UNIVERSAL MONSTER ALLIANCE

 I usually use this space to showcase action figures and big size statues and leave small collectibles out of this; like for example those horrible and souless FunkoPop or capsule Gashapon or blind box figurerines. Recently i been building a small collection of Gashapon but i dont think they have a place in here and once i think about it i am not sure why i think like that because they are toys as well and a few years ago i made an entry about the Monster in my Pocket in this place after all soo i will showcase blind box figures this time.

The chinese brand Pop Mart was totally unknown for me until a few months ago when theyr Labubu started to be extremelly popular, almost as much as the FunkoPop, but this let me find out that a few years ago they released theyr own version of the Universal Monsters as small figures in blind boxes. When i saw pictures i tough they were made with AI because they didnt looked real, they looked extremelly perfect and colorfull and the series consist on the Monsters sitting on a teather chair, watching a movie in a "Super Deformed" or chibi design.

It took me quiet some effort to be able to find a sealed complete box with 9 blind boxes that contain the whole 9 figures, but it was deffinetly worth it!! Despite them being tiny (the size of an Amiibo) and sculptures with no articulation at all, this little guys give the ilusion to be bigger than they are and they sculpt is extremelly detailed, funny and amusing to look at. Each one of them looks very dynamic and full of life and personality.

Dracula is sitting with his legs crossed and his giant head resting on his hand and a glass of blood on the other and an expression of boredom. The design looks too much like an anime from the 70s and have enough details to make them stand out, like the pointy ears, the eye bags, the ring on his hand...and the colorwork is really good since his shoes are jet black while his suit is a little more mate black and it contrast nicelly with his vibrant red cape and pale skin tone. The paint is soo good his eyes are bloodshot for lack of sleep!! Both the blood and the glass are made with tranlsucent plastic and they can be removed from his hand but they fit soo perfectly between his fingers.

Next one is the Frankenstein Monster that have the the most cartoony design of the bunch with the gigantic head and the square face features and big ears. Even the fingers on his hands are square and his big bits and smilm legs contrast too good with the size of the head. He is also very "sleepy" looking and have a pompking full of pop corn. Both the pumpkin and the green jachet have a pretty stronf coloring works in emrald green and orange witha  wash of black that makes them looks like marbel. The scar on his forehead, the yellow eyes with dark green eye bags, the purple nose, the color aplication is really magnificent.

The pop corn cant be removed, but as a little extra the top of his head can be removed to reveal a very pink, very colorfull and wet and fresh brain!! Its really amazing to see such small figures having "actin features" and accesorys like this.

Next one is the Bride of Frankenstein, sitting in a extremelly femenine way with a flirtatious smile and stealing the pop corn of the Frankenstein Monster. The pop corn is pretty much the only piece with color since she is almost entirelly in black and white. Her dress flows around her body and curls around her legs pretty nicelly and is entirelly white with a soft black wash. Her skin is more pale than Dracula´s with black shadows around her eyes and black lipstick and her har have a very good looking mix of black and dark brown.

The Mummy have a really serious look on his face and seems very concentrated on watching the movie while eating a bag of chicken nuggets. Sculpt wise he is the most simple of the collection tough the details on his aged face are very good, specially on his mouth. The bandaged body have a light brown mixed with  ablack wash while the ehad have a much darker brown and the hair part looks more orange. Details like the golden pupils and the beetle ring make it very evident the people in Pop Mart actually did watched the movie since all this details are on it. The chicken nuggets big is the most colorful part of the figure.

One of my two favorites one is deffinetly the Wolfman. He have also an extremelly cartoony design with a big mouth with fangs protunding from hislower lip, the small dog nose and the eyes mixed with an expression os sadness and anger and the way he is sitting not like a person, but as a dog, with his feet on the chair and the fingers on his paws holding of it makes this one extremelly adorable. He is eating a bag of chips and i really love his hair sculpt and the beard, and the green shirt that looks like marble with the dark wash. I really love this guy soo much.

