VENAL ANATOMICA

Back in the 2001, when McFarlane Toys was on its prime toy stores had an invasion of Tortured Souls; McFarlane figures designed by the amazing Clive Barker.

I been a fan of Barker Cenobites since i was a child soo i was fascinated by this collection of figures. Sadly, i was a teen back then, with no job and my parents felt really repulsed and sick just by watching this figures. I had no way to get them at all and many years went fliying.

Clive Barker once called them objest that repulse and obsses, and i have to agree, since 15 years later i still felt the obsession of owning this characters, display them and explore them since they are soo uniqueand shocking. No toys were like this before McFarlane produce them and soo far theres still not many toys like this (there is more shocking toys now days? I dont remember any).

Now i have 30 years old (mmmmm) and i finally take the risk to get them. They were pricey, but still affordabele and nothing compared to Play Arts Kai or Hot Toys.

The first one i got is Venal Anatomica, the “Haunter of Primordium”, creation of the Doctor of the Sacred Heart; Dr. Talisac. I always feel attracted to this character given how interesting is his face design and his silhouette, square-ish and elegant, he is kind of hunky looking, something that scares me a lot.

While he is the standar size of the McFarlane toys from back then, everything else is different to wath they used to produce. First of all he is very articulated. His neck, shoulders, elbows and wrists, his legs too. He is not as estatuesque as i was expecting. Also, he can stand perfectly by his own, even with the chains moving around and hanging.

The sculpt is brillant (something to natural), with sculpted veins on his arms and skin texture on the exposed flesh and the fabric texture on his “suit, his costume is extremelly elabroated and complex and full of textures. His body is made with standar plastic but the “leather” suit is made with soft rubbery plastic and the chains are metal. My only complaign is that the blades and spike ball and hooks are made with soft plastic as well  wich makes them looks really “toy-ish”.

Differently to everything McFarlane did, the pain work in here is totally flawless. The skin looks damaged and pretty natural, with blood in the rigth spots and every teeth perfectly divided with black, even his gums have painted shadows and lights.

The black leather outfit is not a black piece of plastic, is actually painted as well with dark blacks on the wrinkles and greys to highlight the details, the level of detail is insane for this size of figure.

His head is covered by a transparent membrane that can be removed. I dont know exactly wath this membrane is, but it adds a lot of deep to the strange and bizarre design. The back is also amazing, with a kind of “insecotid” structure on his neck and flesh erupting from the holes, i can see A LOT of H.R.Giger in here as much as Barker.

The only accesory this Cenobite have is the chapter V of the Six Destinies story from Clive Barker. A little boocklet with a design as scary and unsetting as the character, it really shows the love to the detail they had with this series.

Sadly, this chapter leaves a lot to be desired since it revolves around sec between two of the other monsters and dosnt explain too much of this creature aside it was created by Talisac ( its hilarious to think how a man hanging from hooks can create a creature like this).

I am extremelly happy with this guy and even if hes not that big, he stands out A LOT on my display. This Tortured Souls project between Todd McFarlane and Clive Barker was indeed a peculiarity on the history of the toy industry.