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An action figure that routinely fetches $500-600 when sold in the package? Indeed, there is one, and it's of Playboy Buddy Rose. Released by Remco in 1986 for the American Wrestling Association, Buddy's action figure has become one of the most sought-after prizes in collecting.
The figure was a part of the last AWA line of toys, Mat Mania. The WWF has great success with their LJN toys, but the AWA figures never came as close in popularity. The AWA was slowly dying by the time Buddy's figure was released, and only a limited amount of distributers were carrying them, with K-Mart being the most well-known. Because they were not easy to come by in the stores, this led to poor sales for the final AWA figures, and soon the line was scrapped. Remco had a tendency to re-use pieces all the time, so these figures ended up looking very much alike. The bodies were recycled from a line called Lost World of the Warlord that came out in 1982. A few of the referees used Lost World heads. But the wrestler's heads and attire were new creations, and sometimes they actually did resemble the wrestlers. As a joke, Buddy's daughter was interviewed once by Mick Karch who asked if Buddy was involved in the development of the doll. She said he was, they molded it off his own body and it was so perfect, they decided the whole line should use it. The other figures from the Mat Mania series were: "Pretty Boy" Doug Sommers, The Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty), Sheik Adnan Al Kaisse, Nord the Barbarian, Boris Zukhov and referee Dick Woerhle. All are worth a considerable chunk of change, in the package or out.
On the figure it reads: © 1986 REMCO N.Y. MADE IN CHINA
By the time these action figures came out the American Wrestling Association was falling apart in a major way. The AWA would finally close its doors in 1990 after nearly 30 years as one of the top wrestling promotions in the world. But even at the end, with their exposure on ESPN and via syndicated television, they were still popular enough to warrant a line of action figures that lasted 3 years. Buddy has often said had he known how much these would be worth today, he would have asked for several cases. Remco gave him as many as he wanted, and he frequently gave these away as gifts to friends and family over the years. |
While early releases of the AWA figures had a gold foil sticker on them with the wrestler's names, the commercially available Mat Mania line did not. Only a limited amount were made with the sticker, and Buddy had a box of them sent to his home (which he has subsequently auctioned off on eBay). If the figure in the box is rare, this is even moreso. And if you have one of these in your collection, don't get rid of it!
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