The downside of having a rather big wrestling collection is that sometimes figures get lost somewhere in your collection. Because I have a limited amount of shelve-space I am forced to keep some of my figures in storage bins. Last week I felt a need to go through some of them again.

What I found was an old BCA Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart figure from the Bret vs. Owen Family Feud two pack. It was the first Bret Hart in all pink attire, like he wore in his WrestleMania VIII match against Rowdy Roddy Piper.

Obviously I knew I had this figure MOC, but I had almost forgotten I also had it loose. If memory serves me correctly I got him in a trade of some sorts about eight years ago. I was pretty excited when I got this figure back then, but now looking at it….. I must say that it is lacking an awful lot.

Anyway since Jakks has released a Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart in CS 3 in 2004 wearing the exact same attire I decided to make some comparison pictures and a short review.

Points of articulation

Bret Hart’s BCA figure has six points of articulation: both arms, both legs, neck and waist.

Bret Hart’s Classic Series RA figure has no less than sixteen points of articulation: both feet, both knees, both upper legs, waist, both wrists, both elbow, both upper arms, both shoulders and neck.

The advantage here is clearly for the Classic Series Bret.

Head

Bret Hart’s BCA figure has a sculpted head. It doesn’t look that bad, but frankly it doesn’t look like Bret Hart either. The sculptors didn’t really do their best on this particular figure. The typical cocky Bret Hart smirk is there, but only just. The face is also much too long and too skinny.

The Classic Series however has the benefit of being a real scan figure. The likeness therefore is without nay doubt. It is dead on.

The advantage here is clearly for the Classic Series Bret again.

Height

Pretty clear….. the Classic Series is a full inch taller than his BCA counterpart.

Yet again Classic Bret wins.

Accessories

The BCA Bret Hart did not have any accessories, but I gave him the classic Intercontinental Belt (from the Championship Titles BCA boxed set). It is a bit smallish, but even so I prefer it to the newer version because it has painted details.

The Classic Series Bret Hart did come with the Intercontinental Belt, but it was the later version of that belt, not the original Classic version it. That’s a small point that needed to be improved upon. So…. To make a good comparison I added a Classic Belt to him.

Besides the belt, the Classic Bret also came with removable kneepads, elbow pads and shades. The BCA did have all of those, but they wore molded on.

Another notch for the 2004 Classic Bret Hart.

All in all, this is a landslide victory for the 2004 Version of the WrestleMania VIII Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart. He knocks his 8 year old counterpart out with 4-0.

Jakks have come a long way since the BCA days and have improved on everything. The figures are looking better than ever, have better accessories than ever and even have much better playability.

You may wonder if I think that the BCA figures have no positive points……..well they do !

The BCA figures got me interested in collecting wrestling figures again. I was very excited back when Jakks picked up the license Hasbro had lost some years before that. Some of the BCA are excellent figures, just not as excellent as the figures made today