THE CREEP

 Just in time for the season, NECA released The Creep, from last year serries Creepshow, based on the classic movie from the 80s. This guy was supposed to come out at the begining of the year but it was delayed until now - just like me watching the serires since i am about to see it a year after its release.

The Creep is extremelly similar to the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt, tough The Creep is older, wich kinds of make him the father of the Crypt Keeper, tough sadly, this monster is mute and while it work as a kind of guide to lead us to the horror storys on the Creepshow comic, he dosnt talk much at all soo he is mostly a mistery.

This figure is the standar size of NECA action figures soo he match perfectly with most horro themed figures (McFarlane included) and he can stand on his own perfectly despite his small feet. He is articulated on the head, chest, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knes and ankles and is EXTREMELLY light....almost like a feather.

The articulations works really good and his costume dosnt block them, tough the shoulders articulations are pretty limited thanks to the rib cage sculpt and other bony sections, his arms cant move up too much tough given the nature of the character i dont see too much trouble in there, this is a moving corpse, he dosnt need a super dynamic pose just like Mumm-Ra: he must be fearsome in a discrete pose.

The sculpt is really good, with his nose smashed and his skin full of holes, the complete lack of lips and big eyes coming from the rotten sockets, his sntire body have this same feel of "skin over bones with missing pieces of flesh" style and for those who wonder....yes, he is completelly sculpted uner his clothes, sculpted in every FEARSOME DETAIL to the point you can display him on the nude and he is actually...well...extremelly skiny and thin, he can be used on a morgue display as a corpse of even a mummy.

The paint job is really good as well, the skin is sick green with darker greens on the missing flesh sections, is evident he is rotting. The wrinkles on his skin makes it looks like the skin is dry and his face have the same effect. The grey teeth and yellow eye are perfectly painted tough i feel like the yellow on his syes dosnt stand out too much.

He have doll white hair wich gives him a very ghostly look. Sometimes the messy hair gets in the way of the face but overall it elps a lot to give him realism. Also his costume is made with real cloth, yellowish and stained cloth with holes and tear sections. Its looks like rags and suits him very well tough i have the feeling the color must be darker...i find this shroud too white.

Since he is soo thin the costume dosnt get in the way of  his articulations and also the hood have a wired frame tough is kind of difficutl to hide his face enough since the hood is too big (also, it kinda looks like a pijama....). There is also a pair of yellow ribbons coming from the hood and thats it, quiet simplistic.

His accesoryes are: a pretty nicelly sculpted skull (the bone structure unde rit is amazing and the paint on the empty sockets too), a Creepshow cimc book (wich is only a printed page), an extra hand that can be exhcnaged very easy and a lamp. The lamp have a very nice art decod design and i really wish they put a led on it soo it can lit, feels like a missing oportunity.

Not many accesorys but very high quality ones, just the rigth amount of stuff to display with him and overall, very high quality figure as well, i love how impecable is NECA rigth now and better yet - how they release such unique characters instead of Avengers. Now i need to find out if the serires can live up to this figure but i will leave the marathon to Halloween.

MUMM-RA

 Five years ago, when Mattel owned the Thundercats license, they released a single serires of figures with an extra special figure exclusive to theyr collectors club. That figure was Mumm-Ra and i remember how much i wanted him but how fast his price sky rocketed. Because cartoons from the 80s not only did amazing and likeable heros, but they did fantastic and memorable villians as well and Mumm-Ra was always my favorite since he was a true monster.

And now, 35 years later, Mumm-Ra is still one of the most evil and twisted chaarcters to ever appeare on any animation and in an amazing twiwt of events, Super 7 relaunched him on theyr Ultimate Thundercats line with many enhancements and a beautifull box with artwork.

One thing modern figures have (mostly) is scale and here is no exeption since Mumm-Ra is much smaller than Lion-O and much more lighter as well. He can stand on his own (and thats a surprise given how thin are his limbs) and is articulated on the neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knes and ankles. All articulations are really sturdy and solid tough unlike Lion-O, this guy have ball jointed articulations. This mean his limbs can bend and rotate with total freedom and he dosnt have the ugly bolts Lion-O have.

