Cool Stuff: Zac Efron As Kevin Von Erich Gets An Official Iron Claw Action Figure From A24
Long before A24 produced Sean Durkin's emotionally obliterating drama "The Iron Claw" (read our review here), the stars at the center of the story, The Von Erichs, were wrestling royalty. It's difficult to fully encompass just how huge the Von Erich Boys were, both in size/stature and popularity. These were wrestlers so famous they appeared in commercials, had their own comic book series, and were known the world over without the assistance of national television or the internet. In fact, Durkin grew up watching old VHS tapes of Von Erich matches that took place in Texas while he was living in England. This is to say that if you know where to look, there's a hell of a lot of Von Erich merch floating out there. Autographed photos, T-shirts, bandanas, trading cards, posters, magazines, replica belts, and even the World Class Wrestling Von Erich-themed board game, are ready to ease that hole burning in your pocket.
Well, A24 is now living the gimmick, by annoucing that the official Zac Efron-as-Kevin Von Erich Action Figure from "The Iron Claw" coming to the A24 shop next month for pre-order. The figure is modeled after Efron's likeness in the film, featuring a removable Golden Warrior jacket. Boots do not come with the figure, because Kev loved that barefoot wrasslin' life.
Folks might be wondering why the figure is specifically "Zac Efron as Kevin Von Erich" and not just a figure of Kevin Von Erich. Excluding the fact this is tie-in merchandise and therefore should reflect the likeness shown in the movie, WWE still actively sells both Kerry and Kevin Von Erich figures as part of their WWE Legends collection with Ringside Collectibles. The Kevin figure also comes barefoot.
This is not the first Zac Efron figure
Efron's beefy wrestling figure may not look a lot like him, but most wrestling figures from the 1980s look like the result of a witch's curse and melted plastic, so I'm quite endeared by the very intense eyes and stiff hair. He's gonna look great on my own shelf of wrestling figures, right next to my vintage Ric Flair with dead eyes and twice the thigh thickness than the Nature Boy ever had in real life. This new figure is also a great collector's item for anyone else who has been following Efron's career for decades, and might already own his earlier figures.
That's right, Zac Efron has been transformed into a toy before "The Iron Claw," as Disney partnered with Mattel to put out Troy Bolton dolls for "High School Musical," "High School Musical 2," and "High School Musical 3." All of them have terrible hair and don't really look like Efron, just some weird styling on an existing Ken doll face mold.
The real winner though is when New Line Cinema partnered with Play Along Toys for a line of "Hairspray" dolls, because their take on Efron's Link Larkin actually looks like him, complete with a cute lil' 1960s front curl.
Golden Warrior warm-up jacket included pic.twitter.com/j31zxE18QH
— A24 (@A24) January 18, 2024
The back of the A24 figure features a character row at the bottom which theoretically implies that there would be more figures, but given how expensive it is to make custom face molds for figures, it's unlikely that there will be more toys made, so I will just have to continue pining over the David Von Erich figures custom toy modders make online since he's never gotten an official release. And as depressing as it is, Kevin being sold by himself is thematically appropriate.
The figure is available for pre-order through the A24 shop now.