By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: Companies like LJN, Hasbro, Jakks, and Mattel have produce a variety of wrestling rings, cages, and other playsets.

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Author’s note: This article focuses on wrestling rings from various WWF and WWE toy lines. Rings from AWA, WCW, TNA, and other wrestling toy lines will be featured in next Thursday’s Collectibles Column. If there is a ring you would like to see included in that article, send an e-mail to michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com.

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Playsets have been a big part of the fun for kids and toy collectors for several decades. In the 1970s, G.I. Joe had a pretty cool space shuttle. In the 1980s, Kenner created toys of almost every planet, base and vehicle from the original Star Wars trilogy, and He-Man battled Skeletor for the power of Castle Greyskull.

Wrestling fans usually didn’t have very many options. During the 1980s and most of the 1990s, the lone playset for wrestling action figures was a simple wrestling ring. As wrestling toys evolved, the rings became more complex.

Perhaps the most well-known wrestling ring ever made was released by LJN in 1985 as a part of the WWF Wrestling Superstars line. The “Sling ‘Em-Fling ‘Em” ring featured a plastic white base, blue plastic corner posts and turnbuckles and red, white, and blue ropes. From 1985 to 1989, LJN sold approximately 1.4 million of these rings.

The sides of the ring were covered with stickers featuring cartoonish fans, announcers and cameramen. The rings were difficult for kids to assemble, especially the ropes, which had to be looped through each turnbuckle.

After the WrestleMania 2 main event of Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy, LJN released a steel cage accessory. The plastic cage consisted of four blue panels that snapped onto the ring. Because of the way the cage was made, the connecting pieces broke easily; if even one connecting piece broke, the entire cage became essentially worthless.

In 1991, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a news released stating that LJN had agreed to recall these rings after four children were severely injured by falling onto the four ring posts. The CPSC urged “consumers who own these wrestling ring toys … to remove the four rigid plastic posts immediately. Because the posts are so rigidly secured, consumers may have to break the posts to remove them. LJN Toys Ltd. is out of business and cannot be contacted.”

The original news release is still available online at CPSC.gov .




Hasbro began producing WWF toys in 1990. These toys were much smaller than the previous figures from LJN, and as a result, the ring was considerably smaller as well. The first rings featured a blue plastic base with red, white and blue ropes, with either black or blue turnbuckles. The first rings featured ring posts with square tops, but later rings had plastic circles on top of the square posts. This may have been done as a safety precaution after the LJN ring recall in 1991.

The ring also came with a few accessories, including a WWF title belt. The belt is often missing from loose rings sold on the secondary market today. The gold coloring on the face of the belt wore off very easily so many of the belts that surface today are solid black.

In late 1993 or early 1994, Hasbro produced a similar ring with a yellow base and King of the Ring logos. This ring, like the red carded figures released around this same, was produced in limited quantities, so it is very tough to find today, and considerably more valuable than the blue ring.

Jakks released WWF and WWE figures from 1996 to 2009 and produced dozens of rings during this time. The first rings, designed for play with Jakks’ bone-crunching action toys, were very similar to the old LJN rings. These were sold from 1996 until about 1999 and could often be found for $10 or less.

As the quality of Jakks’s WWE toy line improved, so did the rings. Jakks produced playsets of most of WWE’s top gimmick matches, including steel cages, Hell in a Cell, TLC, the Punjabi Prison, and more. Jakks also made rings with accessories to create playsets of many wrestlers’s interview segments, such as MVP’s Player’s Lounge and Carlito’s Cabana.

Jakks also introduced the first Real Scale Rings, which were considerably larger rings built to scale with the Deluxe Aggression and Classic WWE Superstars figures. These rings were highly detailed, with features such as real cloth turnbuckles and a canvas to cover the ring.

These rings were also considerably more expensive: a Real Scale steel cage from WrestleMania 2 retailed for $99.99, while a Real Scale Elimination Chamber cost a whopping $129.99.

Mattel’s first WWE rings were released in 2010, and several have been produced since then. These rings are very similar in size and quality to the basic Jakks rings, but with much sturdier posts and tighter ropes. Mattel has produced basic rings and FlexForce rings, which include action features, such as steps that launch figures into the ring. Mattel has developed rings with unique features; the Breakthrough Ring features a mat that cracks in half, while the Colossal Crashdown Arena includes a large structure over the ring that comes crashing down.

Mattel has also produced many gimmick rings, including a steel cage, TLC, and Elimination Chamber. An Elite Scale Ring, similar to Jakks’s Real Scale Ring, was released in 2010 for $54.99. Today, the Elite Scale Rings can be found in stores like Big Lots for $30.

As Mattel and other companies keep cranking out wrestling toys, more rings are sure to come.

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