The Corner Penthouse

Undoubtedly, if you've been to a Target store, you've seen the "cards and collectibles" section at the end of the checkout lanes. It's where you'll find all of the sports cards, Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and all of that other overpriced junk. I almost always look at what's there, but rarely every buy anything as I can't justify the prices - especially considering the "blind bag" nature of these things. If I'm gonna spend $4 to $5 on a few measly cards, I at least want to know what I'm buying.

On a recent visit to my local Target, I saw these red Wrestling mystery repack boxes from The Fairfield Company (a division of Excell Marketing), which I expected to be priced at $15 or $20 each. Imagine my surprise when the price checker showed them to be a mere $4.99 each. I bought all four boxes that my local Target had, as well as another box at a different Target. So, five boxes in total, at a total cost of $25.00 (plus tax). The big draw for me were the Teenymates packs, which my Target was also selling individually for $3.99 each. Getting TWO packs for $4.99, PLUS three packs of cards, and two packs of erasers was a much MUCH better deal than just one pack of Teenymates for $1.00 less. (Note: The photos accompanying this review were taken at different times, so they may not show everything I mention in my text.)


Each one of these boxes contains the following:

• 2 packs of WWE Teenymates (2015) (regularly $3.99 each)
• 2 packs of WWE Eraseez collectible puzzle erasers (2015)
• 2 packs of Road To Wrestlemania 2014 cards
• 1 pack of random WWE cards (2010/2013/2014 series, in my case)

That's not a bad haul for the price, but did I really get my money's worth. Let's crack these open and find out.


With the five boxes, I got 10 packs of WWE Teenymates (Series 1 from 2015 by Party Animal Toys). Each pack contains two mini figures (one sealed, one loose), two puzzle pieces, and a checklist. Of the 20 figures and 20 puzzles pieces, only four of each were duplicates. That's better luck than I usually have. I didn't get any of the four rare ones.

Although I didn't photograph them, the 16 unique figures I got are: Bret Hart, Brock Lesnar, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Goldust, Jey Uso, Kofi Kingston, Macho Man Randy Savage, Nikki Bella, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, and The Undertaker. Duplicates were Jey Uso, Macho Man Randy Savage, Randy Orton, and Triple H; as seen in the photo below with the four duplicate puzzle pieces. (I didn't photograph the uniques.)


The tiny figures are about an inch tall and have a hole in the bottom, which is probably so they can be used as pencil toppers. I actually liked them more than anything else in the pack (they're really cute), and spent a nice chunk of change to complete the set (and get the entire Series 2 set) on eBay. The four rare figures in each series (eight total) are too costly for me to go after, but I will get an exclusive Macho Man glow-in-the-dark variant with the Series 1 Collector's Tin (also here and here).

UPDATE 6/14/2017 - Be sure to check out The Corner Penthouse on Facebook to find out about the time I got the ultra rare Series 2 Glow-in-the-Dark Finn Balor figure by buying a single pack - and got a display box, too!


With the five boxes, I got 10 packs of WWE Eraseez (from 2015 by Bulls-i-Toy - a division of Excell Marketing, same parent company as Fairfield, the makers of these repack boxes). Each pack contains two buildable erasers and a checklist. Here I did not have as great luck as with the Teenymates. In fact, I got really screwed with the 20 eraser figures. First, let me run through the breakdown of the nine figures in the set and how many of each I received.

• Big Show - 5.
• Daniel Bryan - 1.
• Dolph Ziggler - 3.
• John Cena - 2.
• Randy Orton - 1.
• Ryback - 2.
• Sheamus - 1.
• The Miz - 4.
• The Rock - 1.

If you looked at those stats, and the photo above, you would think that I had a complete set of all 9 eraser figures. You would be right, were it not for the fact that a whopping SIX of these things are DEFECTIVE/MISSING PIECES!!!

• Randy Orton - no head, extra arm.
• Big Show - no left leg, two extra right legs and extra arm.
• John Cena - no right leg.
• Dolph Ziggler - no right arm, two left arms, unpainted kneepads.
• Dolph Ziggler - unpainted kneepads.
• The Miz - stain on right shoulder.

