WOLFMAN

With The Mummy remake in the 90s there was a huge interest over the Univeral Monsters (that popularity was effectibly killed by Van Hellsing) and aside of Sideshows, the brand Jakks Pacific was also responsible to produce toys based on the Monsters. Soo far in the last 24 years, the toys of Jakks Pacific has been able to avoid completelly my interest soo i dont know too much about the brand, aside that The Mummy and Van Hellsing toys they produced were pretty awfull.

The original Universal Monster toys, tough, looked pretty rad since they came in big boxes full of windows, something pretty rare back then, and they also included a diorama/play set that set them appart to wath Sideshow was producing back then. They are pretty rare as well, at least in my country, i only see them twice at a very high price and all this made them even more important for the collection.

After 21 years i was finally able to get the Frankenstein Monster as well as the Wolfman. I am missing Dracula but from the 3, he is the most boring looking soo i am not too worried about him. The Franknesntein Monster tough, with all his set displayed with the chair and shackles is one interesting and atractive addition to the Universal Monster display but the Wolfman really stands out on his own as well.

He is on scale with figures of the beggining of the century; a head smaller to modern NECA or McFarlane Toys tough this guy in specifici is actually a little bit smaller given his legs position. He cant stand on his own, at all....not even with the base he stays uprigth thanks to the shape of his feet and, again, his legs position. The only way for him to stand is to hold him of the tree branch.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knees and ankles tough this are all cut joints, theres not a single ball joint here. His head can rotate left and rigth but not up or down, and he can move his arms up and down but not open them, and his legs can move in diagonal soo he cant sit like the Frankenstein Monster and that makes him stand even more tricky. Very basic and simple articulations but that was the standar back then....

The sculpt is really good! The shape of the head, the lower lip with the tusk coming out, the hair deffinition is very very good as well, i am surprised they also reproduce the Lon Chaney Jr looks soo well and while the body is not that detailed thanks to his over simple outfit, the shape and wrinkles pf the shirt and pants around his body looks very very good. And while i hate he cant stand i am glad they keep the doggy shaped feet.

The paint is really good as well, unlike the Frankenstein Monster, the paint dosnt looks sketchy but is very very well defined, the pink on the lips, the white on the fangs, the black nose, the soft brown on the face and dark brown on the hair with different brownish tones on the hair to give it volume and details, even the eyes are extremelly livelly with the brown pupil, something i wasnt expecting from Jakks Pacific.

The green shirt and grey pants have no textures but they do have a wash of different tones to make them looks more natural while the buttons on the shirt and the belt are perfectly painted, as well as the black claws in both hands and feet, but wath really ruin this good looking figures is the shaved neck.....he have human hairless neck!! The hair of the ehad cover most of the neck tough but from the sides, the human neck is really visible.

The set piece is bigger than Frankenstein´s but not as heavy at the same time: a cementery scene with tombstones and trees and the nigth sky in the back. The sculpt in the ground have a dirty texture, stones and all around a very irregular terrain with a ditch in the center and two pegs in this specific part to stand the Wolfman. Theres a tumbstone on the back as well as a weirdlly shaped rock in the front and a cross........thingy that looks made with wood. The porpuse if this specifi items eludes my undertanding since is not a cross at all but i remember seen this in the cementery of Frakenstein, deffinetly.

There is a huge dry and dead tree on the side with a single articulated branch. The wood tecture as well as the stone and disrt texture are really good looking and the paint matched perfectly as well, The ground have different tones of greens to make some areas looks like short grass and its mixed very nice with the browns of the ditch in the center. The tocks have different greys and have also a weet texture while the cross thingy have different browns to make it looks like a real wood. The tree is a little too dark tough, it have ifferent tones of black but overall dosnt looks as detailed as the rest of the scenario and it dosnt mix too much with the ground colors. 

The background is not a carboard printed image but a thick plastic tablet that fits in the base and have trees scupted and painted as well. I wish tough they added more trees or tombstones since it looks kinda empty and i also wish they sculpted or painted stars in the sky clouds or something because the sky is just metalic blue and thats it, it looks too empty comapred to all the details of the ground or the Wolfman himself.

