First... if you read the above headline and had a flashback to Jim Halpert mockingly asking Dwight Schrute "What kind of bear is best?" - that was intentional. A great moment from a great TV show.
Second... we here at Wrestling Merchandise and Memories are HUGE fans of the late, great King Kong Bundy. We openly rooted for him to squash Hulk Hogan in the main event of WrestleMania II and paid good money in 1998 to pose for a Polaroid photo with him. Accordingly, we've tried to gobble up all the King Kong Bundy figures on the market.
Third... we fully realize these aren't all the Bundy figs ever created. We'll get into that later.
Fourth... we decided to rank (in reverse order) our favorite Bundy figures for the purposes of this article, at least among the ones in our current collection. Bald, massive and wearing a black tunic, we could probably build a KKB figure from memory and not be far off. The point being, this may be one of the easiest wrestling figures to create from scratch.
Fifth... well, we don't have a fifth thing to share, but we wanted to list five things for the Master Of The Five Count. Here we go!
# 10 - Wrestling Superstars Bendies
As we've written about previously, Bendies were the red-headed stepchild of the LJN figure universe and don't ever get much love. Most of the figures are exact freaking replicas of the larger LJN figures and are hard to hate on.
Not so much with the Bundy one. For one thing, his arms aren't in the menacing position the larger LJN is, so instead he kind of looks like he's... shrugging his shoulders? Not a good look for the guy. Plus, he's taller than all but a couple of Bendies (Andre and Big John Studd) which, proportionately-speaking, doesn't seem all that accurate.
Fun fact: I had this Bendie as a child and went on to ruin it by giving a wig made out of permanent black market. Whoops!
# 9 - Figures Toy Co.
You will see three different variants of the Figures Toy Co. King Kong Bundy figure, each from the short-lived Legends of Professional Wrestling line. And of course, I have each of them.
This one doesn't have any true color or detail to it, because it glows in the dark. So if you're into glow-in-the-dark figs, this is a plus. But for me, I'm not really feeling it. It just felt like the folks at Figures Toy wanted to get extra use of their Bundy mold.
# 8 - Figures Toy Co.
Sure, this isn't the world's most detailed wrestling figure... but it honestly doesn't need to be. As I mentioned earlier, you can be fairly simple with the design and still have it look a lot like The Great Bundy. Plus his arms are articulated, so you can position him for the Avalanche if you're so inclined.
# 7 - Figures Toy Co. (bloody variant)
As I mentioned in the article Bundy, Bloody Bundy - blood wasn't really a big part of King Kong Bundy's repetoire, so in and of itself, this isn't really an accurate depiction of the guy. Plus.... look at that blade job! KKB would have probably needed a transfusion to deal with this! But being bloody makes an ordinary figure better (just ask AEW's Blood & Guts set... assuming action figure sets could talk), so this one gets the win over its other Figures Toy brethren.
# 6 - Micro Brawlers
As I mentioned in the article Micro Brawlers: A Tribute, I went out of my way to order this minifig of The Walking Condominium.
The figure doesn't disappoint! A perfect miniature representation of KKB, this one even has him requesting the five-count. Unfortunately, this figure isn't articulated at all (like all Micro Brawlers), and they gave him eyebrows for some unforgiveable reason.
# 5 - WWE Mattel (WWE Legends)
For years, I'd been searching for this King Kong Bundy figure - a release by Mattel in the early days of the license and only available on its Matty Collector site. Finding a version of the secondary market isn't impossible, but some sell for upwards of $500 still in package, and that was too rich for my blood.
Now that I finally have it... it's kind of mid, to be honest.
Bundy is too tall and skinny, especially compared with many of his Mattel counterparts. The face scan is decent enough, but the T-shirt it comes with is a bastardized version of his merch shirt (which I don't believe he ever wore, outside of the WWF Magazine catalog). And they didn't even get rights to his full name! The figure is known simply as "Bundy."
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad I have a Mattel Bundy in my collection; it's just not everything I hoped it would be.
# 4 - Jakks Pacific (Classic Superstars)
Generally speaking, we prefer WWE Mattel figures to their Jakks Pacific predecessors... but here's one fig that gets all the big things right.
For beginners, the figure is HUGE and stands out in a crowd. The face sculpt is pretty awesome and his bald dome has traces of stubble on it. His hand is signaling for the five count. Plus it's hard to be mad at a removable cloth tunic that (if you are so inclined) would allow you to see Bundy in his undies.
A few small nits: This Bundy also has eyebrows (look at most of his pictures for his WWF glory days run and he actually doesn't have them) and he's also missing knee pads, which was a fairly common gripe for Jakks figures back in the day.
Note: This version was sold in a Classic Superstars three-pack along with The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff.
# 3 - Jakks Pacific (Classic Superstars)
You might be wondering what the difference is between this Jakks Pacific figure (which was sold in a single Classic Superstars package) and the previous entry.
In truth, the differences are fairly minor. For example, Bundy has less stubble on his head (which is more realistic). His face scan is ever-so-slightly different. And his tunic fits a little bit better.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess, but I prefer this version.
#2 - Wrestling's Heels and Faces
The newest version of King Kong Bundy is certainly one of the most impressive.
Part of Zombie Sailor Toys' Wrestling's Heels and Faces line, Bundy fits in perfectly with your Hasbro/Retro collection, and is a much needed addition to any serious collector's line.
While I don't love the eyebrows on him, the rest of the figure is a home run, including a menacing look on his face, and one hand signaling for the five count.
#1 - Wrestling Superstars
Talk about the O.G. This was the first Bundy and in our humble opinion, by far the best.
When they made this figure in 1985, they quite literally broke the mold. There's no else like him - he's massive, intimidating and if you threw him at your buddy's head, there's a decent they would suffer permanent brain damage.
We love this version of Bundy so much that he was our first inductee in the (prestigious) Canadian Bulldog's World LJN Wrestling Figure Hall of Fame back in 2014.
AND they made him without eyebrows!
In terms of the King Kong Bundy figs that we at Wrestling Merchandise and Memories don't have? We believe there are only two at present - both of which are ridiculously expensive and/or hard to find on the secondary market:
Wrestling Superstars Thumb Wrestlers - Packaged with Paul Orndorff, this thumb wrestler is a decent likeness of KKB and is sized relatively to scale with the others in this series.
Wrestling Superstars Stretch Wrestlers - Filled with some of powdery gel that makes his limbs snap back into place after you stretch him to smithereens, this may be the best figure in the entire Stretch Wrestlers line. King Kong Bundy is even the official spokesperson for the line! You may notice that, in the photo at the top of this article, we have the "head" from the figure, which is as close as we'll likely get to owning this beauty.
In addition, Zombie Sailor Toys has teased a King Kong Bundy 7" figure coming out at some point in 2025, which we're anxiously awaiting!