Of these six, Randy Orton is the most problematic as I would have a whole set were it not for his missing head. I e-mailed Bulls-i-Toy to see if they'd be willing to provide replacements for their defective product. I am waiting to hear back from them. (UPDATE BELOW)


For what it's worth, the Eraseez aren't that bad. Yeah, they are exaggerated caricatures of the wrestlers they represent, which may be a turn off to some, but I'm kinda digging them. That said, I'm not digging the cheapness of the parts. A lot of the parts don't fit properly, and the figures tend to be fragile because parts will fall off if you handle them. I really wish they would have came as one-piece figures and not as buildable figures.

UPDATE - JUNE 14, 2017

After several e-mails and messages (via Facebook) to Bulls-i-Toy, I received a reply from them two weeks later. They sent me six sealed replacement packs to make up for the defective figures.

I got scared when I opened the first five packs and saw no Randy Orton (the one missing the head I needed for my set). Luckily, he was in pack #6 with his head. Here what I got in the six replacement packs they sent me: 1 Randy Orton (with head), 2 John Cena, 1 Big Show, 3 The Miz, 1 Sheamus, and 4 Ryback. Yeah, FOUR Rybacks and almost as many Mizes. Considering how many Mizes I got in my original 10 packages, I think they seriously overproduced him.

Here's a photo of my now complete set.

I'm considering the "complete" Dolph Ziggler with unpainted kneepads to be a factory error "variant", which gives me a complete set of 10.

Now let's get to the final item in these mystery boxes: the Topps WWE trading cards. Three per box, with the five boxes, I got 15 packs. Each box contained two Road To Wrestlemania 2014 packs, plus another random pack. Here's the breakdown all of I got.

• 10 packs of Road To Wrestlemania 2014 cards
• 1 pack of WWE 2010 cards
• 1 pack of WWE 2013 cards
• 3 pack of WWE 2014 cards

For whatever reason, I opened them up in chronological order, so here's the contents of the lone WWE 2010 pack.


I don't collect cards anymore because it's just way too expensive to try to put together a complete set. It's not like when I was a kid, when I could buy a display box of 48 packs of Garbage Pail Kids cards for $12.00 ($0.25 a pack) and was pretty much guaranteed a complete set of 82 cards. There were no subsets, premium cards, rarities, or any of that nonsense. There was a base set and that was it. Not counting collector-determined "variants", which were really just factory errors, not intentional variants (none of which I knew about as a little kid). Collecting was a lot more fun, and way cheaper, in those days.

So, I didn't expect to get much out of the card packs in these boxes. I was hoping to get a hit of an autograph or memorabilia card, but I'm usually not that lucky. (I'm not totally unlucky as I have found a few hits in some WWF & WWE packs many years ago. Mostly mat canvas and shirt swatches.) I had a HUGE smile on my face when I opened the WWE 2010 pack and found a redemption card for a "Superstar Swatch Gold Parallel Relic of Ted Dibiase" (Junior most likely, not the Million Dollar Man). Then that smile turned into a frown when I saw the card carried an expiration date of 7/31/2013.


If you're not familiar with the concept of redemption cards, they're essentially IOUs that the card companies put into the packs when they can't have the real cards ready in time for production. You're supposed to mail the redemption cards back to the company, and then in a few months, they're supposed to mail you the real card. That worked for me many years ago, though my Ivory redemption card got me a Trish Stratus shirt swatch card in return. I knew it wouldn't work for me this time due to the expiration date (which I don't believe that redemption cards should have), so I decided to search online to see what others have done with expired redemption cards. The best advice I found was to mail the card, and a letter explaining the situation, to Topps headquarters in New York City (coincidentally located across the street from the U.S. Customs House used in Ghostbusters II) and maybe, just maybe, they will be kind enough to send some kind of equivalent wrestling memorabilia card in return. There is no guarantee that they will, but it's better than just throwing the card out. I sent it back on April 27, 2017. So far, a month later, I have not heard back.

