Mankind WWE Superstars Series 3 Hands on Review
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Mrs. Foley’s baby boy gets the WWE Superstars treatment so check out our review of Mankind!
Summary
It was only a few weeks ago in late May when the WWE Superstars Series 3 reveal dropped on social media and we got our hands on an early release of Mankind, one of the coolest figures in this wave! Using his first appearance as he debuted in 1996 with his brown wring attire and his iconic face mask (which he hated by the way!), the WWE Superstars figure captures one of Mankind’s most classics looks!
When Foley first appeared in the WWF in 1996, he debuted the persona known as Mankind, an eerie, masochist, mentally deranged lunatic who was masked and spent his spare time dwelling in mechanical rooms
Mick Foley – Wikipedia
Mankind on Card
On the front of the card you can see an illustration of Mankind clutching his mask with a deranged look on his face, which was commonplace for his persona. On the back of the card, the same illusrtation is repeated but in black and white but you get to see a full body shot. You can see Mankind’s catchphrase, which was “Have a nice day!” This was extremely strange as he dwelled in mechanical rooms, which led to his specialty match, dubbed the Boiler Room Brawl. This specific match was a chaotic, dangerous and sometimes violent match that took place inside an arena’s mechanical/boiler room, with all sorts of exposed metal piping with large bolts, concrete flooring and solid electrical equipment everywhere, and it was a no disqualification and no countout match, so foreign objects were allowed, and the match’s objective was to escape the boiler room first. Other captions on the back of the card include “Foley Is Good, “Mandible Claw,” and our personal favorite, “Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy!” He also had a yellow smiley face with a mask, which you can also see on the back of the card.
You can also see Mr. Socko his sock puppet. According to Wikipedia, “Foley began an angle with Vince McMahon, with Mankind trying to be a friend to the hated Mr. McMahon. On the October 5 episode of Raw, while McMahon was in a hospital nursing wounds suffered at the hands of The Undertaker and Kane, Mankind arrived with a female clown called Yurple in an attempt to cheer him up. Having succeeded only in irritating McMahon, Mankind then took a filthy sock off his foot to create a sock puppet named “Mr. Socko”. Intended to be a one-time joke and suggested by Al Snow, Socko became an overnight sensation. Mankind began putting the sock on his hand before applying his finisher, the Mandible Claw, stuffing a smelly sock in the mouths of opposing wrestlers. The sweat sock became massively popular with the fans, mainly because it was marketed (mostly by Jerry “The King” Lawler during the events) as being a dirty, smelly, sweaty, repulsive, and vile sock.”
Head Sculpt
Mask
Mankind comes packed with his Hannibal Lecter style mask that is brown with silver studs on the front and has black laces in the back. The mask is a great replica of the real mask he wore in the ring and they did a great job making it form fitting in the front where you can tuck part of the mask under his hair sculpt. There is also wide gaping holes for his eyes and mouth, completing his in ring look! Due to the mask being removeable, they did have to cut a notch in the back of the head for the partial straps to nest under his hair.
Without Mask
They captured Mick Foley’s expression pretty dead on and although the persona Mankind he played was supposed to be more of a dark character, Mick would often smile and mix in some serious looks as he was cutting his promos in the boiler room. The hair sculpt has a layered look to it that is free flowing with lots of waves. The only issue is that due to how the mask fits in the back, there is that notch that looks pretty bad on the back of his head sculpt but since you probably won’t be displaying him like this, we can overlook it!
Chest, Back, and Arms
Mankind comes with a removable fabric shirt, which, as you can see, uses the standard MOTU Origins buck we all love! It’s funny to see Mick so hulked up as he explained in some interviews that he would never have the traditional wrestler physique and had to “make up for” it by using his body in very dangerous ways. If you have seen the Mick Foley vs. Undertaker match from their 1998 Hell In a Cell match or any countless other matches, you know what depths Mick will go to put his body on the line for the business.
Legs and Boots
His legs are a standard WWE Superstars and Origins buck and his boots are black with black laces and his legs feature brown wrestling kneepads.
Accessories
Mankind comes packed with 2 sets of extra hands plus his removable mask.
Mandible Claw
You will notice that Mankind’s hands feature a black painted on glove, which is a reference to his finishing move called the Mandible Claw, which is a wrestling maneuver that went along with Mankind’s character. According to Fandom:
“When applied correctly against an individual, can cause intense, legitimate pain. Popularized in the 1990s by American wrestler Mick Foley, the move is based heavily on “The Mandibular Nerve Pinch,” finishing hold to 1960s osteopathic physician-turned-wrestler Sam Sheppard.
The hold is applied when the aggressor places his middle and ring fingers into the opponent’s mouth, sliding them under the tongue and jabbing into the soft tissue found at the bottom of the mouth. The thumb and/or palm of the same hand is placed under the jaw, and pressure is applied downward by the middle and ring fingers while the thumb/palm forces the jaw upwards. Foley later claimed on a television interview that the painful sensation in the nerves under the tongue is so strong that it inhibits vision and, when applied long enough, can force the opponent to black-out.
Pro Wrestling Wiki
Mask
Mankind’s mask is superbly recreated in a malleable brown mask with silver rivets with gaping holes in the eyes and mouth, which mimic the look of his in ring persona! Although the color of the mask is a lot darker than the one Mankind used in real life, the shape and detail is all there, even down to the lace detail on the back of the mask. You will also notice that there 3 verticle lines molded into the nosepiece, which give it a Hannibal Lecter style appearance.
Fabric Shirt
When Mankind debut in the WWE, he featured brown attire, which was basically a shirt with a made up symbol and a combination of other signs that means “Mankind.” The symbol over his left breast looks like a cross between an Ankh and Undertaker’s symbol. It is pretty easy to remove and take on and off but you need to remove the head and arms of the figure, which is demonstrated in the video below.
Rating
Toy Sorceress
Michael
Mankind is definitely one of the stand out figures from Series 3 and they’ve paid a great homage to the wrestling persona with the inclusion of the removable mask, the brown fabric shirt, and the mandible claw hand sculpts. The likeness of Mick Foley is pretty uncanny and we love that Mattel gave him his classic grinning head sculpt as this was one of this most ironic and iconic looks! What we love about this figure is that it is hard to tell he is actually grinning under mask and the way that the face sculpt and mask play off of each other makes that derranged look that Mankind always had in-ring or cutting his promos. The are many ways to display Mankind on your WWE Superstars shelf and we hope Mattel makes his other personas of Cactus Jack and Dude Love to symbolize his 3 (yes 3!) different characters he played at the same time.
Complete YOUR Collection!
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