This time there is actual accesorys too, like a shovel. The shovel is very cute looking and looks too much like a toy, made with soft plastic and pretty plain and brigth colors. it fits on Larry Talbots hand but his place is agains the tree. There is also a lamp that fit on the characters hand and also can hang from the tree branches. The sculpt of the lamp fits to the overall tone but is just a black piece of plastic, with no color at all. I wish they painted the sides or they add a sticker to make it looks lit because its kind of difficult see wath this is.

There is also the action feature items!! Human feet, hands and head!! The sculpt and paint are OK and somehow, Wolfman can stand on his own with the human feet. The face sculpt is something more difficult, the face shape, sad expression on the eyes and even the messy hair are all close to Lon Chaney Jr Larry Talbot portrayal but each feature is exaggerated, like in a cartoon portrayal. The color on the eyes is very good, but the paint on his hair is very messy and they give him an odd orange wash too soo under direct ligth the paint looks pretty weird.

This is why the neck had no hair, i guess they tough it would be odd to add the human head to a furry neck and the wolf head hude the neck much better but i wish they did it the NECA way and make the neck exchangable as well but the swaping is pretty easy since the peg on the feet, hands and neck seems to be very strong (considering how old is this toy i was afraid the plastic would be britle).

Now the action feature: the sky block thingy have a hole shaped like clouds just behind the tree with a sky printing inside. In the back theres a lever, turn it and the sky moves like a clock and reveal a half moon half hidden by clowds, keep turning it to reveal the full moon in all its glory. This really helps make the sky piece much more complete and it works really good and is directly tied to the second action feature: transform Larry Talbot into the Wolfman.

Swap the hands and feet to have bin half changued with the half moon, swap the head to the Wolfman head for full moon to complete the mutation. Its a shame this has to be done manually, but this was the very first time they did a shape changin Wolfman figure and it stayed exclusive to Jakks Pacific for 20 whole years until NECA release theyr Ultimate Wolfman a few years ago and added the "changuing feature" again.

And laslty, the last action feature is the moon images glow in the dark. Is not mentioned in the box but its also pretty easy to see it, the half moon and ful moon are pretty brigth, a really awesome detail that makes even better and already brillant diorama.

This one, from the 3 Jakks Pacific figures, is the one i wanted the most, the best looking one and just like Frankenstein Monster, while the Wolfman figure looks not specially amazing, the whole diorama, moon changuin and accesorys all togetehr make this looks really rad!!

It sure is not as perfect as NECA´s Ultimate or even Sideshow version, but the human to wolf change and diorama stayed as a unique features of this version for 20 years and comparing it to wath was on the market back then (Palisades, McFarlane, Mexco) this was really such a unique premium figure in both sculpt and paint. It was really worth the long wait and made me wish Jakks Pacific managed to keep this quality for theyr Van Hellsing figures, maybe then they would had the chance to release the second serires with Karis the mummy, the actual Bride of the Monster and the Creature From the Black Lagoon.

FRANKENSTEIN

 At the end of last centiry and beginign of this century, theres was a boom of popularity of the Universal Monsters, thanks to The Mummy remake for sure, soo Sideshow release a HUGE collection based on those classic Monsters in all scales but the other company working on them back then was also Jakks Pacific, a pretty misteryous (for me) brand that was in chargue of The Mummy Returns action figures as well as Van Halleings´s.

But in between those two series, they also released figures based on the original Universal Monsters, tough only 3: Dracula, the Franlnenstein Monster and the Wolf Man. In my country those figures are very very rare and only saw them twice in the last 21 years and they are not cheap. I miss Dracula but i finally got the Frankenstein Monster after all this years.

Unlike all figures from back then, this one didnt came carded on a blister or in a clamshell but in a big box full of windows and artwork and it makes it feel like some kind of premium figure but in fact this Monster is not that big, he is on the same scale as most action figures like McFarlane or NECA had 21 years ago: one head and a half smaller than modern action figures, but still taller than a Figuarts or Figma (or Jada) this this guy is actually smaller to the Sideshow premium figures.

He can stand on his own perfectly with no problem and is articulated on the neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, legs, knees and ankles. The ehad is ball jointed soo it have a big range of movement up and down as well as the sides, all other articulations are basic cut joints - the standar articulations from back then - soo he can move his shoulders up and down but not open them to the sides, and elbows only bend to a certain degree.