My other favorite one is the Creature From the Black Lagoon. He is sitting with an unexpressive face expression eating tiny fish from a can. The scult is amazing with the little tiny scales covering his body as well as the different plaques and fins around his head. The dark green of his skin si perfect as well as the yellow around his mouth and fins but the best part is the dark wash that make each scale stand out, specially on his head. I am not sure if its a mix of sculpt or is just paint, but the texture on his big head looks soo realistic. Also he is cmpletelly wet, covered on a film that makes him looks shiny and slimy and on his feet theres a small pong of transluscent blue water. This little guy is soo amazing.

Good thing they didnt forget The Phantom of the Opera. Bad thing is this isnt the original version but based on the ugly color remake from the 40s soo this isnt Lon Chaney but Claude Rains Phantom. He is sitting with one hand hilding his chest about to have a heart attack while the other holds a rose, with an expression full of anguish. This is the most simplictic looking character with a white gothic looking shirt and grey pant and a well groomed hair. The green and red of the rose really ar ethe tocuh of color this guy need since he looks like he belongs to a romance novel.

The rose can be removed and is rpetty difficult to put it on his hand given how small it is and the mask can be removed. The mask have a very nice "bone" like texture and paint and holds into his face perfectly thanks to his nice and the strand of hair. Once removed it reveals a burn on his eye. The paint work of pruples and reds on the burn looks really good but i seen much worse people on the streets of my city than this, this guys is simple way too mild to belong here.

Next one is the Invisible Man. I am not a big fan of this guy but he deffinetly looks more better and interesting than The Phantom. Rivaling in elegance with Dracula, this guy is watching a movie on his pijama, sleeping rob and slippers while sporting his cool looking dark glases and a hat. He is all bandaged but since he is drinking a soda, the bandages on his mouth are missing and since he is invisible, well....his ehad is completelly empty. His hat have a very nice mix of black and dark red while his rob and pijamas are brigth orange and blue and the soda cup is neon orange. This is one of the mst colorfull of the bunch and he also have his diary with his formula under his hand (tough the tiny book likes to be lost pretty easy).

Lastly the character i really dont like at all: Van Helsing. Yes....that Van Helsing, the Hugh Jackman one. I mean, not only he is NOT a monster, but this particular version of the character dosnt beling to the same time period as the rest and looks incrediblly out of place. I really wish they added Quasimodo or even the Metaluna Mutant instead f this guy but oh well...he is rpetty ooking as the rest, with his blue eyes, angry expression and curly hair. His coat is nucellt detailed as well ad his military boots and he is holding a beer on his hand and a crossbow on the other that both can be removed.

The chairs have a very clasic look with a brown structure and a red velvet inside painted with some dark wash to give it shadow (despite this section being completelly hidden by the figures) and looks like belonging from an opera teather and while in the front they are all the same, each one have the name of the movie each monster belongs as well as the date of release: DRACULA - february 12.1932, FRANKENSTEIN - NOVEMBER 21.1931, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN - april 22.1935, THE MUMMY - december 22.1932, THE WOLFMAN - december 12.1941, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - february 12.1954, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - august 27.1943, THE INVISIBLE MAN - november 13.1933 and VAN HELSING - may 6.2004.

The dates on the chairs are such a wonderfull detail tough this guys can sit on the table, the laptop, the console, every place with no need of the chairs, is pretty evident this is a cinema teather scene and they looks wonderfull  all together, perfect for halloween or to pose them in front of the TV, this are soo full of details and soo alive is always fun to look at them. This is the kind of toys that awaken on me the love for toys i felt when i was a kid.

There is an extra character tough but he is rpetty rare, one on every 108 boxes and he is Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde but i guess ask for him i way too much at this point i am perfectly fine with this group of monsters (except for Van Helsing, i probablly turn him back into his box) and really mpress me how in sculpt and paint they are at the same level as a Nendroid.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

 

I like weird woman. I admit it, it seems i always like the weirdest ones: Demona, Lexia Ashford, Eve, Martian Spy Girl and since i was a little kid, i felt an odd fascination for The Bride of Frankenstein. Her visuals are soo simple yet the long white dress and bandages look soo sublime together, her intense beauty and beehive hair with electric strokes at the sides looks soo magestic, and that looks has been used soo much for almost 100 years on media all around that i can help but asociate her with the most basic and pure form of femenine horror.

Of course, being the first and only female Universal Monster makes her more cooler and her short stay on screen and complet silence makes here an absolute mistery as well, soo each time a company makes figures of the Universal Monsters, i am always looking forward for the Bride and at last, NECA just released her Ultimate action figure and they were pretty brave with her.

