TOYBOX All Japan Pro-Wrestling Racer figures review

Welcome back to the largest online archive of Japanese Pro-Wrestling collectibles on the web.
In this blog, you will find thousands of product photos, figure facts and the historical information
behind the collectibles themselves.

For our next entry, we're going back to the 1980's for another vintage dive into obscurity. Wrestling
collectors, rev up your engines because Blog #221 hits top speed with TOYBOX's All Japan Pro
-Wrestling racer figures.

From left to right: Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, Giant Baba and The Great Kabuki.

Each character has their own unique pose. Bruiser's car features a swinging chain sculpt from
Bruiser's iconic entrance. Stan Hansen is sculpted in his cowboy hat entrance attire and signature
Lariat Attack.

I'd estimate these cars were able to move on their own (for a few feet) when pulled back for a
second or two. Though, I think the only movable parts of each figure are the wheels themselves.

Giant Baba is posed with his famous "16mon Kick", while The Great Kabuki's bug-eyed stare
looks like he's ready to spray some Poison Mist!

Interestingly, the tires read "GOOD YEAR". I assume TOYBOX had a licensing agreement
with Good Year Tires in the 1980's.

Other than a few Keshigomu figures, this is perhaps the only known figure of The Great Kabuki
from the 1980's.

Bruiser Brody up-close.

The bottom of each car contains the TOYBOX logo, but no included date.



Giant Baba's left boot reads "16Mon Kick", which is a reference to Baba's boot size
and the Japanese equivalent of the "Big Boot" attack.



A new discovery that even surprised me is the 5th figure from the TOYBOX line: Jumbo
Tsuruta!

Jumbo looks like he uses the same body mould as The Great Kabuki's car.

I wonder if a Genichiro Tenryu TOYBOX figure also exists. Hmm....


Closing thoughts:

While I've never come across an actual production date on the TOYBOX All Japan figures,
I can estimate that these figures are no older than 1983; the same year Akihisa Mera returned
to All Japan Pro-Wrestling under his recently-created The Great Kabuki gimmick.

The two rarest figures from the set are legendary tag team partners Bruiser Brody and Stan
Hansen; simply due to the duo's notoriety in Japan as a monster heel tag team and Hansen/
Brody's star power as top gaijin talent. Neither Hansen nor Brody (with a larger emphasis
on the latter) had many officially-made figures made in the 1980's; which only makes the duo's inclusion in the TOYBOX line all the more valuable.

If you were to search for these figures online yourself, I recommend using the following
Japanese text:

TOYBOX スタン・ハンセン    (TOYBOX Stan Hansen)

TOYBOX  ブルーザー・ブロディ (TOYBOX Bruiser Brody)
 
TOYBOX ジャイアント馬場  (TOYBOX Giant Baba)

TOYBOX ジャンボ鶴田 (TOYBOX Jumbo Tsuruta)

TOYBOX ザ・グレート・カブキ (TOYBOX The Great Kabuki)