Tag Archives: dracula

Oct 11 2024

Horror of Dracula: Count Dracula Sixth-Scale Figure (Deluxe) and Coffin by Kaustic Plastik

As promised, I’m trying to slip at least one spooky review into each week leading up to Halloween and for this week, I’m delving into World of Hammer Horror! It’s hard to believe that in nearly 15 years of toy blogging, this is the first time I’ve been able to check out a licensed figure from a Hammer film. And that’s a shame, because I freaking love these movies! If the toys and merch were more common, I’d be buying them. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing have been scaring me since I was a young lad sneaking Hammer and Amicus films on Saturday afternoons as they were shown on the broadcast networks. That is until my parents would find out and object to the blood or partially exposed bosoms or both. And as I grew up and learned more about the company and it’s influences, the more I watched and enjoyed them. I’ve come close to picking up some truly higher end Hammer inspired pieces, but in the end my resolve held out. Until now, when Kaustic Plastik revealed they were doing both Lee as Dracula and Cushing as Van Helsing from the superb 1958 film, The Horror of Dracula. They were pricey, but my resolve crumbled like a vampire faced with a side order of garlic bread. In addition to the Deluxe version of the figure, I’ll also be having a look at the coffin accessory, which was sold separately.

The figure comes in a shoebox style package made with some nice heavy duty cardboard. None of that flimsy crap Hot Toys has been using lately. Also no plastic vac-formed trays. The figure and accessories are carefully nestled in foam. I’m not sure what the relationship between Infinite Statue and Kaustic Plastik is, but it reminds me of the whole confusing Executive Replicas/TB League thing. The box art on the front lets the figure do the talking, but I don’t think the picture they went with does a great job of selling the amazing figure that’s inside the box. This Deluxe version includes a second head, which is good because despite the enormous box, there aren’t a whole heck of a lot of accessories and extras included. I’m not sure the price difference between Standard and Deluxe, as the retailer I purchased this figure from only offered the Deluxe.

The Count comes out of the box all ready to go and looking damn menacing. Hopefully you are impressed by beautifully tailored sixth-scale outfits, because this is a figure that is dressed from head to toe with the bulk of the visible sculpting being in the shoes, hands, and head. The body is clothed in a an entirely black suit with just a hint of white collar exposed at the neck. The coat comes buttoned at the top, although you’re free to fasten the rest. Everything about this outfit is expertly crafted, from the immaculate stitching to the excellent fit. He’s got a coat, vest, and shirt layered onto him and nothing looks bulky or puffed out. Granted, a lot of my sixth-scale figures are wearing super-hero suits or sci-fi fantasy costumes, but still, this is the best rendition of a traditional suit I’ve ever seen in this scale. The cape is also fantastic, draping over the shoulders and falling about the figure naturally. It’s both substantial and yet light enough to behave properly in this scale. It can be folded back over the shoulders to show off more of the underlying suit, or enclosed around the figure entirely. It’s secured around the neck with a tied cord and is easily removable, but I doubt I’d ever take it off.

The stock head is superb with an excellent likeness to Lee in the makeup. I’ll say that it falls a bit short of the realism we get with Hot Toys, especially in the hair, but there’s no shame in that, as I’m still convinced there’s some kind of witchcraft involved in Hot Toys’ sculpts. Here we get a very lifelike skin tone, subtleties in the sculpt like the barely visible creases in the forehead, a hint of hair between the eyebrows, and even a bit of a whisker shadow across the upper lip. The teeth are a work of art all to themselves, making me wonder how long the sculptor referenced production stills to get them so right. Finally, the eyes are both intense and lifelike with a bloodshot tint to the whites. This is amazing work!

The alternate head is full-on post-feeding vamp mode, and if this wasn’t enough incentive to buy the Deluxe over the Standard, I don’t know what is. The mouth is agape with fangs a poppin and little blood trickles down the sides of his chin. The stock portrait itself was pretty intense, but this one is downright terrifying. I have absolutely no idea which head I’m going to go with for everyday display, but this might be one of those rare times where I’m actually doing a head swap every couple of weeks.

