MORE PLASTIC: Playing The Ringside Games

 

Buying wrestling figures, especially AEW figures, from Ringside Collectibles requires playing two games.

The first is the waiting game. Pre-orders there for new figures start between $25 and $30, depending on the figure. You only pay this price when it’s someone you absolutely have to have, no matter what. There are very few figures that meet this criteria for me.

Then, when the figure comes out, the price gradually starts dropping over weeks and weeks… assuming the figure remains in stock. So getting the figures you want at the price you’re willing to pay for them is a dance between your patience, your best guess at popularity and availability, and your target price.

Point is, I got Ruby Soho for $19.99. And she’s great. Great sculpt, great tattoo paint job, and a gratuitous normal head and hand because, if you’re not using the open mouth head and the horns hand, who even are you?

Of course, succeeding at the first Ringside game means you start playing the SECOND Ringside game - can you get to free shipping? Sometimes this means coordinating your other waiting games, and sometimes it requires a mix of some stuff you kinda want but know they’ll never run out of and hitting up their clearance section. So.

The Ringside Exclusive announcer desk playset. There’s not a ton to it, despite the picture. It’s the desk, three headsets, three monitors, and the fabric backdrop and stand. But at $25 it’s a good deal for some very useful props. 

For one thing, it’s a full-size scale announcer’s desk, which isn’t something you see a lot of in wrestling toys. I have a couple from my heavier WWE collecting days, and they pretend to be for two announcers and barely fit one. This, as you can see, is wide enough for a full three-man announce team, although  I only have two of the good chairs because no, I will not be getting a Jim Ross action figure. And even if I had a third chair, Taz wouldn’t fit in it for lots of reasons. 

The backdrop is incredibly useful for photos, as you can see with the Ruby at the top. The monitors have action shots on them, which is a nice touch. Another nice touch is that the table comes apart, either for storage or for “someone just got put through the announcer’s table” situations. Unfortunately, the table comes apart. By which I mean it comes apart when you don’t want it to. I don’t know why the pegs aren’t tighter. The target audience for Ringside exclusives aren’t actually dropping a single figure on the table hoping they’ll go  through it. Just make it tight and if we want to pose someone through the wreckage of it we can manage.

I was still sixteen bucks short of free shipping, though.

MR. T! Specifically, the WWE Ultimates Mr. T, on big sale for sixteen bucks. As an Ultimates, he has lots of clothing, different jewelry, extra hands, and an extra head. Of course, some of the extra clothes are a Hulkamania vest and hat because when Mr. T was in WWE, he was paired with Racist Terry. So we won’t be utilizing those. But the robe is nice and the sculpts are good and having Mr. T in the collection is always useful. 

I won both games! For sufficiently loose definitions of “won”!