The sculpt is.....glorious....really both the sculpt and paint in this figure complement each other perfectly. Each bandage on his body is totally independant to each other and have a soft grey wash to make them looks old and dated and the color contrast pretty nicelly with the soft blue of this monster. The sculpt of the face is, just like Lion-O, 100% accurate to the Ted Wolf 2D design to the last bit, from his non-human smile to his big creppy red eyes.

Also theres a lot of bandages here....obviouslly, but theres also independent extra bandages wrapped around his torso and arms soo theres a lot of hanging bandages here and there wich looks terrific, and since this bandages are made with soft plastic, they dont get in the way of articulations at all!!! Is weird how Mumm-Ra have more movility than Lion-O (tough theres not much sense on moving his legs). The hunched position and how he always have his legs open makes him feel really fragile. Is amazing how such delicate being is one of the most evil and dangerous from the serires.

His accesoryes consist in a pair of extra hands to hold objects. Only one pair unlike his rival and the change system works good tough i am really afraid to brike the peg on his hands or his arms given how thin they are. He also comes with an extra screaming head. The open mouth is really menacing and i am surprised the original Mattel release didnt include this.

Change the heads is kind of tricky tough since both heads have bandages hangig from the sides. The bandages are made with soft plastic and are really neccesary but they get in the way of the cape. Really, exchange head with the hood of his cape is really really tricky and demands extreme care to not brike his neck ball joint.

His other accesoryes are his staff and the sword of Plun-Darr. I dont remember see Mumm-Ra with a staff on the serires but the old LJN figure actually ahd this staff soo it is more like a easter egg for those who collected the original toys. The stass is totally back with the skull of an animal on top, with red eyes, fangs and horns and while it wasnt on screen never, it loosks really awesome on Mumm-Ra´s hand. The sword of Plun-Darr is the closed version soo it looks more like an amulet with two double head snakes tangled made of gold.

Super 7 also added an extra copy of the Book of Omen from Lion-O, i dont know why. Is the same sculpt but in dark brown color instead of gold. They also added a Thundranium Urn and the Rosenkrantz Medallion. The Medallion is very simple looking tough it can fit on Mumm-Ra´s neck perfectly and the paint is really good, with the dark blue jewel and the Z in the center. The Urn tough have a fantastic sculpt and color and is the most detailed accesory on the set.

Finally we gor Mumm-Ra´s cape and hood, made with soft crimson plastic. The sculpt is really good and even help Mumm-Ra to balance, the flow of the cape is perfect and the hood cover his head perfectly, unlike the original release that had the hood always moving upwaord over his head. The cape cover half of the mummy´s body soo he have only one single arm free.

And the second cape...Mattel did a totally open cape for fullposibility but Super 7 went beyond and removed this version and created a real fabric cape with wire all around it. The color of the fabric is a little bit stronger than the plastic cape but looks really amazing....it makes the change of ehad much more easy sicne the hood can be put down and the wire help a lot to open the cape and pose it in really dynamic ways. You want Mumm-Ra totally covered? It cna be done. You want him with the cape fliying over his back? It can be done too and without even losing his balance.

As much as i try really hard to find an issue here...i cant, i really cant find any flaw in this figure since it pretty much fixes my issues with Lion-O (dull accesoryes, imited articulations, ugly abs joint) and made me be glad i didnt spent money on the Matterl version since this was a huge upgrade thanks to the fabric cape.

This Super7 figures are really expensive, yet soo far they have been worth the price thanks to the perfect sculpt and color, the accesoryes and the beautifull presentation with the double box. The ast figure of the serires one was Jackalman but i didnt find too interesting at all, specially after this Mumm-Ra tough the next series will be brand new unreleased before characters and i will pick my favorite for sure.

LION-O

When i was a kid the Thundercats was one of my favorite cartoons, tough i didnt owned any of theyr action figures besides Panthro but i wasnt too worryed since the LJN toys were kinda of....lacking. With the remake from last decade, Bandai produce a short line of figures that, again, didnt live up to Ted Wolf character design. Mezco also create a serires of HUGE action figures that had serious sculpt issues...until five years ago when Mattel started a high quality exclusive line based on the Thundercats original serires.

But after series one, they lose the lincense and leave the collection incomplete with only 6 characters. In an amazing turn of events that i wish it take place more often, Super 7 took the license and reproduced already produced figures while enhancing them and adding four extra lines of characters and called it "Ultimate Thundercats".