The bulk of the extras in the box are hands. There are four pairs of hands and these are mostly slight variations on some menacing, “I’m gonna get you” sculpts with grasping, bent fingers. They look great, especially with the large pinky ring on the left hands. You also get one gnarled pointy finger right hand in the mix. These swap out similar to most sixth-scale figures with a hinged peg connecting them to the arm, but the hand extends a little further than the wrist. This allows the sleeve to conceal the joint better, but makes the articulation point slightly more awkward, so it’s a bit of a compromise.

There’s only one actual accessory included in the box, and that’s the candlestick. The sculpt is really nice, with the holder painted to look like old tarnished bronze. The candle itself is white and you get a little sculpted flame at the top. One of the included hands is sculpted to hold it.

The base is a raised circular pedestal with the film’s title on the front. I like the design of it, especially the sculpted logo for the movie, which adds a lot more than a flat nameplate would have. Still, the base is very light and I’d go so far as to say it’s rather cheap feeling for a figure of this cost and quality. They should have maybe added some weights to the inside. The surface is magnetized to secure the figure’s feet to the stand and it works pretty well, but you still have to have the figure in a stance that will support him, as the leg joints aren’t the strongest I’ve seen. A support post would have worked better, and in this case you’d barely be able to see it under the cape.

You also get an art card with the figure, which looks nice displayed beside him. The back of the card expresses thanks to the purchaser, lists the people who worked on the figure, and states that the limitation is only 800 pieces. I would have loved to have an individual number assigned to each figure, but that’s not the case here. OK, let’s move on to the coffin.

I believe the coffin was available as in a very limited super deluxe two-pack with Dracula and Van Helsing. I pre-ordered the two figures separately, and it wasn’t until they arrived that I realized I needed to own the coffin too. KP offered it as a stand-alone, but it was sold out everywhere. Luckily, I was able to get one off Ebay for only about ten dollars more than the original asking price, so not too bad. It comes in it’s own branded box, encased in foam and all ready to go. Oddly enough, the box isn’t specifically branded to tie into the film. Instead it just states The Vampire Coffin, which is really weird since the coffin itself has Dracula’s name on it. Maybe some weird licensing issue.

It doesn’t reflect the same craftsmanship as the figure, as it’s basically just a resin box, but it still looks the part. You get some sculpted fixtures on the sides and on the cover, along with the Count Dracula Plaque, all painted to look like antiqued bronze. The inside has a plastic liner, sculpted to look like billowy cloth. There’s a pillow with a sculpted recess to cradle Dracula’s head, and a plastic lace border running along the inside top edges. It would have been cool if KP also offered one with sculpted dirt in the interior, but this one will do nicely!

The figure fits inside perfectly. It’s easiest to take the cape off, and probably advised if you’re going to keep him in there a while, so that it doesn’t get all wrinkled. Still, if you just fold it tight to the body he can go in with the cape on just fine. Like the figure, the coffin wasn’t cheap, especially for what it is. But I really felt that a figure this nice deserved it, so I popped down the $90.

It’s always terrifying when you put down a preorder on a pricey figure from a small company that you have no experience with. In this case it was my adoration for the film that made me do it, and I’m damn glad I did, because I am absolutely thrilled with how this figure turned out. I’m also mighty glad I preordered when I did because Dracula sold out pretty quickly after the figure released. At $299, he ain’t cheap, and while you could certainly argue that there isn’t much in the box in the way of extras, it’s still easy to see where the money went. The tailoring is impeccable, the portraits are excellent, and there’s very little to nitpick here. Add to that the crazy limitation and this will be a figure that I will display and treasure in my collection forever! And that brings us to Dracula’s nemesis, Dr. Van Helsing, and I promise to be back to check him out sometime before Halloween!

