KEN & MURRER WORMS

 After staying in 2001 for the last reviews....lets turn back in time a little bit more, to 2000. Back then the Sega Dreamcast was on its best moment and one of its gems was The House of the Dead 2, a game that, after 26 years is still as fun and entertaining as it was back then and with all videogames having action figures all of a sudden (Resident Evil, Tekken, Samurai Shodown, Street Fighter, Metal Gear Solid...) it was the best moment to give The House of the Dead some toy love and it was Palisades the studio that release an action figures set for the Sega shooter.

Back in 2022 i was able to get half the set: Johnny and the boss Strenght and now, four year later i just found the second half of the collection in the most sudden and unexpecting way. Lets focus now on Ken and the Murrer Worms: Back then both Toy Viz and Moobydick decided to release the Resident Evil figures in a two pack mode, a human with a monster or a big monster with a smaller one together and somehow Plisades continue that tradition not only with theyr own Resident Evil figures but with The Hosue of the Dead as well.

Soo the main dish in this two pack is deffinetly Ken, the spidery and jumping zombie with an iron mask and claws. The character design of this games were something else in close inspection....soo anyway, Ken is in perfect scale with most action figures like McFarlane or NECA toigh he is pretty light weigth given his slim build.

He can stand on hiw own perfectly (just like all other figures from this line) and is articulated on his neck, waist, shoulders, wrists, legs and knees. The head, waist and wrists cna rotate while the shoulders have a ball joint soo they can move up and down and open up to the sides as well while the legs have a very basic articulation to the front and the knees dont bend too much but this was more articulation that we used to have back then and while the movement is kind of basic, is more than enough to pull a few poses that dont look that bad.

Sculpted by SOTA Sculpture and Design, this living dead is really nice looking and while the pants looks OK with all those straps and the metalic armor on the legs looks allrigth, the best part is the torso with the dry and mummyfied skin tight into the rib cage and with the intestines hanging on the waist. The back side have the spinal cord uncovered while the giant claw hands are sculpted in soft plastic and stands out a lot.

Plus this is the limited edition exclusive for the Plisades website soo this figure have a battle damage head sculpt different that then normal version. In the normal version Ken is....well...complete and his iron mask can be removed but here the lower half og his head has been blown byt the Agents shots soo not only he is missing one eye but his entire lower face is completelly gone and theres a piece of his jaw hanging from the side. 

Looks really gruesome but only at a close look since the effect kinda got lost with the messy paint job. Theres black blood covering the dark blue skin soo its a little too dark and only a few teeth stand out. The metalic paint on the mask is good while its splattehered with some green radioactive blood but my favorite part is the shiny orange eye since it contast nicelly with the entire figure.

For me tough, while thr sculpt is good the paint really dont mae justice for it and dont mae the sculpting details to stand as they should. Ken´s skin is dark blue while his mane is also dark blue in a different tone and while theres some brown brush in the bomy parts, i feel like this dont make the skin texture to stand out. Also theres a lot of green blood here but is painted in splochs and if camouflages more than it should.

The metalic claws and boots have some black and brown brush mixed with the metalic paint and also a lot of green blood splathered around and this is the section where the green blood stand out the most. The paints are plain black while the straps are green and brown but theres not much to say about them.

Then we got the Murrer Worms, some of the most iconic enemies of the game. Theres two included and while they are smaller than Ken they are really thick and both have a different sculpt since one is moving to the front and the other is turning to the side. Sadly i was almost sure they had articulated jaw but theres no articulation here while the body texture is really good looking and the teeths looks hiddeous.

They are plain brown but they have a black paint around every corner and ident and that makes the sculpt to really stands out. The gums are radioactive green while the inside of the mouth is red and the teeth plain white and that makes this little guys very colorfull and faithfull looking to the in game designs.

And laslty, theres a base for Ken. Is not that big and looks like an irregular ovar of rock and stone with some skulls in the front and the back side, ivy radomnly covering it and The House of the Dead logo in the middle. Sculpt is really good and paint is a little simple but somehw i really like this base design even if it dosnt helps stand the characters at all and is something totally ornamental.

And i almost forgot!!! Theres one missing accesory: the iron mask. In the original version the mask is removable and reveals Ken skeleton face but in this version the mask cant be removed and i dont know if i like that.

To be honest paint was always the main issue of Palisades with theyr Resident Evil line soo in this line that is a year older the problem was even more evident: while the sculpt in Ken is good i feel like the paint could be better since details really camouflage and even the damage on his face dont stand out as much as it should but still i am damn happy with anything releated to The House of the Dead and this is no exception.