It’s Friday. You know what that means. It’s time for another Figure Friday column brought to you by the fine folks at Outrun Collectibles. This week we take a look at the recently released AEW Unmatched Series 2 Santana and Ortiz.
There are certain wrestlers that have ring gear that screams to be captured in figure form. Rey Mysterio Jr. Jeff Hardy. Sting. Darby Allin. They call those wrestlers toyetic and it’s time to start including Santana and Ortiz in that conversation. This is the second time that Santana and Ortiz have graced the AEW line. Much of what we get this time around is reuse from their Unrivaled Series 4 figures. The good news? The addition of multiple heads and hands provides enough variation between the two offerings to make these worthy additions to your AEW collection.
Many wrestlers in 2022 are in tune with figure culture. They know that keeping their look fresh means more demand for an updated figure. Santana and Ortiz have embraced this philosophy by constantly changing their appearance. It seems likely that we’ll get the team’s Dead Presidents inspired ring gear in the very near future as well. Figures that once again, I will be excited to get my hands on.
Be proud and be powerful with Santana in AEW Unmatched Series 2 from Jazwares! Santana includes a roaring head scan and an interchangeable mean mug version, both with black bandanas. He’s sporting accurate tattoos and has one elbow pad and an orange adjustable overall. He’s also wearing molded tights, has black knee pads and boots and features interchangeable Puerto Rican gloved hand accessories!
Santana gets shorted on accessories this time around. His previous offering also included a soft goods Puerto Rican flag and a sock full of oranges. The biggest change with Unrivaled Series 2 is bright orange accents to the overalls and a nice “roaring” open-mouthed face sculpt. They also don’t call attention to it, but one of the sets of hands appear to have trigger fingers. Nothing surprising if we were looking at a GI Joe: Classified or Star Wars Black Series figure, but to have them included on a wrestling figure is a bit of a new look. I’m not against it by any means, but I hope this means that Jazwares would also be open to giving us some middle finger hands in the near future. Sell me an Inner Circle accessory pack with all the biker vests and alternate middle finger hands and you’d probably have people buying it for the hand options alone.
The pride joins the power with Ortiz in AEW Unmatched Series 2 from Jazwares! Ortiz has a protruding tongue head sculpt and a mean mug version, both with teal bandanas. He’s also wearing a grey ring shirt beneath camo style overalls with hints of orange, yellow and black included. This Ortiz is rounded out with interchangeable, gloved hand accessories!
Ortiz steals the show once again with his head sculpts. As with his previous offering, this figure has two very different looks, both of which are done very well. The biggest problem here is that both versions are worthy of being displayed. It’s tough to choose favorites. Some other minor changes this time around are the booted feet (the previous version had toe shoes) and the overalls are no longer around the waste, but instead fastened at the bib. The figure I was able to pick up does have some paint issues around his chest area. Where the shirt stops and the tattoo work begins isn’t exactly clean. It’s one of those things that will always jump out to me, but most people admiring my collection wouldn’t pick up on it unless I pointed it out to them.
Overall, this is another quality pair of figures for Santana and Ortiz. Ortiz is the most toyetic member of the team. That’s not taking anything away from Santana, it’s just the fact that Ortiz has some great facial expressions that are screaming to be captured in figure form. That being said, it’s also difficult to buy one member of Proud and Powerful and not pick up the other (especially if they’re in matching ring gear). Jazwares went to the well again by reusing many of the same parts. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m a big fan of Proud and Powerful, so this is an easy addition to my own personal collection. If you already have the version from Unrivaled 4 or aren’t a huge Santana and Ortiz fan, you may want to wait for the inevitable Dead Presidents version we’re sure to get down the road. If you passed on the original versions, these are both excellent pick ups for your figure feds.
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If you enjoyed the figure photography this week, you can check out more photo shoots over on my YouTube channel. You can also join me there most Saturday nights for The Night Owls Livestream where my friends and I discuss the weekly happenings in figures and pop culture!
