FRANKENSTEIN

The second prize for the first toy hunting of the year, the Frankenstein Monster from the McFarlane´s Monsters series in the Icons of Horror pack.

Back in 2001 i wasnt interested at all in this figure and now that i own him i am sure he is the weakest link in the pack (and one of the weakest in the line)

Technically speaking, this figure is good. It have a pretty complex and intrincate sculp with loads of details. The paint work matches the quality and highlights the rigth spots with white and greys and a little of blood. Like with Dracula, you can watch him for a long time and continue finding new elements hidden on him, like how the skin on his back is pelled off and the straps are coming out directly from his muscles, or the stitches and open wounds that show how he was pieced together.

The skeleton thingy on his back is made with soft plastic, wich helps a lot to make him looks rotten and odd. His guts are made with an even softer plastic and looks like buublegum, wich helps to make them feel realistic i guess (tough most folks hated theyr look).

Just like Dracula, he is articulated on his head and limbs and unlike the vampire, he can stand on his own perfectly (quite odd given he carrys a back pack). My favorite part of this guy is the blood splattered on his hands and shoulders, its pretty brigth and looks fresh, wich make him looks pretty gory. My other favorite point is his face, the expression looks full of hate and sadness at the same time and his skin texture is almost that of a mummy.

From a visual and design point of view, this figure is awfull. There is no element that even suggest who this character is. The only thing that makes me thing this is Frankenstein monster are the stitches on his body, but they are mostly covered by other elements soo is hard to even notice them.

This is soo busy. Why does he have a shoulder pad made with human faces? Why does he have that giant razor on his arm? I find it hard to belive that a scientific creates a monster and equips him with a blade.Why is he carriying Dr. Frankesntein corpse on his back? Why theres fishing roods coming out of his forehead? Why hes using a mask? I have the feeling this was the Phantom of the Opera in the sketch table but McFarlane changed his name at last minute.

Is like they throw a dice and it ended in the face of “fishing”, “mask” and “skeleton” and they had to build him using those 3 elements. As a random creature, he makes no sence, but as the Frankenstein Monster, he is pretty sad (he is eve the smallest monster in the line). The only element that make sense on him are the chains.

While he can stand by his own, his pads and blade and other elements prevent his limbs to move, soo he is basically a small sculpture with even less playability than Dracula. And the cherry of the cake is how ridiculouslly delicate he is; while inside the box one of his “fishing rod” thingys broke. I glued them back and later i notice the “cage” with the skeleton didnt resist the tension and broke as well by its own. I glued it back an put him on his box again just to find out the structure that hold skeleton brokes in a different spot.

While this action static figure is carefully sculpted and painted, is a technical nightmare that brokes itself just by being looked. The design is AWFULL and if they give me a choice i would deffinetly exchange him for the Sea Creature, but at least he is not that hiddeous Werewolf McFarlane did. I always wished he did the Bride of Frankenstein instead of the Vodoo Queen but after insepct this guy in person maybe is for the better she is not present.

DRACULA

A couple of years ago i visited a toy flea market close to the place i used to live some time ago. I sometimes find small treasures between all the trash they have over there and this year was no dissapointment. One guy had McFarlane Toys. Not those “happy meal” hunks of plastic of the Walking Dead or Halo, but REAL McFarlane pieces from his golden age, from the time his toys were stuff of awe.

I was hit by nostalgia and ended up getting the McFarlane Monsters Icons of Horror pack. It was horribly cheap and it was sealed!!!! It was a day full of joy for me!!

I always wanted to grab this figures 15 years ago but i was sid tracked by one thing and the other and missed this guys (along many other McFarlane toys).

My favorite one was dracula. The design McFarlane did for him was really fearsome and spectacular. He is more monster than anything, with a bat like nose, fangs and the skin of a corpse; dry and rotten, with in-human claws and legs and covered in plagues and evilnes. Bats are hanging from his cape and rats are covering his body, and he is even eating a rat as well!!

It was visceral and brutal and reminds me Lords of Shadows vampires design. I always tough if vampires were real, they would look like this.

