DEVILMAN

 Its been a long time since the last adition to the Devilman collection because, despite how well known he is now thanks to Netflix, toy companys leave the license completelly a long time ago. But there was a time when Toy R´Us and other places where full of Devilman figures and products and i remember seen them in awe throght the PC screen, when i was a teen.

One of the figures i saw back then was Medicom Real Action Heroes Devilman, a 1/6 scale figure that was considered one of the most expensive merchadise of the characters and after 25 years of seen images of such figure, against all my expectations, i finally was able to get him!!

Its odd to see how simple looking is th box of this figure despite being a limited edition (number 989 from ???) and how this was (or still is??) Medicom more expensive and premium line but i guess this was in line of how this figures looked in last century - 1997 to be more precise.

Like i said, this is a 1/6 scale figure soo he is really big and the same size as modern figures of Hot Toys, Sideshow, Asmus, ThreeZero and he have no base and can stand on his own....sometimes, since his articulations are kinda loose soo its just a matter of find the rigth balance spot and he can stand with no problem tough i dont know for how long, soo its best to use a base with this figure.

He is articulated in the neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, legs, knees and ankles and all of them use ball joints soo they have a big range of motion or at leats the head, waist and knees and ankles does, they turn around nicelly and tilt in different directions tough the legs articulations are restricted by the pants and the elbows...for some reason they dont move to the sides too much.

Also, i got other Medicom figures, Real Action Heroes actually, and the materials used on theyr bodys are really cheap and break pretty easy and given how old is this Devilman, i am really afraid the plastic used on the articulations just turn into dust if i aply too much force to it.

Actually this figure is soo strange i am not sure i can explain how it is build....is basically a base body with big transluscent plastic ball joints on each section and is completelly modular because each section can be removed and dismembered. Is pretty strange but then again, i am afraid soo much removal of sections can damage the plastic pegs.

Then, covering the each section, there is a plastic "skin" with the sculpture of Devilman, soo in reality this feels like....a dummy generic figure with a Devilman costume? I dont know and i really dont know if other Medicom figure worked like this but i got the feeling this was the first try to make a figure like the modern TB League figures: a metalic articulated eskeleton with a soft plastic skin to cover all articulations.

This seems to replicate the basic idea but its not made correctly since the articulations are very much visible and the only nebefit here is the skin texture with the soft plastic. The sculpt is nice tough, despite the material theres a lot of wrinkles and life like details here, like veins on the arms and chest and hair on his abs. The hands are totally made of soft plastic soo they are pretty soft and realistic to the touch tough they are useless to hold any kind of accesory.

The head is the best part deffinetly, the sculpt is on point with Go Nagai art style and character design with his wing structure looking completelly irregular and very organic looking, with the pointy horns, wide eyes and giant mouth full of fangs. The upper fangs are protunding and the way the fangs follow the mouth shape make it looks like a piranha and the tongue is sculpted behind them.

The paint is really good too, with the skin tone looking very solid and the fangs in yellow stand out agains the red of the inside of the mouth. The eyes are yellow too with red veins aroudn them and while the rest of the head is black it does have red airbrush around that makes the wings reflect the ligth very nicelly despite the "all black" image it have.

Sadly,, the skin tone of the rest of the body is ligther than the face color but i am not sure if thats how it was made or if the march of time affected the color of the body thanks to the soft material. The torso is pretty muscly tough it also have in-human features like the protunding ribcage and the opening section on the chest. The hairs sculpted on the back and on his abs is very nice as well as the open scars on his shoulders.

The body have different tones of skin colors, airbrush of softher and lighter tones with darker ones to give volume to the musculature and some artofocial shadow. It looks good in close inspection actually and the part that stands put more are the hairy bits.

The hairy legs tough.....instead of sculpting them, Medicom decided to give him pants, literally, black velvet pants. This limits the legs articulations but while i understand the effect they try to give it, they looks too much, well....like pants. Also they have a tail made with soft plastic in the back but its not articulated and just hand in the back, while the material helpt it flow a little bit to make it looks natural, i wish it was wired.

The only accesory this figure have are his wings but Medicom wanted to be really inventive as well in here and instead give us a set of plastic wings, they made a steel plate covered in back velvet. Put the wings on is really difficult since theres two cuts on Devilman back and the metal plate must be slide on them but the plates are really sharp like a blade!! Not only they cat cut fingers pretty easy, but i am afraid they also cut the soft plastic skin of the figure as well!!

Once instaled the wings plate cna be shaped in different ways and while the idea is pretty good, the wings are actually extremelly small. They looks very "toy-ish" and the black velvet material looks kinda cheap.

