There are two other similar Hulk Hogan figures out there and the reason why I chose this one is simple: the other Basic figure doesn't have anything on the back of the shirt and the Elite has more articulation than Hulk Hogan in real life. I don't really expect to perform many moves with this Hulk Hogan figure and if I do they won't be very athletic so a Basic is more than enough.
The sunglasses are removable and leave a little hole under the bandana for them to slide into. It's not a big deal as it isn't that noticable in general but also because I don't plan on taking his sunglasses off a lot. (And in contrast to other figures who have come with sunglasses at least this way they are less likely to fall off and get lost) The bandana does not come off and this for a simple reason.
When I was still seeing my doctor in Houston, whenever I would be in the waiting room they'd be showing some talk show. It was like they knew crazy people liked to watch talk shows. Though, to be fair, I did not enjoy watching them. Anyway, Hulk Hogan was on with Wendy Williams one and I was watching it because I had to wait forever to get called. Hogan was promoting that auto-bio where he says he thought about killing himself, which was funny to hear about when I was in a place full of people who legitimately tried to kill themselves (some more than once). He said that he was bald now all over his head and the long hair that we saw coming out of the bandana was actually sewn into the fabric of the bandana. Hence, if the bandana came off and for it to be completely accurate, his hair would have to also come off with it. Yeah, I don't want to see that either.
I used to have a Hulk Hogan Hasbro figure, though I never really watched him when I was growing up because by the time I got into wrestling he was already gone. I watched a lot of his older matches on VHS though and then the first time I actually saw Hulk Hogan wrestle was in WCW, both live on television and live in person. It's strange that I thought about that, but this figure did bring up the nostalgia in me. I bought one of the old WCW figures of Hogan when they were at KB Toys, you know, the ones that looked like LJNs and then when he came back to WWE and beat HHH for the WWE Title I bought his TTL figure from Jakks. And, yes, I had a lot of his RA Jakks figures though it is worth noting that was the only way I ever got a nWo version of The Hulkster.
I only note the nWo part of this because when I first saw this Hulk Hogan at Walmart he was with the other Basic one. I wanted to know which of the two had writing on the back and what it said (because I felt like one did and one didn't, so I wanted to be certain which was which) and I was also kind of curious about what shirt Hulk Hogan wore during his Raw birthday celebration when Brock Lesnar came out and told him "Party's over, grandpa". I did find that during said celebration though, Hogan was wearing a black nWo shirt and as such I wouldn't be able to buy one of these to recreate that moment. But I also wasn't going to wait for Mattel to repaint this figure so I decided this version would just have to take a verbal beating from Lesnar anyway.
According to a quick google search, the tattoo on Hulk Hogan's right forearm says "I am that I am" which is what I read it as but I had to make sure because I wasn't sure if he was misquoting Popeye's "I am what I am" or not. Apparently, "I am that I am" is a Bible verse and when you look further into it you'll find it to be the response to Moses by God when he asked for his name. So if God said it and Hogan has it tattooed on him does that mean Hogan thinks he's God? Ehh... I'm not going to touch that one really.
This Hulk Hogan figure is pretty solid overall and for the purposes of my collection it is perfect. As I've been collecting WWE figures again with my son it's only been about a year or so since we started with Mattel and so to be able to have someone like Cesaro, Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, The Shield, The Wyatt Family, Alberto Del Rio, Brock Lesnar, The Rock and others interact with Hulk Hogan and hopefully one day many of the names in NXT, it just brings me so much joy and I feel like Mattel really is creating the most complete collection of WWE action figures in a modern timeline sense. I just wish we could have gotten a modern version of Randy Savage- to have had him actually go into the Hall of Fame in person- because at least with someone like Warrior I can hope for a modern version of him one day for my collection.
[Side Note: This is my 50th WWE Mattel action figure in Basic/Elite form!]
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