TALISAC

Does "too much" really exist?? For some it dosnt but for most people "too much" is real and it was specially back in last century, even more specially in the toy industry. Poeple was way too worryed Madballs would make kids violent each other or the srping shot weapons of action figures would make them harm each other or themselves. Even He-Man was feared to be just a comercial to sell products to kids (wich it was actually) and then, McFarlane Toys arrive with its products designed for adults: toys based on monsters with some blood splatered around. This made people worry but then, in 2001, they release Tortured Souls.

A brand new series of action figures made by McFarlane Toys and designed by Clive Barker, branded as "the most terrifiying action figures", it cosnststed on a collection of Cenobites - hell´s priests - that participated on a story written by Clive Barker. Each figure came with a chapter of this novel and not only this fused "toys" with "writing", but the characters were EXTREMELLY gory, violent, bloody, they show flesh with no skin, bones, misshaped faces and amputated limbs mixed with a leather fetish.

It was too much. Many toy store refused to sell them and parents were complaining and then, the whole world had its gaze upon McFarlane Toys soo he started releasing his other series based on dragons, miliraty men, Conan, more Monsters....it was am amazing time to be a McFarlane Toys collector, that company means almost everything while other companys were following its lead.

Seven years ago i started hunting this Tortured Souls figures i wasnt able to get as kid and while i got most of them and posted them here in 2020, there was one that i was missing, the rarest one to find in its clamshel and the most delicate of them all but also the most dramatic and terrible one as well; Talisac - The Surgeon of the Sacred Heart.

This figure is actually, pretty difficult to describe. This guy is in the same scale as the other McFarlane figures form back then, smaller than a modern NECA but bigger than a modern Figma, the size is for me totally perfect tough with his.....machine totally asembled he is much bigger. He cant stand on his own soo the only way to display him is hanging from his machine thingy.

This guys is actually a little bit articulated!!! His head rotate as well as his wrists and his left arm also can move up and down, half his thigh can rotate and his ankles too. This dosnt do much tough....the most usefull articulation is the one on his left shoulder that let him rise his arm but the rest of the articulation dont make much difference and the neck one prettu much only gets on the hooks that holds him.

Then agin, the rest of the line and the rest of the figures from back then were not very articulated and were mosre like statues soo this was the standar for back then but still, this is the more static character from the entire line. The sculot is really amazing, the skin have lots of wrinkle skin that hangs from his bones in a very sick way, he deffinetly looks more like a corpse than a living thing, but he is actually alive!! The texture is strikingly real and the expression of pain is very real...i mean, with the way his feet are tense and the way his hands are shaped like claws, its pretty evident this creature is in amazing pain.

The skin color is pale and have a very soft dark wash soo all the wrinkled skin stands out but it looks extremelly natural. Theres a few leather belts here and there: on his neck, on his rigth arm, theres a long belt on his back and something that looks like underwear that cover his ass but leave his front totally nude (this underwear is stitched to his flesh in the front) and theres more belts around his legs and while this are part of the same sculpt as the body, the black paint stands out nicelly in contrast with the pale skin tough the pain job is not perfect and is slopy in some places.

Where the pain job is beyong perfect is on the opening sections: cuts and removal of the skin on his calf, another cut and opening on his rigth knee and another on his left ankle with both his pectorals skin bein removed and hanging while his entire left biceps  have the flesh, again, cut and hanging from the arm like a sleeve. Wath this opening show are raw muscle and an amazing paint job since this sections not only are painted in crimson red, but they looks wet and fresh and the blood dripping around them looks extremelly real.

There is a HUGE scar that start on a hole on his chest and goes down all the way to his pubes where the flesh is opening to reveal an artificual womb. The way the flesh opens for this is amazingly revolting and theres hbig holes that reveals he ahd staples closing this area. Actually the staples are closing the opening on his torso to his chesta dn the way the flesh close in this area and the wrinkles and tension....is just way too much.

His face is very difficult to see because he have hooks pulling out his lips, eye lids, and checks soo theres no face expression here, theres just torn apart flesh and again, the skin is veiny, full of wrinkles and the blood surroinding his eyes and mouth is very realictis but it contrast with the wave of blood coming out from his mouth and the paint job inside the mouth and eye is trully amazing for the scale.

Finally, theres a flap of skin hanging from his head and revealing his bre sckull. This is bone but the redish paint make it looks like is driping of flesh blood. This guy looks more like a corpse in the morgue that suffered a big accident than anything, even the opening on his torso looks like an autopsy.

His artificial womb is transluscent plastic and cab be removed to reveal an huge empty hole carved on Talisac´s groin area and this is also painted realistically in pink and reds to make it looks like fresh meat. McFaralen Toys didnt leave a single corner without attention.

