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The WCW Galoob Action Figure line was an action figure toyline based on the wrestlers of the now defunct World Championship Wrestling promotion (WCW). They were made by the toy company Galoob from 1990 to 1991. The toys were made of a solid plastic pose, with no animation. Some were sold with accessories and every figure had a gold belt with "WCW" printed on it in black. Dustin Rhodes figure has a special belt with 9 adjustment notches, all others had 6 adjustment notches. This line was designed to compete with the recently released WWF Hasbro Action Figures line, as the figures were about the same size.
The figures were released in the United States in 1990, and were re-released in the United Kingdom in 1991. Ten of the original twelve figures were released in the UK, but with different color outfits. Tom Zenk and Butch Reed were not released in the UK set. The UK set also released some brand new figures, known as UK exclusives. The UK exclusives were not a set that was intended to be only released in the UK, they were supposed to be part of the 2nd series in the US along with some of the ones that were seen later as prototypes. Jim Ross made reference to it at some point either on his radio show or on TV that the 2nd series was in the works & would be released soon. Releasing these new figures in the UK was a salvage & recovery idea Galoob came up with because the 1st set had not been released there & Galoob assumed that this WCW line was a bust in the US because of their lack of research to just how large the fan base was.
KMART was the 1st chain to carry the toys. TOYS R US didn't even have them. KMART sold these for months with no competition and did very well with them which was part of the problem that ended the line. The fact that KMART did so well with these for so long, TOYS R US finally put in a huge order for them and then several other department stores did as well not realizing that by then 90% of the fan base already purchased them. So TOYS R US and others did not fare as well as KMART did and before too long these ended up being closed out with bargain prices in close out stores such as KB Toys.
Seemingly, if Galoob would have re-released the 1st line again to the other retailers as the repainted versions with different color outfits, or waited until the 2nd series (the ones that ended up being the UK exclusives) were finished and ready to ship, the line would have done much better & lasted a few more sets at very least.
Even their competition, the Hasbro line had to tweak the number of pieces for each set several times to avoid over production. It seems that Hasbro did better market research and because of this their figure line lasted from 1990 until 1995.
The very first shipment of WCW Galoob figures in the US had a package variant that has "Presents the Superstars of the NWA" instead of "Presents the Superstars of WCW". Only six figures came this way; Sting, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner. These are valued a bit more than the later shipments among collectors today.
The US released figures are usually valued from $10US to $20US in great condition. The UK line, especially the UK exclusives are considerably more valuable, with the loose figures ranging from $5US to $30US and MOC figures from $25US to more than $200US