The Bride is the shortest figure soo far and only with her hair she reaches Dracula and the rest of the Monsters heigh, except her mate, the Monster is much more taller than her and i love NECA for keeping scale soo good between characters. She can stand on her own tough she sometimes trips with her dress or lose balance since the section of the back is a little heavy, but she is much more easyer to stand then the Phantom of the Opera.

She is articulated on the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, legs, knes and wrists and like usuall, all this are ball joints soo theres a huge range of movement in here. Her dress made with real fabric dont block any of her movement either but the shoulder pads stop her shoulder movement a little bit but theres nothing to worry since she is not an specially dynamic character to beging with.

Soo far Jada, Mezco and Sideshows has only sculpted a "generic" woman to portrai the Bride, the action figure of Sideshows tried to mimic a little bit of the Bride face but never stay too close to Elsa Lanchester excentric and unforgetable features. But finally NECA actually sculpted Lanchester in here with the big eyes, small nose, sensual and puty lips and delicate face shape. The faery looking face is crowned with the great beehive hair with every strand sharply sculpted in waves.

The texture of the skin is clean tough she have an sculpted scar around her chin and on her neck (her face dont belong to her...). Aside of her delicate neck, the rest of her body is covered in bandages and while the sculpt is good, theres no more details aside of that. Her body shape is curvy but not sexualyzed, is very realistc shaped and her chest is small and tigth in bandages.

The paint in the bandages is kind of metalic white, very different to those of the Mummy, but the color is complete and have no more details. Her skin is pale and cast on that soft ckin color plastic tough it also have soem purple shadows around her eyes and and some beauty make up on her check bones. Her green eyes looks good but i wish they gives her bigger eye lashes for a prettyer look but my favorite part is the lips, painted on metalic purple and giving a small glimpse of her teeth in a very delicate way.

And is in here that NECA felt really brave because while Elsa Lanchester had red hair, the Bride has been always seen with black hair amd Universal has never opposed to it for 90 years, but this time NECA decided to gives us the look Elsa Lanchester show only to the staff of the movie: red hair.

The different tones of red and brown looks really good and gives the character a totally different feel. More colorfull for sure...better than the black hair? I dont know since the black and white motive we had for 90 years is not bad either, but this red tone isnt either and is growing on me.

Her dress is really fantastic, made with real fabric in the same material as Dracula´s cape, the dress is pretty fresh, ligth, soft, high quality and have a great flow, specially at this sall scale. Again, while Jada, Diamond and even Sideshow only gives her a tube like white hown, NECA actually tailored the dress as its supposed to be: long and square at the front with a fold at the sides around the arms and a very long, looong long back section with  around shape, a hospital gown in front and a bridal dress in the back.

The back side also have a very delicate tie that cross and close the dress, tough its not necesary to open this part to remove the dress, just remove the head, and move her arms up and the dress can be rmeoved pretty quickly. Tough this is the most delicate part since being of such a thin material and completelly white, i am afraid to damage or stain the dress.

On the accesorys department she is very low tough, but after a lot of consideration i dont know wath kind of accesory they could give her since she literally dont touch anything on the movie except the hands of her creator and her mate. Even Sideshow gives her her heart and the equipment to keep it beating, but even theyr figure could not interact with this items, soo NECA did theyr best in here.

First theres an extra pair of open hands, for her mate to touch and theres a pair of extra bandages as well, made with soft plastic, that can be wrapped around her arms at the owner discretion. Why make this bandages modular is beyond me, sicne they are actual part of the Bride look on the movie but i guess it was easyer this way that make articulated bandages.

Then theres two extra heads tough calling them heads is no accurate since they also include the neck to the collar bone. Remove this whole section is easy tough extra care shoudl be put while replacing the neck section to not pinch the dress.

One of the extra parts have the Bride screaming. Paint and sculpt are perfect, just like in the basic head. The teeth and wet tongue looks really really good in such small size and looks more accurate than the Jada´s version.

The second head part have the Bride covered in bandages, with only her eyes revealed in the moment the doctor Frankenstein screams his iconic " It´s alive! Alive!". The sculpt of the bandages have a nice texture and the surprised eyes under them are really striking. The bandages mix perfectly with the collar bone where this piece conects with the main body.

