SNAKE ALIEN

In 1992 Kenner released the first series of Alien action figures based on a non existant cartoon, a series that had a lot of cononial marines, behicles and aircrafts and Alien creatures mixed with animals.When i was a kid this was one of my favorite toys and i still own most of them except the humans, but in the last couple of years NECA has been responsable to give a much needed life and detail to this same figures by releasing the same characters but with modern quality.

The first series had the Gorila Alien, Queen Face Hugger and Mantis Alien and the second series had the Scorpion Alien and Snake Alien and this last one was the main dish of the series. Scorpion is very cool looking Xenomorph variant, but the Snake is a totally different beast that was also one of the most memorable creatures from the Kenner 90s series.

And just like the original version, this one is huge since his head is even bigger than the Scorpion´s or Mantis and his tail is really long too tough in my opinion, i wish his tail was longer. His entire tail is made with bendy and flexyble plastic soo you can shape it like a ring and balance its main body to make him stand. Depending on the ring size it can be a challengue or not: the bigger the ring, the easyer he stand tough he looks shorter in size, the smaller the ring, he tends to fall a lot tough he can looks extremelly tall, bigger than the Scorpion.

The details on him are astonishing, even with the difference of material - body and tail - everything looks seamless and the details are really gross and disturbing. His main body looks like some kind of rib cage made with bones, actually his tail looks bony as well and from the back he actually looks like a giant Facehugger.

His head have the same shape the Kenner figure had, tough with more extreme shapes and as an added bonus, while the first figure had this kind of "fingers" around his body, this new version has spider like legs with hairs and long claws, wich makes him looks much more menacing.

His jaw is another story since its pretty much the most complex jaw they ever did on an Alien figure. He have this giant fangs on the side and one he open his jaw (with long fangs too), the inner jaw can be projected outside his mouth but there is ANOTHER inner jaw inside that inner jaw!!! As a result he looks like a puzzle of long fangs battling around to come out.

The old figure had an action feature in wich you push a spike on his head and the inner jaw comes out and the fangs move, this one figure disnt have such feature but the two giant fangs have a ball joint, soo they can move on any direction like fingers and the primary jaw is articulated. Move around his mouth is confusing at first but is very fun since everything moves really smoothly.

He is also articulated on the neck and where his tail starts and also all the little fingers around his body have ball joint and can be moved freely. Thanks to this he looks like a cobra ready to strike, with the claws open or they cna be closed around his body as well. This are a lot of articulations tough he dosnt have too many pose choices for obvious reasons.

The paint is really good as well, with golden on his back and top of his head and dark green on the chesr and tail and lower part of the head. Some tones of neon green on his ribs and tendones on the jaw gives it a very "swamp" look (the weet texture also helps a lot) and finally, the purple on the claws stand out really nicelly.

He has no accesory at all, only the reprint of the mini comic he had back in the 90s. I already mentioned how much i love this comics? They are soo silly but fit the figures soo good.

Overall, this is one of my favorite versions of the Xenomorph, a version that keeps the gross and elegance of the original design but in a totally different twist and i think NECA did an amazing job updating this design to make it even much more frightning (i doubted that was possible).

SCORPION ALIEN

Last century, when i was a little kid, Kenner released a series of action figures based on a non existant cartoon about Alien. It was odd that such a nightmare indusing creature was turned into a toy but i just loved it!! I loved how the Aliens could fuse with animals and create brand new creatures, like a hellish zoo.

25 years ater and NECA re-release the same figures with now day quality standars: bigger scale, excelent sculpt and paint and fully articulated, tough sadly witn no "action feature". The result is a collection of vintage and new looking figures that stand out a lot from in between all other Alien figures.

From the series one i was able to get only one; the Mantis Alien, but from series two i got all the Aliens soo far and the first one was the Scorpion Alien, wich was ironically the very first figure my parents give me about Alien when i was a little kid.

This guy is tall, very tall and thin but he can stand pretty good with his two feet. He is articulated on the neck, the jaw, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, legs, knes and ankles and while most of the articulation works really good, some sections are pretty stiff for some reason: i cant move his ankles at all and his shoulders, tough this is probably more a design issue since he have such big ....pipes...thingys on his shoulders. His neck cannot move too much either but thats because he have this weird tubes connected from his jaw to his neck.

