KRAMPUS

 Krampus is told of in hushed whispers, for to say his name aloud invites his attention. The people of the frozen mountains know that this devil haunts them during the winter festival, while the good folk celebrate to drive away the chill and darkness of the season.

Krampus seeks out the wicked, especially children, for his punishment. Any he judges unworthy are whipped with birch reeds, locked in shackles, and stuffed in his basket. He takes these children away, perhaps to the underworld itself, never to be seen again.

If you see the shadow of a horned figure, or hear the discordant jingling of iron bells, take care: Krampus seeks fresh prey.

It was the Yuletide Demon - Krampus - the very first one to start the Figura Obscura toy line from Four Horsemen years ago and while i was able to ignore theyr Mythic Legion series for a long time (not that they are bad figures, quiet the opposite), i wasnt able to ignore the Krampus, i just cant. Releasing him on Christmas Eve, there was no more perfect way to start a series based on holidays or even....theres no better toy than this for the season actually.

Sadly, just like the Headless Horsemen, i wasnt able to get Krampus either and had to wait for the second version of the figure to came out and after a long long delay, he finally arrive. I was pretty excited for him in christmas but now on february it feels kinda off and wrong but the wait was worth it since the qualty is pretty high in here, even with the beautifull box he comes with (tough i admit, is less intimidating and spectacular than the Headless Horsemen).

Krampus comes in the same scale as the Horseman soo he fits with everything McFarlane, NECA, Storm, Furay, most action figures of the market soo he have the perfect size to have a precense on the shelf but not take too much space. He has no base but can stand on his hown tough is pretty tricky, sicne he is cloven footed, soo the legs needs to be in the rigth angle to have enough balance for him.

H eis articulated on the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, tighs, knees and ankles as well as his tail. While all articulations are ball joins and in theory they must have total freedom of movement, the truth is that theres a lot of restrictions in here. His mane of hair around his neck limits his head movement a little bit but not much, but since he has no butterfly joint on the chest or double articulation on the elbows, his arms are can bend only to a certain degree and he can join his arms at the front.

The armor....belt...loincloth or wathever he is wearing is made with pretty firt plastic, soo his legs have a much better range of movement than his torso. Even his tail is removable tough he have the same issue the Headless Horseman have: his legs joints are kidna lose soo that makes him extra tricky to stand. I am not sure why the legs are soo lose while the shoulders are soo tigth...

The sculpt is amazing. The warped face features and wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, small eyes and animal like nose make him looks like a vampire bat. The fangs are sharp as well as the tongue and even his troath can be seen behind his fangs. The horns sculpt is extremelly realistic as well as the hair sculpt on his beard and mane that cover his neck. By the way, this hair can be removed as well.

The body is muscled, really fit but not too bulky, athletic with a ripped definition and very sexy details, like veins on his chest and biceps and his nipples, tough theres no skin texture in here. His gautlets, boots and armor thingy on his waist have a half medieval half futuristic design and not only have scratches and identations to make them look old and used, but they are made on very soft plastic (even one of the spikes on his boots is warped).

I love his cloven hoofs, they are also sculpted underneat and his tail is amde with haird plastic soo it cant bend but is sculpted in a movement motion, soo it can be turned around and looks different constantly, and it looks like a lion tail, very very cute.

The original version of this figure was pitch black, totally black with only his eyes and tongue shining in red, this second version have him painted on red skin with deep blue eyes. I find this much more better looking since the original version was....well....like a black shadow with horns, its was pretty difficult to discenr wath was Krampus and wath was metal or other element, but in here the red skin really contrast with the black metalic and black claws and show the details of the musculature much better.

His skin is painted on a vibrant crimson tough it have some dark shadows airbrushed soo the muscles can stand out much better, he looks really sexy and really hellish at the same time. The tail and his mane of hair have a much darker red on them, with black washes to give shadows to all that hair. The dark pink of the tongue get kost a little bit with the redish beard but the cream colored fangs stand out as well as the blue eyes that looks like jewells.

