An action figure marking the greatest moment in Jeff Hardy‘s career was cancelled before it was release – but was finally made available to fans 8 years later!
Jeff Hardy is one of the most popular wrestlers of all time and a legend in the WWE. A former World Champion and tag team champion, he was one of the most successful wrestlers of his era and made history by being one of the very few men (alongside CM Punk) to outsell John Cena in merchandise sales.
Because of this, he was an obvious choice to be chosen for multiple action figures in the WWE toy line. And he was, when Mattel received the license to make WWE figures and decided that he would be a perfect choice for the Mattel Elite Series 1 line.
The set featured a number of the WWE Superstars of the day in frighteningly accurate detail. Five figures were released for the set, including four World Champions and one former United States Champion. The five WWE Superstars included in the set were
- Edge
- MVP
- CM Punk
- Rey Mysterio
- The Undertaker
However, Jeff Hardy was not included on this list. He was announced as part of the set, with his figure commemorating his WWE Championship victory over Edge and Triple H at Armageddon 2008. This figure would have been huge for young fans of the Charismatic Enigma and figure collectors, had it been released as part of the set.
The Jeff Hardy Elite Series 1 figure was never released. He left the company in the summer of 2009, following a heated rivalry with CM Punk over the World Heavyweight Championship. Due to him leaving the company (and promptly signing with TNA the following January) the figure release was scrapped and was never released to the public. Some prototypes that were made did eventually make it into circulation, becoming one of the most expensive figures ever made for WWE and costing hundreds to thousands of dollars to purchase.
The figure was eventually released in 2017, when the Hardy Boys returned to the company at Wrestlemania 33. Mattel released the Elite Series 1 Jeff Hardy figure in 2017, under the Entrance Greats collection. The original design was slightly altered, adding more detail and higher quality parts due to the improvement of technology over the decade.
The figure features the classic green and black face paint, white and black arm bands to complete the iconic Jeff Hardy look from that era. It even came with an “entrance base” that played his theme song “No More Words” when stepped upon, adding an extra incentive to purchase this iconic figure.
