As a wrestling fan who got hooked right from the start of Hulkamania, I’ve got a special place in my nostalgia wing for Bobby Heenan and The Heenan Family.

Following the success of the Four Horsemen Hall of Fame boxset, Mattel was willing to give it another go this time with Bobby Heenan and three of the more infamous members of his family — Big John Studd, Curt Hennig and Andre the Giant. Let’s see how well Mattel captured some of the legendary family and its leader.

Packaging: Mattel isn’t devoting a lot of time with these four-pack boxsets. We get a very basic front that shows off the figures and a back that shows various drawings of the characters. Heenan, Big John Studd and Mr. Perfect are new drawings while we’ve seen this Andre a few times before.

Unlike the Horsemen set, the inner lining doesn’t have the snazzy Hall of Fame LCD looking backdrop. It’s not a big deal since most folks are gonna trash the packaging right away.

Likeness: Sorry Curt, but The Brain is the one who looks absolutely perfect in this set. The Jakks’ headsculpt was pretty good, but the Mattel version really captures Bobby’s smugness. This is “The Brain” in all his glory.

My only gripe with the figure is that it’s so match specific based on Heenan’s outfit while accompanying Andre to the ring for Wrestlemania 3.

The basic jacket and black pants combo would have been my preference, but this outfit is well done and looks classy — fitting for the head of the Heenan Family.

Mr. Perfect is mostly a repaint of the Legends 3 figure, with more muscular arms, but the same too tiny chest and waist. Perfect really should have the Kevin Nash/Diesel torso and Mattel continues to be frustrating by not using available body parts.

Andre reuses the Battle Pack head sculpt on the standard giant size Elite body. Big John Studd is the other jewel of the set with a terrific head sculpt and his prominent chest hair. He’s got the appropriate amount of girth, looking very wide to further his claim as a giant.

Scale: Perfect stood at 6‘3″, while Heenan was 6′, Studd was 6’10” and Andre was 7’4″. I appreciate in the immediate eye test that Studd is shorter than Andre. Perfect looks more in the 6’7″ range, but seems to have slightly shorter shins as it’s not towering over my modified Legends 3 figure.

For anyone who collected the Jakks figures, Bobby is appropriately shorter than all of his charges instead of towering over all of them.

Paint: No issues at all across the set in this category. The design on Heenan’s outfit is definitely the most complex, but it’s covered just fine. I didn’t have any problems with paint coverage even on Studd’s white tights. The stars tampo on Studd’s tights and Perfect’s boots came out smoothly.

If you want to nitpick, there’s a smidge of Andre’s sideburns that aren’t covered, but that’s really if you’re looking for something to complain about.

To add some value for collectors, Andre has his blue singlet painted on, a nod to the latter stages of his career when he teamed with Haku as the Colossal Connection. Speaking of…when are we getting that now badly needed Haku???

More importantly, I was able to look through four sets and all of them were fine, an improvement over the 4 Horsemen pack, which required some careful browsing.

Articulation: We know what to expect with the Elite figures by this point.

Heenan is largely using the same suit pants we’ve seen on figures like the Battle Pack Triple H with the DC Classics style hinge hips that work smoothly. The figures have:

neck

ball jointed shoulders

bicep

elbows

wrist

wrist hinge

torso

waist

hips

knees (double-jointed)

shin

ankle

Studd can’t quite get a bear hug around a Hogan size figure and try as you might, getting an accurate Perfect plex is pretty much impossible. Otherwise, all the other moves you’d try are easily done.

Accessories: Mattel skipped out on this category entirely. You’d have to think that a single release Big John Studd would have gotten his plush robe, but I’m willing to sacrifice it to actually get the figure.

The single release Perfect came with a towel along with the Intercontinental title. That’s about in line with the Horsemen set where Barry Windham got the lone accessory — a non-detailed vest.

Worth it? Here’s where this boxset value really comes into play. We’re getting four figures for cheaper than the normal $21-$23 retail price.

For $50 or $12.50 per figure, we get a Colossal Connection Andre and Mr. Perfect repaint Mattel would be hard pressed to justify charging full price for a variant and two all-new figures.

The Horsemen set was essentially repaints with two new headsculpts so the value is definitely better here. Even without the accessories, it’s hard to knock this price. I know in some cases, Heenan is worth the price tag alone.

Rating: 10 out of 10

For collectors looking at this as a two-figure four pack set, it delivers and the Andre and Perfect variants are nice additions. Considering the breadth of the Heenan Family, Mattel could conceivably do another four pack. I know Mattel does these set for the money, but it’s cool to see these now deceased superstars and Heenan in his prime reunited once again allowing wrestling fans to celebrate their heroes and legends as they’re remembered best.

Where to get it? As a Target exclusive, that’s the first and best place to check until some online retailers start stocking them. The temptation will be there to wait until these get heavily discounted, but that runs the risk of Mattel and Target not continuing these in the future.

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