By Robert Greenwood
“The Phenomenal One” AJ Styles has had a storied career in professional wrestling and he has now garnered more respect and attention from the “casual” audience. He is simply one of the best in the business right now and his Elite Series 61 figure represents why he is the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) at what he does.
Series 61 is the build-a-display set which includes a base and card back so you can display your action figure as if it was a high end collectible.
AJ is boxed in the typical Elite packaging and the window display shows pretty much the whole figure and his one accessory, an extra hood.
The back of the box shows off a brief description about AJ putting up his United States Championship against Tye Dillenger and Baron Corbin.
This figure is designed to represent AJ Styles’ entrance look. Yet even though the package talks about AJ defending his US Championship, it does not include the title belt as an available accessory.
The figure does what it must do and that is: look absolutely amazing! The sculpt looks like AJ from his tattoos on his right side of his rib cage (his initials AJ and his kids’ birthdates) to his “soccer mom” hairdo. Which, no matter how you make it look, it’s just 100% AJ. Of course, with the Elite Series, you get full range of articulation, which is ideal for a wrestling superstar like himself. With these added points of articulation, this figure can definitely live up to the high flying technician that is “The Phenomenal One.”
I want to briefly talk about the hood accessory. At first glance, it seems maybe a bit silly or cheap, but once I added it to the figure, I ended up liking its design more. It simply snaps in and becomes a hood he can have over his head as his music plays then stands at the top of the stage or snap in the hood that is sculpted to be down so when his music kicks in, AJ can lower it down and head to the ring to do what he does best. Either way, it works. Actually this might be better than if Mattel used a fabric hoodie.
Overall this figure is just…(wait for it) phenomenal as is AJ himself. If I had to pick some negative aspects, I guess we could have done without the hoodie and instead included the US title. And the build-a-display isn’t a bad thing, but would have benefited having something more like a static image from his TitanTron entrance.
With all that aside, I am honestly an AJ fan from his days in TNA to his time in NJPW and, of course, how well he has excelled here in the WWE. The figure is a must buy and, being that it’s Summer Slam weekend, the AJ Styles figure will first be released during this time on the Amazon Treasure Truck in Brooklyn, NY.
So, if you are going to be in NYC and attend Summer Slam, try and get him at the Amazon Treasure Truck!
Once again a big thank you to Mattel for the review sample.
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