The womb can be opened to reveal the Mongroy, another of the Tortured Souls figures in an state of of grow. The littl creature dosnt looks human at all and shows a thing with his limbs all twisted around and a mouth full of teeth while his skin is all wrinkled around. The little figure is also painted in an uber realictic flesh tone, with some splays of blood here and there and perfectly white fangs. For a figure not meant to be displayed outside of his womb, the amount of detail is amazing.

Talisac is installed in a pretty strange machine that demanded a whole lot of asemble!! The base is dortito shaped and have small whels that actually works soo this man can be moved around by his own personal dwarf nurse that is not included here. The base have spikes, in case the good doctor wants to hop down for any reason, well, he cant do it.....tough this spikes are made of soft plastic and thats a very nice surprise.

Theres this thick main column structure that i had to use hot water to inser of the spiky base that acts as main support of the fogure. Theres another very thin almost wire column that conects on the base and reconects on the top with a little flat conection that is totally useless but it helps to give to this machine a whicked and complicated look.

Theres a third column that actually looks like a dorsal clumn since is sculpted with spikes and little section that makes it looks like bone.This structure is totally made with soft plastic soo it can bends following the main column shape and size and while it conects to the base in the bottom, the top part conects tto two big generators that, at the same times conects with two black soft plastic tubes to Talisac body. For what porpuse? I dont really know, but one tube conects to his leg while the other to his stomach.

Then the metakic structure continues and curves to the left side. In the point of turn theres this weird feather like structure that is articulated and the top of the metal structure contonues in a T shape that stands out of it and at the end if its sides, it have chains that conects back to the main structure. Real chains, no plastic grey chains...this was an era where McFarlane Toys pretty much put everything at risk and they use to have not only soft plastic mixed with hard plastic,but also real metal items.

The end side of the structure have a chain with four extrangelly shaped instruments that it sees they are Dr. Talisac surgical instruments (because, yes......this thing actually is a dosctor and he perform surgeries hanging from this machine). At the center of the structure theres six chains with hooks in the end that holds Talisac in place. While the chains are real, the hooks are plastic and inser them in Talisac small face holes is a HUGE pain in the ass.

Then theres this big metalic hook that hands form the structure with a clip. This big hook enter into Talisac back side and comes out from the hole on his chest and is the real thing that keeps him levitating while the chains only act as support but while it does the job, the tunel on the body is too curved and dosnt let the hook to penetrate entirelly since the hook is also curved soo it only penetrates half the torso.

Lastly, theres a blood bag thathands of a hook the clips on top of the metal structure. This blood bad have soft plastic tubes that also conects with Talisac on the ribs, chest and neck. This tubes are very anoying and get in the way of the arm movement and the blood bag is just painted in red and looks very cheap but with everythign thats going on around it, is imposible to pay attention to it despite the high contrast.

The entire machine is painted in a gun black metal finish, dark grey with some dark wash that gives it a very sofisticated, old and elegant looks that actually does looks like metal while the chains on it (including the h¿ones hanging from Talisac neck )looks almost like jewels in contrast.

This figure is no fun at all. Theres not much to do than just look at it since its almost no articulated and is extremely delicate (over the eyars i seen him docens of times with some broken in some way) and it demands a lot of asembly but the enginering needed for this leave me speechless....i mean, McFarlane did a Manbat that they didndt manage to make stand on his own and yet, they did this?? A figure hanging from hook on a machine conected with tubes and chains?? And the way everythign is sturdy and how the wheels works llave me in awe.

But as beautfull as this is, its also terrifiying. Unlike the other Tortured Souls, Telisac looks more like a victim, hanging with his body totally open and giving birth to a monster. This is one heck of a dramatic and distorbing figure to look at and the more you look, the worse it gets. I am not only amazed McFarlane Toys managed to build something like this, but i am amazed they also had the balls to design and release this. This was Clive Barker at his best and McFarlane didnt back off.

Also, whats going on here? In the novel Talisac is not only a surgen but he manages to build a Frankenstein like creature called Venal Anaomica while hanging from this machine and also it seems he himself put himself there....and he experiment on himself as well soo alll the openings and wounds on his body are made by him and he managed to impregnate himself too....this is too much from both McFarlane and Barker. This was too much in 1002 and is too mich in 2026.

And after soo many years.....theres never has been other figures like this and i got the feeling there will never be again.

GUTS - VOW OF COUNTER ATTACK

Japan have a lot of weird ways to collect figures, like the claw machines, but last year i leanr about theyr lottery system: it seems stores in Japan have different lottery games focused on different anime series and each ticket give you a small item or merch piece, sometimes at random, but there is always a lucky single ticket with a figure as prize and the one with the last ticket wins the big prize that is, usually, some kind of sculpture or statue that are incrediblly expensive in the secondary market since the only way to get this figures is at this random lottery games.

