Foolishly Ignorant

It's my godson's birthday in a little over a week from now, so - seeing as I am currently out of touch when it comes to what the kids of today like - I bought a gift voucher for him on the Smyth's Toys website.

After making my purchase, I found myself clicking on the 'WWE Wrestling' link on the menu. I wanted to check out the latest items on the website.

I noticed a few things from my browsing session.

First - there were THREE different Cody Rhodes figures. That intrigued me because of the fact that, after April 7th, he should be the number one guy in the company.

Having three different action figures is a good sign that the WWE machine is behind him.

Another thing I noticed was a 'Rowdy' Rowdy Piper figure. It resulted in me feeling foolish.

Here's the figure of note.

Upon seeing Piper dressed in a white vest and blue jeans - with a blue lumberjack shirt as an added accessory - I thought to myself 'when has he ever worn that?!'

And then I continued with my day.

I didn't think any more bout the Piper figure until late last night, when I was on Twitter, and happened to come across an account which had a picture of that very same figure inside its box.

This time, Piper was dressed in the lumberjack shirt and was wearing the sunglasses I had missed when I saw the figure (I am trying not to type 'toy') earlier in the day.

Seeing Piper clad in the full outfit made me realise I had been ignorant.

Foolishly ignorant at that.

I was right when I noted Piper had never worn that costume in his career as a pro wrestler. However, he had worn it in what was the biggest movie he starred in.

As you can see above, it all makes sense now. The Piper figure is of the character he played in John Carpenter's They Live.

I shook my head at how silly I was.

And then I thought 'what a brilliant idea!'

With a figure like that, Mattel is not only marketing to the wrestling fans. The company is also looking to interest Sci-Fi or horror movie aficionados. 

What a marvellous bit of merchandising. It's a shame it took me almost half a day to figure it out.