Before LJN introduced the world to the WWF Wrestling Superstars, Remco became the home of the first wrestling toy line, AWA’s Official All Star Wrestlers. This toy line featured the current wrestlers from one of the oldest wrestling organizations in the USA, the American Wrestling Association.
Even though the AWA had been around since the 1960s, it gained new heights as well as lows in the 1980s. They helped herald in one of the largest stars from the wrestling world, Hulk Hogan. However, they quickly lost him as well as other talents as the WWF raided their talent. This decline continued throughout the 80s. For a time, the AWA merged with their rivals, the NWA, to form Pro Wrestling USA. However, the group completely dissolved in 1991.
Even though the AWA was no longer the most prominent name in wrestling in 1984, Remco agreed to create toys featuring their wrestlers. These action figures featured several points of articulation with moving heads, waists, legs, and arms. They also often came with various accessories including clothing and championship toys.
This toy line debuted in 1984 with four different sets of paired wrestlers. Unlike most toys, Remco decided to release the AWA action figures in sets of two or three. These sets also featured entire teams instead of rivals. So, collectors had to purchase another set to reenact the grudge matches at home.
The toy line lasted until 1986 with five different series. Each of these series had a notable difference in the packaging. For instance, the first series could be distinguished by the yellow banner. Meanwhile, the 2nd series had a red banner. The third series stood out with its 3-pack sets and Fight to the Finish 2 packs which came with a VHS. Then, the fourth series all came out on black cards. This series also was notable for the introduction of various playsets including the All Star Wrestling Ring.
The fifth and final series stood apart from the rest by featuring single-figure packages. Notably, most of the toys that came out in this series fell under the Mat Mania subline. It also heralded in the Mini Mashers. Unfortunately, the AWA toy line did not survive past this 1986 series.
Still, the legacy of Remco’s action figures has lasted the test of time. Aside from becoming highly sought-after collectibles, Powertown decided to pay tribute and rerelease some of these toys. While their 2023 toy line does not carry the AWA toy line, the All Star Wrestlers are clear remakes of Remco’s wrestling toys.
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How to use the Identification Tool to find your action figures and toy lines
Do you have an old-school G1 Transformers toy you are trying to identify? Don’t know the name? No problem! I’ll help you use this identification tool. For example, just type in “jet” in the figure name field and hit search. You’ll see all the Transformers G1 Toys that are jets. Maybe try “car” and select the color “blue” and a list of Transformers matching those results will appear. Maybe you don’t know what the finished vehicle will make, so try searching by “red” only. Did you forget to remove “car”? Now search just the color “red”. Perhaps you know the name, but can’t spell it try “Wheljck” instead of “Wheeljack” and all the Wheeljack characters are listed for you.
We have all the G1 Transformers list of characters in our database. You can search by Transformers name, as well as just line or subgroup. You can identify Transformers that are all red or all the figures that are orange. The Transformers toy list can even be sorted by package type. You can identify which came with a sticker sheet, or which came without instructions. Want to know all the 1984 Transformers toys and none of the others from 1985-1990? No problem, just select the release year from “1984” to “1984”. Perhaps you just want to know the list of G1 Transformers “Autobots”, or just the “Decepticons”, our ID tool can do that.
Mostly we made this so you could see if your action figures were missing some accessories or parts. So you can see that too.
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