Its odd because this figure is full of pretty inovative ideas like plastic skin covering the figure articulations and vendable metalic wings but it seems they didnt had the technology back then to full fill all this ideas. And despite the funny looking pants and small furry wings, the body sculpt is really good and the head looks fantastic as well and in the end, this is pretty much the only Devilman in 1/6 scale to ever exist.

Compared to wath IconiQ Studio is doing rigth now with Street fighter or Tunshi with Samurai Shodown, or Hot Toys and other 1/6 scale brands are doing, this figure looks pretty cheap, rough and rugged, but somehow.....that fits Go Nagai art style and his characters and i got the feeling back in 1997 this figure was incrediblly impresive and advanced for its time.

In the end this figure looks like a pretty old and vintage japanese toy but it really thats wath it is, a product of its time and i am happy that, after seeing images of it for 25 years i finally can touch it and play with it (tough i am afraid to broke it and i am sure those pants and wings will get extremelly dusty pretty fast) and despite its faults, this is one of the cloest representations i ever seen of the core design of Devilman.

WOLFMAN

A few weeks ago i found something really unusual; large scale statues based on NECA´s The Nightmare Before Christmas action figures from 20 years ago.I never before saw something like this on in real life or onlain, not even in NECA´s official site. After some research onlain i only foind this are actually NECA´s official products and they was released in 2006.

Soo they are almost 20 years old but still, this statues have no presentation, they came in a brown cardboard box wth no logos, artwork or anything at all soo it made me wonder wath was theyr propuse?? They were sold to the public or to stores just for advertisment? They are part of a price or for internal use in NECA´s headquarter? At first i tough this were the prototypes for the action figures but it seems they produced 200 of this soo they are not unique, but they seems to be crazy limited.

Soo where did they sell such limited versions of theyr figures? Soo many questions but almost all info of The Nightmare Before Christmas related to NECA is about the action figures. This statues are not listed anywere really.

Soo it seems the collection consist in 4 statues: Jack as Santa, Dr. Flinkenstein, Harlequin Demon and the Wolfman. All characters from series 2 except the Wolfman and i was lucky enough to find not only the Harlequin Demon, but my favorite Halloween Town citizen as well; the Wolfman!!!

I love Tim Burton version of the Wolfman and when i saw this figure i was 100% i was going to get him no matter wath. The Wolfman is much more taller than the Harlequin Demon and nlike him...he can stand on his own thanks to his small paws and digitigrade legs but he comes with a round and very elegant base that let him stand with no problem....well, almost no problem.

This sculpture is a whole place, with no seams or different parts united and is made with resing soo this figure is EXTREMELLY heavy!!! Really a direct hit of this guy in the ehad can kill someone pretty easy!! And his legs are soo thin... plus the base is extremelly heavy as well but to hold him in place inly have two thin resin pegs that goes in a hole on the paws of the Wolfman, soo a tough movement of his upper body and the pegs can broke very easy.

With the pegs gone this figure is doomed to never stand again because given to the round and thick shape of his body i doint think i will be able to find a base suite for him soo i am really afraid of toush this guy, i got the feeling he is pretty delicate...i mean, my Wolfman action figure from NECA also broke his pegs and i had to glue him to the base...of the plastic version broke, i am rpetty sure this resin version could broke evn more easy.

Aside of that strong fear of brakeage, i have no issues with this figure, quiet the opposite. I always loved the action figure but this version make every detail pop up much more, the sculpt of the fur texture is pretty sharp but also the shirt have a texture of its own that mimics old fabric look mixed with some sections that feels a little like clay and this makes the figure looks an feels more like the puppet of the movie.

The head sculpt is excelent, with the sharp nail like fangs and the expresive eyes. The yellow and green of the eyes have a coat of shine that makes them looks weet and alive in contrast with the black body. More specifically, the fur is grey with darker tones of grey wash to enhance the sculpt and the black is only keept for the claws on the hands and feet.

The shirt also have a mix of different browns in a strips mattern and not only the paint is perfect in each strip, but the strip lines are also sculpted!!

Just like with the action figure version, theres not many accesorys here. Aside of the base he comes with a small present wraped in red with a yellow ribbon. Is much smaller and less eventfull than the Harlequin Demon present tough the sculp and paint are perfect.

And the biggesta ccesory is a singing elf! A perfect replica of the elf included in the action figure except this have no articulation on the neck and arms and the piece of paper cant be removed. He also comes with a round and black base that somehow makes this piece looks pretty elegant.

The whole elf texture looks like hand made with since the prints of fingers are visible all around  and of course, the paint is perfect if a little simmple and the side of the paper in front of him have the musical notes painted on it (i wish they were at the othe side tough) and while i never was fond of this little guys in the action figure series, this one hace a nice quality to stand out as a general Christmas ornament.

