It may be November but here at FFZ, the Halloween spookiness is just getting started! I’ve covered all of the NECA Ultimate Universal Monsters figures in my collection so far, but NECA also pumped out a few Accessory Sets and we can’t leave those out! Today’s set is meant to compliment their Ultimate Frankenstein Monster release, and I have to say this one straddles that line where it almost feels like a playset, but not quite. I’ll have some more thoughts at the end about what NECA could have done to nudge it more in the right direction, but that’s me getting way ahead of myself!
The set comes in a fully enclosed box with some nice artwork and shots of what you get inside. Of course, I can’t stress enough that, unlike The Bride of Frankenstein Chair, there ain’t no figure in this box, so you’ll definitely want to pick up The Monster to go with this set. Inside the box you get the operating table with restraints, a bandaged head for The Monster, a torch, a sculpted towel to hang on the table, a tri-fold cardboard backdrop, and a cloth blanket to partially cover The Monster. I also need to emphasize that the table requires quite a bit of assembly and let me tell you that I can’t imagine it could be any tougher to actually build a living creature from corpses than it was to put this thing together. What the hell, NECA? It was a confusing endeavor and there were a lot of fragile pieces. Add that up and you’ve got a pretty stressful situation on your hands. But, eventually I was able to get it together so let’s see what we’ve got.
Here’s the assembled table with The Monster figure secured to it. The table is finished to look like bare steel, it’s big, and it looks great! I especially love all the slides and wheels and mechanisms under it, which are designed to allow it to be adjusted. Alas, none of these things actually do anything, other than gave me anxiety when putting it all together, but the detail adds a lot to the table and it is appreciated. Other details include the brackets and sculpted bolts that secure the table to the base frame and there are some holes in the corners of the frame, maybe in case someone wants to actually secure it to a diorama base.
The restraints include steel bands for the ankles, biceps, and three for the torso. These simply slot into the table and are pushed down to keep your Monster secured and they fit really well. There’s even a cradle to rest The Monster’s head on, although it doesn’t look like it would be very comfortable.
The white cloth sheet simply drapes over The Monster. It is not long enough to cover all of him, so his head and feet stick out the ends. I’m assuming it was like this in the film, but off-hand I just can’t remember.
The bandaged head is a nice bonus, especially when displaying The Monster on the table. The khaki bandages feature a very detailed sculpt and some painted clips to hold it in place. It definitely makes for a creepy vibe.
The backdrop is printed on heavy cardboard stock and folds at the ends to help it stand up. It’s got a dank castle wall pattern with an open doorway to the left and a bank of instruments to the right. The center has some more instruments and the device Frankenstein used for channeling electricity into The Monster. There’s no floor, so I had to use my own.
Finally, you get a torch, which feels like it’s tossed in there to beef up the contents. There’s nowhere to hang it and who’s going to hold it? The Monster? Even the picture on the box just shows an anonymous hand coming into the frame to scare The monster with it. I’m sure I can put it to good use somewhere in my collection, but it doesn’t do much to enhance this set.
Despite a lot of initial frustration, I really am quite happy with this set. It even brought me back to the days of trying my best to build those wonderful Aurora model kits as a kid. The table makes for a very cool display option for your Monster and the extra head has made me strongly consider picking up a second figure just to go with this set. But, at $35 I think the price is pretty borderline. The table is big and impressive, but some of it is pretty fragile. It’s also something that I would not dare take apart and return to the box for storage. So, considering the price point, I really wish NECA had just sold it as pre-built. I also wish NECA had gone just a little bit further to make it an actual playset. The backdrop helps, but a base would have been nice too. Throw in a smaller table with some lab equipment and I would have happily paid $50. Still, if you’re in the market for it and finding it sold out at most retailers, it can be had pretty easily on Ebay for right around the original MSRP.
Here we are, the day before Halloween and my bold plans for a lot of spooky reviews have really shit the bed. Hurricanes and other nonsense sure saw to that. But, at least I made it here with one more shot at it, and I’ll probably keep it going a bit into November to make up for lost time. Over the last couple years, I’ve taken a look at quite a few of NECA’s Ultimate Universal Monsters, but oddly enough I have yet to touch on my favorite one of the bunch. Yup, it’s The Gillman, and he is not only one of my favorite creature designs of all time, but I absolutely love the movies. When I was about ten years old, they showed Revenge of the Creature in 3D on network television and it was a huge event in our house. We got the 3D glasses for the whole family, my Dad made Jiffypop and it was just a great time and a very fond memory.
We’ve seen the packaging for this line so many times now, and this one holds no surprises. It’s a window box with a folding front flap that features some poster art from the film. It took me a while to find this one at a decent price. He seemed to sell out online pretty quick initially and I don’t do a lot of toy hunting these days, so I had to wait for him to show up at regular retail price on Amazon again. The B&W version was around, but as neat as those are, I’m only going for the colored releases. Eventually patience prevailed and here we are!
And what a great design for an action figure! It’s well known now that the Gillman portrait was designed by Ex-Disney artist, Milicent Patrick, and she got zero credit for her work for a long time. And what a shame because it is some amazing work! It’s hard to say exactly what it is about this fishy-fellow that speaks to me, but I just dig him so much! The design certainly gave NECA’s sculptors a lot to sink their teeth into, and naturally they did a superb job with it. The bulk of the figure’s overlapping plates are covered with tiny scale texturing and it breathes all new life into a creature design that I was used to seeing in grainy low-resolution B&W film on a tube TV. There are some smooth plates over his tummy, as well as some smooth areas on his lower legs, but otherwise every bit of this guy is just packed with detail in the sculpt. From behind, he has a strip of fibrous fin that runs from from behind his neck, down his spine, and splits off to his upper legs, with similar tufts on the backs of his forearms. The paint consists of some different shades of muted green and copper, and some lovely gradients throughout.
You get three heads to choose from and all are very well done. These consists of a calm face, a slightly excited face, and a face with mouth open and ready to strike. Yeah, the last one looks more like The Gillman walking into his surprise party, but I still dig it. There’s lots of great attention to detail here, especially the little warts on his forehead and the paintwork for the eyes is excellent.
Articulation is standard stuff for these Ultimate figures, which means a lot of rotating hinges. The range of motion in the elbows and knees could be better, but I can’t say as I really need it in The Gillman. On the other hand, I would have liked him to be able to look up more to hit those swimming poses. And, if you’re looking for accessories here, you’re going to be disappointed, as there are none. Bubkis. You do, however get several sets of hands. That may sound great, but there’s very little variation between two of the sets, and I’m kind of left with just a pair of flat swimmy hands and graspy hands. It does kind of feel like NECA threw in some unnecessary hands here to bulk out the package. Jada did include some extras with their figure, including a net, a speargun, and a fossilized creature hand. You could argue the speargun isn’t a creature accessory, but I would have loved to get a net included with this release to beef it up a bit.