Oct 30 2023

Universal Monsters: Ultimate Dracula by NECA

Happy Halloween Eve! It sucks that Halloween falls between two of my regular update days, so let’s just call this my Halloween Day review and you can even save it to read tomorrow if that makes you happier. Anyway… I’m rounding out the weekend of spookiness with a look at a figure I’ve been dying to finally open! Now I’ll confess, I’m a Hammer Dracula kinda guy, so Christopher Lee Drac will always be my ideal version of the character. But I’ll happily give props to the original 1931 Universal release. The Transylvania bits are some of the most atmospheric sequences I’ve ever seen in a horror film. The sets look massive and all the more impressive for when it was shot. And finally, the casting and performances are sublime. It’s easy to see why Bela Lugosi is still considered the only Dracula for some. Dwight Frye plays the hell out of Renfield, with such a gulf of range between his early appearance as his “normal self” and later after he is in Dracula’s thrall. And while Peter Cushing will always be my Van Helsing, Edward Van Sloan is so damn good in this film. With all that having been said, the film tends to fizzle out for me BIG TIME and the best stuff is definitely in the first half. But before we get into it, if you need to get caught up, I’ve already had a look at NECA’s Universal Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy, and I just checked out The Wolfman a few days ago. Don’t worry, Gillman, your day will come!

NECA does a wonderful job with their Universal Monster packaging. It’s the usual window box with a front flap secured with velcro that offers the best of both worlds. The front flap has a recreation of the Dracula movie poster and the window gives you a great look at all the goodies inside. Everything is collector friendly, and I do actually keep the boxes to all of these Universal Monster releases.

The Count comes out of the box wearing his elegantly sculpted black tuxedo and looking every bit of undead daper chic. Everything about the outfit is so well done from the wrinkles on the lapels to the slight pull sculpted into the buttons on the vest. His iconic gold medallion (even though it has little actual screen time) is sculpted around his neck with red ribbon, and you get a nice bit of ruffled finery around the collar.

The cape is an absolutely genius design, as it is cloth but with a plastic collar that cinches around the neck to hold it in place. This makes it go on easy, but it stays on really well too. The garment is made of extremely light cloth, which means it falls about the figure naturally. Yes, the inside lining should be a different color, but I’m willing to sacrifice that for a cape that fits and flows this naturally.

You get three different heads to display on the figure and all of them are excellent. The figure comes boxed with the somewhat neutral head, and it is a fantastic likeness for Lugosi. The texture of the skin is so realistic, the deep set eyes are rather mesmerizing, and the prominent, arched eyebrows are perfect. Even better, each head has its own neck piece that connects deep in the neck socket. This not only allows for two ball joints of articulation, but also makes removing the heads and swapping them out a lot easier than with some of NECA’s past figures.

The other two heads feature a smiling expression and a fierce expression that suggests it’s bloodsucking time! And yes, it accurately depicts him without fangs. Both of these heads have the same excellent likenesses. I would have liked to have a top hat included, but that would have probably required a fourth head with it sculpted on, but that’s just me being greedy.

The articulation is standard stuff for NECA’s modern figures and that means lots of rotating hinges. Dracula doesn’t really need to be super agile, but I would have liked a little more bend in those elbows. You get two sets of hands: Relaxed and graspy as well as an accessory-specific right hand. It’s not a lot of hands, but the essentials are here. I mean, it’s not like I needed my Lugosi Dracula to have fists.

Most of the accessories are confined to the Transylvania part of the movie, which makes sense since the figure is wearing the medallion. First up is the candlestick, which has a hand specifically designed to hold it. It’s a really nice sculpt, especially with the wax dripping down the sides and overlapping the candle holder.

Next up is a tray, two goblets and a bottle of “very old wine.” These were on the table in Renfield’s room when Dracula offered him some refreshment. These are nice pieces, but maybe an odd choice to include. I can’t recall whether there were actually two goblets of wine poured on the table, but it’s odd to have two because Dracula specifically comments that he doesn’t drink… wine.

The final accessory is Dracula in his bat form and this comes with a base and a clear plastic post with a ball joint to connect the bat to. It’s an excellent addition, but that ball joint is a tight fit and the post is so frail, it’s just a breakage waiting to happen. The sculpt is great, and if you want it to be even more movie accurate, you can tie stings to it!

NECA’s Universal Monsters have been absolutely outstanding and Dracula keeps that trend rolling along. The sculpting is absolutely superb, the cape is a brilliant design, and the Lugosi likeness on each of the heads is a homerun. The accessories are fine, but I might have exchanged that tray of wine for something like Van Helsing’s mirrored cigarette box or an additional head with a top hat. Still, I’m really thrilled to have a Drac figure this nice in my collection. And I’m even more excited to be getting the Christopher Lee Dracula from the Hammer films!