It’s a common belief among retailers that playsets and accessory packs are death on the shelf. Whether or not that’s true, it sure has impacted what companies are willing to release these days. But there are still those out there that fight the good fight, and NECA is one of them. Granted, what NECA produces is strictly targeted at the collector community and that probably gives them a lot of leeway. From giant display stands for their Ninja Turtles to equipment packs for Aliens Marines, and now we get this box of Camp Crystal Lake environment pieces for Jason Voorhees to play in. I can’t wait to dive in! …to the box. Ain’t no way I’m swimming in that lake!

The set comes in a fully enclosed box with some shots of what you’re getting inside. Open it up and pull out the tray and you can see all the goodies laid out before you. There are three separate vignettes in here (convenient since NECA has given us three Ultimate Jasons so far!) to create and all of them require some level of assembly. There’s nothing too crazy, and everything can come apart again to go back in the box. With that being said, there are a few fragile parts in this box that I would recommend lots of care handling, and I’ll point those out when I get to them. All of these set-pieces are versatile enough to be used for different display ideas, but a couple of them are clearly intended as call backs to specific scenes.

First up, you get the pier on the lake. This little diorama consists of a set of weathered boards resting on a piece of rocky shore. You tab two posts into the sides and the lamp post into a peg on the surface of the dock. It looks great, as there’s loads of detail in the individual boards and the sculpted nails meant to be holding them together. One of the posts on my set doesn’t quite peg all the way in, but a little shaving on the tab would probably fix that right up. The post is sculpted to look like a wooden beam with the metal pole for the light secured to the side of it and the lamp itself curving downward. One thing I will say is it would have been really cool if NECA could have worked in some LEDs for the lights in this set. A lot of the promotional work looked like these were intended to light up, and I thought they might up until I saw the retail price. It’s not a deal-breaker for me, but I would have happily paid extra for that feature.

While the pier can be good for any number of displays, it’s probably most intended to recreate the harpoon kill in Part 3. It’s always been one of my personal favorites, as Jason proves himself to be quite a marksman by scoring a hit right through poor Vera’s eye. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first kill where we see him wearing Shelly’s hockey mask, and thus quite a historic moment in horror cinema, now beautifully recreated in plastic. So, while any Jason in my collection would look great displayed on this pier, but my Part 3 Jason will be the one that gets it most of the time.

The next display piece is the Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake sign and, as simple as it is, I absolutely love it. Assembly requires putting the three pieces of the frame together, attaching the clear discs to the bottom of the posts to stabilize it, and then hanging the sign on the hooks. The hooks are scary fragile, and I would recommend caution over taking attaching and reattaching the sign over and over again. And once again, I’ll toss out my wish that they had gone with LEDs in the lamps, but regardless, this is a fantastic piece. The sign itself has a rustic, hand-painted look to it that lends it a lot of authenticity. It does not, however, warn against undead masked killers.

While this sign may have featured prominently in one of the chapters, I’m drawing a blank right now, so to me this is the most generic piece in the whole set. I’d happily display any of my Jasons in front of it, but by default, it’s probably going to be my Jason from The Final Chapter. And as great as these first two pieces are, I’ve saved the coolest for last. Let’s recreate the end of Part VI: Jason Lives!

Tommy’s plan to throw a chain around Jason’s neck and trap him at the bottom of the lake was either ridiculous or brilliant, I can’t quite decide. But either way it didn’t work. What does work, however, is NECA’s wonderful recreation of this scene. The set up includes a base made up of the rock and an old defiled Camp Crystal Blood sign. The rock is wrapped in real chain and there’s a clear plastic rod that comes up the back and ends in a spatula. You just stick this up the back of Jason’s shirt and put the chain around his neck and voila! I have never wanted to go out and buy an aquarium more than I do right now.

The rock is a very realistic sculpt, has some nice heft to it, and I love the weathering and graffiti on the sign. The chain even includes a tiny sculpted padlock. This is just fantastic!

And there you have it… three set pieces for three Ultimate Jason figures. Of course, we’re getting Jason from Part 2 soon and NECA promises many more, so let’s hope that this sells well and we get another one in the future. I paid $25 for this set and oh, boy was it worth it. Not only does it add even more value to three great figures, but I’m happy to send the message to NECA that I want more sets like this. They recently showed off an Accessory Set for A Nightmare on Elm Street and a re-release of the Freddy’s Boiler, so it seems like the demand among collectors is definitely there.