Lack of accessories aside, I do love how this figure came out and I’d say he tops the Jada version, both in paint and sculpt, hands down. He’s loads of fun to play with and was definitely a major gaping hole in my Monsters collection. And Gillman brings me more or less up to date with the NECA Universal Monsters that I’m after. I may pick up Jack Griffin eventually, but only if I stumble upon him at a good price. I do, however, still have some of NECA’s accessory sets to check out, so look for some of those to turn up here in the weeks ahead! In the meantime, Happy Halloween! And like I said, I’ll keep some of the spookiness going for a bit into November so I can get through some unfinished business!
October is here and the air is rife with spookiness and pumpkin spice! Last year I crammed all my horror related content into the week leading up to The Big Day, but this year I’m going to pepper it about the month, trying to do at least one spooky review each week and then toss some more in as we approach the finish line. I’d like to get through my entire horror backlog and come out of Halloween with a clean slate, but we’ll see how it goes. Back in August, I jumped the gun and checked out NECA’s Ultimate Frankenstein and Chair from The Bride of Frankenstein, but without having looked at The Bride herself because I hadn’t purchased her yet. But, I finally picked her up and so I’m going to kick off this year’s horror show with NECA’s Ultimate Bride!
I’ve had a few opportunities to comment on how weird and wonderful The Bride of Frankenstein is as a film. I touched on it a little in the recent review and a bit more back when I checked out Jada’s figure. I dig it a lot and usually include it in my October rotation rewatch along with some of the other Universal Monster films. You have to hand it to Elsa Lanchester for becoming one of the most iconic classic horror icons while having such a tiny amount of screen time. The packaging here is right in line with past Ultimate Universal Monster releases with a front flap depicting the movie poster, and opening to reveal a window showing the figure inside. Everything is collector friendly, and I have been keeping the boxes for these monsters, because they look really great all lined up and I dig the vintage poster art. You get a few different display options with The Bride, so let’s just start with how she comes out of the box.
The Bride features a white, flowing softgoods gown made of a very soft material allowing it to fall pretty naturally around the figure. It’s sleeveless and has a neck opening that laces up in the back, but comes with the laces untied. It’s a cool mix of hospital gown and wedding dress with a bit of a train trailing behind it. Mine is a little bit rumpled out of the box, but I’m sure that would steam right out. Displayed like this, you aren’t seeing a lot of detail, but the exposed arms are completely covered by sculpted bandages.
The stock head has a neutral expression and I’d say the likeness is decent, but maybe not quite up to NECA’s usual magic. Technically everything looks amazing, especially the work on the slightly parted lips and flash of teeth. But, I don’t think the eyes are quite there, or maybe it’s just a very specific expression they were going for that I’m missing. The eyes are a little too round and she could have used more lashes on upper lids. The iconic coif, on the other hand, is pretty spot on and they did include the scar running around the edge of the jawline, which is something that Jada missed on their figure. I don’t want to come down too hard on it, because it isn’t a case of poor effort or quality, but just not capturing the likeness as much as I would have expected.
There’s a second head that depicts her screaming and I’d say this is marginally better. Again, I think the eyes are too round, but that’s less notable with this expression. The work on the open mouth is really impressive with the glossy tongue and top row of teeth. I’ll also note here that the head swaps are done at the base of the neck, where the exposed skin meets the bandages. Why’d they do that?
Well, they did it to allow for the fully bandaged neck and head, and that’s pretty clever. This head has a piece that fits over the eyes so that the whole head is covered, or you can remove it and expose her eyes. The cover piece does not hold on as well as I’d like, but I really don’t ever plan on displaying it on the figure. Heck, I will probably never use this head either. Nonetheless, there’s some nice texturing on the bandages that make them look like gauze in some parts. You also get some silver painted staples holding the wrap together.
And yes, there is a fully bandaged sculpted body under that gown. The detail here is extremely sharp with crisscrossing lines representing her full body wrap. You also get a couple of coiled pieces of wrap to put dangle off her hands. It’s similar to what NECA did with their Imhotep figure. Articulation consists of a lot of rotating hinges, as is pretty standard with this line, and you get a ball joint under the chest and in the neck. There isn’t a huge range of motion in some of those joints, but I guess she doesn’t need to be an acrobat. She does come with two sets of hands: One pair with the fingers tight together and one pair with them splayed a bit further apart. As for accessories… that’s it. We’ve already seen everything she comes with!
The Bride is a fairly simple figure, and yet the fact that you do have several display options for her gives her a bit more mileage. And she looks outstanding when displayed with The Bride version of The Monster. But I’ll admit that this isn’t the slam dunk over the Jada figure that I thought it would be. Some things are done better, while others feel lacking. The paint on the portraits here are better, but I think Jada did a better job capturing her eyes. Jada’s figure also had a light brown wash over the bandages and had overall better articulation. You also got a few extra pieces with Jada’s figure, like the pylons from the lab. With all that said, NECA’s still edges out as my favorite of the two, but not nearly as much as I would have anticipated. Still, a great effort and I’m happy to add her to my Universal Monsters collection. I’ll be interested to see if NECA releases an accessory set for her that includes the table and lab accoutrements.
A few weeks back, I started checking out NECA’s Defenders of the Earth action figure line with Flash Gordon and The Phantom. I promised I’d be back for more in a couple weeks, and well… better late than never! Today I’m going to finish up the team of heroes with the mysterious Mandrake the Magician and the mighty Lothar! Of course, The Defenders of the Earth was an 80’s cartoon that assembled four of King Comics biggest heroes into a super-team to fight the forces of Ming the Merciless and protect the Earth!
As we saw last time, the figures come in beautiful and colorful window boxes designed to pay homage to the cardbacks that Galoob used for the original toyline. NECA even redesigned their logo to match the one Galoob was using at the time, and I really dig that! The boxes show off the figures very well and feature some bitchin character art cut around the window. The boxes are collector friendly, but alas, I’m being really strict on myself about keeping action figure boxes, so they gotta go! Let’s start with Lothar!
His strength is a legend, his skills conquer all. Armed with his power, we never will fall! Lothar has received the biggest update for the cartoon out of all these characters. The Strongest Man on Earth and Prince of the Seven Nations started out in the comics as a bit of a goofy sidekick to Mandrake, but eventually became his partner in crime fighting. This modern update recreates Lothar as a fierce fighter, who’s trademark weapon is a grappling hook. And Oh boy did NECA go all out on this one! While Phantom and Flash shared a lot of the same sculpt, Lothar is packed with the hot newness and his adventuring gear has so many wonderful little details. The base body consists of black trousers and a black short sleeve t-shirt, and I absolutely love that the chest symbol is sculpted instead of just printed on. The grey vest is cast in soft plastic and worn by the figure, with the backpack as part of the sculpt. He’s got pouches everywhere, each one showing sculpted stitching, straps, or just painted snaps. His rope is sculpted in a coil around his left shoulder, he’s got a holster strapped to his right leg, and even his big chonky boots show amazing detail. The balance of colors here is superb with the base black and grey contrasting with the olive green, bright green, and yellow for a lovely pop. It feels like NECA’s designers said, “Well we got away without needing much for Flash and Phantom, so let’s just pour the love into Lothar!” And pour the love they did!
