EVILUTION DEMON

Aaahh...2001, such a nice moment to be alive: TV channels like Cartoon Network or Fox Kids were in the best moment, videogames never been better with pieces like Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2, movies still felt like in the 80s-90s and there was no super hero obsesion and for those that colected toys, the industry was in its most experimental and creative moment thanks to the seeds planted by McFarlane Toys and one of the brands blossoming was Stan Winston Creatures, the toys section of the studio that did the special effects of Jurasic Park, Predator or Small Soldiers.

The very first one of theyr lines was Creature Feature and consist on a collection of original monsters inspired by old 50s movies and since this was a kind of multimedia project, HBO produced one movie for each of this creatures just soo people had context and a back story for this figures. I wish now day we had something like this!! 

Last year i was able to get a couple of this Creature Feature in mint condition in theyr blister and was planing to review them for Halloween but it was a busy month for me, soo here it is at last the first one of the Stan Winston creations: the Evilution Demon from the movie How to Make a Monster.

This creature is on "base scale" soo he fits perfectly with other NECA, McFarlane or Storm figures or pretty much most of waths on the market. He can stand on his own pretty good, and thats a surprise given the state of his legs and pose but he comes wih a base anyways that helps keep balance much better. He is articulated on the neck, rigth shoulder, both biceps and wrists as well as his legs and waist. This is a 2001 figure soo back then articulations didnt had too much importance over scupt, soo this are only basic cut joints that only let you move each part to a single direction.

Basically, this Demon is pre-posed with his legs half bend and his arms open to the sides and while you can rotate the biceps and the wrists, the amount of poses for display is very very limited (find a new pose for this pictures was quiet a challengue for me) soo the limited posing is deffinetly part of the charm of this era figures.

Wath we got here is a videogame enemy that is building himself using metal scraps and ppieces of the corpses of his victims to have a body in the real wolrd soo this is mostly like a Frankenstein creture with robotic and mechanical parts, kind of a futuristic Cenobite coming out from a melted computer.

The face is a skull with a metalic jaw but it lack deffinition on the sculpture soo the teeth dont look very good. The helmeth with horns and spikes tough is really well sculpted as well as the fleshy part that have a kind of mummyfied texture on them. The metali chest plates and arms sections have intrincate engravings nicelly sculpted and i specially like a lot the legs....the legs a just a bunch of wires and very thin metal poles conected to the faw flesh. It looks gruesome and make wonder how he can stand (tough he is very ligth).

The pikes and the pieces of clotehs hanging from his torso and waist are made with soft plastic. Of course this sections dosnt botehr at all with the very limited articulation but they help to give to the clothing a much more nice texture. 

Paint is good, with the clothing mixing a soft brown with a black wash soo it looks dirty and used soo the texture stand out. The fleshy parts have a mix of an even ligther brown with a black brush and some red mixed on it soo it looks like scarred flesh. The metalic parts are a mix od blues, copper, golden and greys soo he is not a one color creature and the best part, for me, are the siny metalic eyes that stand out from the dull skull that is his face. The horns also have a very realistic white paint on them.

The base is really heavy and stranglely shped and it consist on a metalic flor with a giant computer on the side that is melting away and from its center is coming out the Evilution Demon. Theres a lot of mother boards and cables and panels in the leting away material but the paint job is really really bad. The metalic flor is just ligth blue and dosnt looks anything metalic, it looks very plastic.

Also whhile the melting away PC have green color on the boards and a dark wash to gives it shadow, is basically brown....just brown....and the brown dosnt mixat all with the plastic blue of the floor soo in the end is pretty difficult to find out wath this is....it almost liooks like a pile of shit.

While theres no accesories aside of the base, they also incuded an old looking monitor and a metalic piece that is brown....again...both items are brown for some reason and the Evilution Demon cant hold them or interact with them soo they are just liying on the floor in between his legs.

Oh! I almost forgot!!! The figure also inclides and interactive CD-ROOM that contains a behind the scenes look at how this monster was designed, how it was sculpted and painted and who are the people behind him. This is such a nice detail....i mean it really show this was a collector item for people really interested not only on the figure, but on its proces of creation and mixed with the HBO movie, also interested on its story.

