NOTE; Make sure you see My small preview of OSTM in My previous post
Oh boy here we go, finally I am going to showcase the WCW figures made by The Original San Francisco Toymakers (OSTM) starting in 1994! These are My favorite wrestling figures of all in My collection. I know they really get a bad rap for whatever reason in recent years but when I got them things were very different in a much simpler (and better) era in 1995 - 1997. Now, WCW was really coming to be the number one wrestling federation thanks to "Billionaire Ted" Turner and Eric Bischoff overpowering the WWF (today's WWE) with star power, special attractions and the like that made WCW become the most infamous wrestling company ever seen. Despite already being an established organization many years prior with all kinds of media such as video games & comics and even really decent action figures in 1990 (as see previously within My great collection) WCW was still upcoming as a whole. With that being said, when WCW got the brass ring and ran with it, they sort-of rebooted their-selves in several ways and one of the those directions was with their merchandise including action figures and with history repeating itself (like it always does in wrestling) they got a company that would make awesome
LJN-like action figures around the same time period only about a decade or so later. As you know, I am very disappointed and heavily regret about My LJN debacle but collecting these guys to Me was like a second chance and it even had a few of the same wrestlers to boot! The fact of the matter is, I don't understand why anybody would complain about these figures that loved LJN because they were like them and kinda like a continuation of that type of style. This company also made them similar like the ones like Galoob did and as they were non-poseable yet very realistic (I think but don't quote Me on it but I believe the OSTM was part of Galoob thus now being owned by Hasbro when they bought them in 1998?). Keep in mind that Hasbro's WWF figures licence had run out about the time when these figures were being released so the WWF didn't have competition till 96 when they got Jakks Pacific to make new figures.
My Grandma & My Mom got Me these guys when I was young. The figures are like a soft to hard rubber and are in 7" scale but range from different heights as that are real scale towards each other ranging from 5" to 8". They are all very detailed and painted good. I am always kicking My self for not taking care of My LJNs but I did wrestle these OSTM a bit but I patched them up and IMO they still look good. So as usual you will see paint marks & scruffs and worn areas. I am not presenting them in series order but will have the variants with the variants and so on and with brief commentary as well. OK, without further ado, here they are in lots of pics!
NOTE: I have the ring but I have misplaced the cage. It was very similar like the Galoob set.
CLASSIC WCWHulk Hogan V1: This is great depiction of The Hulkster in his now more slender physique. He came with a WCW Championship belt that is removable. It really was inspired by the previous WCW title and would be corrected with the Monday Nitro series (I will showcase them in Part 2!) He is one of the tallest of all of the figures.
Hulk Hogan V2: This I believe was the first ever Hogan figure with his pants/street clothes on. This was made in a much harder material as opposed to the really rubbery previous Hogan. Still a great likeness however.
"Macho Man" Randy Savage: This is such a great figure of him arguably the finest ever. The pose is dynamic and the sculpting is tremendous! He is of a hard very rubber
"The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart: This figure has a real special place in My HART because I was in the hospital (long story, don't want to get into it) and I was talking on the phone with My Grandma and she surprised Me when she got there that she got Me
Jimmy Hart (along with others, more on that soon) and she explained to Me that he was extremely hard to get. She had the guy working at Target get a case of the WCW figures out from the stock room and had him open up several boxes of them and there WAS ONLY 1 JIMMY HART! He is one of My prized & cherished figures that I have in any of My collections. His sculpting is superior and is really accurate in scale & appearance and is made very rubbery!