First published in 1818, "Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley is a tale of loneliness, despair, and the horrible consequences or a reckless pursuit of knowledge.
Dr. Victor Frankenstein is a brilliant, but misguided man consumed by the desire to unlock the secrets of life. Building a creature out of body parts from corpses which he collects from gravesites, Victor achieves his dream and brings his monstrosity to life. Rather than being delighted at his success, Dr. Frankenstein is horrified by the creature he has constructed, and he immediately flees from the sight of this monster.
Alone and unwanted, Frankenstein’s Creature escapes into the wilderness. Forced to learn the ways of the world on his own, the Creature is met with fear as he encounters humans for the first time. Chased away by their terror of him, the Creature moves from place to place until he stumbles upon a remote hut inhabited by a blind man and his two children. Observing this family from afar, the Creature learns to speak and he begins to understand the importance of belonging and family. This realization only serves to increase the sense of isolation that Dr. Frankenstein’s creation feels, and he is eventually chased away from the hut when the man’s children behold the monster who has invaded their home.
The Creature seeks out Dr. Frankenstein at his family home in Geneva. He demands that the Doctor create another creature so that he may have a companion in this life. Reluctant to repeat his past mistakes, the Doctor initially refuses, but the Creature persists in his demands. Eventually Frankenstein succumbs to these demands and begins to build a second creature.
On the brink of successfully creating life for a second time, Dr. Frankenstein realizes that he cannot go through with the deed. He destroys his new creation, enraging the Creature who vows revenge against his cruel creator.
Thus begins a series of horrific events; the deadly consequences of Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s unchecked ambitions. Lashing out against the man who made him and left him alone, the Creature kills the doctor’s best friend as well as Victor’s wife, losses which also contribute to the death of Dr. Frankenstein’s father. Grief-stricken and now as alone as the Creature to which he gave life, Victor devotes his remaining time on Earth to hunting down his creation so that he may destroy the monstrosity he has brought into the world.
Dr. Frankenstein chases the monster to the northernmost parts of the globe, nearly catching him during a harrowing dogsled chase. Eventually discovered by a ship and a team of explorers seeking out the North Pole, a sickly Victor relates his grim tale before he finally succumbs to the illness he has been fighting and dies.
The captain of the ship, a man named Robert Walton, authors a series of letters relating the incredible tale that has been told to him by the doctor, he also includes his own encounter with the Creature. Finding the monster weeping over the dead body of his creator, he listens to the monster’s tale of solitude, suffering, and hatred, as well as the regret he now has for his actions. With his creator now dead, he is truly alone in the world. The Creature escapes into the icy North to die, never to be seen again.
The Figura Obscura series by Four Horsemen is one of those collections thats hard to belive, a real dream come true kind of event for some collectors not only because of theyr quality and theyr amazing package, but because they been releasing characters from pretty...."obscure" topics like real life mithology or literally works, everything with a hliday spin into it: they release Krampus on Christmas day and they release the Headless Horseman in Halloween.
This figures have been the event of the season deffinetly, and finally i was able to get one of them in release season! The Halloween figure of this year, the Frankenstein´s Creature!!! And while theres hunderds of figures based on Boris Karloff Franknestein Mosnter from the Universal movie, this particular figure is entirelly based directly on Mary Shelley´s original vision, for the first time ever.
Aside of the magnificent box fill to the maximum of beautifull and haunting artwork (sadly, no glow in the dark this time), this Frankenstein´s Creature is on th same scale as the other figures of the serires if maybe a little bit taller, but not much. I wish he was bigger tough since in Mary Shelley´s book and movies, this monster is more taller than the average human. He can stand on his own perfectly soo theres no need of a base at all.
This monster is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knees and ankles. Theres no articulation on the chest or biceps, pretty odd for now day standars but i guess this is more for esthetic, tough the legs rotate as well as the elbows to five it a bigger range of movement. Of course the chest area and neck dosnt let his shoulders to go totally up but the rest of the ball jounts works really good, specially on the head since it let shim tilt his head and have a big range of up and down movement.
The hair dosnt block the head movement since it made with soft plastic and the coat dosnt get in the way either for the same reason, but the bandages on his waist really do block the legs movement a little bit, but aside of that theres a lot of poseability here despite this character not being know as a very flexible onw.
Now theres a lot going on here....a lot, from the figure to the accesorys. My only complaing with this figure is that is not asymmetrical enough since on the bock, the proportions of the creature are completelly wrong and one of his arms and legs are longer than the other, but here this guy looks pretty nicelly build, actually he have quiet a super hero musculature, somehting that dosnt match the book´s character but i guess Four Horsemen wanted to keep with the idea of this creature being superhuman strong.