I love this collection of monster figures, i really do, and i love who is behind them and the CD-ROOM thingy but to be honest, i dont like this figure at all. The paint is OK, the sculpt is good but while in concept it sounds pretty gruesome, the figure it self is not really interesting to look at. Theres just too much going on, too much brown....and that hides not only the gruesome details of the monster but also make him really uninteresting.

I think this was mostly a design failure, something that may looks amazing on screen wont be that good as a toy or in this scale and also the lack of expreicnce on the paint section really hurt this character and failed to make him come alive in the display. Its really a shame because most of the rest of the monsters are much much better looking.

MANBAT

After more than 25 years i stil feel fascinated by McFarlane Toys figures from the 90s and begining of the 2000s but at the same time i really dislike wath McFarlane has been doing in the last 15 years. He produced a lot of Witcher figures yet every single one of them was terrible except a single statue of Geralt i review last year and he also produced an ocean of Batmen and DC characters, again some with an extremelly poor quality and some really good ones but the quality is all over the place in the end.

He did one of the best Swamp Thing figures i ever seen if not the single best one tough soo theres some really good jewells on his stock but they are kind of rare. One of the figures  that pick my attention greatly was Mcfarlane version of Manbat. He is part of the "Mega Figure" line along side Swapm Thing and other big characters like Doomsday soo while he came in a huge box, i was kinda dissapointed by his wings but in the end, i toock the chance i got him before he gets super expensive in the secondary market once McFarlane lose the DC licence.

Like i said, this guy comes in a huge box and is really really heavy but thankfully, price was very good and thats the saving greace of MacFarlane Toys now day. He is on scale with everything else of the brand soo this make him in perfect scale with NECA or Storm figures but given how beastly he is, he is for sure much bigger than those characters. He is actually bigger than Goliath and all the other Gargoyles but he is endeed shorter than the Swamp Thing (just to have in perspective how epic gigantic and imposing is Alec Holland).

This bad boy is articulate don the head, shoulders, elbows, chest, waist, legs, knees, ankles and half feet. The head articulation is really fantastic because he have a long peg with two ball joints in each side, conecting with his shoulders and head soo the head can move at the sides with complete freedom, up and down too and the fur piece on his neck that covers the peg is made of soft plastic. The shoulders have giant ball joints as well as the elbows soo the only thing that blocks the movement are his wings.

Chest and waist ball joints have a huge range of movement and while the legs can rotate only a little bit, they cna split and move front and back pretty nicelly. Theres double joint on the knees soo they can bend pretty good and he have not one, but TWO articulations on the ankles: one that let his feet rotate and a ball joint that makes his feet pivot. 

Wath does this mean? I cant stand on his own at all. I mean, he can technically stand but once you find the perfect balance of weight in the front and the back and even then, its imposible to know for how long this is gonna last....i mean the torso is huge and really heave and the ankles joints are very very lose soo this is to be expected, is logic, is noting but BAD ENGINERING.......

He comes with a tiny mini stand with a peg that conects with any of his feet. The stand is soo crazy generic every single MacFarlane figues has it: a thin circular completelly black with the DC logo on it. Is completely useles. It dosnt help balance at all and it dosnt help make his falls lighter. Is a completelly waste of plastic...

Anyway, i only have another Manbat on my collection and that is the one from Batman The Animated Series that belongs to one of my favorite chapters, "On Leather Wings". This one tough is based on the design of the New 52 comics soo is very different and is more like a Hulk with wings. This version looks like a body builder werewolf with wings, very beastly, extremelly sexy as well and imposing while the animated one looks much more lean and athletic. This version have HUGE biceps and arms in general wich makes sense because you need wings of steel to keep such a beast in the air and makes wonder wath kind of wings he could have.

This is the thing, McFarlane Toys made his wings closed completelly. I knwo this figure is already big but this is such a huge wasted chance to make a trully amazing figure, give him a pair of extra open wings just like DC Direct did with this same character, wings made of rea fabric or even paper or something....having such an amazing design with the wings always closed is soo depressing....

