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.