The musculature and anatomy are really really good, and the skin wrinkles on the neck section as well as the elbows and knees to make it looks realistic. The skin have the texture of a dry mummy and every cut is sculpted as well as the stitches uniting each section. The autopsy opening on his torso is really striking as well as the veins and the wrinkles around the muscles. This is an extremelly realistic and natural sculp.
The face have the same old mummy texture on it but the face structure is very squareish, specially on the chin, matching the design of the Universal Monsters version and somehow mixing it with the Mary Shelley vision. The book read that his skin is soo tigth that some scars are opening and in some sections its transparent and the veins and tissues underneath are visible as well as the lips reced and show the creatures pearl white teeth all the time. While the transparent bits arent present, the tigth skin wround his mouth is really visible here and it even shows some of his skull structure underneath.
The eyes are sunken but unlike the original book description, they looks angry and sad at the same time and the hair is a series of random black strands made of soft plastic.
The paint is just as high quality as the sculpt with a very soft dark wash that makes the wrinkles and mummy texture very visible and yet natural looking. Every single stitch is individually painted and theres not a single drop of paint in the wrong place and thats amazing given how small are this elements. Some of the cuts o the creatures body are still fresh and kinda bloody, soo they are painted in a wet red that stands out a lot, more specifically on his skill, near his shoulder and theres a big red blody cut on his back. Also the cut on the sole of his foot lose the stitches soo its drooping blood.
The body is extremelly detailed and you can almost build an individual story on some of the details of it, is really amazing the level of quality Four Horsemen reach to the point is extremelly difficult to find something to complaing about.
The old jacket the creature is using is made with soft plastic and have fut on the neck and inside while the outside is made with different patches of very different material. Each patch is made with a totally different both texture and paint pretty similar to Sally´s dress from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Again, the golden stitches on the jacket are perfectly painted and they contrast a lot with the different colors and textures but my favorite part are the broken rags in the end and the sleeves, they looks specially dramatic.
The pants are made of a very thin black fabric and while they have no particular detail, the material is pretty fresh and flexible and that give his legs a lot of freedom. It have some holese here and there and a rough looking rope used as belt, tough this rope is glued soo it cant be removed, the pants open and close with a tiny velcro at front.
The shoes tough are exactly the same as Boris Karloff Frankenstein Monster, black with dark gresy on it and a very round shape with a thick sole. Its pretty neat how, while this design is specifically based on the book, theres a lot of tiny bits like this that are from the Universal movie, a kind of a mix with some of the most recognizable details of the silver screen design.
Now the accesorys....theres way too much here. For starter theres an extra pair of hands aside of this hands for hold items, theres a second set with open palms in a very dramatic gesture. The quality on sculpt and paints are exceptional and they are rpettye asy to swap, tough is strange theres not more hands aside of this but i guess this is thanks to all the other stuff he have.
There is an extra pair of feet!! Bare feet without the big Boris Karloof boots. This feet can swap pretty easy tough make him lose balance a little easyer than the big foots, the sculpt and paint is magnificent and full of details, like i already mentioned early, even the sole of one of his feet have an open and bloody wound.
They also included two pairs of handcuffs, a small pair and a big pair. While they dont open the paint have a pretty natural rusty look and the chains are actually metalic. The small ones are for the creatures hands while the big ones are for his legs, tough they are very easy to put in place, the boots and pants get in the way a little bit soo is better to use the feet ones only when he is nude.
Yes....he can be nude. The jacket can be removed pretty easy as well as the pants and by exchanging the bare feet, he can be totally nude on all his gruesome glory. When he gets the spark of life in the book, he is totally nude of course, soo this version is to recreate that specific part and the nude version is actually....yhea, much more gross and scary than the clothed version.
Also all the details on that body are trully worth to be seen and to cover him private parts he have a kind of skirt made with wrapped bandages around his waist. The texture is really nice and the paint, while simple, have different tones of grey that makes every bandage to stands out independently from each other. Sadly, add this bandages is really difficult.....the torso must be separated in order to put the bandages and put the torso back but the proces needs a lot of strenght and delicacy to not broke the ball joint!!! Really, i am afraid to find out how much force it takes or even broke one of the leg pegs or ball joints while adding back the torso, its a pretty diffcult process but the end result is really worth it.
To recreate the birth of the creature they also add two extra heads with no hair at all. One have a serious black stare while the other have a fierce growling expresion showing his teeth. Both heads have exactly the same black lips, bloody scarsm sunen eyes and dry mummy skin tough here is evident all the sarcs and veins on his skill and back of the head.
The heads can be exchanged pretty easy tough i wish the hair could be exchanged between heads beacuse giving the hair head a single expression while keeping the other epxression to the bald heads is pretty limiting for the display.