Lasly, theres a bandage covering for her eyes with hair clips holding the bandages, moments before the Brides comes to life. This small piece fits perfectly and is mostly designed for those who got Frankenstein Monster accesory pack that includes the table.

And thats it, nothing more, not many display options for the Bride, unlike the expresive Erik, but that dosnt mean she is less fun to play or to look at. She stand out soo much against the rest of the black and grey dressed Monsters and looks amazing interacting with her mate in the most cruel of displays of rejection.

Just one single character before completing the Ultimate Universal Monsters, one of the bests erires NECA has produced, but even as a stand alone, the Bride is just a beautifull piece to be displayed as the titular character of one of the corner stones of science fiction and horror and the central piece of the most perfect and hypnotic scene in the history of cinema.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

 Jada Toys, after years of models and toy cars decide to makes its debut on the action figures field with the Universal Monsters, just like Sideshow did it 20 years ago with awesome results. Wath make this figures stand out is the small scale and the low price. This are the smallest Monster i have and the low budget wasnt good news at all. Dracula dosnt looked too good for me and Frankenstein either, tough once in hand, he wasnt that bad.

And actually, i got Frankenstein just because i got the Bride, it was imposible for me to miss her. She comes in small scale of the 90s action figures, but Jada take in consideration Elsa Lanchester´s small frame and size, soo this Bride is much more smaller and delicate than her Monster mate. Despite of that she can stand on her own, tough her balance is not that good sometimes.

he is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, legs, middle legs, knes and ankles. All articulations works fantastic except the shoulders, they are kinda stiff. Also the unions on her biceps are kinda lose and make her arms looks broken. I guess the small budget leave its marks here.

And thats pretty much the only part where the small budget is visible, since the rest of the figure is astonishing. The sculpt is really perfect, while the Monster sculpt was kinda blurry, this woman is most deffinetly Elsa Lanchester: her big eyes, the small nose and pouty lips, its evident even on a profile view, the linkes is exceptional and the hair sculpt is really amazing and have the perfect size and shape.

Her body is also amazing, with a very femenine shape, the bandages texture is really welldone from neck to toes. Her dress tailoring is a little simple tough since it dosnt have the shoulder pads or the long tail in the back, but still, the fabric is pretty thin and delicate, almost like silk, it have a nice flow and is elastic enough to let her move her body.

With a small velcro in the back, the dress can be removed easy to show her bandaged body on all her glory.

The paint job is excelent as well. The white strikes on her hair are perfect as well as her pale almost green skin tone, the soft pink on her checks, big eye lashes and blood red lips, it looks really amazing for such a small scale. The bandages on the body also have a pretty natural and well done yelow wash that matches the texture. I wish her mate´s jacket had this paint quality.

She comes with a pair of hands on a weird gesture as well as a screaming extra head, all of them can be exchanged pretty easy and, again, the screaming head is impresive. The expression on her eyes is really fierce and you can see her small and tiny tongue and teeth, i think i will leave this head on her permanently.

Her other accesoryes are a pair of weird metal rods coming from the ground with a black ball on top, as well as bandages and chains hanging from them. The bandages are made with ribbon and the chains are real metalic chains tough i dont know wath are this or how the Bride can interact with them aside of tangle the chains around her arms. This strange items also came with Diamond Select´s Bride (i dont have her) soo i guess they must mean something.

While the tailoring of the dress could be a little more detailed and the detail on her biceps is anoying, this figure quality is just trully amazing, the distance between her and her mate is huge. Just made her in sufter material and put the Figma brand on the box and this could be easy a 100$ figures. Until NECA release theyr Ultimate Bride, i think this is pretty much the best quality Bride action figure to date.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

While the action figures serires from Diamond Select was a mixed bag to the point they even had to remake some of theyr own figures, the one best one thing was how they produce not only action figures of the Monsters, but they also did retro clothed figures, mini-mates and banks. While i didnt liked too much the mini-mates line (too much details they are not even cute) and i dont have interest on the retro cloth dolls in Mego style (i dont have a Mego collection to mix them) i was surelly interested on the banks that acted as bust at the same time.