Is a little odd to be back at this scale again, he is standar action figure size, pretty small for a Play Arts Kai or a statue but the details are really perfecto. The sculpt is stricking and looks as real as a 1/1 scape vision. You can look at him and find many many small things going on on his body: bandages around his claws, a fresh wound in the center of his chest (a stake maybe?), scars on his back…

Deffinetly my favorite part of this figure is his cape, since it looks pretty “Spawn-ish” and is trasluscent, because it made with his own wings. The look is really gross but once you put him with light behind him he looks amazing and beautifull.

The chains on his body with the bats are a little odd, but they give a lot of impact to his silouethe, it looks like he is coming out from the grave and is still covered on the chains of his pirssion. The one detail i dont get are the hook´s on his arm and chest with the black string…i dont get wath´s that supposed to mean.

His accesoryes are a bunch of rats, all in a different possition, that can be placed on his back, under is cape, climbing over him. The bats and the rat he is eating can be removed as well as his cape.

Not everything is awesome tough, he have articulations on his neck, shoulders and legs, but he looks good only in one position, like a semi-statue. Also, his fet are pretty funky, soo is really difficult to make him stand, the chains make him lose his balance as well as his cape, tough the cape can be used as counter-balance as well.

The other thing i dont like is how his cape dosnt rest entirelly on his shoulders. That can be fixed with glue but not be able to remove his wings/cape would be sad.

The lack of articulations and balance are stigmas McFarlane Toys always suffered and this design over Dracula may be too busy for some folks but aside of personal tastes, this is a fine piece. Not a toy at all, but more like a dynamic sculpture, a pretty dark and gory small sculpture with chains and wings and fangs and i am in love him!!

BATMAN

HotToys have LOTS of Batman figures. Not as much as the ridiculous amount of Ironman´s, but still they have many many version of Bale´s Batman and a few of Keaton´s Batman. While i hated Bale and i have a soft spot in my heart for Keaton, i dont see non of them as the definitive Batman. I never liked theyr design of “armored” Batman.

But when Arkham Asylum was released i was in love of Batman´s design. Aside of the OBVIOUS reasons and his baranes and big muscles, i found his look and design pretty close to the concept i always saw like the perfect Batman: with the long ears, angular and menacing face and an outfit that looked like a whole uniform covering a bulky body instead of a transformer robot.

Last year HotToys released Arkham City Batman and i was excited for him! Tough the price was WAY too high and i wasnt able to afford him. He is still on some toy stores on display with the high number on his price tag and i doubt someone dare to buy him.

But eventually i saved some money for another figure: The Creature From the Black Lagoon. And of course, i wasnt able to buy it cus someone else got him before me…ugggh….but to my surprise the store also had Batman and they had him at a very low price!!! It was a pretty nice surprise.

I was pretty nervious to get him thanks to his outfit. Naked Snake uses a similar outfit and he is almost a static statue and Chris is no better since his pants and “flesh” covering his arms restrict the articulations way too much. But THIS guy is a reall exception.

Batman is spectacular in details, his cowl and gauntlets are jet black and clean. I wish his gautlets had some “damage” but is just a minor complaing. His costume have a perfectly done texture and his belt is realistic and detailed with little signs of use here and there. His eyes are wet and perfectly painted and the texture on the skin of his lowe jaw is really fantastic. Each wrinkle of his lips is perfecly sculpted and sofly painted and you can even see 5 o´clock shadow.

Hot Toys sculpt and paint is beyond perfect, is trully creppy how realistic it is.

He can stand on his own, but he still comes with the standar Hot Toys base too. The logo on the base is pretty cool but the base as a whole is kinda useless given his odd design (the figure is supossed to be sit on it).

Here comes the tricky part: the articulation. He have a fully articulated body under his outfit but Hot Toys FINALLY managed to free the articulations. The body is a little thinner soo his outfit is kinda lose, the big muscles are actually shaped in the latex costume, not the digure himself, soo he have some “space” to move inside. This is both stetic and usefull since he can move his arms to a much wider range than i was expecting.

He still cant put his arms above his head but he is much MUCH more movable than Naked Snake or Sheva Alomar and Chris Redfield. Also, his legs are a separate piece independent from each other and the torso, soo he can pretty much open them and move them as much as i want.