I think is pretty evident NECA give priority to style over functionality since this monster looks fantastic despite the articulation issues. Oh, also, he have another extra articulation: his inner jaw. Open his jaw and a second jaw comes out. This is such an amazing feature i always dream to have when i was a kid!!! Also, his tail is bendable and works really good to keep him on balance.

Part of his body use the sculpt of other Alien figures, like the torso but most are totally unique for him. The legs with spikes and a very cool looking and freaky hole on his thigh, the spiked arms and hands with two giant and thin fingers, the head with thechainsaw looking design, NECA did a great job recreating all the unique details of the old figure over a modern Alien figure.

The paint is simple, all black with golden tones, wich makes him looks mechanical just like the old figure, and help to make him looks dark and hard to discern, like a shadow. And one my ask, why an scorpion? Well, his tail is totally different to the other Alien´s tail, is very thin and have a sting on the other end, a poisonus sting i guess? He is not that different to the other Alien but the details are there and well hidden.

His only accesory is a mini comic published by Dark Horse, a reprint of the same comics that came with the Kenner figures, but in better quality paper. I love this soo much...this little comic is soo 90s and really help to reminiscent the old figures soo much.

At first i admit i wasnt too excited about this Alien since is the most "normal" of the series but in the end i am very happy with him and how good he looks towering over other human figures on his scale.

FRANKENSTEIN

For years i been looking at the "ONE:12 Collective" series from Mezco from a distance and seen how it develops. The idea to mimic Hot Toys and Sideshow figures but in much smaller scale sounds pretty odd and they rarely release any relevant character (90% of theyr production consisnt on DC and MARVEL) but wath made me notice this series was the news they had the Universal Monster licence and they start using it with a high note since theyr very first figure was probablly the most popular of the Montsers: the nameless creature from Frankenstein.

I didnt get it because i had a bad feeling that Mezco was going to leave the collection hanging on the air and not release any other Monster and also, the price tag was pretty insane, 100$ for such a small figure was pretty dissapointing and in the end, i was rigth, Mezco pretty much forget about the Monsters at that point and chose to release 100 different Batman´s and Ironman´s instead.

But a couple of weeks ago, at the Toyfest i was able to find the Frankesnstein figure again and super cheap: 20$. I coud not resist since it was pretty evident the seller wanted to get rid of him badly (since all other figures were 100-150$) and after four years i finally added him to my collection.

This monster have a pretty standar scale of an action figure, the same size as NECA and a little bit taller than a Figma and he can stand on his own perfectly. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, abs, waist, elbows, legs and knes and is fully dressed with fabric clothes, like dolls or Hot Toys figures.

I have to say theres two different version of this figure, the color one and the B&W one and i get the later one since i cant be picky at that price, but also the black and white tones suits the character really good, i usually got this characters in color but there is something exotic and classy in getting a black and white figure from a black and white movie.

The sculpt is really good and the paint does a good job highlighting the creature face features. His eyes looks dead and not focus wich is pretty good and the cheeks looks unhealty dry since Boris Karloff removed his fake teeth to portrai the creature. This kind of details put on evidence how the sculpter wanted to be as close as he could to Boris Karloff face features.

Of course, with brigth light the figure dosnt looks that impresive since is really small after all, but from a certain distance and with the rigth light and shadows, this little guy look extremelly realistic and like a 3d still of the movie. His hands are also nicelly sculpted and detailed, with the rigth scars and black on his finger tips (i love this detail) and everything is cast in a softish and high quality plastic.

His costume is extremelly simplstic and well tailored, with his undershirt being darker than the pants and jacket tough i got the feeling his pants are a little shorter than they should. And also is this costume wath brings the only issue this figure have: the clothes get in the way of the articulations.

This is something that happends even in big scale figures, but with such a small scale, the clothers looks thicker than ever and block a lot of his movement (and looks awkard at moments). While the creature can move his neck and elbows and abs perfectly, his legs are a little limited and dosnt move that much, but his shoulders suffer the most since the thick fabric get in theyr way and he can have his amrs completelly down in a natural way.

Also, in order to not have any evident articulation, they remove the articulations on his wrists and his ankles arent articulated thans to the thick plastic boots, soo he is very limited to move considering this simplictic design. I am sure this issue is much much worse on characters with very complex outfits like the super heroes.