Aside of the wings thing, the sculpt here is amazing. The texture of the muscles is very realistic and theres veings everywhere and little realistic details, like the nipples. The hair parts ofn the shoulders and neck are made with soft plastic and the hair sculpt is very sharp and well defined. The closed wings are also amde of soft plastic and they are divided with most of them coming from Manbat´s hands and a smaller section coming out from his biceps, this way the elbows can still bend and move and the gap between this two sections is very easy to hide.

The head sculot is really really good, with the tiny eyes and almost non-existant nose and the huge ears and mouth full of fangs, tough one of the fangs is thicker and bigger than the other. I tough this was a mistake on y figure but i seen photos and videos other people pointing the same soo i think this is intentional but i dont know waths the story behind it (maybe he broke one of his fangs???). The broken jeans have also a very good texture on them and while the legs seems small comapred to his torso, they are pretty well build too but kind of pre-posed soo he can stand up righ at all since the knees are sculpted bending (logic would tell us this was to make him stand him easyer but it dosnt help at all his balance).

Paint is less interesting tough. The hair in the shoulders, neck and forearms is painted in a dark brown with some black wash to make it stand and it works very well because it even looks a little shiny but pretty much everything else is painted in a softer brown and thats it. Theres no shades or shadows or a wash, nothing....just brown and that makes it looks almost like cell shading clean. I mean, the wings SHOULD be a different color on each side but they are just the same brown as the rest of the body. 

Even the jeans are just blue and nothing else...no stains, dirt or anything else, just plain blue. The inside of the mouth is purple and stands our pretty good with all that brown and the inside of the hear is purple too tough i wish the transition between purple and brown could be better. The fangs...i am not sure if they are brown as well but they looks suspiciouslly like the skin tone but the eyes looks terrific!! The black surrounding the red puplis makes them sttand out perfectly and looks really demonic.

And since this is McFarlane, theres no accesorys beyond the waste of plastic that is the base and a card featuring a very good looking art in the front and the basic info of the character in the back. The card is a nice detail, like always, but i wish they added a closed mouth extra head (or gives him ana rticulated jaw!!!) or some open hands....its soo tiring to have his hands always on a fist.

This figure is nothing but contrast....it looks amazing on the shelve with a horror collection or a DC display, y beastly, sexy and well articulated and have an impresive size and presence, but the paint could be better, the balance needs to be better, the extras dont exist at all....soo this Manbat feels soo perfect yet soo incomplete. Its such a werid feeling.

Even soo i am happy i got him, despitr the headache that represents make him stand, this is one of the best McFarlane Toys has done in many years and looks perfect along side Zood or the Great Wolves and the Furay Planet figures.

DEVILMAN VIOLENCE

 Let start the year with something retro, very retro, from 1998 actually and a subject even more retro: Devilman. Its been a long time since i posted something Devilman related but i already review every single piece i have and in the last years pretty much nothing has come out related to the character. Yes, Devilman Crybaby was very popular but it didnt spark any kind of merchadise at all soo the last time we had new Devilman toys was....probablly 15 years ago.

Good thing tough last century leave us an awfull lot of Devilman merchadise to hunt down soo while this figure is not entirelly new but its just a color variant i think its worth adding it to the collection given how rare it is. From Kaiyodo this is part of theyr "Violence Action Figures" series that consist on nly two figures: Devilman and Devilman Lady.

But while the series was pretty small, the color variations made it much bigger. Back in the 90s for some reason color variations in action figures was extremelly popular ocurrence soo every figure came out in 5 or even more color palettes and that made them extremelly tricky to collect since the original color palette was most of the time pretty difficult to find. Thats something i really dont miss from toy collecting in the 90s and beginign of the 2000s.

Soo of course Kaiyodo was no exception for this soo it released 4 different variations of each Devilman and Devilman Lady. I think i got the original version of both....maybe. But last year i was able to find another Devilman lose but in really good condition. Yes i aready got this guy in my collection but up at this point is a good idea to snatch anything related to the character.

