Thanks for reading the first edition of the Retrofigure.com blog. I personally rediscovered my interest in wrestling action figures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tuning into the Major Wrestling Figures Podcast and YouTube channel had me hooked once again, as I watched Bryan Myers and Matt Cardona trawl through vintage toy stores looking for old school collectibles. As a child, I remember spending countless hours scouring through Argos' magazine looking for the latest WWF Hasbro releases.
Fast forward today, a software developer by trade, I decided to build a tool for action figure collectors to value their collections. Our goal when building the first prototype of Retrofigure was to only use data from actual completed sales. When we researched the space, we found several sites that don't provide their full methodology behind valuations, nor do they share how often data is updated. This is what separates our site from our competitors - we are transparent with our calculations, we list sales data and our calculations are updated every month.
Our site was first concieved in early 2021, and our data collectors ran for the first time of the same year. Initially, we started to track only WWF Hasbro action figures. After our first couple of months, we decided to begin collection for WCW Galoob, and Mattel's WWE Retro line. Fast forward to 2023, and we scrape sales data for WWF LJN and WWF Bendems' series, too. As time goes on, we will likely expand the lines that we track, and potentially move away from tracking only professional wrestling action figures.
For the month of March 2023, the standout unusual data we found is the total sales of Roddy Piper. Last month, seven mint on card Piper's were sold, ensuring that this figure was the most purchased throughout the month. This is an anomaly of sorts, as Piper is actually the fourth most popular MOC figure since we starting pulling data in May 2021. In a combined second place, four Hasbro figures were the most sold. The Bearhug Hogan joined the purple card Hacksaw Jim Duggan, whilst a usual favourite Jake the Snake Roberts also had five sales, alongside Butch the Bushwhacker. What's most notable about Butch's five MOC sales, is that Luke was sold just twice.
With regards to loose WWF Hasbro figures, Hulk Hogan series 1 came in at the very top, with 41 sales. The Bearhug variant followed with 37 loose sales. The Ultimate Warrior came in next, with 36 sales, as the Gorilla Press variant came in third most popular.
In March 2023, both the Legion of Doom Tag Team set as well as the Nasty Boys mint on card both saw large increases in value. Across the board, most values did not move a great deal. However, on the loose side, there had been some large movements, with the series 1 Ultimate Warrior and Jim the Anvil Neidhart value's dropping 8%, followed by Macho King Randy Savage loose's value increasing by 7%.
