BEETLEJUICE

 

In the last few years some strage happenings has been around in the action figure area, like NECA resurrecting the Aliens from Kenner or Bandai doing Ranma 1/2 figures, but nothing compare to The Loyal Subject - a brand i never knew before- doing toys of Beetlejuice. Kenner made an action figure serires back in the 80s based on the movie, and NECA did it too in the 2000´s but we are talking here about the Beetlejuice cartoon...the cartoon...

That cartoon that was on TV 30 years ago and  never had reruns, that cartoon that is not streaming on any site and has no Bluray or reboot or sequel and is almost completelly lost by now, that cartoon that last generations dont even know existed at all. Then why? Why??

Aside of questions, The Loyal Subject did it and release a small scale Beetlejuice action figure, the same size a Figma or a S.H. Figuarts. BJ has no base but can stand on his own most of the time, is just a matter to find the balance spot and he is articulated on the neck, shpulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, thigh, knes and ankles.

Sounds pretty dyamic, hu? But is not. He is made in hard plastic, that plastic that toys companys used last century, soo his head can turn just a little bit and is completelly blocked by his hair, same for his ankles, the movement is minimum and thanks to his jacket, the legs bal joints also barelly moves soo he cant open his legs at all or move them at front ot back. Also, the articulations on his chest and waist cant move at all, not even to the sides.

The thigh and knes movement is perfect tough as well as the arms soo its not completelly static. Even soo, why add such obvios articulatiosn that cannot move? Specially on the torso, since the cut on his chest is extremelly obvios. Despite the ugly cut, the sculpt is really good, BJ anatomy is perfeclly accurate to the cartoon, specially on the face with his big eyes, huge grin with teth and his hair, face expression is also spot on.

I have issues with the colors tough. This kind of figures with strips is very difficult to work with because when you move them, the pattern just mess up, this is not the case tough since thanks to the lack of working articulations, the pattern dosnt broke except on the thighs but i am OK with that, the problem is the white invading the black and the black paint invading the white stripes, the paint application is really not carefull enough.

Also, there is some black stains on his hair and even on his nose, soo the quality control could be better, but my biggest issue is the skin color. Beetlejuice is supposed to be grey purple, not pink, i mean this is like pink pink very pink, like a candy cotton pink. Aside of that, the yellow color in his eyes and dirty green on his teeth are perfect as well as the red tips on his fingers.

As accesoryes, he comes with an extra pair of hands sculpted to hold stuff as well as an extra hand to hold a beetle. Despite the size, the hands can be exchanged pretty easy. Like i mentioned, he also comes with a beetle that fits on his fingers perfectly, ready to eat. The beetle sculpt is good and is easy to notice wath is it and its completelly green.

He also have a kind of....bettle...yellow bottle. I dont know wath this bottle is supposed to be since i dont remember it in the cartoon, and it have no details at all, is juts plain yellow. This is exactly the kind of accesoryes a toy from the 80s-90s would have.

He comes with a top hat and a cane too. The sculpt on both is perfect tough they have the same paint issues the figure have: black and white strips mixing here and there and the orange in the cane have also black marks. Tough the top hat have the shape of Beetlejuice hair inside, soo it fits perfectly on his head with no problem.

Now, the box also shows a sandworm as accesory, but sadly he is not present soo instead they add a complete new character as accesory: Ginger the Tap Dancing Spider. Ginger is small and in scale with BJ perfectly, with each section on her body cast in in the specific color os each sextion, soo the paint is minimum: only on her shoes, little tie and her head. The paint on her head is perfectly aplied, i love her purple lips and the tiny eye lashes on top of her eyes, and she is articulated on her abdomen and head.

I can be very critic with this figure, the lousy articulations and mediocre paint job can be an issue, but i dont feel like i can complain considering this was 20$, a real bargain. Also this is a figure of a 33 years old show, i am actually happy to have him even if its not perfect.

Also, the low quality control, the single color accesorys, limited articulation, the two characters for the price of one thing, the vibrant color palette, even the scale, everything on this figure screams Playmates, or Galob. If someone told me this is a prototype of a cancelled figure from the 80s or 90s, i would belive them perfectly. This guy somehow fits perfectly with the toys of the  Ghostbusters, Gargoyles Batman TAS or Thundercats from the last century.

Soo i am not sure if i can complaing here, this figure feel "rigth", like part of a past that never was. Is hard to explain but he looks terrific and i cant stop looking at him on the shelve. Its a shame Lydia was pushed to march tough since they having both Baatlejuice and Lydia together its gonna be awesome.