The head sculpt is bold and fierce! Like Flash, NECA went for a realistic take on the cartoon character, which may work for some people and not others. I dig it. The portrait exudes strength and general bad-assery. He looks like he’s ready to put Ming’s head through a wall. With that having been said, I wouldn’t have minded something a bit less severe, especially if these figures were coming with second heads. Lothar also comes with two sets of hands, including one pair of fists, and a pair designed to grip his accessories. Articulation is in line with what we’ve seen so far, including a decent range of motion in those double-hinged elbows and knees.
Of course, Lothar comes with his trademark grapple hook. This handy tool has three hinged prongs and it can extend or telescope down. There’s a yellow string tied to it with the other end left loose for him to grip. I tied it into a slip knot. There’s no apparent way for him to store it, but I found that wrapping the string around the backpack and letting it dangle off the side works pretty well. One of Lothar’s right hands is designed to work with the grapple hook, but he can also hold it in the left gripping hand as well.
You also get a couple of weapons, including a small knife that stores in the sheath on his vest and a pistol that he can carry in the holster. The pistol is the same one that we got with both Flash and Phantom and it comes with the same two blast effect pieces, a muzzle flash and a full laser beam, both cast in translucent blue plastic. And with Lothar covered, that’s the might, now let’s check out the magic!
Master of magic, spells and illusion, Enemies crumble in fear and confusion! Mandrake was top of my list for this team because he could often use his mystical arts to thwart enemies without breaking a sweat. I mean, the intro song says it all. Plus, he shows up for a fight in a top hat, cape and tails. His shoes aren’t even sensible! Mandrake gives no shits as he makes you piss yourself and run away. Like Lothar, this Master of Magic gets a lot more original sculpting than Flash or Phantom, with his black tuxedo, red vest and white collard shirt. There’s a slight texture and a bit of sparkles on the black parts of his outfit, which looks cool. He’s got a white handkerchief poking out of his chest pocket, white shirt cuffs peeking out from the jacket sleeves, and some white trim on those beautifully detailed shoes. And best of all, he has a softgoods cape with a red interior liner and a wire running around the edges to allow it to be posed in all sorts of sweeping and majestic ways.
The head sculpt is closer to what we got for Flash, in that I think it’s a good compromise between cartoon likeness and realism. The perfectly trimmed mustache and one ever-so-slightly cocked eyebrow give him the classic mysterious magician look, while the vibrant blue eyes give him a bit of an ethereal presence. The top hat is permanently attached and has a similar texture and sparkly finish as the coat. I love how this portrait turned out! Like Lothar, Mandrake comes with two sets of hands, which include a pair of fists, a wand holding right hand and an abracadabra left hand with fingers splayed.
The wand is pretty big so maybe he’s compensating for something. Or maybe it’s just because it’s full of a lot of magics. The black shaft narrows at the bottom, has a silver band around the top along with a gold ring and a translucent crystal. His right hand is designed to hold it perfectly.
Mandrake also comes with the pistol that we saw packed with every figure so far. I’m not going to quibble about getting an extra pistol accessory, but I don’t really associate it with the character and I doubt I’ll ever display him with it. At least the gun hand is his left, so you could pose him with both gun and wand, the fighting equivalent of surf-and-turf. Actually, I don’t know what that means. Sorry. Yes, you also get the same blast effect parts that we just saw with Lothar. I would have much rather he came with some magic effect parts for the wand.
And with that, the Defenders of the Earth are complete! Will we ever get the kids? Not likely. There hasn’t been any movement on this front since the third assortment came out and I get the feeling they’re done with it and have moved on to the feature film Flash Gordon. I don’t think the kids would have sold all that well anyway, although I definitely would have picked them up. While I was excited to get these, I think I had even more fun with them than I expected and they look amazing all lined up on the shelf. But, we aren’t done yet because we still have a couple of baddies to look at with Ming and Garax! And I’ll try to swing back to look at those in the next week or so.
NECA’s held the Flash Gordon license for a little while now and has been exploring it in a few different ways. A couple years back I checked out their Flash and Ming figures from the original King Features comic series. More recently, I’ve had a look at the figures based on the 1980 Dino De Laurentis film, and now it’s time to give Defenders of the Earth its turn. These figures are based on the 1986 cartoon, which had Flash join up with the stars of a couple of other King Comics franchises, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, to form an Avengers-like team and set out to well… defend the Earth! The cartoon is available to stream for free on a few services and I think it’s still worth checking out. It was probably among the last cartoons that I watched as a teenager before moving on to more adult pursuits. I picked up these figures as they were released and it’s long past time I open them up and give them some love…
These releases do not fall under NECA’s Ultimate series, so they come in straight up window boxes similar to what we got for the Flash Gordon: The Original Superhero line. And there’s nothing wrong with that, because the presentation here is excellent. The boxes have an animated starfield deco with character art on the lower left side, all very reminiscent of vintage 80s toy presentation. Galoob had the license for these figures back in the day and NECA even reworked their logo to copy the Galoob logo, which is a wonderful little touch. The blue and yellow deco is also an homage to the Galoob cardbacks. The left side panels have a headshot of the figure and the colorful series logo, while the right panel has the number of each figure. The Phantom is #01 and Flash is #02. Let’s start with The Phantom!
The Kit Walker that appears in Defenders is a bit different than what we saw in the comics. Most notably, he traded in his pistols for supernatural powers, but his overall appearance has remained pretty close to the Walker family roots. He still wears a skin tight purple body suit with a hood, along with shiny black boots, a wide black belt, and his black domino mask. This is a slightly reworked body that NECA used for The Original Superhero Flash Gordon with some changes to the collar area and sleeve cuffs. His trademark signet rings are sculpted on each of the fists that come on the figure. This was no doubt a very budget-friendly figure for NECA, as it gets by with a lot of recolor and reuse, but it certainly works for the character, so I’m not complaining. The musculature on this figure is beautifully sculpted, particularly on the chest and back, and the proportions are overall excellent.
The head sculpt is a great representation of his animated counterpart. The domino mask and hood have some clearly defined sculpted lines separating them from the face. Alas, the paint could have been cleaner as there’s a bit of flesh tone slopped onto the mask and hood. The facial features are sharp, with very high cheek bones, a strong jawline, and a stoic expression. It’s a solid portrait if not exceptional.