This figure is extremelly delicate but the sculpt and paint quality are much better than that of the action figure and given how big he is, is pretty easy he gets a lot of presence on any shelf or any collection, perfect for both Halloween and Christmas, this figure makes me wonder if they are really as limited as they say and makes me want to get the Dr.Flinkenstein but i doubt my luck strike twice after 18 years.

HARLEQUIN DEMON

 As silly as it sounds, its pretty easy to feel excited when finding unknown merchadise of a favorite series, movie or character, an item that holds a mistery of where it came, when and for wath porpuse. And a few weeks ago i found a mistery like this: statues based on NECA´s The Nightmare Before Chsitmas action figure series from 2004. 

I found two of them, with no presentation at all (with no window box to see the figure or a box with TNBC art al around or the NECA logo, they came just in a brown cardboard box with a bar code) and based in one character from series 2 and one from series 3. The one from series 2 is non other than the Harlequin Demon, one of the most "Burton-esque" designs of the movie since every bit of this character is reminescent of Burton 2D artworks and have his own twisted and childish visual cues.

I alsready did a review of the original action figure version of this character FIVE YEARS AGO !!!! Soo since its been soo long i will review this as a brand new figure instead of a variant. First of all this guy have an amazing balance and can stand on hiw own perfectly and unlike the action figure version, he have no base of any shape.

This guy is literally twice the size of the action figure and instead of plastic he is made with resin, soo he is also really heavy and have no articulations at all, even the tentacles on his head are not bendy, this is a solid resin piece, a single piece sculpture that is more for decoration than the actual action figures and comes in a pretty neutral pose (not like his body let him take many different poses anyway).

The sculpt is very good, with all the dragon scales that looks like a dress sharply sculpted as well as the spiky arms with a hairy texture, the odd alien like hands (he have no thumb!!!) and the short legs and feet with 6 fingers, all body proportions are great but the realy eye catcher is of course, the head: The big bowl shaped jaw full of sharp fangs and the skull levitating on top, covered in fangs as well, with the sharp eyes and tentacles that looks like horns.

Compared with the action figure, this sculpt looks even more faithfull to the on screen puppet. I mean, the action figure was always damn close but this version on a much bigger scale is even closer, if not perfectly match the on screen image. The lines on the tentacles are sculped as well as the expression line on his evil looking eyes as well as each torn on his hairy arms.

While the character is cartoony, the paint is really well done as well. The feet and arms are kinda simple with only the thorns painte din white in between the hairs and while his jaw is pure grey, the dragon scales have irange and yellow with a dark wash around that makes them looks....well, kinda dark, kinda dirty, a little old, the perfect texture the puppet had in the movie. 

The head too have a fascinating finish of blacks and greys that gives him a pretty elegant and silk texture to it. The orange on the tentacles is perfect and the yellow eyes with green framing have a weet and shiny layer that makes the Demon looks more alive.

One of the accesorys of the action figure was a mallet he uses to create his hats and in here the mallet is present but is part of the whole sculpture and cant be removed. The texture and soft brown coloring makes it looks like a tiny piece of wood despite the reson material.

His other accesory is his table, a wood table with a piece of paper on top, scissors and a yellow ribbon on it as well as a dead rat. In the action figure the rat was a separate accesory but here it is part of the table and cant be removed. The sculpt in the table texture is really sharp as well as in the fur of the rat.

The grey tones in the table paint makes it looks old and real and is a totally different grey than the one on the rat. The ribbon looks vibrant and the scissors are painted in silver soo everything stands out perfectly despite having mute colors that gives it a gothic look. 

Also, unlike the action figure, the table have a long peg in the side that must be inserted on the Harlequin Demon belly. This is another difference with the action figure version, tehres a hole on his belly.....and is rpetty odd looking but the table cover it. I am guessing they expect the table to be used as a sort of base and keep the figure in balance but the reality is that the Demon can stand on his own and dosnt need the table at all. I hate the hole on the figure but nothing can be done about it.

There is also the bat hat Jack put on the Demon´s head in the movie. The scupt of the fur is really really good and the grey paint of it is extremelly sharp and well defined, unlike the smaller sale version that is just plain grey, this one have different tones of grey in between the hair strands as well as in the wings. Tough for some reason it only have a single leg and of course, it cant be put on the Demons head since it made with resin and not soft plastic.

And finally he have a gift wrapped in orange paper with spiders and a grey ribbon. The irregular shape as well as the color palette mix perfectly the Christmas and Halloween spirits of the movie and the material make this little gift quiet heavy as well.

This character is a pure representation of Burton in his best moment and while this is an exact coy of the action figure eveb to the accesorys, the difference bewteen the two are quiet sharp and this version looks more luxury and perfect. Of coruse i am afraid to broke his head, the fangs of the pointy tentacles, this piece is really relicate but looks soo good on the svhelves, specially in this season!!