PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

Last week i saw two Phantom of the Opera movies on TV. Once was the 1989 version with Robert Englund as the Phantom and the other one was the 2000´s version with Gerard Butler. The first one was half close to the original story but had a terriblly odd and useless section in the modern world.

The later one scared me to no end. As much as i love Gerard Butler, seeing him as a hunky phantom, singing the Phantom Theme full of synthesizer with an 80s vibe, while flaming candlles comes out from UNDER water was terriblly disturbing. The only thing worst than stand that movie is the fact that it have many many fans who get surprised when they find out theres a Phantom of the Opera book.

Theres soo many movies of Gaston Leroux, and not even with modern technology, they been able to surpass the very first one made by universal. Lon Chaney design and acting as the phantom has been the closest to the book, creating horror and disgust as well as sympathy and sadnes for him: a horror that lurks behind the curtain of the most normal and pretty place in Paris. A horror born out of the need of love and affection.

Choose this guy was easy. I have no doubt to get it (unlike Dracula). Tough hes not the regular version but the “special edition”. It seems hes more limited than the standar version and that makes the box different. No poster as the cover but a Lon Chaney picture in high res as well as the tittle of the movie in silverish embroid. The rest of the box is still the same as the others, with the cast and credits inside the flap.

This “Silver Screen Edition” is monochrome and unlike other “repaint variants” from other figures, this one makes sence since this is the way we all see his characters, just black and white. He dosnt have too much colors to begin with tough, just the head, hands and bowtie are the colored parts.

The Phantom articulations works great and his clothes are lose enough to not limit them. Giving the crazy and theatrical nature of this character, hes pretty fun to play with and looks great on almost any pose. His outfit is also the most elegant out of all the monsters, with a smoking and a pretty cool cape with holes for his hands. My only complaing is that his cape sometiems makes him fall and the base dosnt help too much.

He comes with the useless stone base (tough he dosnt have any problem standing without it) and his hat and mask. The hat is a little big soo is designed to be used along his mask. The mask….i dunno wath to think about it, is like a doll face, is both silly and scary at the same time and the  jaw part is made with fabric.

He also comes with a violin and a bow. The Violin is pretty amazing on its own, with all detailds perfectly crafted and painted (even if its all grey) perfecty, it even have real strings!!! One pretty amazing detail in here are the hands of the Phantom, they are sculpted in such a way that they can be posed on a pasive way or in a dramatic pose and works pretty well, they also can hold the violin and the bow perfectly. Modern toys needs 1487598715 hands in theyr package to achive this and sometimes they dont even cant hold theyr accesoryes. This is a pretty high scroe for Oluf W. Hartvigson.

The sculp is pretty impresive in the head as well, with the deep and sickening eyes and the contorted smile and nose, even in black and white, theres a lot of deep and personality in here. Also, just like Nosferatu, this guy is making eye contact with the viewer and that makes him incrediblly disturbing. Its amazing how Lon Chaney designed this character soo perfectly, his face is not that “deformed” and yet he looks incrediblly evil and inhuman.

This was one of my favorite Sideshows toys and is one of the most spectacular as well. Even Dracula looks pretty boring and normal comapred to this Phantom. The only thing that could top this figure is the Death of the Red Mask Phantom version. Someday i hope i could get him, its really worth the high price.