The articulation is identical to what we saw with The Original Superhero Flash Gordon figure and that is every bit a good thing. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double-hinged knees, swivels at the tops of the boots, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and hinges in the toes. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab-crunch hinge in the torso, and a ball joint in the neck. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinged elbows, and the wrists have hinged pegs to allow you to swap hands. Both of the two additional hands are right hands: One is to hold his pistol and the other is for the energy blast from his ring. The joints are all nice and smooth and I had no issues with anything frozen or sticking.
The energy blast for the ring pegs into a hole in the extra right fist, which works really well. It’s cast in pale blue translucent plastic and I love the way this effect looks. I do wish they had actually sculpted the ring on this hand, but I suppose with the energy part inserted, it’s hard to tell it’s not there. Still, why not just use the same hand and bore a hole into the ring?
The Phantom also comes with a laser pistol and boy do I love the design of this thing. It’s got an angled trigger guard that meets the bottom of the grip and all sorts of bits and bobs protruding from the receiver. Off hand, I can’t recall the designs of the guns from the cartoon, so I’m not sure if this is accurate, but it’s a damn cool sci-fi weapon that invokes the swashbuckling Flash Gordon design that I love so much.
You get two blast effect pieces for the gun, both cast in the same translucent blue plastic as the signet ring effect piece. These socket around the barrel of the gun and work very well. One is a long blast and the other is just a muzzle blast. I’m pretty sure these are the exact same pieces that came with the previous Flash Gordon and Ming figures, only recolored from yellow to blue. I only shot pictures of the long effect piece here, but you’ll get to see the other one when we look at Flash.
Finally, The Phantom comes with Zuffy the Zuffoid! Because every one of these cartoons had to have an adorable animal sidekick to appeal to the little kiddos, Flash’s son Rick befriended this annoying little shit on Mongo. It’s a really nice sculpt for such a small figure and he even has some articulation, with ball joints in the shoulders, hips, and neck. The eyes are impressively lifelike, thanks to a high gloss finish, and he’s sculpted holding a Mongo crystal, which contains the personality data from Flash Gordon’s dead wife. The crystal was eventually used as the personality matrix of the team’s super computer. I doubt there was ever a chance NECA was going to make figures of Rick Gordon and the other kids, so they paired Zuffy up with The Phantom, because… the beasts call him brother? OK, let’s move on to Flash Gordon!
Flash shares a lot of the same body as The Phantom, right down to the boots and sleeve cuffs. You do get re-sculpted shoulders with the gold armor pieces, as well as the epaulettes and collar. The same wide black belt is used, but this time with a new Flash-branded belt buckle. The red plastic used for the suit has a nice wash to it that really brings out the sculpting in the muscles. What’s not as nice is the ankle hinges have been cast in red plastic and really stand out against the glossy black of the boots. What a shame. Otherwise, this is a great recreation of Gordon’s look on the cartoon.
I was expecting a reissue of the un-helmeted head from TOS Flash Gordon, but we actually get a completely new head sculpt here to better resemble the cartoon version. This is a fantastic portrait that reflects the character very well. From the strong chin and contours of the cheeks, to the blonde hair and high arches of the eyebrows, it just oozes classic Flash Gordon in every way. I love it!
The same body as The Phantom means the same articulation, so i won’t run through it all again. I do, however have to report that my figure has stuck joints in the feet, making his toes curl up ever so slightly. I have yet to try to fix this with some heat, as it doesn’t really effect his ability to stand, but so far, this is a figure that carries all its problems in its boots. As for extra hands, Flash comes with a set of fists, a set of accessory holding hands, and a left trigger finger hand.
All the accessories included with Flash are recycled and reworked from somewhere else. The sword is the same sculpt as the one that came with TOS Flash, but the hilt has been repainted and it’s been given a cool translucent yellow energy blade. The gold and blue used for the original hilt has been changed to black, gray, and silver, with painted red disks in the crossguard. It’s a nice update to the weapon that gives it a very 80’s sci-fi feel and gels nicely with the cartoon aesthetic.
The pistol is the same one that we just saw with The Phantom, but given a purple metallic paintjob, which looks rather snazzy. You also get the same two blast effect pieces that we got with The Phantom, both cast in the same transparent blue plastic. As I noted above, you do only get a left hand for the gun, and I really would have liked to get a right one too. He can hold the gun in the sword hand, but it’s not quite the same.
Aside from some issues with Flash’s boots, these figures turned out great and it’s really cool to see this old cartoon getting some love from NECA. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a stand out series to me because it’s one of the last cartoons I watched as a kid, and while I was aware of the toys released for it, I was drifting away from toys by that age and never actually had any. Coming back to it as a collector is like a satisfying shot of nostalgia and I’m eager to start digging into the rest of these releases! And while these figures were released a little while ago, they do seem to still be readily available at most online NECA retailers, and if you hunt around you may even find some pretty good discounts.
The last couple years have seen a flurry of action figures based on the Dungeons & Dragons property, with Hasbro tackling the 80’s cartoon as well as the film Honor Among Thieves, and NECA doing updates to the old LJN figures. The Hasbro stuff has run its course, although Super7 has picked up the license to take their own stab at the cartoon characters. Meanwhile, NECA seems to be chugging along with their line, despite an unsettling drop in new reveals. They are currently doing retro-carded repaints and it’s tough to tell whether they are just trying to drum up revenue for more new releases or if it’s a last cash-grab at the end of the line. Obviously, I’m hoping for the former, because this line has been outstanding! I’ve already checked out two of the baddies: Warduke and Grimsword, as well as the heroic Strongheart. Eventually, I have to double back for a look at Zarak, but for now I’m bumping the newest release to the head of the line, Elkhorn!
The packaging is standard stuff for NECA’s Ultimate line. You get a window box with a front flap that secures with a bit of velcro. There are plenty of pictures of the figure as well as some cool artwork on the front panel. Everything is collector friendly and for now I’ve been keeping these figures displayed in the package because they tend to come with so many extras. Elkhorn is a noble Dwarf Fighter adding some much needed support to the lone hero Strongheart. The original Elkhorn was a tiny figure and I was really curious to see what NECA was going to do to give him some gravitas.
My first impressions after opening the box? Elkhorn is a lot bigger than I expected and he comes with a ton of cool stuff! While he still feels properly scaled as a Dwarf, this guy has a nice heft to him and is absolutely brimming with detail. He still sports the bright green trousers from the original figure, but the orange gauntlets, belt, and trim on the boots has been revised to a deep, chocolate brown, which I think works well for this modern update. The brown tunic features a wide belt with a large circular medallion-like buckle front and center and he’s got some silver chain mail covering his shoulders and arms. There is some fantastic texture work on this figure, both in the chain mail and in the fabric of his trousers. The bits that are supposed to be leather have a paint wash and even the sculpted laces on his boots are immaculately painted. Everything about Elkhorn’s outfit just oozes loving attention to detail.
