Titan Tron Live: The series that almost ended my collecting days.
In 1999, Jakks Pacific made a huge decision. Their Bone Crunching Action (BCA) series of WWF Figures was a success, with a good roster of characters, and a good release schedule and frequency. However, their parts choices started to become questionable (Ahmed Johnson legs on Rock, Austin, Shamrock, and HHH), but they were what we had. The BCA figures would be phased out, in favor of a new style and technology, Titan Tron Live!
Enter the Titan Tron Live figures. The Titan Tron Live entrance stage was released, with a new style of figures to follow. Titan Tron Live (TTL) figures featured a chip that would activate a sound module on the entrance stage, which would play a short music clip and light up the stage.
There was excitement around the introduction of TTL figures, while the Bone Crunching figures were being phased down in a final few waves. As a result for me, this was a letdown, as I was a big collector of the BCA line and had acquired almost all releases, other than some repaints. After the Hasbros ended and Bone Crunchers began, I was not interested in restarting my collection yet again.
Simultaneously, the TTL figures were phased in. At the introduction, the figures were in Survivor Series, then Smackdown and Wrestlemania themed packaging.
One Problem
The figures were trash. Some of the worst wrestling figures ever released were in the introduction of the TTL series. See below:
Woof. The attires were fine, but those face and head sculpts were in a word, garbage. Cartoon-like, wild eyed and exaggerated faces littered the first few sets of TTL figures.
For me, the Titan Tron figures were a hard pass. The main focus characters were HHH, The Rock, Kane, Undertaker, X-Pac, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, Mankind, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Over the first few waves and two packs, these characters were released many times. This resulted in the lowest interest level for me in collecting wrestling figures.
New Characters!
Just like in the real WWF, around the end of 1999, there was a wave of new talent on the scene. The Titan Tron series quickly reflected this. There were releases of Chris Jericho, Rikishi, and Kurt Angle among other new faces to fill up the roster.
Real Scan Technology
Another great development was the introduction of Real Scan Technology, which made the wrestlers’ faces look more accurate and realistic. This was a tremendous improvement from the first few waves, and made the TTL line a success. This is around the time I began picking up new figures, picking up the habit again.
The figures shown below are my personal favorites of the Titan Tron line, and the photos are from figurerealm.com
ECW saves the day for the Titan Tron Live line
I want to give special mention to the next three figures, as they jumped to WWE late in 1999, and immediately had a strong impact. These are some of the best figures ever made. As a result, when I started getting back into figure collecting they are among the first TTL figures I bought.
Titan Tron Live: Rulers of the Ring
Up Next, Rulers of the Ring was a four-set Titan Tron Live series, and they featured some of the best figures Jakks ever made, in some cases, best figures made period. Eddie Guerrero, Justin Credible, Perry Saturn, Raven, and Albert were among the highlights as shown below:
Unchained Fury
Unchained Fury was another stellar wave of Titan Tron figures, released in late 2002. The hook to these? They were all “first time in the line” figures. My personal highlights were Booker T, The Hurricane, Lance Storm, Rob Van Dam, and Tajiri.
Famous Scenes
The Famous Scenes 2 packs were a good addition to the Titan Tron line. These were a beginning to having “classic” figures in the modern line, as they were presented in match accurate attire from a specific event. My favorite Famous Scene set was HHH vs Cactus Jack, from No Way Out 2000. For a long time, this was the best HHH figure available.
Some other TTL Highlights:
In conclusion:
The Titan Tron Live series was a natural evolution of the WWF action figure timeline. In 2001, the R3 Tech line was introduced. R3 was a line of figures made by Jakks Pacific that were the first to feature “real scan technology.” The figures not only had real scan heads, but real scan bodies. A handful of unique bodies were made, then those bodies were used for various characters. This line was short lived. In 2003, the next incarnation arrived, the Ruthless Aggression series. The RA and TTL figures were in the same scale, so it was much easier to transition from one group to the next, and even blend the collections. TTL bodies continued being used until 2009 with modern characters, mostly in four packs available at Toys R Us.
