WWE Elite Series 29 - Andre the Giant

I purchased this Andre the Giant figure for around $ 19.99 at a local Walmart . Even though I don't watch pro wrestling anymore , Andre was a must buy for me for the following reasons . I wanted to have one of the tallest pro wrestlers ever in my collection , and Andre is probably the second tallest pro wrestler in history with only the Giant Gonzalez being ahead of him . If you remember the 1980's cartoon called " Hulk Hogan's Rock N Wrestling " than you may remember that Andre was part of the good guys team on that toon . I would like to have action figures of all of the wrestlers that were in that toon . Recreating the toon with the figures . Also for you customizers out there , you can purchase a second Andre the Giant figure and make a custom made Big Foot figure, a character that Andre played as from the Six Million Dollar Man television show . And finally , his hairpiece is another reason to purchase the figure, allowing display options on how Andre looked when he first appeared on the wrestling scene, and how he looked in his later years with shorter hair .

As for Andre the character, one piece of noteworthy information in his bio on the back packaging is that he remained undefeated for almost fifteen years . I did not know he went without a loss for so long . As for the figure itself , it stands a little over seven inches tall as you'll see in the pics below . A perfect scale since Andre was 7"4 inches tall .

I've displayed Andre both with and without the hairpiece . The only thing I don't like about the hairpiece is that in my opinion , it looks more like a hat than hair when you place it on the figure . Alone by itself it looks like hair , but when on a figure, any figure not just Andre, it resembles a hat . I think I know the reason why the hair looks more like a hat when displayed on the figure . The hairpiece is made of a soft rubbery plastic , whereas Andre's sculpted on hair is made of the same hard plastic that the figure is made out of . If the hairpiece was made out of the same hard plastic as the sculpted on hair, it would resemble what it's supposed to be .
Now since I finally have this Andre the Giant figure in my collection , the very first figure I wanted to compare him to is the Big Show . Since Big Show is like a modern day version of Andre , being a giant himself . However Big Show is listed at an even seven feet tall, compared to Andre being seven feet four inches tall . Now let's see how the toys stack up against one another .

As you can see these two figures do NOT share the same body, and I'm glad they do not . Before I purchased the Andre the Giant figure, I was thinking that Mattel was going to give him the same body / mold as the Big Show, since they both are so similar in stature and size . But if you look real closely, you'll notice that even the Big Show is somewhat a little dwarfed by Andre . Not so much in height but in size and stature . Andre's feet look bigger than the Big Show's feet, his chest looks wider and even his head looks bigger than the Big Show's head . Andre literally was what he was referred to as, a giant .
Now back to the hairpiece or wig, whatever you prefer to call it . Can it fit on other figures you ask ? I provide that answer in the pics below with two different Mattel WWE figures, a figure of the Rock and that same Big Show figure from the above pics .

As you can see the hairpiece is way too big for the Rock, definitely proving that Andre had a large head . Whereas it's almost a perfect fit on the Big Show, since he is closer to Andre's size than a lot of the wrestlers of today .
                                    FINAL   THOUGHTS  
( 1 ) ARTICULATION - Andre has the same normal articulation as all other WWE Mattel Elite figures .

( 2 ) STANDING  ABILITY - To keep Andre from falling bend his upper back backwards for that sturdy stance so that his upper body weight does not make him top heavy . Because as we collectors all know, any top heavy action figure may have balance issues because of excess weight .

( 3 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  BEST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE  ? - The hairpiece , Not to mention to finally add another Hall of Fame legend to my collection . Plus the figure is weighty, is fun to hold in your hands and since he is a giant you can display him in power fighting poses, such as picking up people and throwing them , etc .

( 4 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  LEAST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE ?- My only complaint is that the hairpiece does not look like hair when you display it not just on Andre, but any figure . It looks like a big hat instead of hair in my opinion when displayed onto a figure .

( 5 ) WHAT  COULD  HAVE  BEEN  DONE  TO  IMPROVE  THE  FIGURE ?- Nothing in my opinion is wrong with the figure, it's just his accessory . The hairpiece I think should have been made out of the same hard plastic as the sculpted on hair .

( 6 ) GRADING  SCALE  - On a scale of one to ten I give this figure a perfect ten . Excellent figure I could not find any flaws . But this is just the figure by itself . Combined with the hairpiece the score drops to a 9.8 , because of what I mentioned earlier about the hairpiece looking like a hat . So the score or scores goes like this , ( figure only a perfect 10 ) . Figure plus accessory a 9.8 .

( 7 ) FINAL  ANALYSIS - It feels good to add this figure to my collection for the various reasons I've mentioned above . Even though I've complained about the hairpiece not looking 100% like hair, it is still a nice accessory that can be displayed onto other figures that are giants like Andre . And on a side note , I would love to see any customizer out there transform this guy into his Six Million Dollar Man counterpart , Big Foot . Not my figure of course , but their's, lol . Also you do not have to be a wrestling fan to like this figure , you'll like him for the various reasons I've already mentioned , both in the review and the Final Thoughts .