He dosnt have that many accesoryes either (surprise), just a set of extra hands in a claw possition for more menacing and attack poses, an extra head with a fierce face expression and handcuffs with real chain. The extra head is as good as the normal one, showing a very angry and fierce Boris Karloff and can be exchanged pretty easy and the handcuffs open and close smoothly as well tough i wish the chain was a little bit longer.

he also have a very big and round black base with an electrode and electricity design on it with an articulated arm to hold him. He can stand on his own but the extra base is always welcome and helps a lot for the display. The arm works great and the design is....well....simplistic but i guess it fits the 30s era design.

Overall, i am very happy with this really good looking Frankenstein monster and while the articulations issue is never good, is something to be expected at this scale. I think the thing that huts him the most is how he is gonna be all alone forever, just like the silver screen creature, he will not have his Bride, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman or the Gillman to make him company.

To be honest, i find it very sad that this characters are being forgotten by humanity with each generation, no one would buy this character when they could buy Captain America or Superman instead, but also Mezco´s crazy price tags also hurt this series pretty badlly.

BATMAN

One i started this blog, one of the very first posts was about Manbat from Batman The Animated Series. I love that series but collect all the characters was a negative, expensive and very tiring, soo i just wanted to get the characters from my favorite episode: On Leather Wings. I got Manbat and i was very happy with him but it was untill now that i also got Batman, the second basic piece for the display.

This guy was cheap tough and is much more smaller than Manbat since he comes in a blister instead of a big deluxe box. Batman was sculpted by Irene Matar and he is the same size a Figma. He can stand on his own gladlly, tough thats odd considering his small feet and big torso.

He is...good i guess, i always had my doubts about this figure since i tough he looked stiff but doing comparations with stills of the series and character design, the proportions and shapes of the figures are really good, with the squareish shapes and muscles and the total lack of painting.

There is very little paint in this figure, only the eyes and the yellow logo on his chest, the rest of the parts are cast on the color they need and have no other deail on it but only a soft velvet texture. This give to the figure a pretty clean and 2D look wich is really good given the cartoon nature of it.

The only detail i wish he had was his mouth, is sculpted but not painted and is sometimes difficult to see it.

He is articulated on the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knees and ankles and not all articulations work good really. The shoulders are extremelly stiff and hard to move as well as his knees that almost dosnt move. Overall he have a pretty low movement ratio wich is pretty strange given the simplistic design.

Also, his cape, is probablly my most favorite part of the figure. The cape is made with soft plastic and have a wonderfull electric blue color that makes him stand out a lot. This cape curls on the sides wich gives it a very dynamic and cool efect and dosnt get on the way of the articulations at all. I just wish it was longer but i guess that would make him hard to stand.

His accesoryes are a lot of extra hands and a pair can even hold the Manabat pills, tough its really difficult to remove the hands since they have a pretty thin peg and i have the feeling they can break at any minute, soo i dont want to mess too much with them.

He also have an really simple batarang (with hands that hold it perfectly) and a hoock device i cant remember the name of, tough this he cant hold this hoock launcher but instead have an extra hand holding it. Weird.

He also have a base in the same fashion as Manbat, a pretty cool looking shet of character design with a transluscent claw to hold his waist. This base is actually a joke since it mess a lot with Bamtman balance and is too weak to hold him, plush the cpae get on its way, soo i think its only a purelly aesthetic item.

And in the end....i still think this figure is too stiff for such a dynamic design, the poses he can hold are very limited and the articulations are really ugly (specially on the legs) tough this is much better than the Kenner version and fits really nice with Manbat soo my Batman TAS display is complete now.

BUBBLE HEAD NURSE

Seven years ago (time fly fast!!) a brand new toy company from Japan, Gecco, make a debut with a series of Silent Hill statues. This figures were the very first merchadise of the series - aside of CDs and books - and they were done in pretty grand style, since Gecco started and still is a high end company (with high end prices). They released two figures of Silent Hill 2: Bubble Head Nurse and Red Pyramid Thing, and two more from Silent Hill 3. Heather Mason and Robbie the Rabit.