He is in standar scale, justlike NECA or McFarlane or Storm soo he fits nicelly with most figures series and he can stand on his own, partially because the articulations on his knees are very lose and make him fall constantly, specially with the wings on soo you need to find the perfect balance but once done, he stays still perfectly. With no wings he stands much much better.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs and knees and of course, all this articulations are very basic swivels that only let him rotate the waist, head and wrists and the elbows and knees have a basic articulation and given his legs are sculpted very open, moveing them isnt specially usefull or good looking, soo this is a figure fully articulated but with not many options of display.

Sculpt is fantastic, this is Devilman in his most basic shape, just like Go Nagai designed him, with the big smile full of fangs, pointy nose, the anthena and medium size wings on his head and hairy legs, no unnecesary redesign or anything and the muscular buid is really really amazing, he looks like a body builder and he actually have his penis sculpted as well as his nipples.

The paint consist on metalic orange with a black airbursh on his legs and shoulder marks and the wings have the same color aplication. The red inside his mouth dosnt stand too much with all that orange but the yellow eyes looks really nice in contrast with the back section of his head. While the paint on the eyes and fangs is perfectm the whole figure is cast in transluscent plastic soo it catch the light in a pretty weird way mixed along the metalic paint.

The original version is cast on normal plastic and is painted in green, with a lot of details on his muscuature. Here theres no details in the paint at all, just plain orange, but the transparency make his looks more shiny than the original version. There sno accesorys but the wings can be removed but that leave a big hole on his back.

Compared with modertn figures this is abismal. but the articulations and design mixed with the material and the way its painted makes this looks like one of those super expensive vinyl japanese toys and it defifinelty screams "80s-90s". From all the Devilman figures i seen in my life this one is one of the bests to represents the Go Nagai character design and fits nicelly on any anime of horror collection.

I cant remember the last time i got a Deviman figure like this. To a point i think i felt my collection was completelly closed but this guy reminds me it is not, there is a lot still out there related to Devilman and that somehow makes me feel kinda excited.

THE GHOST OF JACOB MARLEY

 Why do the dead walk the Earth? For some, it is because they fear what comes next, and so they cling to the memory of their mortal existance. For others, they haunt the living because they have unfinished business amont them. Still, there are some spirits who linger not by choice, but because they are cursed to do so. Such is the case of the spirit who, in life, was known as Jacob Marley.

Eternally fettered, the Ghost of Jacob Marley wears the chains he forged in life. Each link is a sin that he committed against his fellow man. Each ledger and cashbox and key is a reminder of opportunities lost, of chances to lift up and assist a fellow human that he squandered in his blind greed. This restless spirit now walks amongst mankind, forced to witness the fate of those he could have helped, but did not - and yet, somehow this damnable soul found a way to not only return to the land of the living, but to finally use his influence to help another. 

Christmas Eve is one of the nights pf the calendar year when the barriers between the worlds of the living and the dead begin to thaw. It is therefore no surprise that it was on this night that Marley´s Ghost appeared to his former partner, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. The specter brought with him a warning, that should Ebenezer not change his was, he too would be condemned to wear the chains of a life poorly lived. Yet Jacob Marley also briught with him hope, for he explained to Scrooge that he would be visited that very evening by three additional spirits and that he still had a chance to turn from his path - a chance sich old Marley had procured for him.

Ever the businessman, Jacob Marley was brokering deals with the spirits even as he dragged around the heavy burden of his own sinful deeds. For he could not assist those he shunned in life, but he could be the instrument that would help remdeem thr sould of Ebenezer.

This story is an old one, and most know that Ebenezer Scrooge was not only saved, but that he became as good a man as any knew. He held Christmas on his heart the whole year through, and all the lives he touched with his remaining time on Earth owed that good will to the ghostly intervention of the "good man of business" once known as Jacob Marley.

The Figura Obscura series for Fourhorsemen has been one of the most amazing lines i ever seen tough i dont have many of them, pretty much every single figure of the series stands out as a brillant collectible and the fact some of them are season themed turns them into something to looks forward every year. While this year they release the Mouse King that looks more like a Teenage Ninja Turtle character, in 2023 the Christmas season saw theyr Ghost of Jacob Marley, from Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" book.

