- 02/21/2006 (3:21:50 pm)
- STOMWIJF Michiel DeGraaf
Vive la France…..Vive L’Empereur, loyal subjects!
Well, to be honest when I first saw this figure on eBay I did not know what to think about it.
Was this guy a real wrestler? ……..Was it a custom figure? ………..How tall was it? …………Was it real?
I have a general rule when it comes down to buying figures. When in doubt, just buy the figure. I might regret parting with same cash, but I would regret passing up an unique figure more. It was only $ 25.00, so what did I have to loose?
After I received the figure I did some research on the internet and found out that L’ Empereur was a wrestler from the independent wrestling scene and had in fact wrestled legends such as the Ugandan head hunter Kamala and The Honkytonk Man. Obviously he was a rule-breaker. Portraying a French Napoleon-like aristocrat is a pretty sure way to get fans to dislike you. Basically the WWE did the same thing with La Rèsistance.
After more research I found out that the American eBay seller I had bought the figures actually WAS L’ Empereur himself. I had never bought a wrestling figure from the actual wrestler before. Personally I think it is a pretty cool idea for an independent wrestler would go to the effort to make a figure in his own likeness as promotional material.
The figure itself is about 8 inches tall, made in 2002 and pretty cool to own. It’s a limited edition of 100 pieces and mine is marked # 6 out of that 100 pieces. It appears to be hand-painted and made of cold cast resin. As elbow joints L’ Empereur has two screws which secure the movement. It’s not articulate anywhere else. It is marked as being part of Action Figures Series 1, but I doubt if there ever was a Series 2. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if L‘ Empereur still has some left for sale. Anyway…….
The carding is pretty basic. The paper insert is very colourful, has a lot of good pictures and contains a good biography of L’ Empereur, like vital statistics (he’s nearly 200 centimetres tall!), favourite pass times (kicking servants, swilling champagne and eating frog’s legs) and of course his favourite moves (Vive La
I have looked on the internet a couple of times to see if L’ Empereur is still an active wrestler, but I haven’t been able to find much more information on him lately.
Still it is one of the more quirky figures of my collection and I am glad I decided to purchase it was I could.
-“STOMWIJF” Michiel de Graaf.