Theres not a single drop of paint in the wrong place in here, everything is perfectly painted, specially the hrosn with the brown wash that gives them a very realistic look. The very little armor he is weating is painted in gun metal black with some shine elements to make it looks metalic (while Super 7 insists this cannot be done with modern technology) and the cloven hoofs are missing the shine tones but have a very soft dar brown on them to make them looks organic with the horns.

The hairy loincloth on the front is painted on green, perfect for the christmas spirit of the character but also it contrast wonderfully with the red and black of the rest of the figure.

He comes with a lot of accesorys directly taken from the legends of  Yuletide. An extra pair of hands to hoold them that are very easy to swap, aside of his claw shapped hands, but he also have a set of shackles with real chains. In the legend he use this to catch children tough in here he can use them himself to have a eerie look, dragin the chains around hanging from his wrists. 

He also comes with a red cord with some ring bells attacjed to it. Six ring bells of small and big size that shine like jewells in hands of the Krampus and they actually works and rings, since the legends says Krampus is close when a ring bell is hear. Just like the shackles and chains, this cord with ring bells can be wrapped around his necl, arms or hands.

Krampus use also a birch reeds to attack his prey. This branches dont looks like too much but i guess they are a way of torture, like a whip. The sculpts is nice and to contrast with the red color of the demon, they are covered in white snow and they fit nicelly on his secondary hands.

His other accesory is his always needed and important woven basket to carry children. The basket is not that big and have a lid, but sadly the lid dosnt fit. The sculpt is nice and the design really fits the north side of the world art crafts, painted in yellow mixed with red and green, tough i find it way too colorfull for the Krampus, it looks very "toyish" but i guess that was intentional.

The basket have a ring on the side and a pretty raw looking yellow cord. At first i tough putting the basket on the Krampus back would be way too difficult with my big hands but i find how to do it, i just wrap the cord around the Krampus shoulders and tie it with a knot on his back and let the basket to just hand there....i dont know if this is the correct way to use this but its the easyer way for me and it does the job just fine.

Best of all, he also comes with the skull and hands of one of his victims!! A pair of bony claw shaped bone hands with an articulated peg (??) and a kid skull. There the hands have not much details, the skull is really good looking in both sculpt and paint, with a yellowish tone with some dark washes, its very realistic.

Put the kid hands at the endge of the basket in the inside and balance the skull in between them and you got the skeleton of a child peeking out from the Krampus basket!! Balance the skull is nto that easy, but the final display is really creepy and fun looking!!

Also, theres an adult skull included. A bigger skull with an articulated jaw and a ball joint identation on the base, i wondered why theres to skulls in here? And it seems this is actually the Headless Horseman missing head!! It fits him perfectly and rise the question of why the Krampus have his head???

Lastly, the box can be unfold like a 3 part screen to reveal an background for the figure: A snow filled natural landscape with snow falling and the moon peeking at the top in between dark clouds. There is also a pretty ominous rock formation in the center with candles on top that gives the impression of a shrine of some sort. There is also candles on top of the trees.

The artworks is beautifully done and is both relaxing and peacefull but also creppy and dark, theres is something blasphemous and weird in the candles at the top of the trees and the clouds almost engullfing the entire moon.

This is one of my all time favorite figures and one that i been waiting to get for a long time. This is the most classic Krampus, every single element is faitfull to the Yuletide tradition and is also one of the most devilish figures i ever seen. Sure some of his articulations are kinda lose but pretty much everything else is pure perfection.

He is deffinetly not as magestic as the Headless Horseman but is much more sexyer and Four Horsemen already added four more figures to the Figura Obscura line soo i am way behind. They release Santa to pair with this Krampus but i find him the less interesting release of the collection and somehow they also release Son Wukong, the Monkey King, but my interest is on the second Halloween and third Chrsitmas figures of the collection....