While this particular story and its character as seen literally hundreds of version on screen and each one wathers down the concept little by little, the original Charles Dickens book was actually "a Ghost Story of Christmas" and was supposed to be haunting and creppy and the people of Fourhorsemen didnt dissapoint by keeping faithfull to the original printed story just like they did with the Frankenstein Creature last year.

Aside of coming in a beautifull artbox that mimics the streets of London full of spirits wandering around and being seen tough the window (tough this ghost renders are based on Fourhorsemen people), Jacob Marley is in the standar scale of the NECA, McFarlane and Storm figures soo he matches perfectly most of other lines in size and is the same size as Krampus and the Creature (and of cours he is a head taller than the Headless Horseman) and can stand on his own perfectly.

He is articulated on the neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knees and ankles. The ehad have a big ball joint that let the head be swaped pretty easy but the long hair in the back dosnt let him move the head backside tough the front have a good rnage of movement. The shoulders have a ball joint as well as the elbows and they can turn left and rigth as well. The waist dosnt move too much mostly because of the hip piece of his suit. This peice is made of soft plastic but it blocks the waist movement anyway as well as the legs movement.

The legs can rotate but like i said, the hip piece from his suit makes it difficult while the knees and ankles ball joints moves perfectly with no effort. Actually, the ankles are kinda loose and makes him fall now and then, but finding the rigth balance for them is not that difficult.

The sculpt is superb, like expected. Small details like the wrinkles around Jacob´s forehead as well as the veins, the bag under his eyes, the cut on his mouth, are very faintly and soft sculpted while the missing piece of flesh on his forehead and strands of hair have a very deep and strong sculpt that defines them nicelly. Jacob Marley´s face is cold, stoic, and very severe, and the shroud arund his face have a soft wool texture.

The jacket, the vest and pants also have the same texture while the sleeves end, inside of the jacket and boots have a very leatherish texture that makes them looks much heavyer. Both the vest and the jacket are made of soft plastic tough the vest have no reason for it, the jacket material helps to not limit his legs or even arms poseability.

The details like the big belt bukle and the big buttons on the jacket looks reayy good as well as the scard on his neck but the most oustanding part of this are the legs and the jacket, because, this is a ghost and ghost have no legs, rigth? Soo the boots and jacket are cast in transluscent plastic that reminds a lot the Invisible Man figures. The paint fades slowlly at the end of the jacket and the top of the boots soo the changue between "material" and "inmaterial" sections have an incrediblly soft and natural transition.

The color here is blue....like, theres a whole lot of blue here but theres a lot of different blues as well that ranges from the pale to the almost grey one. The pants have a grey color while the vest have electric blue and the jacket have a pale soft blue with the buttons painted on white and electric blue. The boots have a totally different blue while the skin have a mix of pale and electric tones.

The shroud and the eyes stands out very much since they are the only white parts and while the entire outfit have no shades or other shadows on it, the face and hair have a lot of different tone sof electric and dark blues, specially under the eyes to make the eyes stand out even more and make the hair looks old and dry. Overall, the palette gives a feeling of coldnes and stillnes while the translucent boots and jacket feels very icy.

Theres a lot fo accesorys here!! Like two extra pair of hands, one claw shapped and another one fully open in a very dramatic way. Both works good to hold the chains and can be swaped very easy. Theres a lot of veins and wrinkles on them as well as grey long claws but the ball joint is painted on blue, soo while swaping them constantly the blue color will chip away constantly.

One of the main items in this pack is the head with no shroud around it and the mouth fully open on a silent and groesque scream, the jaw disjointed and the sides of the mouth cut soo the mouth is open revealing all the tissues inside. The eyes expression is full fo suffering too but perhaps the part that make this even more gruesome is the fact the teeth are painted on yellow and the inside of the mouth and tongue on red, soo that make a ghastly contrast with all the pale blue around it. I cant say this enough: the scult of the inside of the mouth and face expression is amazing and completelly perfect.

There is another head that consist on a kind of.....metalic helmeth shaped like a skull. This helmeth is closed at the side with a padlock and have a long metal chain hanging from the chin with a big and heavy loocking padlock in the end. The metalic paint on it and the different components, loke the folden bolts and the golden padlock are really good and this is an addition to the torture of Jacob Marley tough i just wonder if this helmeth if for him or another figure......mmmmm.

