OOGIE BOOGIE VS JACK SKELLINGTON

NECA released 6 serires of action figures based on The Nightmare Before Christmas more than 15 years ago, including many amazing Halloween characters and a bunch of Jack and Sally variations. They also release a few special edition figures sets that include Lock, Shock & Barrel, but the biggest and most amazing set was actually a play set with the protagonist and villian facing each other: Oogie Boogie and Jack Skellington.

They come in the biggest box of the entire serires with two figures and a background diorama. The very first figure is Jack Skellington, pretty much the very first release of the character (thats why i didnt get it) with a small variation, an angry look on his eyes. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs and knes and he cant stand on his own at all, to keep his balance he have a black token like base but even with this base, make him stand is really tricky.

The articulations are extremelly delicate and easy to brake, tough my figure is still perfectly safe, his arms are not strong enough to keep them in pose, the same issue all Jack figures have. Also the articulations cut the strips on his outfit soo as important as the character is, i think he is the weakest part of the play set.

The Oogie Boogie tough, he is golrious, just.....glorious and HUGE, he is the biggest monster of the collection and make all other Halloween Town citizens like dwarfs, no wonder why all of them fear them (except the smallest monsters in town, Lock, Shock and Barrel....how ironic). As big as this figure is, he is hollow soo he is really light weigth and can stand on how own perfectly despire his small feet.

He is articulated only on his shoulders and his jaw. This makes him a big statue tough it helps to make him looks like a whole creature with no divisions. His body have a burlap texture and the way he is turning to his side and the wrinkles on his body follow the movement, and how looks like all the weigth of his inside fall on his stomach is proof of how good this sculpt is. His green neon color have also shadows and soft washes to make him looks realistic and make him stands in an amazing way.

While the articulation on his shoulders dosnt have too much of an use, his jawy can be opened to reveal his yellow snake tongue with black strips. Its a shame the snake is not articulated, but it adds a lot of personality to an already amazing figure, seriouslly, even the sew on his sides are deeply sculpted, is amazinh how such a "simple" looking character have soo many details.

His only accesory consist on a pait of orange dices with gothic skulls sculpted on each side. This dices fits perfectly on his hand with the help of a peg and a hole tough is very easy to lose them given how tiny they are.

The playset consist on half a giant roulette with two giant cards on the back, its very simple to be called a playset actually, but is a damn good looking diorama. All the pieces are black with a stone texture, with the roulette having white spikes and some gothic deigns of skeletins and cats on a very dark red paint, this gives the feeling the scene is taking place on a dark room and let Oogie shine even more.

The cards with the King design are really good looking as well and even have articulated arsm soo they can open and be used as hazards agains Jack Skellington. The attention to details is really amazing adn adding more would make the scene looks busy. Also the roulette have pegs hidden on the texture to help Oogie and Jack stand more easy (specially Jack!).

This piece was really the cherry on the cake for the TNBC action figure serires and fits perfectly with the other figures. It seems NECA also had plans to release a second version of it with brown color Oogie but it never happens, but it dosnt worry me too much since i find this version perfect as it is.

Up to this point, NECA was already releasing lots of different licences with an amazing quality but very few was as complete, special or surprising as theyr first The Nightmare Before Christmas series (specially by looking to wath Diamond Select is doing now).