You get two heads to choose from, although there isn’t a huge difference between the expressions. I think NECA definitely channeled a bit of John Rhys Davies as the inspiration for this portrait and I love it. One has the mouth open and the other closed. The bushy beard is dark blue with a black wash and there’s a gold loop in the center as well as another behind his head to form a ponytail. And the ponytail is pegged into the head so you can swivel it. The horned helmet has been given a major upgrade from the LJN version with a gold painted finish, central spike, upward pointing horns, and some red painted stones in the front.
Elkhorn’s articulation is really good for such a stocky fella. As always, NECA serves up a lot of rotating hinges, but I was surprised to find them doubled up in the elbows to allow for some tighter bends. The ball jointed hips and slits in the sides of his lower tunic allow him to take a wide stance, with lateral rockers in the ankles to keep his feet planted flat on any dungeon floor. The chain mail on his shoulders is soft to allow for some flexibility in those joints, but he’s still not going to go higher than 90-degrees because of it. Still, he has no trouble getting his weapons over his head for a downward swing.
And since Elkhorn is a smaller figure, NECA decided to load him up with all sorts of weapons, equipment and even some treasures. Starting with the weapons, we get updates to the sword and shield included with the LJN figure. The shield is a concave circle with a large central boss and studs around the outer circle. It’s a really close match for the original and you get some lovely forging marks on the outer surface and even some cuts or scratches in the center. The interior of the shield features a grab bar and a sculpted arm strap with painted rivets and buckle. For the sword, NECA just kind of did their own thing, which is understandable as the LJN figure’s sword was yellow, red, and tiny. Here we get a beautiful weapon with a gold pommel and cross guard, brown ribbed two-handed grip, and a straight, silver blade. The sword includes a scabbard, which does not attach to Elkhorn’s belt, but I’ll come back to that in a bit.
There’s a small axe, which I suppose could be as much for making camp as it is for fighting. The blade is painted silver and has some nicks taken out of the edge to show it’s well used. The handle is brown with a sculpted woodgrain texture and it swells at the end.
Want to go bigger? There’s a double-edged great axe, which I’m sure is in no way compensating for size. This gorgeous weapon has a golden blade with silver edges and gold fixtures at the top and bottom of the wood grain shaft. There are Dwarven patterns carved into the face of the blade on both sides and silver spheres at the top and bottom of the handle. Like the smaller axe, you get some random nicks in the edges for added flavor.
The arsenal continues with a spiffy war hammer. The gold head has a spiked back so it can get enemies coming and going, as well as a top spike for poking.
And since two hammers are better than one, you also get this double-headed head pounder. This one has more gold and some black grips with silver bands. Both hammers are taller than Elkhorn, but they still look like they’d be manageable for him to wield, especially since Dwarves are practically built for swinging pickaxes.
And finally, Elkhorn has a beautiful little dagger that fits in the sheath on his belt. It has a gold hilt and a utilitarian-style cutting blade. It’s probably good for dispatching Goblins as well as cutting up joints of meat at the campfire.
One of the most impressive pieces of Elkhorn’s gear is this absolute banger of an adventurer’s backpack. It’s got a sculpted bedroll at the bottom, extra pouches, a spot to peg the sword scabbard in on one side and some loops to hold the small axe on the other. The top even opens and you can store stuff in there! The backpack has a wide hook that latches onto one of the cross-straps on Elkhorn’s back and it holds pretty securely. The sculpting on the pack is pretty convincing for real leather, there’s some great texture on the bedroll and all the little buckles and snaps are painted.
Elkhorn comes with a lit torch, which is a must for all dungeon delvers. Well, maybe not for Dwarves, since I’m pretty sure they can see in the dark, making this accessory an odd pairing for Elkhorn. Still, I’m glad we got a torch and I may wind up handing it off to Strongheart. We’ve seen this sort of accessory from NECA in the past and it’s done very well. The flame is cast in a yellow-orange translucent plastic and the torch itself is painted deep brown and has a sculpted woodgrain finish.
And no Dwarf can go adventuring without a jug of hooch to warm him up on those cold dungeon nights! This makes me think about how cool it would be to get an Accessory Set for this line with some stuff to make camp with. NECA’s done some similar sets for their other lines, and I’d definitely pick one up for these figures.
And finally, Elkhorn comes with a couple pieces of treasure to toss in the backpack. These include a translucent red heart stone, perhaps taken off a dead night hag, and some purple crystals embedded in a rock base. I really dig that we’re finally getting some loot thrown in as accessories, as the LJN line sometimes included treasure with their PVC figures.
NECA went crazy with this figure, not only delivering an outstanding modern update to Elkhorn, but also loading him up with all sorts of weapons and other cool stuff. There’s just so much love and passion poured into this release that it’s quite an amazing evolution to see him alongside his original LJN figure. My only concern now is that we haven’t seen any new reveals, so I’m really hoping that NECA isn’t winding down on this line. There are so many more great LJN characters that I’d love to see get this treatment, especially some more of the heroes like Melf, Mercion, and Bowmarc. Not to mention the good and evil wizards, Ringlerun and Kelek. I think these figures have been selling well, so all that’s left is to hope and pray. In the meantime, I’ll swing back with a look at Zarak in the weeks ahead.
NECA has been doing a number of Flash Gordon figures based on the King Comics license as well as his appearances from the old Filmation and later Defenders of the Earth cartoons. Those were some great figures, and I really need to get back to checking out some more of that Defenders line, but the big appeal for me has always been the 1980 Dino De Laurentis feature film. It was a financial and critical flop, but I first discovered it when it hit the VHS rental market. I was probably ten years old and it was love at first sight. I unironically adore this movie. It’s a sweeping, colorful epic that features some amazing sets and costumes and has an overall sense of pageantry that really feels like a comic book come to life. Even now, I like to pull out the Blu-Ray usually once a month and revel in its spectacle. Naturally, I was excited to see NECA finally getting around to the movie figures, and we now have the first three in hand. Indeed, I’m so excited, that I’m just going to tackle all three in one go. This is gonna be a long one…
These are part of NECA’s Ultimate line, not to be confused with Super7’s Ultimates (plural!) line. NECA was here first and they’ve used this moniker ever since they started stepping up their articulation and tossing in as many extras as they could. As usual, the figures come in window boxes with front flaps that secure with velcro giving you the feel of enclosed box with the luxury of a window to look at the goods inside. The deco is a mix of stills from the film and shots of the figure, and these are numbered, which gives me great hope that this line will be an ongoing thing and not just a one-off wave. Let’s start with Prince Vultan!
IT’S BRIAN BLESSED!!! Brian Blessed is a world treasure and an absolute legend in science fiction and British television. Whether it be as King Yrcanos in Doctor Who (long after turning down the role of The Doctor himself), Maya’s Dad in Space 1999, both Robin Hood the BBC series and the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves movie, or how about King Richard in Blackadder! I could go on and on. But perhaps no role has been as iconic as Vultan, Prince of the Hawkmen in Flash Gordon. And oh boy just look at this gorgeous figure! For this release, NECA created a full-on mostly naked Brian Blessed buck and dressed it in leather and gold armor cast in soft plastic. The sculpted detail in the scale armor is superb, creating a kind of feathered motif, which is especially apparent in those shoulder pieces. The arm bracers and sandals are also meticulously detailed with the tiniest buckles on the sandals painted in gold. The love and attention to detail NECA poured into this costume is just fantastic and splendidly brings this epic character design to life in plastic form.
