Toy Review: WWE Elite 34 Paige (Mattel)

Before Paige-- before Alicia Fox for that matter-- I had the idea in my head that I bought my first and only WWE Mattel diva figure last year (AJ Lee) and I'd buy only one WWE Mattel diva figure this year and that diva would be Paige.   You know, if the stars aligned properly and I was able to find her in stores and all that.    Then of course I realized I'd be getting Lana this year and while Lana is not an active member of the roster she is still a diva and as such my idea of having only one diva per year was scrapped.    But just know if I did only buy one diva figure this year, it would have been Paige.

After finding Alicia Fox at Walmart, we went to Target one random night later and I had an idea in my mind that we'd find Paige and the series of Elite 34.   I then remembered how far off this series seemed compared to what was at Target, but hey, Target seems to be skipping series now so you'd imagine my surprise when I saw this figure staring back at me on the peg.    When I showed my son, he would not let her go the entire time we were in the store so it was pretty clear she was coming home with us.   (He does enjoy Paige as an on screen character)

The figure itself is perfect.   She looks like Paige- which is the most important part.  This is pretty standard attire for Paige to wear (Unless she has to borrow one of the Rose Bud's aka Blue Pants' outfits) and so there isn't really much you can get wrong as I feel like it has been her definitive look since being in WWE.   I do enjoy the fact that Paige is one of the first wrestlers- for me- to come out of NXT and get a figure.    There is this whole NXT class that will be getting figures soon and Paige having one is just amazing.    (Though Big E already has figures, but he's not the same as when he was in NXT now is he?)

That is one thing you need to think about though.    Think about how long Paige spent in NXT.    Now think about how long she has been on the WWE roster.   And this is her first figure.   Wow.   It seems like she should have at least six, maybe ten figures by  now.    But she kind of missed the boat on NXT wrestlers quickly getting figures or even getting them before they hit the main roster.    If Mattel had this mindset when Paige was running NXT, you'd bet she'd have more figures by now.  

So what is it about Paige?  I don't know, she's just not like the other divas and not only do I like that about her but I like that she brings that out in her on screen persona.   Paige is not your typical diva by any means, but yet what WWE has come to present as their typical diva is a standard that was crushed a long time ago by women such as Lita and Trish Stratus.   So why they seem to continue with the idea that there is money in models over wrestlers is beyond me, but Paige feuding with the Bellas was one of my favorite things the Bellas ever did because Paige was just saying what we were all thinking.

This figure comes with the accessories of the WWE Divas Championship and the NXT Womens Championship.   These are perfect title belts and the only actual title belt I own other than these is a U.S. title belt that came in the Dean Ambrose/Seth Rollins battle pack.   So these are really cool for me and if I was going to start my figure sized belt collection to try and have at least all of the modern (active) belts, then starting with these would be a nice move.   Part of me kind of wishes that Paige came with a leather jacket, which she wears in her entrances sometimes, but that was probably a bit much to ask for from Mattel.  If not money, then it would just be the issue of getting all of those details correct on such a smaller scale.

The one thing that I did learn from this figure compared to my basic diva figures (because this is my first elite diva!) is that while the other divas move at the boob line as if to do sit ups, Paige (as an elite) can also move side to side at the boob line.   What that means for how they can actually move in real life is something I'd rather not think about, but yes, divas do have similar articulation in basic and elite form but I'm fine with it because having a line across their stomachs to move there would just seem like a bit too much to me.

When I got this figure, when we found her in the store (and I haven't seen her since), a little boy about maybe seven or eight years old came over and began looking through the new series of elites.   He didn't seem to thrilled with the selection in this set, but I was holding Doink the Clown to show my wife while my son was holding Paige.   I went to put the Doink figure back on the pegs because it's a pass for me and I asked the kid if he wanted it and the look he gave me was just priceless.    If Mattel stops making flashback elite figures it will not only be because kids aren't buying them but because they have absolutely no interest in them.   The kid looked at me like I was showing him a figure that wasn't even from the WWE line.   He seemed upset by the selection though, so either he wanted someone they haven't made yet to his liking or he actually wanted Paige also.

I have no definitive plans after this to buy a diva figure other than the Lana which comes with Rusev in a battle pack.   If I should happen upon Emma or Summer Rae in stores then it will depend on how my son feels at that time as to whether or not we get them, but that's also if we see them in stores.    I certainly won't be buying any Bellas and other than that all of the divas I'd buy figures of are still in NXT and fairly far off from getting figures still.    But I never feel badly about not wanting to buy diva figures because there is always someone out there buying them which is why I've had such a hard time tracking down Natalya still to this day.