LUCIAN

 

The 2000s was such an incrediblly interesting moment to be a toy collector. Back then McFarlane Toys had started the market of adult collectors soo many new brands started to pop up to offer incrediblly unique and different figures of very high quality at 1/5 the price we got now. Marvel and DC where limited to ToyBiz and DC Direct soo they only represent the 15% of the toys market soo it was a time of when creativity was runing rampant and the posibilitys where pretty endless.

One of those new action figures brand was Stan Winston Creatures, a series of figures designed by Stan Winston Studio (the people behind the special effects of Jurasic Park, Alien, Predator, Small Soldiers) and based on the basic concept of "monsters"with no relation with other IP. This where completelly original characters based on the 80s philosohphy of the "gross" and the "deform". HBO pick up the first series of figures Creature Features and made TV movies about them but the other series; Mutant Earth, Realm of the Claw, Blodo Wolves and Extreme Garogyles stay only in comic book format.

Sadly, distribution was non-existant soo it was pretty rare to see this figures and with each year, they get even more rare and more expensive!! And i was only able to find a single one, from Extreme Gargoyles. As a big fan of Gargoyles from Disney, this particular series resonated with me a lot beacuse i got the feeling if the Gargoyles live action movie project from the 90s would have been greenlighted, this would similar to the look of the Gargoyles.

Day dreaming aside, Lucian is quiet big, he is taller than standar NECA or McFarlane Toys figure even in this crunched position, if only he could stand erect this guy would be quiet masive. He can stand on his own moving the arms at the sides but he comes with a base (pretty much his only accesory) that reperesnts the balcony of a castle.

The sculpt of the balcony is exceptionally good, with a pretty gothic design like a catedral piece and a very realistic rock like texture and the paint complement it perfectly with bluish grey mixed with some dark wash to make it looks like natural rock just enoug but still keep some tonal balance to make the details of the identations and design pop up. This base could be perfect for other castle based characters or dioramas with its only deffect being the pair of pegs on top of it.

The pegs are really thick and they keep Lucian in perfect balance despite his awkard pose and heavy body. This guy have a swivel articulation on each one of his wings as well as his neck that let him rotate his head and a bal joint that let him move his ehad up and down. He have a ball joint in both shoulders and a swivel on one of his wrists as well as ball joints on his legs and a joint on his torso that moves up and down thats it.

Soo he is not very articulated, his entire arms and legs are sculpted on a single pose and cannot be moved and the torso articulation and head is limited. This was how things used to be back then, the priority was sculpt and paint and this was a piece designed for display and not to be played around, thats why theres no accesorys are all, the figure is sculpted in a specific pose and given a few joints to achive a couple more option poses but thats it. Is this good or a bad thing? I dont know really, it was just a different time.

The lack of articulations is worth the sculpt and paint tough, the joints are almost invisible but his musculature is extraordinary realstic, you can even see the veins around his arms and other parts covered in a thick rhinoceros like skin. The fingers are very thick and both the claws on his hands and feet are quiet impresive, actually his entire feet are sculpted soo the claws huge on the edge on the balcony rock soo Lucian looks like is resting his entire weigth on the base in an extremelly natural way. This is a pretty important atention to detail.!!

His abdomen dosnt have human structure at all and while his wings are a little small and very weird shaped, the skin texture on them looks totally different to th texture on his body. His head have giant bat wigs shaped ears, a couple of small horns and a canine snout with huge protunding fangs that dosnt let him close his mouth. His nose looks pretty strange, like some exotic bat nose and the whole head have the same rhinoceros texture full of wrinkles.

The eyes have a very evil looking shape and they are completelly black with a tiny neon green pupil that, surronded with all that black, looks like they shine but is only a optical effect. The yellow fangs are relaly well painted and the rest of the body is a mixture of grets, purples and black for his claws, horns and ears. The whole body paint have a soft wash that mix the colors exceptionally good and make them looks very ralistic and natural.

His wings sports the same colors but with a little bit of metalic hue and some black in the end sections soo it almost looks like they got burnt at some point.

The sculpt is amazing but even more shocking, the paint work is excelent here and stands out a lot since figures in the 2000s had a lot of issues with color (like the Palisades House of the Dead 2 figures).The figure salso came with a card that i cant seem to find, with a picture of Lucien with a natural background and a secret code that work on the Stan Winston Creatures website, a flash web age that let you acces to the storyline of each figures and see 3D renders of them, but once with the code it opened a totally new section that show videos of how the figure was made, production material sketches, details of the wrists behind this figure, wallpapers and more.

Testament of how exciting was internet back then, how creative it was and how much they love this figures as well to produce the figures and everything that surroinds them with such care, and how much felt Stan Winston for his sculptors as well to include them as part of the whole experience. This was a deluxe product for sure for its time.

Lucian is an extremelly filmic design, since is really easy to see this guy in the Elvira movie or any chapter of Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside or Goosebumps, this is a figure that embodies the 90s horro soo well it almost looks like a man on a costume!! A perfect fit for any horror display of any kind and with the weird big scale he surelly will stand out always. Even with the limited articulations this figure is perfect and the only thing i hate is now owning the rest of the serires since every single one of them loos amazing and totally difrefent! I would love to hunt them down!