Toy Review: WWE Elite 41 IRS (Mattel) [Figure # 143]

When Elite 41 first hit, it was one of the more difficult series to find at mass retail, especially Sami Zayn.   Then they slowly began showing up at Walmarts and we saw IRS maybe two or three times before Quentin decided that he actually wanted to get him.   I'm not sure why, but when I pulled him off a peg and asked Quentin if he wanted him he said yes and so I had to oblige.

Growing up, I remember having a Hasbro figure for IRS and then the eventual Jakks Classic Superstar figure, but by comparison now this version is better than both of them by far.    There is an "IRS" written on his chest which feels like it should have a pocket around it, but Mattel obviously didn't want to mold the little pocket like they did for, um, Bray Wyatt I believe, and as such it just kind of looks awkward on there.

The fact that IRS is the father of Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas is kind of funny though.   I've always wondered- especially when Ted Dibiase Jr. was in WWE- why they didn't form a new sort of Money Inc. and have IRS return as a manager type to front a stable with Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt in it.   I don't know.   I feel like both Bray and Bo could cut their hair off and be members of Money Inc. if they really wanted to one day.   It'd be like the 1990's when you could go from being Papa Shango to The Godfather.

In any case, who doesn't hate the tax man?   No one wants to feel like they owe the IRS money and no one wants to be audited.   IRS has also been one of these fan favorite gimmicks where he returns here and there, and I always find that to be cool.   He was such a strange gimmick for the time that I watched him in the sense that he really worked with Ted Dibiase and when they built a stable with eventually Tatanka- who turned heel and really upset the younger me- but it just seems like something you couldn't take out of that time and have the same results now, yet WWE can and does.

My biggest thing with buying this IRS figure was that I didn't want to get him and not have a Ted Dibiase to go with him.   While there is a HOF figure for Ted Dibiase popping up in Targets right now, I still feel like I want a Ted Dibiase in a suit, even if the suit is not removable.    But, if I see the HOF Ted Dibiase on sale for $10 I might just pick him up and have him complete my Money Inc.

It's one of those odd things where I'm getting these characters because I remember them from when I was a kid- and because I even had their Hasbro figures- but also Quentin seems to be genuinely interested in them and with The WWE Network he can watch their matches much easier than, say, when Jakks had the WWE license.     I also believe buying this Elite figure means I won't be getting a Money Inc. Battle Pack should Mattel one day make one (And I still remember getting the Jakks Two Pack of Ted Dibiase and Virgil back when I met Virgil, who wll also have to be in this line somehow) but that is all right.