I can judges the articulations all i can, they are extremelly stiff and useless but the reality is that all other companys used this same kind of articulation, including Sideshow. The Monster is not well known to be extrmelly versatile on his movement (aside of the circus freak version of Van Hellsing), soo the articulations match the character as well.

The sculpt is actually good!! Jakks Pacific actually did had contract with the Karloff familly and used Boris Karloff face feature instead of doing a generic monster. The sunken checks and sleepy eyes looks spot on as well as the shape of the nose, but also the face expression with half of his mouth open showing his teeth in a menacing growl is actually pretty close to Karloff portrayal of the creature.

The skin of the texture is that of a mummy and theres even the burn scar on the side of his face. His shirt and boots have a rugged texture and his hands have the same mummy texture the face have and all the stitches and open wounds are sculpted. The pants are extremelly simple as wella s the jacket but this last one is made with soft plastic soo the Monster can sit.

The paint tough fill me with doubts. Its not like this is the most colorfull or detailec aharcter out there but i feel the color palette is kinda dull. Totally black shirts and boots, plain green pants and grey jacket, with no shades or ligths or anything, just a plain single color for each part makes him looks very "toy-ish"The skin tone have a pale color (i am glad is not green!!!) and while the scars and open wounds show some red on theme, i feel like the white of his teeth, soft pink lips and eyes mix too much with the skin color.

Different tones of green, eye bags, the burn scar, all this details would looks much better painted but the paint is just way too....simple? This also mades me doubt a little bit if i can see Karloff in here or not, is like somehow, this figures looks like an unfinished sketch, i never feelt like this with other figure before.

This figure is actually not based on the Frankenstein movie, but the box says all over the place "Bride of Frankenstein" soo this is the reason why he have a brun scar on his face and his jacket is torn apart in some sections but more impostantly, this figure is based on a certain specific scene of the movie where the Monster is captured by the wosn people and took to the precint and chained to a chair inside a dungeon, soo this figure comes with said chair and even some part of the dingeon floor.

I dont know how to call this, a playset? Or a diorama? wathever is called, this is the reason this figure came in a big box and looked spectacular inside it. The piece is actually quiet heavy, is not holow plastic at all. The whole floor and chair are all made of stone. The texture is really reslly really impresive good and all the cracisk and divisions of the rocks that build thos primitive chair have a really crisp sculpt.

The back side of the chair is an imposing peice of raw wood with other two pieces to hold the Monster shoulders and a chain conecting both sections. Again, the wood texture is really impresive and realistic and the chain is real metalic chain, that put this figure above anything McFarlane is doing now day.

Theres two rings of plastic coming out of the floor at the side of the steps, with a real metal chain conecting to shackles around the Monster wrists. This shackles can be removed but given how thing they are and how old is this....i got the feeling they will breake the very moment i try to open them.

Give this is also an old school toy, not only he have a diorama/play set thingy, but he also have an action feature!! Push a lever in the back of the chair and the Monster will move his arms upwards breaking the chains and liberating himself!!!

Gladlly, the Monster articulations make it easy to fit him in the chair. He have a weird hole on his back (like seen in the second photo) that conects to the lever on the char. The rocky pieces with the chains cna be conected to the floor like puzzle pieces and they have a small hole and a peg to keep them in place.

But, the arms movement with the lever dont have enough power for the Monster to break lose of his chains unless his arms are almost all up, soo this action feature is pretty useless. An incredivly cool idea, but it dosnt work in reality. Despite of that, i would have LOVED something like this when i was a kid in the 90s......i think this would have been my favorite toy back then.

This Jakks Pacifis toys are soo difficult to find and soo hunted by collectors, but in reality the quality here is lower than that of Sideshow (and many levels behind NECA), the figure is kinda plain to be honest, but somehow, one he is conected to the big and heavy chair, with the chains surround him, this Frankenstein Monster is really really good looking and the fact it recreats an specific scene of a movie maks it even better.

This figure looks fenomenal on any horro themed colleection as well as Universal Monster collection but is also pretty relevant to anyone who collect figures based n movies as well. Shure this is not very fun to play with but visually speaking, this figure really delivers.