I got Red Pyramid Thing and Heather (hope soon i can post pictures in this blog) and also a Bubble Head Nurse, but a different version, the called "Masahiro Ito version" wich was exclusive from Comicon and had many different visual details over the original version of the figure. Well, seven years later i manage to find the first and original version of the Bubble Head Nurse.

This figure is tall, very tall: 9.8 inches and has no articulations of any kind and i am sure she cant stand on her own given the shape of her legs, but she comes with a big and sturdy base. Her body is completelly twisted and depending of the point of view, it looks like she is on adifferent pose and thats really good, despite being a static figure, the pose is dynamic and have a shambling movement effect.

The sculptor is Shin Tanabe and the paint job is from Yoshinori Yatake, both did a great jobn on each of theyr parts since the paint also bring pit amazing details. Her skin is soo strangelly....realistic..she looks like a rotting corpse with a bluish skin with veins all over and even the back of her head looks swollen, like a drowned corpse.

Her face is almost hypnotic since it have no shape at all. Theres nothing human, or animal or insectoid on her face, her face is just a fleshy tumor with no shape at all, with small wrinkles here and there and even a weet (sweat) texture on the folds of flesh. This figure is trully hiddeous and disturbing with many details we dodnt see in the game.

Her dress is tigth and extremelly dirty and her gloves are shiny and even looks like they have an odd transparency thanks to a superb paint job.

The base is a strangelly shapped piece of concrete, with bloody footprints and a metalic section and fits her perfectly. The figure comes with this little plastic pieces that fit under it and can join other bases together to have an army of nurses (tough it would be odd to have all nurses in the same pose).

As an accesory, she have her weapon, a metal pipe and two extra hands in order to change the pipe from the left to the rigth hand (or remove the pipe) wich add flexibility to the collector to have different display options. This is pretty odd since i never seen other statues with such options. Also she comes with a card with Masahiro Ito´s art and the production number (this is the 487 out of a 1500 production).

The other Nurse i have, the "Masahiro Ito version", have long crimson boots and a more flesh tone on her skin, she have only 3 fingers on her hands and her head is completelly different, with a more figh like fins and a red stain on her mouth. Aparently this second version is more feaithfull to the original design (aside of the boots) but i cant be too sure since this first version is actually damn good looking as well.

I cant seem to chose wich one i like the most really, despite both being the very same figure with some differences, i like them both a lot and i am happy to have them since this are the very best representations of the character and honestly, i really really doubt we see more toys based on Silent Hill.

SIREN KUBRIK

Medicom Toy released in 1980 (yes, this figures are 40 years old!!!!) a Kubrik collection about Devilman, wich are some of the most fun and cute toys based on the character since they have all the charm and amusement toys from back then had.

They released 3 sets: one based on the OVAs and titled "Devilman The Original" and 2 based on the animation series called "Devilman The Nimation A" and "Devilman The Animation B". The Animation A had Devilman on his TV series version, blue with red wings, Miki Makimura and Zannin but sadly, i dont have it.

But i do own The Animation B, that includes Akira Fudo from the TV series, Diren and Kain. All have the same size except for Kain that is much more smaller to the already thiny scale and they can stand on theyr own, but like The Original set, they have a 3 panel base that conect with each other and a cardboard background with cartoony electric designs. Only for display porpuse tough.

Akira looks extremelly different to the other one, that was pure blackness, this is pure color with brown hair and yellow shirt and he even have an accesory, a little belt that is extremelly tricky to put on his hand. Tough he is the less impresive from the set.

Siren was the main interest for me on this set. Her wings are a little bit too small but they are OK given the lego style and i dont mind the censoring on her. Tough she is not the TV series version since she is white, she is the OVA version. Same for Kain since he never appeare on the TV series.

Kain is soo incrediblly cute and is the only one that have no articulation at all. Tough he head can be removed and can be fused with Siren, to make her final form. This is why this toys are soo much fun and soo charming, you can remove and mix theyr parts to make hybrids. Also this is pretty much the only figure of Kain ever released wich make this set the more valuable.

While i want the A set with Zannin and Devilman, i think this is much much better and a must for the display and i am very happy to own this one and The Original too. And with this i end my Devilman figure reviews!!! I write a lot about this characters already and i need a rest and probablly, my ghost readers too. That dosnt mean i ran out of Devilman figures, i have many more, but i will keep them for later.