For the birth of the creature recreation he also includes a big medical table used in morgue. This is the biggets item of the pack deffinetly and is build with two sections: the base and the pillar with the table. The base have four feet and also includes a level that cna be pushed with the feet as well as a pretty compicated structure on the base that includes a black vale on each side in order to adjust the table heigh and inclination. In fact nothinf of this is of any use since the only working part is jint on the base that lets you changue the inclination.
The articulation use a ratchet soo tis kinda difficult to move it since it needs to be stroun enough to hold on the creatures body weight and it works really good doing it and keep the balance perfectly. The sculpt is good and the base inscludes some rust and sirty painted on it and the hole on the table have some fluids marks as well. Theres two rings on the side to hold into the chains of the creature but i can find any way to open up the metal chains to adjust them.
The table have two leatherish straps, for the legs and chest area, to hold the creature. The texture is nice and the paint basic and they are made of soft plastic but they reminds me a lot of 90s toys with this same straps and this material usually dont survive the march of time, soo i hope the material used here is more durable.
Sadly, not blanket to cover him, soo i had to use the Bride´s dress for this pictures.
There is a second table, a much more smaller version with no articulation and designed to hold on to the lab´s items. This base have the same fout leg base as well as the rusty paint and do its joob pretty good.
Then its the lab equipment. First of all two devices whos name evade me completelly, one looks like n engine with a rotating level and wired cables and the other looks like a tower difived in plaques that looks like a rudimentary batter and evidently, the other device is also used to generat electcirity. The wires can be conected to various holes in the battery and while the sculpt is really good, the color palette with silver, golden and browns for the wood parts make this items perfect looking to 1818.
There is also 3 weight for a scale with the same retro XVIII cenruty design but in darker metalic grey. While the creature cant interact with all this items, they helps a lot to build the perfect laboratory diorama.
Speaking of unusable items, theres 3 jars of different size and shape with investigation specimens. The jars are made of transparent plastic while the base is brown to make it looks like wood. The small jar contains a skeletal hand, the medium size jar contains a skull while the big size jar contains a rotting head. All jars can be open soo the items can be interacted with.
The hands can fits on the creature arms arctually and the skull and head can be placed instead of his own head as well but that would not make too much sence since i feel this are items to study the advancement of the decay of the flesh. The skull is really good looking, with a great sculpt and a very natural and detailed bony paint but the rotting head is really disturbing!!! With the same yellow color of the ceatures flesh, the same dark lips but with big swollen empty eyes, this actually resemble more to the monster description in Mery Shelley´s book.
Also included are 3 books: Dr. Frankenstein traveling log in the shape of a thin green book with a golden plaque in front, Dr. Frankenstein personal diary as a thick elegant red book with a strap and a buckle to keep it safe, and lastly Dr. Frankenstein experiment diary with the secret of life, a big and thick book in purple full of mistique symbols and a sun in front as well as a belt.
Every single of this books is different, they ahve a different texture on the cover and each page is sculpted individually to the point the purple book even have lots of note and individual pieces of papers inserted in the pages. This book in particular plays a vital role on Mary Shelley´s storyline since its the one that reveals to the creature its own nature.
Aside of this exahusting amount of accesorys, they also uncluded a pretty rad boocklet full of artwork as well as a biography of Mary Shelleya s well as the people involved in the creation of this figure and some fragments and chaperts of the book. This is a pretty cool detail considering this is a figure based on a literary character and i wish the Headless Horseman also comes with something similar.
And guess wath? Theres more!!! The box flap can be removed to reveal a background for the figure: Dr. Frankenstein laboratory the night of the birth of the creature, with a thunder outside of the window, the table of the doctor with all his equipment, candles, books, skulls, fog and everything a gothic nightmare needs, painted in purple hues.
The puple is odd but i guess it makes a good contrast with the creature and the art quality is fantastic as well as the impresion and hard and resistant material. Tough i think the image is a little too close since items looks a little too big for the figure but despite to this, this really build an amazing display along side the monster and all the lab equipment included.
At first i found the creatures yellow skin to be a little odd, but the book actually describe it like this and it contrast a lot of the usual green monster image we have each time we think on Frankenstein. This figure is....amazing looking, from all its details and its accesorys, this is perfection for any horror fan who seeks something different and i am 100% sure next year Halloween Figura Obscura will add Dracula or The Phantom of the Opera to the collection.
Also, the gruesome sculpt, the lab accesorys, the dirtynes....everything here reminds me McFarlane Toys from the 95 to the 2005 and for a reason: the man who sculpted this worked at McFarlane and sculpted the McFarlane Monsters figures, some of my favorite toys from my childhood soo its pretty exciting to find that spirit, that same style reproduced and perf'ected in this figures, it almost feel like an alternatie time line of "wath if McFarlane wasnt bough by DC?"
Now i just need to put my hands on the last year Halloween and Christmas release before they reveal this year christmas Figura Obscura.