Last month a store in Mexico bring the Berserk lottery that had a wicked and HUGE Zood statue as final grand prize and while i wasnt able to get it, i ended with lots of keychains, standees and towels and also one of the figures included in the collection: Guts using the Berserk armor. The box of this big boy reads "Ichiban Kuji Berserk - MASTERLISE Prize A- Vow of Counter Acttack" and there was a alternative version with Guts with the helmeth covering his head as well as the armor covering both hands but i got the open helmeth version.

This is a statue soo theres no articulations and given the pose and the huge cape, this figure cant stand on his own but it comes with a sort of stand....i will talk about it later but this stand thingy works perfectly and keeps the figure in perfect balance.

This Guts is in a bigger scale than the Pop Up Parade L Guts, soo i think is actually 1/6 scale given the dimension of his legs, arms and head - quiet a big scale - but thanks to the pose with the legs bend and standing with one of his hands on the ground in a very animalistic way, this makes this guy smaller than the Pop Up Parde L figure but just to his feet and head because the cape actually add a lot to his size.

Soo overall, i think this figure is on a totally different scale and is designed to be displayed along side the Zood that comes as final prize and its gigantic soo the scale is pretty unique to this Masterlise line and deffinetly it take an awfull lot of display space.

Like i said this is Guts posed in  avery feral way, with the legs totally bent and keeping his balance with one hand while the other have the Dragon Slayer sword buried in the ground, with the armo fully open and his head coming out from the wolf mouth with a fierce expression while his cape is fliying to the wind and the Berserk armor is actually loosing hold from the hands with the sword. A pretty damn spectaculat and epic thign to display on a high shelf soo it looks like Guts is about to jump down.

And as good as the pose is, this figure only shines while on a top shelf because the head is looking down and also, the cape take an awfull lot of space of the back but i guess thats the sectacular part of the sculpture.

Despite the size is very ligth since its made of a pretty softish plastic. The body is solid but the small bits like fingers and cape edges are pretty soft as well as the helmeth parts. Sculpt is really good with each plaque of the amror sculpted independently and each bolt and union as well tough the armor have is covered in lines and makes it looks like is a hand drawing from Miura and the cape, also have that wird texture full of lines that flows along side the fabric. The cape ondulates in a very nice and fantastic way and its irregular shape make it looks almost like smoke or something made with strokes of paint.

The texture is really difficult to describe and honestly, is very difficult to show as well since i wasnt able to take good quality pictures of this figure given the lightning and color palette. The free arm have sculpted veins and also roots from the armour in the section between the metal and the flesh and the way the armor gauntlet claw hangs behind Guts actual hand is soo cool!!!!

The face also have veins and Guts have a pretty fierce expression showing his teeth. The wrinkles around his nose and eyes looks pretty natural as well as his spiky hair tough the head is in a very weird angle in relation with the neck but i guess thats necesary given the pose.

The paint job is very simplre tough. The armor is actually metalic dark purple tough this is very difficult to see given how dark is the color, but yes....its purple and shines with the ligth while the legs sections have no armor and show Guts is using black plain mate pants while the cape have the same black color it does have some gray areas in the top of it to give it a little ligth and shape. The grey tones are very soft and hard to see but they are there and looks a little bit like smoke.

The hair is plain blakc while the stroke of white hair in front is grey, the face have a good skin color with a little bit of orange spray to enhance the ligthing and shadows. Both the closed and open eye have a black line as a lineart while the open eye has no pupil at all and is painted in a soft grey, just like the teeth and the lis are actually painted as well in a very discret way.

The only accesory here is hald of the Dragon Slayer sword, buried in the ground, with a bunch of rocks opening up in the bottom while on the top Guts hands holds it. The sculpt is super cool and while the sword have a good silver metalic color and have traits of use and wear, the grey paint job on the rocks is extremelly simple as well as the color of the bandages on the handle, it looks very plain.

The other accesory is the base, or should i say a stand?. Its basically a transluscent plastic pillar with a diagonal top that fits behind Guts and holds on the cape nicelly. Put it on the perfect spot is a little tricky but once done this simple thing keeps the figure in perfect balance forever. Simple, elegant and it does the job perfectly!!

This is pretty mushc the only lottery Ichiban Kuji figure i have of Berserk soo i am not sure how of the quality standar. The pose and sculpt are really fantastic but i feel the color is pretty lacking. With a repaint to enhance each detail this would looks amazing but as this is it feels kinda cell shading cartoon coloring and that dosnt fit the sculpt particulary well.

But even soo, this is one good looking and kick ass statue to display on the top shelf. The opening mouth wolf helmeth, the claw of the armor releasing Guts hand, the cape flowing to the wind, the sword buried on the ground, the animal pose, this is a figure that is deffinetly worth much more than the small amount of money the ticket demands and with Zood with him and Skull Knigth, the display will be more than perfect.