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.