Figure Friday #3 - Texas Tornado - WWE Legends Series 6

While I have already done a post on Kerry Von Erich, this one is about his time in the WWE as Texas Tornado. After dominating the regional circuit for NWA and WCCW, Kerry Von Erich entered the WWF as Texas Tornado defeating Buddy Rose on July 28, 1990. A month later at Summerslam 90, Tornado subbed for an injured Brutus Beefcake (hmmm....didn't the Ultimate Warrior also do that at Summerslam 88), and defeated Mr. Perfect for the Intercontinental Championship. Tornado would go on and hold the title until November 19th (his title reign in Kayfabe was until December 15th though which is when the match aired on television) where he would lose the belt back to Henning due to outside interference from Ted Dibiase.

He would continue on as a mid card star for the better part of 1991. This is when drug problems started becoming noticeable and his push was stopped. Up until his release in July of 1992 he became a jobber to the stars such as The Undertaker.

The figure is highly detailed with Tornado coming with the "Kerry" inscribed jacket, his yellow trunks and multi colored knee pads/wraps. Also on this figure are the black and yellow boot tassles that were a signature of Tornado's WWF run. Thes are also removable, but good luck trying to get them off over the boot. All in all this is another high quality figure that was put out by Mattel, it's just too bad that the Legends will no longer be sold in stores and only on line for now on.

Figure Friday #1 - Kerry Von Erich - WWE Legends Series 6

This is the first installment of Figure Friday, the one segment on this blog that will be devoted to a different figure each week. This is also the first real post on the blog, so if anyone happens to come across this a read it, please take it easy on me.

Our first featured figure is the WWE Legends Series 6 Kerry Von Erich figure. This is the "one" that lit my collecting fire again. When I looked at the back of the Texas Tornado box and seen they were making this figure, it became my obsession to find this beast. While I never actually found it, my wife did, and thats one more reason she is fucking awesome.

Kerry was my idol growing up. Watching classic WCCW wrestling on ESPN at 3:00 PM every day was a staple for me back in 1988 and 1989, and Kerry was the man in that promotion. He was the big muscled Texas version of Hulk Hogan/Jerry Lawler/Ric Flair, etc...When he won the title from Ric Flair at The David Von Erich Memorial, the raw emotion of him winning the belt coupled with the recent death of David was one of those moments that makes professional wrestling great. Sure, it's scripted and fake as hell, but it still tells a great story. Unfortunately, drugs and depression got the best of Kerry and he killed himself on February 18, 1993 by way of gunshot to the chest. The Kerry figure depicts him in all of his glory during the mid to late 80's.

The detail of this figure is awesome. Kerry comes with his Blue Robe on that I believe he wore in his 1982 2 out of 3 Falls match against Ric Flair. It might not be the exact one, but I know for sure he wore a blue robe with the white tights and the white boots with the long athletic socks. Simple and to the point, nothing flashy as that just wasn't the way the business was back then.

I love the detail of the long socks. How fuckin' cool is that.

Kerry comes with his right hand in the claw position as that was his finishing move back in the day. His finisher changed to the discus punch when he came to the WWF, but we will address that when we go over the Texas Tornado figure.

I have to say that I am loving the detail that Mattel puts into these "Legends" figures as well as their "Elite Collection" figures. Next week we will take a look at Kerry's brother Kevin.