline drawings of other figures in the series, and the cut out bio card about Nick Aldis with his stats on.
Coming back to the special move, Chella are slightly cheeky in that they give instructions on how to make Aldis perform the Kings Lynn Cloverleaf, but of course there are two major flaws here. As previously stated all versions I have seen of the figure including others who own it on youtube have shown that the figure has no spring action. They get around this by telling you articulate his right arm up, and in step 2, to articulate his right arm down. So it other words – put it up then put it down again. It does say ‘to activate’ which of course suggests that it can in some way be active, which it can’t, but again these instructions are only there to be faithful to the original packaging designs and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
The second flaw of note here is that the instructions for the cloverleaf move are done with Aldis’s arm where as the actual move, as mentioned earlier, is a leg lock. This again can be seen as a reference to some of the special moves on older figures not always being reflective of moves done by the wrestlers in real life, and is a fun easter egg rather than an actual flaw.
The last thing I’ll note on the packaging is that the line up of figures does feel a little light which is a shame, as it would have been good if there were 5 or 6 on display to get you excited about what else is to come in the same way the back of the cards did for us when we were kids in the 90s. This of course is down to them getting the rights and designs done in time, so this is no biggie, and by the time a few more are released this will be a fuller check list I’m sure.
In terms of what is featured series 1 is shown to be perhaps just this Nick Aldis figure, although a two pack of Blue Meanie and Josh Shernoff, who it’s worth noting isn’t actually named on the card. For those who don’t know who Josh Shernoff is, he is the co-host of the Blue Meanie’s podcast and I don’t know how it came about that he got a figure of him made, but good for him. Give me hope that I could get some Slam Jam Wrestling Show figures made at some point! (That’s our weekly wrestling themed panel show if you’re reading Chella Toys)
Of course we’ve now got announcements of Ethan Page and Dynamite Kid figures, but they’re not featured on this card. As a final fun easter egg, the Series 2 Coming Mid 2021 range shows two figures represented by WWF Hasbro Macho King Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior figures, just with the details on their faces not shown. The fact that these images are so recognisable shows the cheeky humour that Chella Toys have with these releases, and again long term Hasbro fans will get a kick out of seeing it.
Conclusion
For what this is and aims to be, this is a brilliant release and hopefully will lead to many more releases down the line. As both a nostalgia trip and collector’s item it’s obviously made with a lot of love, and it’s especially great if you’re a fan of Nick Aldis. As a final thing for the wish list if they do release another version of Nick Aldis (maybe in his entrance attire shown on the front) it would be awesome if they could license to make a miniature NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship belt to complete the set. This is a great figure and a great addition for any fan to sit along side their Hasbro WWF and Retro Mattel WWE figures.
For more wrestling content check out the Wrestling Section of the site. Also check out the new section of the site about Action Figures and Merch Reviews. Also check out the Slam Jam Wrestling Show on the Extreme Improv Xstreamed YouTube Channel.