The other centrail piece in this is his weigth mechanism: a vest made with leather straps cast in very soft rubber plastic and painted with browns and metalic bolts and golden rings. Each rings have a long chains conected to it if different lenght and this are all REAL chains and each chain have different shapped keys hanging from the half and some padlocks here and there as well.

There is two books hanging from two chains, one is thin and blue with a golden palque in front while other is brown and very thick with a belt closing it. The leather texture of the covers as well as the little golden and metalic details painte don them as well as the pages inside make this books little mrvells, just like the ones included in the Frankenstein Creature.

Three different cashbox hang from three different chains as well and each one of them have a unique design and color palette, with one being completelly square and metalic green, another one have a tall lid while the other have a round lid both with grey and golden details. The texture feels like old metal while the color aplication is perfect and all of them can be open to reveal theyr content.

Lastly, a big thick chains comes out from the pinal cord of the weigth device and conects with a big and heavy safe box with little wheels on the bottom and a perfectly sculpted lid with a convination device. This item have the same texture of old metal as the other chasboxes and the paint is mostly grey with golden finish touches in front and it can be opened as well to keep the skull helmeth safe inside.

This weigth device have one of the straps detached soo once the head of Marley is gone, it can be wrapped around his body very easy and stays there perfectly. The whole chains system is like a metalic cobweb that can be pused around Jacob Marley like tendrils or tentacles to give him a pretty dramatic and spectacular look. This torture device is pretty noisy and can be very anoying while posing the figure around but it also can helps to keep in in balance (or destroy his balance completelly as well).

Now the skull helmeth thing is inside the safe box but waths inside the chasboxes? A toon of keys, twelve different keys bassed on the keys in the boxes of the other Figura Obscura figures. The keys sculpt looks is supper detailed since some have very strange shapes and the metalic finish looks great.

At the begining of the book, Scooge see the face of Jacob Marley in the doorknocker just before entering his house and starting listen to chains on the stairs soo Fourhorsemen included not one but two drooknockers here as well, one with Jacob stoic expression and the other with his disjointed jaw fully open. The sculpt is fantastic and the cooperpaint mixing gold and green gives them a very natural texture and the wings are articulated tough i am not sure how to display this since they only have a hole in the back and the only way to make them stand is by hanging them on a nail in the wall.

And finally, since the experience of Figura Obscura starts from the very cover of the box, the box itself is an accesory: once the magnetic locks are open the wraping around the box opens like a screen and form a background for the figure. The scene shows the room of Scrooge, with his bed in one side, the window in the middle with a lonely canddle and Scrooge himself on his couch by the fireplace completelly terrified by witnesing the pale and transluscent figure coming from the shadows.

The quality of the artwork is amazing and manages to mix realism and stylism pretty good. The color palette of the whole scene is the same as Jacob Marley, deep and cold blue, but the canddle in the middle as wella s the clock tower in outside and the fireplace make a great contrast to the scene and the presence of Scooge on it make the figure actually interacts with the background to build an scene. This is not just a background, this is an scene happening between two different characters and this really makes the display pop up in a very magnific way.

I can talk endlessly about this figure. The Figura Obscura figures only comes out once ot twice a year but each one of them shines from head to toe and completelly unique and original, from the box to the accesory and to the coltural weigth the handle as well. I mean, if you are a reader of books this figure would be awesome given is one of the key characters from the principal work of Charles Dickens but if you are a Christas maniac this figure is a must and if you are a horror collector, this figure is also principal since this was the very first ghostly figure that manifest with chains.

This is one of those expamples of a toy being seen as a piece of art but all Figura Obscura have the same level of quality. They later released the Ghost of Christmas Past but its design was less dashing than Jacob Marley and a few days ago they releasing the King Mouse and i am not gonna get that but they also releaed this year the Jersey Devil and i am still hunting the Masque of the Read Death from a few years back but i hope this series keep releasing this kind of characters next year and focus more on season characters.