Last year it was the 100th anniversary of The Phantom of the Opera, the oldest (or one of the oldest if you count Quasimodo) member of the Universal Monster characters. Not only this movie was one of the best and more impresive of the silent era but is one of the most ambitious monster movies and this particular first version is also the closest we get to the original novel, since Gaston Leroux, the writer, was directly involved in the production and made sure everything was faithfull to his book. Like that isnt enough, the Phantom of the Opera is also one of the very first movies in color....long before sound was even added to movie.
Its just a small scene of a few minutes but 100 years ago, see the moving images in color was trully magic and wasnt an easy feat to acomplish since each celuloid frame had to be hand painted to achive this. This particular scene shows the Phantom arriving to the Bal Masque dressed as Edgar Allan Poe´s characters, the Masque of the Read Death. The color and the Phantom disguise complemented each other perfectly to show one of the most glorious scenes of the whole movie.
Sideshow did justice to such scene 26 years ago releasing the Phantom dressed in red as part of the Universal Monster action figure series as well as a 1/6 scale version with real clothes. That figure is one of my favorites on my collection and they did a magnifiscent job on it but now is NECA´s time to do theyr own version.
In scale with the rest of the line, this version of the Phantom is articulated on the head, neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knees and ankles. Sadly articulations suffer a little bit here thanks to the character design: the ruffle around the neck blocks a lot of the up and down movement of the head and the puffy nature of the sleves make his arms really thick soo the elbows dont bend too much and also the end section of the sleves block the wrists movement despite being made with soft plastic.
The end section of the shirt is long and, again, despite made with soft plastic it blocks the legs movement quiet a bit but aside of thath everything else moves pretty well, shoulders, knees, ankles and this is not a character that is supposed to be extreme posed.The bad thing is that he almost cant stand on his own....i dont understand why but i think his feet are too small and the heels dosnt help, but make hi stand is quiet a feat and once found the sweet spot for him to balance i dont want to move his legs anymore (soo i am sorry if the poses are a little stiff in this photos).
Scult is really good, the skull mask looks perfect with the big jaw and tiny small eye holes and the Phantom nose poking out from the skull nose, it looks weirdlly....grotesque. I am happy they added the red bandana on his head because it seems the Sideshow version forgot this. The bandana is made with soft plastic and it actually helps to keep the cape in place. The outfit is very simple tough but the wrinkles around his torso are realostic enough and the pouch hanging from the belt in front is a good detail tough it blocks the leg articulation a little bit.
The pants are very simple and have a really good leather texture and the most complex part are the sleves with the underfabric coming out from the holes of the outher layer. Things is....we dont really have a clear view of this outfit in the movie since he is covered with a cape, soo this outfit looks very different to Sideshow one, specially in tle legs part and i am not sure wich one is supposed to be more faithfull to the movies costume.
Having a character completelly red is very difficult since the color pretty much blocks any other color and is hard to match the tones. Here the color tones are very good because the shirt and pants have a dark red on it mixed with a black wash that makes te wrinkles and texture pop up while the shoes have a much darker red on it (and makes them looks like a different material) while the inside layer of the sleves have a brigth red as wella s the puch and that makes them pop up too but not dominate the eye. Theres small black perls on the belt, the puch and in different sections of the sleves and neck part that dont stand out too much but helps leveling up the whole red palette.
The neck ruggle is completelly white and stand out too much while the skill mask have different and very soft tones of grey to highñight the details like the teeth and the eyes tough this section feels very relaxing to the eye. The hands are neck are the only skin we can seen and the paint is really good, with a very relistic pale and sickly paint job.
Then there is the cape. The cape is HUGE and made with a very soft and thin fabric that shines a lot like velvet but at the same time is cmpletelly transluscent as well. The neck part is made with soft plastic as wella s the rope on the front, tough put the cape is very tricky thanks to the collar ruffle . The cape also includes a set of small black shiny pearls all around the edge to catch the ligth and shine even more than the red. This outfit is like....a cristal ball in a disco.
The front side of the cape is wired soo it can be posed around but given how long it is, its pretty heavy and the wired have problems keeping the pose and here is the thing, in the movie the Phantom is not using a cape.....is using a kind of greek toga that wraps around his shoulder and around his arm and the other ends wraps around his waist...its pretty difficult to see it on the movie with preccision, but theres no rope in the front and deffinetly no section conects with the neck area.
I dont know why NECA chose a siple cape for this figure given is pretty clear is not...i mean, Sideshow did it rigth 26 years ago, maybe NECA was too lazy to handle too unnecesary tailoring? I dont see anyone complaining about it tough the cape is extremelly well tailored, soft and have the perfect weigth for some dramatic display and thanks to the wire it can be wraped around the Phantom and makes it looks almost exactly like in the movie soo i guess everything is good here...
To cmplement his outfit we have his hat, a big black hat made with soft plastic with a thick red and hairy feather in one side. While Sideshow used real feathers, this one is all plastic and while it dosnt looks bad it looks...we.., plastic. The hat fits perfectly on the Phantoms head and the feather also helps to keep the cape in palce and its painted in brigth red with sparkles.
The otehr basic accesory here is the cane with the snake biting the skull. The sculpt of the snake is really good as well as the skull and while is very simplistic it very elegant as well and have a wicked tone for the Phantoms outfit. The cane is completelly blakc while the snake is painted in silver and the skull is white and is quiet tricky to fit it on the Phantom hand given the shape of the snake.
This are the basic add ons needed to the Red Death outfit but aside of that theres 3 and a half pairs of hands: and open hands set, a pair to hold the cane, a pair doing gestures and another hand open that i cant see too much difference with the basic open hands. The gesture hands are the most helpfull for a dramatic display since you can pose thePhantom poitign his finger or calling someone with two fingers. Swap the hands is not as easy as it should thans to the end section of the sleves but is nothing to worry about.
And finally, aside of the head with the skull mask theres two extra heads with no mask. This heads are included in the first version of the figure soo theres nothing new here and they show the Phantom looking at his rigth side with a look on his face full of doubts and caution and the second ehad shows him in a mad scream. Both have a fantastic sculpt and paint job, an extremelly natural around his eyes and yellow teeth with black lips but the screaming head is my favorite by far, is trully scary and disturbing but sadly, the outift ruffle on the nekc prevent the heads to sit nicelly on the ball joint soo, unlike the masked head, they fall pretty easy.
Theres nothing mere here but theres no need for more, the Phantom dont use any sort of item in this scene aside of his cane and the outfit is already complex enough to justify the price. And while the cape is not fathfull to the on screen version is very high quality and perfectly tailored.
With this figure i am closing my Universal Monster NECA collection since theres no other character i want, the display is complete. I wish this figure can stand much better but i guess a base can fix that as anoying as it is and the cape, while not 100% acurate it can be shaped to macth the on screen version. And with this color palette this version of the Phantom stand out way too much along side the other grey, black and white Monsters and i guess thats wath he wanted.
