By Michael Moore, PWTorch Collectibles specialist

In Brief: John Cena's first action figure from Jakks-Pacific bears little resemblance to WWE's top star today.




Action Figure Spotlight #16: Jakks-Pacific Ruthless Aggression Series 1 John Cena
Originally released: 2002
What you can expect to pay: $5-15
Recent Sales: $5.50

Hey, who is that guy in the purple and yellow tights? He kinda looks like Charlie Haas. Believe it or not, that’s John Cena.

Long before he was making bad rap albums or preaching about rising above hate, John Cena was a nondescript bodybuilder in brightly colored trunks trying to find his way in the WWE. Jakks-Pacific included Cena in its first series of Ruthless Aggression action figures in 2002 – just the first of dozens of Cena figures to come.

Cena’s first figure captures him wearing purple tights with yellow stripes down the sides. For some reason, he also comes packaged with a red gas can with the WWE logo on the side.

Even though this is the first figure ever made of one of the top stars in wrestling history, it usually sells pretty low. The biggest factor in the value of this figure is probably the sheer volume of Cena toys. If you walk into any major retailer, you’ll probably find plenty of Cena toys on the shelf.
Cena experimented with different looks before settling on the jean shorts and tennis shoes. Jakks made figures of him wearing red sweat pants, full-length blue jeans, football jerseys, and what appear to be women’s Capri pants.

Cena’s toys have gotten considerably better over the years. If you’re looking for a high dollar, expensive figure of his, Mattel released a Defining Moments toy of Cena last year that comes with plenty of accessories and can be found for about $25 or so. If you’re looking for a cheaper figure, the new Tribute to the Troops line of figures from Mattel includes a cool Cena with a baseball cap and removable dog tags.

However, if you’re a big Cena fan who wants to own his first figure, you can usually find this figure for under $15, either loose or in the package.

Collectibles News

Ringsidecollectibles.com is currently offering loose figures of some of their exclusive Jakks toys at very low prices. For example, the Sting and Hulk Hogan two-pack from 2011 sells for $21.99. However, Ringside Collectibles is offering a limited number of loose figures for $11.99. These two figures have sold as high as $20 loose on eBay, so finding both of them for $11.99 is a steal. If you’re interested in any of these figures, act quickly; loose figures of Jeff Hardy and Sting sold out almost as soon as they were made available.

-- Mattel’s Tribute to the Troops Kmart exclusive figures are available now. The figures of Randy Orton, Big Show, John Cena, and Rey Mysterio are dressed in patriotic military gear. Kmart is selling them for $9.99 each, but some are selling considerably higher online.

-- Mattel recently announced new WWE figures planned for 2012. The 15th series of Elite figures will include many of the usual suspects, but also figures of Sin Cara and Yokozuna, which are bound to be hot items. Toys R Us will be offering four new Best of Pay-Per-View exclusives, which includes John Cena and Triple H (available now) from WrestleMania 27 and Daniel Bryan and Bret Hart from Summerslam 2010.

Sloppy Signature Answer

The sloppy signature in last week's column belonged to Christian. Congratulations to Michael Tisdale, Dai Yut, and other readers who knew the answer.

Michael Moore can be contacted at michaelmoorewriter@gmail.com.

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