UPDATE - JULY 6, 2017

Today I received a great surprise when a big square box from Topps was sitting on my porch. I had completely forgotten all about this, and had no clue why they would be sending me a package. Then I remembered the letter and expired redemption card I sent to their headquarters a bit over two months ago, and my mind was reeling with anticipation as to what could be inside. The box was rather large for a trading card, so was it something more? I tore open that large square box and found a single card inside, stored in a toploader sealed with a white "Topps" sticker. That card was an autographed Simon Gotch rookie card from the 2016 "Then Now Forever" set. Even better than that, it's a serial numbered variant: Bronze Variant, #30 of 50. Interestingly, Simon is no longer with WWE - which may be why Topps sent this particular card to me (getting rid of outdated stock). While I can't say that I'm a big Simon Gotch fan, though I did like his tag team The Vaudevillains with Aiden English, I'm thrilled to receive this card. It's actually my first and only guaranteed authentic autographed wrestling card (and my second guaranteed authentic autographed card ever!).

Moving on... The WWE 2013 pack yielded nothing of interest.


Neither did any of the three WWE 2014 packs. (This photo only shows the contents of two packs, but there was nothing noteworthy in the third anyway.)


Now with 10 packs of Road To Wrestlemania 2014 cards, there was bound to be something interesting. (Not all shown in photo below, obviously.)


Sadly, there weren't any hits, but there were some nice subset cards. There's a subset dedicated to The Undertaker's legendary Streak. No, not the one Ray Stevens sang about. Mideon would be the one to do that streak. I'm talking about The Undertaker's undefeated run at Wrestlemania. Eight cards from this subset were found in the ten packs (one is a duplicate card). I kept one (not pictured) of Undertaker holding up the championship belt after his win over Batista at Wrestlemania 23. I put it in an "Undertaker - WWE Superstar" card plaque I've had hanging on the wall for years, replacing a copy of a studio photo that the plaque maker put in there.


The Ultimate Warrior was represented with two cards from the Ultimate Warrior Tribute subset (this seems to be one of the rarer subsets), along with a great Hall of Fame photo in the base set, and three cards from the 30 Years of Wrestlemania subset.


There were 15 cards from the 30 Years of Wrestlemania subset in the 10 packs, two of which were duplicates. This subset showcases memorable moments from three decades of Wrestlemania.


One person who no longer has any memorable Wrestlemania moments is Chris Benoit, as evidenced by Card #40. WWE had Topps go out of their way to not mention his name when discussing the Wrestlemania 20 Triple Threat match between him, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels - even though he was the winner and new champion! According to WWE's new revisionist history, the Triple Threat match was primarily a rivalry between Triple H and Shawn Michaels, which just so happened to be won by some unnamed "third man". Maybe the "third man" is now Hulk Hogan.


I didn't bother to photograph any of the base set cards, as there really is nothing worth mentioning or photographing.

Finally, when I went to Target to buy the original four boxes, I also picked up an empty display box from Funko's WWE Mystery Minis release. They didn't have any of the figures, just the empty box, though my sister bought two figures from GameStop today as part of their Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off Sale (clearance price of $3.99 for the first and $1.99 for the second). She got Sting and Randy Orton. This has nothing to do with the Fairfield Mystery Boxes this review is about, but since I photographed it, I thought I'd share those photos here.




Finally, although I feel like I got my monies worth due to the Teenymates, I don't see myself buying any more of these Fairfield Mystery Boxes. I bought the rest of the Teenymates on eBay, as I may have to do with the Randy Orton Eraseez if Bulls-i-Toy doesn't right their wrongs, and I'm not likely to get any card hits, so it would just be a waste of money to buy any more of these boxes. For those of you who don't have any of the Teenymates, Eraseez, or Topps cards, this is a good deal.

For other opinions, check out these video unboxings by Lazy Booking, Big Time Breaks, and Jfdubb88. Fairfield also has a box with 4 packs of cards and 2 packs of Eraseez, which Lazy Booking did a video unboxing of. That box isn't as good of a deal as the one I reviewed.

Right now, I am selling the cards on eBay. GET THEM WHILE YOU CAN!