The wings are equally impressive with each and every feather fully detailed in the sculpt and finished off with a gold leaf paint and some wash to bring out those details. The wings are articulated at the shoulders allowing them to swing out for flight. If I’m going to nitpick anything on this figure I guess it would be the way they are attached to the body using a gold bar that looks mechanical rather than organic. Still, it’s only really noticeable when the wings are spread, and while attaching the wings to the figure with hinged pegs might have looked better, I appreciate that these stay put and don’t pop out when I’m posing them. As for the rest of the poseability, if you’ve handled NECA’s Ultimate figures before you’ll know what to expect here, with an emphasis on rotating hinges. It’s solid stuff that makes the figure fun to play with, but doesn’t offer those tight bends that some collectors hope for.
You get a whopping four heads, which can all share either the helmet or the hairpiece for an un-helmeted look. And each one of these portraits is just brimming with Blessed’s boisterous, big-bearded personality. The first is offering a huge smile and displaying a wall of teeth. The likeness is fantastic and my god the helmet is just so glorious. It attaches to the top of the four heads with a thick tab and it is extremely secure. The cheek plates are soft plastic and hug the face closely. The gold paint on the helmet is brighter and deeper than the slightly more bronze color used for the accents on the armor.
Next, we get this wonderfully expressive head showing off Vultan’s O-face. I’m pretty sure this one is supposed to be Vultan pronouncing the word Gordon in his infamous “Gordon’s alive” line delivery. If his eyes were looking up it could also work for the scene in Ming’s Court where he nonchalantly bonks one of Ming’s guards on the head with his club and hopes nobody noticed. I also love this head because it reminds me of King Yrcanos, the character he played in Doctor Who, who would sometimes accentuate his speech with whistles and sound effects.
Third up is most definitely Vultan delivering his “DIIIIIVE!” order for the Hawkmen to attack War Rocket Ajax. I really love how NECA mined the film for some very specific and iconic expressions for this figure.
The fourth and final head comes packaged with the hairpiece, but again, you can use the plastic coif on any of the heads by swapping out the helmet. Here, Vultan is in full on shouty-shout mode and I can just here his baritone laugh in my head. Wow, these are all great!
Clearly, a lot of the budget here was spent on heads, but you do get a few extra accessories and a pair of hands to hold them. The first accessory is featured in the tribute scene in Ming’s Court. It’s the fabled ice jewel of Frigia, which the Hawkmen claimed to have seized in battle from the royal crypt. But if you believe Prince Barin, it was stolen from his men. I think maybe there’s some truth to that.
Next you get this remote control device, which I think is the trigger for the explosives that were planted on War Rocket Ajax. It’s nicely done with some very sharp detail to the control pad. Still, probably not something I will display with the figure.
And finally, you get his club, which reminds me of an African War Club. It has a polished black finish, a hooked head for thumping enemies and a knuckle guard at the base of the hilt. This will probably never leave the figure’s hand when I display him. He just looks amazing raising it over his head and shouting like a war-crazed maniac.
Wow, I can’t say enough great things about this figure. It feels like NECA poured all kinds of extra love into this Vultan, and maybe that’s because the old bird has never had this kind of figure treatment before. And boy does he come damn close to being a perfect figure. With four heads and some solid accessories, it’s easy to see where all the money went. Let’s move on to Ming the Merciless!
In the annals of perfect film casting, I think Max von Sydow as Ming ranks pretty high. His performance endowed Ming with a delightful mix of charm and menace and he looked like the character from straight out of a comic panel. I tend to consider the robed look for the character more iconic, but NECA chose to go with his Military Suit version for this release. And that’s fine, because it makes me suspect that the other version is sure to follow. Ming sports a red tunic with flared, pointed shoulders and red trousers, tucked into high black boots. There’s gold piping around the edges of the tunic and a large gold decoration on the chest. The black gloves have red and gold rings at the wrists and a black, gold, and red baldric supports his sword and scabbard off his right shoulder. The colors on this figure look great, but I think the paint for the gold piping could have been sharper, still it’s not something that really impacts my enjoyment of the figure. Articulation is similar to what we saw with Vultan, with the torso articulation concealed under the tunic.
You get three heads for Ming, one with his black skullcap helmet, and two without. I think all three of these are homeruns in terms of likeness. The printing for the eyes and facial hair is really on point and I dig the sculpted lines in his brow and the crow’s feet around the edges of his eyes. The skull capped head’s expression is the friendliest of the three and reminds me of when Ming was trying to strike a deal with Flash. The second is the most neutral and the third has a wonderful little sneer to it. All three are great and it’ll be tough to choose which one to display on the figure.
Ming has less extra stuff than Vultan. The one less head does come with the trade off of two extra sets of hands. These include a set of fists, a set of accessory holding hands, and a set of gesturing hands. Although the right gesturing hand looks like it was intended for a gun. A really dig the sculpt and paint on the rather elaborate ring included on the left hands, especially since it featured prominently in a few scenes throughout the film.
The only other accessory here is his sword, which is pretty damn sweet. It fits perfectly into the scabbard and is easy to draw. It’s a very simple design with a straight blade and a short, straight crossguard. There’s a red painted jewel in the pommel and in the center of the guard, while the rest is all painted in gold.
Ming is an excellent figure, even if he does fall a bit short of the greatness that is Vultan. The only real complaint I have about the quality is the gold piping and that’s really just something to nitpick that could have been improved on. He does feel light in the accessories when compared to Vultan, and I wish they had at least included the chalice that he’s holding in the screen grab on the front of the box. I will probably dig into my Hasbro Indiana Jones figures and give him one of the False Grails included in that line. Hopefully, you’re still with me, because we have one more figure to go…
FLASH! AHH-AHHHHH… SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE! Like Ming, this is probably not my favorite look for the character, as I tend to prefer him in the white FLASH T-shirt. Again, I suspect NECA understood this and decided to hold that version back for a second wave. The strategy being that people will buy a figure that may not be their first choice look for the character in fear that it may be the only one released. But that’s not to say I don’t dig this Final Battle Flash, because I most certainly do, and it definitely gave NECA a little more to work with in terms of the costume design, not to mention accessories. Our hero dons a Mongo tank top, half black and half red with a sculpted symbol on the front. He’s got a wide belt with a gold belt buckle, black trousers and high buccaneer-style boots with a glossy finish. I dig that the emblem on the shirt is sculpted rather than just printed on and speaking of which, you even get sculpted chest hair. Wow! The forearms seem like they’re a little undersized, but I think that’s from being cut to allow for a tighter bend in the elbows. I think he turned out great!