The armour on his legs with the ugly tongue dosnt get in the way either soo if i have to compare him, i say he is as articulated as the Predator.

He comes with an extra lower face with a fierce expression. The quality is as impresive as the serious expression if not more, since every single on his teeth are sculpted and painted perfectly and they are even wet looking. He also comes with toons of hands but thats standar now days actually.

He comes with his basic batarang that can be placed on a small hole on his fist (something perfect given how the other Batman toys cant even hold the batarang), the explosive gel thingy, the line launcher and the Batclaw.

His Batclaw have a pretty stylish and elegant design and the claw is actually removable (something useless since it can get lose pretty easylly) and it have a second variant claw as well. The line launcher is the most detailed of the items since it have a pretty intrincate sculpt and a vibrant blue and yellow metalic paint on it. The barrels are also articulated and can move left and rigth.

In fact, it feels like he dosnt have too much items compared to the Resident Evil guys or Snake but i cant think of anything else they could have added. Maybe a couple of smoke bombs? Batman really dosnt have too much weaponry aside of this.

In last place he have his cape. Is not remobavle and is the only piece made with fabric and a pretty classy one it. The outside is made withplastic material to make it looks like leather and the inside is made with black silk for a shiny and more dark looks. I dosnt have wires but the weigth is good and can be placed in various shapes thansks to the “latherish” part.

I only wished the cape was longer tough… it would be pretty silly to fight with a long cape but it may looks much coller.

And he is HUGE. He is much bigger than Jill and Sheva (of course) but also bigger than Chris and Snake!!! He is the same size of the Predator. I always expect Batman to be pretty tall but i dont know how i feel with him being Predator size. In the end i dont know if he is too big or if Chris and Snake are way too small.

I could say Chris and Snake are too small since they are the same size of Jill but the Predator makes me think otherwise. Is the Predator supposed to be taller too? I dunno…i didnt expect Hot Toys to have scale issues actually, not for the price they ask for theyr products.

In the end, he is incrediblly good looking and he is much better articulated than i was expecting (still kinda stiff), my only issue would be the scale since i dont know wath to think about it at all but i am pretty happy with this guy.

He mades an exceptionally nice item for a videogame collector and at the same time satisfy my Batman needs since i dont have many figures of him at all, also he is one of the most bara visions i have ever seen. If only Hot Toys release Arkham City Catwoman (in Jill´s size!) i could not ask for anything more.

POISON IVY

Botanic scientist turned into evil dominatrix monster, Pamela Isley has been one of my favorite characters of Batman and i finally had the chance to get her Play Arts Kai toy!!

The seller asked me “how much do you offer?” and i give him a pretty ridiculos low number not expecting nothing and to my susprise, he accepted!!! The only thing i regret is how long it took me to get this.

She is big but pretty light on weight and like all PAK females, the articulations are pretty simple but works great and gives her a big amount of posible posses. She can stand on her own wich is a big plus considering his tinny are her feet.

The sculpt is sharp and detailed, every vine on her skin and leaf is sculpted and her body shape is perfect. The pain is vibrant and eye catching, almost like a dart poisonous frog, she catchs the eye stronglly. Her eyes are pretty nicelly done, while her face is cute, you notice theres something wrong in there when you look at her eyes; they looks like animal eyes, sharp and cold like a hunter gaze.

She have a pair of extra hands for some sexy gestures and a base. This base is compossed by leafs, bulbs and fly traps plans and flowers and is basically th best base Square Enix has produced. Not only works great and make her stand all the time, but is pretty small (unlike the rest of the figures bases with a huge arm holding the figure) and also, the base is perfectly blended with Ivy as a small diorama. I know if hard to make a base like this for characters like Snake or Leon but i wish Square Enix does more bases like this instead of theyr EXASTAND.

She also comes with two vines tentacles. This vines are vendable and pretty soft to play with soo they have an unlimited range of display. Is a little tricjy make her stand with them since they make her lose the balance, but once fixed in the rigth position they looks great. It dosnt matter if you put them on her neck, legs or arms, they ALWAYS looks pornish and they can be used for tentacle rape Batman!!!!!