The wait was long (i even forgett all abour this line) but the Ultimate Thundercats are finally here and they are more expensive and difficult to find than i anticipated, since Super 7 dont sell on stores but only sell using pre-orders, i never before owned any of theyr figures until now and the price is as high as a imported japanese figure.

Sculpted by Four Hoursemen, the very first figure that picked my interest was of course Lion-O. He was the one that pick my interest when i was a kid along with Tygra, now that i am an adult i know why Lion-O was on my radar all the time, the Thundercats had really sexy looking characters for a kids show. 

Lion-O is on the on the same scale most action figures now day have, he matches in size with the NECA and McFarlane figures, much bigger than Figmas and he can stand on hiw own perfectly and is quiet heavy and solid. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abs, waist, legs, knes, boots and ankles. He have a lot of movement freedom and all this articulations work really good and are really hard to move wich is a good thing, is awfull when articulations are lose and the figure cant stand.

Tough both the articulations on his elbows and knes are simple hinge mechanisms instead of the modern ball joints, soo they can bend but not move left or rigth and that limit his movement a lot. For example, he can join his hands together. Also, the entire figure is made with hard plastic, soo Lion-O huge biceps and huge pecs dosnt let him took his sword with both hands. Is weird they give him this kind of dated articulation system.

Sculpt wise he is perfect and beyond. His body frame, his nose, eyes, the shape of his face, his lips, his hair, everything is a perfect match over the cartoon design, like see the character on 3D. This is quiet a feat specially on his face and hair since no other company made Lion-O to looks....well...like Lion-O. 

Same for the paint job, his skin tone matches the cartoon perfectly as well as the blue of his tigth outfit. The paint is a little wonky on his belt tough and i dont know why since they did a terrific job at his face, his red eyes are really perfect. And it seems there was an enhancement over this department since the original Mattel version had more soter tones, Super 7 uped the contrast to match it with the original palette as well as they add darker and lighter oranges to his hair to make it looks more 3D.

The other upgrade this figure had over his original release fave years ago comes into the accesoryes: He have a bunch of extra gripping hands that can be exchanged very easy, tough i dont know why he have two pairs of gripping hands....i wish they give him closed fist instead or something else and also have an extra head with a fierce face expression for battle. The painting in this second head have the same quality as the first one, specially on his teeth and i find hard to belive the first version of the figure didnt come with this second head since its much more spectacular.

His other accesoryes are a bunch of Claw Shield. One to hang from Lion-O hip (with the Sword of Omen on it) and one to put on his hand. This guy have a peg on his hip for the Clawy Shield and looks weird without the item on it but the mechanism to add it and remove it is really easy, same for the Claw Shield for the arm tough both are......hairy and it seems fans didnt liked them back with Mattel, soo Super 7 added an extra pair of Claw Shield but this time in a golden metalic texture and paint, that looks much more faithfull to the cartoon (many times defeated Mumm-Ra with his own reflection).

Then we have the Sword of Omen in both versions, one flaced and one erect. The flacid one have the Eye of Thundera in the center and looks like a dagger. Also it can fit perfectly into the hip hairless Clawy Shield. The erect one one is much bigger and have the Thundercats logo in the center instead of the Eye. Sadly, this is my least interesting accesory since they made with with soft plastic and only the minimum of paint. The sculpt is good and detailed, but the material and lack of painting make it looks like a cheap piece of plastic and the erect version of the sword even thends to curve....

Lastly, he comes with the Book of Omens, the less exciting of his extra added accesoryes, but the scult and paint is really good, specially on the Thundercats seal in the front.

This figure is not perfect tough: aside of the cheap looking swords and simplistic articulations on his knes and elbows, i really hate the big bolts in the sides of his arms and legs as well as the huge gap on this abbs articulation. Its almost like they didnt wanted to "hide" this huge gap and bolts in porpuse, to make him look like a "toy"...or in this case, a retro toy, almost like a He-man figure and i find this strange for such a high price figure.

Despire this aesthetic issues, this figure is really a brillant representation of the character and an awesome oportunity for the people who didnt buy the Matterl version five years ago, the addition of the extra head and Caw Shields makes me feel glad i didnt buy him back them at all. The second figure on the serires one was Panthro but sadly, i wasnt able to afford his price.