With Flash, you get three different heads and each one features a really solid likeness to Sam Jones. The first is kind of neutral, the second is smiling a bit, and I’m not quite sure what they were going for in the third. It’s not bad, it’s just not really conveying any emotional expression that I can tell. I’d say that third one is my least favorite with the second one being my favorite, and I will likely stick with that one for display.
Flash features the same articulation as Ming and comes with five hands: One set of fists, one set of gripping hands, and one trigger finger right hand. I would have liked a relaxed or gesturing left hand to make it an even three pairs, but I guess that wasn’t in the budget. It’s worth noting here that I didn’t have any issues with any of these figures joints. Everything worked as it should right out of the packages, with absolutely no heat needed or QC issues to speak of.
As for weapons, you get both a Hawkman rifle and a saber, and both of these showcase some of the really cool and unique weapon designs from the film. The rifle has a distinctive organic sculpt to it’s grip and stock with a fanned feather motif at the back of the breech, gold around the receiver, and a gold ring near the muzzle. The rifle works perfectly with the trigger hand and he can support the barrel with his gripping left hand.
The golden saber is rather iconic, as promotional stills often have Flash wielding this blade. NECA even used the shot for the front of the box. This is a wild looking weapon with a dramatic sweeping hook to the curved edge. The rich gold paint looks awesome, especially when coupled with the bright red on the grip. You also get that weird starred disk about midway through the blade. I always wondered why the heck that was there. Seriously, as a kid I would think about that a lot and what purpose it served. It used to bug me! I really dig that the articulation allows Flash to wield the weapon with both hands and he looks great doing it.
And finally, Flash comes with a Mongo grenade. I love how everything in Mongo is so opulent and ostentatious that even the grenades look like Fabergé Eggs. This is a great little sculpt with a handle on top. It reminds me that we better get the green “football” included with the T-shirt Flash, assuming that figure is forthcoming.
Flash makes this trio three-for-three in my scorebook. This figure is crazy fun to pose and play around with, especially with his two cool weapons. I didn’t feel like there was the same variety in the portraits as there was with Vultan and Ming, but what we got are all still fantastic. I just won’t be as torn over which head to display on the figure as I am with the other two figures. As for accessories, I can’t think of anything else NECA could have given us with this one, or at least it doesn’t feel like anything has been omitted. OK, sure a Hawkman pistol would have been a great bonus.
Phew… that was a long one, but it was well worth it to get all three figures showcased in one go. Now, I will note that these figures are not cheap. At $37 a pop, that puts them above the ceiling that I’m used to paying for NECA’s Ultimate figures. I remember paying under $30 for the Defenders of the Earth figures, and then I remembered that time passes and prices inflate. As it happens, most of NECA’s Ultimate releases are up to the $37 price point these days. I guess it’s not outrageous considering what Super7 is getting for their releases, but it’s definitely a premium, especially for figures that can be found at Big Box retailers. Worth it? For me, that’s a big yes! The closest we’ve had to these guys were the ones from Big Bang Pow, which I reviewed here almost exactly 14 years ago, so I’m happy to be getting these upgrades. Of course, BBP never did a Vultan, nor did they do these versions of Flash and Ming, so really these are all a first for me. Unless you count the Big Chief Studio Sixth-Scale Flash Gordon, which I haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet, so that’s a story for another time. Whatever the case, I hope these sell well, because I want NECA to go deep with this line. I’m all in!
There’s been no shortage of Dungeons & Dragons love in the toy aisles lately! While Hasbro has been delivering toys based on the 80’s cartoon and the recent movie, NECA has been showing lots of love to the old LJN toy line by giving us modern updates to those characters. And while Hasbro seems to have wrapped up their run at D&D toys, but it feels like NECA is just getting started. They came out swinging with two amazing figures, Warduke and Grimsword, and now they’re finally adding a hero to the lineup with Strongheart!
If you collect NECA then you already know what to expect from the packaging. It’s a window box with a front flap fastened by velcro. The character art on the front of the box is… OK, but really nothing special. Thankfully, you can open the flap, peep into the window and let the figure sell itself. As a kid, Strongheart was the only hero I had in this line for a while so he was kind of just generic adventurer exploring dungeons and getting constantly set upon by Warduke and the rubber monsters like the Grell. Seriously, the poor dude had to fight that Grell a lot.
Like his rivals, Warduke and Grimsword, this new Strongheart figure takes the original LJN design and juices it with a dose of realism and boy is the end result glorious. NECA grabbed enough of the LJN design beats from the armor to make this unmistakable as the noble Strongheart. The silver and blue armor is absolutely gorgeous! The wide gorget has the two circular points and the shield crest in the middle, his ab muscles are sculpted into the armor, and the winged knee guards are all straight off the vintage figure. NECA extrapolated the blue striping on the original figure’s forearms into belted bracers with each tiny buckle sculpted and painted. They also added some beautiful chainmail sculpt to the upper arms and legs, as well as an armored skirt. The only major change here is going from black boots on the original to blue here, and I do indeed love it!
The bright blue and shimmery cape is tailored from a thick and premium feeling cloth and is anchored to the gorget near the neck. Pull it to the side and you can see all the little details that NECA put into Strongheart’s back, even though you’ll rarely ever see it. This includes sculpted chains connecting the gorget to the back of his belt.
Strongheart is the first figure so far to actually have a face, and I think NECA did a wonderful job depicting the character with this more realistic portrait. The epic mustache is present, along with some rather dominant eyebrows and a prominent, manly chin. The face just exudes nobility, courage and heroism!
With the figure in hand, I was surprised and delighted to see that the visor is articulated and can be closed. The wings on the helmet have been streamlined and swept back, whereas they jutted out to the sides on the original figure. I think this manages to keep the overall design while giving him a much cooler looking profile. The white plume is still present, here spouting from the top and cascading back like a feathery ponytail
The original figure lacked a scabbard, but here we get one that not only holds the sword but also has an integral sheath for a dagger. The scabbard hangs from the belt on a loop and while I was skeptical as to whether this would work, it actually works very well. Indeed, it’s a much better design than pegging the scabbard into the figure and less delicate than the chain that hung one of Warduke’s sheathes from his belt.
The sword is pretty much an original design, since there wasn’t a lot to go on with the old LJN figure’s very generic weapon. It has a serviceable yet still attractive design that suits the figure quite well. It features a simple crossguard and pommel and a black ribbed grip. The sword has a broad blade that tapers quickly to a point near the tip. The blade is painted silver hand has some nice weathering.
The dagger design matches the sword, making them en suite. It’s pretty small and it doesn’t look like it would be much of a threat to Grimsword’s armor, but a well placed thrust would probably ruin Warduke’s day. Again, I really love the way the dagger’s sheath is incorporated into the scabbard.