My only complaing is her size. She is one of the most smallest PAKs being 2-3 inches smaller than Quiet or Snake and yet, she is too big for Batman!!! She is the same size of Batman Arkham Asylum version and she is supposed to be smaller… SquareEnix seems to be in total oblivion about scale and sizes…

Aside of that, she is pretty perfect and stylish and a figure that stands out stronglly thanks to her radioactive colors and design full of exces and erotism and i really dont feel like i need any other Arkham villian with her around.

BATMAN

The Play Arts Kai line from Square Enix is such a nostalgic collection for me because for years i got lots of theyr figures and theyr were pretty perfect for theyr time: fully articulated, heavy and huge. Tough the line die years ago thanks to theyr use of DC and Marvel lincence, pretty expensive characters that demanded up the prices of the figures, and even i stoped buying Play Arts Kai.

And i guess the very first step into theyr doom was theyr Batman Arkham Asylum line tough back then we didnt suspect it, we were pretty hyped about it and i was sure to get Batman first since he came in such a HUGE box that was spectacular, tough it was only for the size of his cape. Actually, Batman is really small...

It was at this point when Play Arts Kai started to shrinck on scale soo he was much smaller than previous figures (like Dante) wich was pretty odd. Aside of that, Batman can stand perfectly with his two big boots and thanks to his cape mostly and is really well articulated on the head, neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes and ankles as well as two extra articulations on his cape. All articulations work awesome and have a huge range of movement since the cape on his shoulders is made with soft plastic.

I think the best part of this figure is the cape actually, since is divided into 3: one soft plastic part over his shoulders and two long sections made with hard plastic. Theres two ball jointed articulations on Batman´s back well hidden by the cape on his shoulders and the long parts of the cape can be inserted in here and moved around giving it a huge range of very epic posing.

Despite being "short" the body shape on Batman is magnifiscent and manly and looks like a big beast with his strong legs and torso, pretty accurate to his Arkham Asylum design. The costume have a fabric like texture and many intrincate details like little wrinks and lines and even the bat on his chest in sculpted. His face is very accurate sculpt wise as well witha stoic look on his expression and pretty penetrating eyes.

The paint is were Square Enix had issues tough since they try to add a lot of washes to make it looks realistic but sometimes they actually ruined some figures (like Kratos), Batman is not such an extreme example since his face have the rigth amount of pink tones to give him a realistic looks but his suit have a lot of black shadows that are maybe too strong, giving him a pretty dramatic and almost "painting" look. His cape also suffer of the same weird combination of texture and paint that gives it almost a "wood" look tough this is not entirelly bad and maybe it was on porpuse.

His belt and the protectors on his boots and arms have a metalic finish soo they avoid this "pencil drawing" look the rest of the figure have.

His accesorys are a couple of open hands that can be exchanged easy and a batarang as well as his claw launcher pistol (i dont know its name, sorry). The batarang is pretty basic and follows the design of the game tough the pistol thingy have a pretty detailed sculpt with 3 claws and a good painting. Batman can hold the claw thing with one of his hands but ironically, his other hand cannot hold the batarang at all soo it keeps falling over and over.

Dosnt sounds like a lot of accesoryes for Batman, but he comes with another one that is huge: a third cape section. This section can be exchanged over with the rigth part of the cape and is curled around his leg. The sculpt is REALLY GOOD and the paint with heavy washes make it looks really dramatic. This way you can chose one from two cape options: one curled around his body, like he is agains the wond, or another fully open filiying around.

Maybe the paint on this figure looks a little primitive compared with modern figures, but the sculpt, articulations and spectacular cape make this one incrediblly fun and spectacular Batman to play with, i just wish he was on a bigger scale.

JON TALBAIN & B.B. HOOD

Now this was totally unexpected. In the last decade of the last century there was a toy company called Toy Biz and they had a place in between the giants of that time, like Kenner, Hasbro, Galloob, mostly because they produced lots of Marvel figures: Spiderman, X-men, Ironman, Ghost Rider.... and since i dont care any of those, the company is memorable for me because they produce the very first ever Resident Evil action figures (that i will post later) as well as some Marvel vs Capcom figures and more importantly: Darkstalkers.