The very first one i got was the Bride of Frankenstein and she is really big and heavy, as tall as the action figures themselves, but since she is portrayed from her chest up, this make her looks masive and pops out. She can stand perfectly, tough one of her hands is pointing down soo is better to place her near a ledge on the shelve or else this hand will prevent her to rest completelly flat. Also her other arm is pointing in front, wich makes find her a rest spot a little troublesome.

This is the Bride in front of Dr. Frankenstein, heading towards him with a lost expresion. The sculpt is really good, specially on the bandages on her arms, pretty deep cut lines and the wrinkles on her dress flows perfectly. The hair is also really good looking and her face is pretty tough she is not exactly Elsa Lanchester, from the side angles she looks perfect, tough in the front is pretty obvious she is not Elsa.

Then again, she is much better looking than theyr action figure version, soo its pretty obvious they didnt get the Elsa Lanchester rigth to use her looks but this is good enough, Tough some details are very rough, like her eyes lashes that are not sculpted and just painted. One can say this kind of details dosnt matter in an action figure, but considering her face is soo huge, the lacks of details stands out a lot.

Same for the paint, its pretty clean and have different grey washes on her dress and bandafes and the white strikes on her hair looks pretty natural, but the details on her face are a little to clean i say, she looks a little....like a doll, specially on the scar on her neck, pretty unnatural. The lack of detais may bee seen as something bad, but in fact she is really good looking at a normal distance and looks fantastic on the shelve. If one ignore the slit on her back and plastic material she could be considered an scullpture.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

Some months ago i started to collect the Universal Monsters action figures from Sideshows. They are 18 years old but they are still the most faithfull representations of the characters to date and looks damn good when in good conditions. I got The Mummy, The Wolfman and The Creature From The Black Lagoon and just in time for Halloween, i just get the Bride of Frankestein at a really good price.

Sculpted by Oluf W. Hartvigson, she stands as one of the tallest monsters (along side the Gillman) thanks to her hair and yet she can stand perfectly for herself and have a really good balance.

Articulations are really limited. This woman is a 90s toy - back in the McFarlane fever - soo her articulations are pretty basic and not very helpfull but they are not intrusive at all.

Her body dosnt looks comic book style with huge boobs or anything, she have a pretty “normal” silhouette for a female and i dare not a pretty healthy female. The sculpt on her banadges are really impresive since they have a pretty thin and soft texture on them and they fold in an extremelly realistic way around her body. I am not sure if i like how yellow looking are those bandages tough but they contrast pretty well with her dress.

Her dress is made with fabric and is not just a random piece of fabric at all, but it have a pretty specific shape for her and joins in the chest part like a cocktail dress. Is kinda tricky to put the dress on her with the limited articulations, but once eveything is on place, the dress have a pretty good flow and looks spectacular.

Her face sculpt is by far the closest fo Elsa Lanchester, specially on profile view, she is stuning beautyfull and i love her red eyes and bloody red lips with black. At first i tough her chin was damagged but all figures have the same mark and taking a closer look, Elsa Lanchester actually had cleft chin soo it looks like they didnt wanted to leave any detail out, tough the cleft chin looks kinda strage with this scale of figure.

Her hair is nicelly sculpted and have the two white stripes in the rigth place (and both have a different size) soo this is trully 100% faithfull to the character on screen.

Her only accesory is an extra head with the bandages on. The paint is pretty simple (tough we can see her red eyes and blue make up under the bandages) but the sculpt is really amazing since you can see the shape of her face perfectly and how the bandages wrap around it in an very realtistic way. She ooks fritghtning like this but i like her dressed version much more.

She also comes with the most intrascendental and boring base out of the figures i have. Just stony floor from the laboratory with a strange and tall electrode and a blue …. thingy…it add some color to the set up but i am not sure wath this equipment is. She have the box that reads “THE BRIDE OF FRANKESTEIN. ELSA LANCHESTER. 1935″ ,just like the other monsters and this gives her a pretty “museum quality” style.

Not counting the 12″ scale dressed figures of Sideshows and theyr ridiculous priced statues, this is the best Bride of Frankestein figure to date - since Diamond Select version was trully awfull - and i am glad i got her. I am still not convinced by her mate but i really want Dracula to make her company.