BRUISE BROTHER

 

Being a child in the 80s means a lot of toys and most of them were pretty clear with theyr themes: monsters, deformity, mutilation, mutations, skeletons, coprses, zombies, vampires, werewolfs, ghost, slime...from the Ghostbusters to the Ninja Turtles, one of the most represenative toy from back then was the Madballs, soft foam balls shaped as the head of the most sickening and disgusting monstruosistys any child could love.

I had them, they were a lot of fun but just before theyr started to be boring, they released "Head Popping Madballs": the same creatures but with a full body to turn them into fully articulated action figures and making them some of the rares and most dirty and grimiest figures from the 80s, and since we are living rigth now in the 80s part two, Premium DNA Toys just made a remake of those same Madballs action figures from 1986.

I am not sure of this is unexpected or not anymore but the first to arrive is Bruise Brother, a motorcyclist that makes me wonder if he is human or not since he only have 4 fingers and have fangs, tough he is the most "normal" looking of the Madballs. Hi s the size of a Figma or S.H. Figuarts but given his porportions, he is incrediblly heavy!!! He is a big chunk of plastic!

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, legs, knes and anklesall with ball joints soo the range of movement is pretty high considering his body type. The original Head Popping Madballs had small bodys like toodlers soo Premium DNA keep the body proportions soo his torso is literally...a spheric body of the same size as his head (that is huge) and his arms and legs are pretty short and chubby soo he cant achive pretty dynamic poses thanks to his proportions but he can move pretty nicelly, alos thanks to his big feet and low gravity center, he is an expert standing on his own with no base.

This whole set of characters are a typical 80s design, mixing the fun of the cartoon with a lot of black humor soo theres a lot going on here: he is missing an eye and theres green slime coming out from his socket, he have purple lips with pointy fangs and lots of fresh open wounds on his face, arms and torso stitched even with a clip. His helmeth is full of bullet holes with blood coming out from the holes and he have a lot of crazy tattos on his helmeth and arms.

The sculpt on the muscly torso is really nice and detailes, he even have a piercing on his nipple, wich is odd given the spheric shape of his body, the sculpt of the beard is also very natural looking and overall the plastic feel of very high quality with a soft texture to the touch that stands out specially on his helmeth and boots.

The color is vibrant neon, very 80s. While his skin is cast on flesh color plastic and have no color, the rest of the details are pretty nice looking (the coloring on his eye is soo beautyfull!!). His boots have a very realistic look with brown washes that makes them look real and his helmeth also have a lot of blue and grey scratches to make it looks like real metal, tough all the blood and open wounds and slime are painted in pretty neon red and greens to give him a carton look.

The printing of the tattoes are flawless and the belt with bullets around his torso is a separate peice soo it can be removed. Serisully, theres is a TOON of details going on here and given his chibi proportions each details is big enough to be seen pretty easy.

He have a lot of extra hands that can be exchanged pretty easy: open palms, holding hands and hands pointing with a finger. Each hand have the exact same details reproduced perfectly: a fresh bleeding cut on the rigth hand and a stitched cut with a bandaged finger on the left hand as well as black fingernails.

Unlike the 1986 version this guy have a whole ste of wacky accesorys to go with. First he have a knife that can be stored on the sheath on his back. This is the most simple looking accesory since is not even painted, its just a grey piece of plastic tough the sculpt is good.

Then he have a baseball bat with a big crack on the middle, insects, nails pooping here and there and a lot of tooth pinned as well as a bite mark. The violence here is evident, this looks like a weapon capable of high brutality with those nails and the tooth of his victims proof it. The sculpt is terrific as well as the pint job, the wood of the bat looks incrediblly realistic while the tooth and insects looks more cartoony.

Then there is a bee hive on a stick....yes, its soo weird, maybe this is some kind of grenade? Throw the bee hive to your enemies to see them fighting against the insects? the hive and the stick looks very similar on sculpt and paint soo its a little hard to discern wath is it, but theres honey dripping around as well as black and yellow bees that poops a lot.

And finally there is a big box glove that cna act as an extra hand as well. The glove have a nice strong red color and black washes to make it look natural, but it also have shiny green slime as well as tooth pinned from his victims, a pretty fun attention to detail.

This figure is soo...unique...soo 80s, soo violent and brutal looking yet soo playfull and childish at the same time, soo fun to play with him thanks to his accesorys and articulations but soo fun to just look at him and get lost on all those crazy details. Bruise Brother wasnt cheap but he was worth it, specially since i never had him as a Madball or a Head Popper either