Quote the Raven…Nevermore! One of the most iconic hardcore wrestlers from the late 1990s and 2000s is Raven, and this is a great figure of him from Zombie Sailor Toys as part of the Heels and Faces line.
Wrestling fans will know Raven from his time in ECW, his run in WCW, his less successful time in WWE and his stints in TNA Wrestling where he became NWA World Champion. Raven is the iconic grunge inspired mysterious character who would often lead factions known as his Flock..or nest or gathering…stuff like that.
The figure comes demonstrating his iconic arms stretched out taunt, which is fitting for the character. Some may see this and feel the slight dread that this is a figure in the fixed double clothesline (bay bay) pose that was given to the Texas Tornado and Tatanka figures back in the day. Fear not, as this figure has posable arms from the shoulders to allow it to rest his arms down to his sides as well.
I used to look at Tatanka and think that if Toy Story was real his shoulders must be killing him…fortunately for this Raven figure, it is a lot more posable. If you’re keeping the figure mint on card you wouldn’t know this without checking out the figure online though as you can’t see the points of articulation on the figure because Raven comes with a soft leather jacket accessory. This is super impressive as it has loads of detail including straps, buckles, and a dangling zipper which I’d imagine doesn’t work, but I may be wrong on this.
His face has distinct areas separated by creases above the brow line and forehead. These subtle details really do add to make them look more lifelike.
One thing with this figure is the legs do look a bit more stubby to me than I thought about some of the others but I think this is because the jacket makes the upper body look more bulky. I’ve also seen that the figure can be posed to sit in the corner of the ring as Raven would in his matches.
The artwork on the card shows Raven with a nose ring which the figure doesn’t have, although I think this is a good thing. The main design on the card also looks like he was surprised when his photo was taken, so I’m not sure this was the scariest or most intimidating shot that they could have based his artwork on.
It’s interesting to see that his bio mentions the likes of Tommy Dreamer and Sandman even though I don’t think they’ve announced a Tommy Dreamer figure (they have announced Sandman) as being part of the figure line at the moment. I’m sure this isn’t a big deal, but was surprised and checked that the Andre figure which we reviewed at the same time didn’t specifically mention anyone such as Hogan or Big John Studd.
Conclusion
With Sabu already out, and figures of the likes of Sandman, Mike Awesome, Tajiri, Roadkill and others set to release in the future, this Raven figure is perfect to start to build your ECW roster of Hasbro style wrestling retros. This is another figure that fills in the blanks of wrestlers who didn’t get a retro back in the day and is another solid release from Zombie Sailor Toys.
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