For some reason i dont remember (mostly being a kid with no money) i didnt buy theyr Darkstalkers line and i regret it because this line has been pretty much the only one of this character in 25 years. Sota designed pretty good looking Darkstalkers in 2004 but cancelled them and Storm Collectibles got the lincence a cuple of years ago but i wont belive them until i see theyr figures, soo Toy Biz was the only company to produce proper articulated figures of this characters.

In the last Toysfest i went i found one of the 3 sets of figures lose, tough with all accesorys and in very good condition. The set was expensive, but it was worth it givven this is the rarest of the 3 sets and how complete it is. The set includes one big figure along a smaller figure (a wonderfull tradition of Toy Viz, release two figures together): Jon Talbain and B. B. Hood.

This figures are pretty small tough, i didnt remember them being this small since they are smaller than the Figma or Figuarts and they are traped in a limbo in between "toys for kids" and "toys for dults" since back then theyr production values were higger than the overall kid toy.

Jon Talbain is one of my favorite characters form Darkstalkers soo it was no brainer got him since this is pretty much the only figure of him in existance. The sculpt is solid, with his cartoony and extreme body shape, with big paws and claws and torso and a very athletic build and his face is pretty close to the game art. His claws and feet and tails are spectacular big and the only problem i see on the sculpt is the hair round his neck since it should be much more pointy like a hedgehoog.

The paint is nice, with his neon yellow claws and different tones of blues, the red details on his gums, fangs and his yellow eyes are perfectly painted tough, again, i see a problem in here since the fut on his neck and around his face and his claws should be white or soft grey, but they painted it light blue, giving him a very....well, blue look.

He is articulated on the knes, legs, waist, shoulders, elbows and head as well as his jaw and tail. The articulations are extremelly simple and only move on a single direction (like any 90s toy) tough his head and shoulders are ball jointed and have a bigger range of movement. The jaw articulation is a great touhc tough, i love how good he looks with his law close or open, but looks are very close to the game artwork tough the articulation is a little evident. Also he can stand on his own thanks to his big tail and use it as base, tough if you move the tail up and move his legs a little bit, he can also keep his balance perfectly.

B. B. Hood is the less impresive part of the deal tough but thats to be expected. She is smaller than Jon and can stand on her own perfectly and only have articulations on her shoulders and neck. This makes her mostly a statue since theres not much room for poses at all. The sculpt is OK tough i fond her face a little too boring, i see they try to give her the look of the artwork but i feel her eyes are a little too big giving her a random anime girl look.

The paint is vibrant and very simplistic and thanks good, her eyes are well painted, soo no cmplain there. To my susprise her dres as well as her hood are made with soft plastic soo her limbs can have total freedom of movement....too bad theres no articulations for it. Also her hood can be removed and.....the red plastic is staining her head and arms, wich is a shame but is natural since it happens with all toys.

This is the set with the more accesoryes from the line, since Jon Tailbain comes with his nunchaku that can be placed with no problem in one of his hands. The chain is an actual real chain soo the nunchaku falls and moves around in a natural way, i am soo glad they didnt do it with plastic!!

B. B. Hood comes with her basket that can be placed on her arm without loosing balance as well as a machine gun that can be placed inside the bascket or on her hand. To be honest i am kinda dissapointed by how empty the backet look, i wish they give her more weapons to play with.

Also and her most important accesory is her two years old dog, Harry. The little guy is tiny with a red bow and brown colors, the paint on him is solid and theres not much to say about him aside that he most be on B. B. Hood side all the time.

And laslty, Toy Biz aslo added Jon Talbain and B. B. Hood cursed by Anakaris, Jon transformed in a little dachshund kind of dark blue dog with a very vicious smile and B. B. Hood transformed into a kind of russian doll. Both have a wonderfull sculpt and paint and is awesome how Toy Biz went this close on details to even add such weird versions of them. Ironically, they never released Anakaris...

I am not specially thrilled about B. B. Hood but i just love Jon Talbain, even if he is too blue, he is a damn good looking figure of a damn good looking design and he fits perfectly with the Resident Evil figures. I would try to get the other two sets to complete this (Victor and Demitry - Lilith) mostly because is rare to have this characters around until Storm Collectibles does theyr job.