Strongheart also comes with a shield, and I’m pretty sure this is an entirely newly designed piece as well. My old LJN Strongheart didn’t come with a shield, but I’m not sure if he was re-released later as part of the Battlematic figures with shields that fired missiles. Either way, it’s a very simple and knightly heater-type shield with silver paint around the edges intended to be reinforced steel with sculpted bolts. The reverse side of the shield has two straps, which work well with either the grippy or relaxed left hand. I think this was a great addition to the accessories as the shield really suits him well.
The final accessory here is the magic golden hammer, which is a wonderful nod to Strongheart’s appearance in the D&D cartoon, as that was his weapon of choice. Off hand, I don’t remember what it looked like and it didn’t have a lot of screen time as I recall, but this is a great looking piece and even includes a wrist strap hanging off the pommel.
I continue to love what NECA is doing with this line and to be honest it worries me that we’ve only seen one more reveal in the form of Elkhorn the Dwarf. Obviously, I want to see this line go deep and there are at least a half dozen more characters I’d like to see get this modernized treatment. I know that the reception for these figures has been extremely positive, so it’s just a question of whether that is translating to sales and I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, I still have Zarak to check out and I’ll give him the spotlight in the next week or so.
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!
I’m in the middle of a bonus NECA horror weekend trifecta, just to squeeze a few extra spooky bits of plastic in before Halloween. Yesterday I had a look at The Wolfman from NECA’s Universal Monsters series and today we’re going to fast forward exactly forty years ahead to 1981 and John Landis’ amazing comedy-horror An American Werewolf in London. I hesitate to give it the comedy-horror moniker, because despite the more flippant and whimsical elements, I found this movie to be absolutely terrifying when I first saw it. And if I’m being honest, I still find parts of it to be shockingly effective when it comes to the horror. Certainly more so than many films that have come and gone since. Sadly, I don’t have the Werewolf figure, as I’ve yet to actually see it on the shelves, so I’ll probably have to break down and get it online. In the meantime, let’s look at the Ultimate Nightmare Demon!
Here’s the package, and y’all know what to expect by now. A window box with a front flap that secures with velcro. But what’s unexpected is the lovely lenticular effect on the front panel, which is the very definition of chef’s kiss! You didn’t have to do it, NECA, but you threw in a little extra panache. The film’s Nightmare Demon sequence involves a squad of military demons bursting into the Kessler home and massacring the whole family. It’s absolutely balls-out mental, brutal, and one of the most disturbingly memorable scenes in a flick that is already full of hard to forget imagery. How crazy is it that we actually have action figures from this scene now? And who else, but NECA would deliver them?
So, the figure is designed to be displayable as any one of the cracked out demon hit squad that pisses all over the Kessler’s peaceful family night. That’s thanks mostly to the inclusion of four heads. The figure itself sports what looks like WW2 era military fatigues, including a pocketed tunic, high boots, gloves, and a belt and shoulder strap. It all looks great with plenty of sculpted stitching and rumples. There’s some immaculate silver paint for the buttons and buckles, and matte black used for the boots and gloves. Standard Ultimates series articulation applies, with some decent range of motion in those elbows.
The figure comes with the helmeted head with what looks like a half-werewolf face all rotted away. So, I think this sequence was supposed to represent the struggle David was having as the werewolf curse was overtaking him. As a result, I’ve always thought these demons were supposed to represent different phases of lycanthropy, ranging from sort of human to full on werewolf. I’m not sure if that’s really the case, but this one looks like a werewolf with his face melting off. It’s my favorite of the masks used in this sequence, but surprisingly my least favorite of these heads. It’s not bad, but there’s a lot going on here in a fairly small lump of plastic, and I don’t think it quite does the prosthetic justice. Still, it’s plenty cool nonetheless.
The next one up is a bit more human, but kind of looks like Michael Berryman on a really bad day. The bulging eyes and pronounced teeth look great and he has points to the ears. Again, I kind of always saw this as a dude in the very first stage of changing to werewolf, but it may just be intended as a scary monster head. Either way, this is a fabulous sculpt with so much detail in the facial creases and some excellent texture to the skin.
The third head is also sort of human, but showing some more pronounced wolf features. You get a lot of the same creasing to the face, a sort of mohawk on his coif and patches of hair forming mutton chops on his cheeks. The ears are atrophied but more pointed and it looks like there are chunks bitten out of his cheek. His mouth is a mess of teeth and he has jaundiced bulging eyes.
And finally we have full on wolf head, which was such a beautiful mask in the film and I think it’s reproduced here quite well. The bloody bulging eyes are super creepy and his pronounced jowls and teeth still have a bit of that rubbery look like they did with the actual mask in the film. There’s a great use of high gloss for the bloody mouth too.
There are a bevy of accessories to use with the figures including some hands that are intended for specific accessories. For starters, you get three guns and a right trigger finger hand to wield them. The first is a British Sterling and this is an absolutely gorgeous little sculpt of this iconic weapon. There’s some especially nice attention spent on the checkered texturing of the grip.
The second gun is a classic Uzi, easily one of the most iconic movie weapons of the 80s and again beautifully recreated here. We’ve definitely seen some Uzis from NECA before and I’m not sure if this is a recycled sculpt or not, but it’s got to be one of the best renditions of this weapon in this scale I’ve ever owned.
And finally, the Mac-11, another pretty iconic go-to gun for 80s films and a design that I’ve never been a big fan of. Nonetheless, it’s another great sculpt and a welcome addition to my 1:7 scale arsenal.
In addition to the guns, you get a pair of bowie knives, which I think are supposed to be the same but one just has blood on it. It’s the blade that was used by one of the demons to hold David in check while he watched his family killed and then it was used to slit his throat. It’s easy for figure companies to phone in knives at this scale, but NECA always gives it their all, and these are really nice pieces with painted rivets running through the grip and clipped point blades. There’s a right hand made specifically to hold the knife, but the left hand works fine as well.
And lastly, you get a burning torch with a very nice flame effect. And once again, you get a wider grip right hand made specifically for this accessory.
I picked this figure up when it went on sale for about $22 a little while ago and while I’m really cracking down on buying multiple figures, I kind of regret not picking up two or three more to recreate the squad. Yeah, I nitpicked one of the heads, but you have to realize that I was obsessed with monster effects when I was a teenager and I remember drooling over pictures of Rick Bakers’ work in magazines and I really wanted to own one like it. But, apart from that, the sculpting here is outrageously good and the accessories are on point. And just to think that the demons from this sequence actually now exist as action figures makes me so grateful that NECA is around and throwing their love at this sort of thing. And likewise that there’s enough weirdos like me willing to throw their money at it. I’d still love to see Jack Goodman get the Ultimates treatment, but I’m not holding my breath.
And I’ll be back tomorrow for the final spooky figure review before Halloween!
FigureFan Zero 