LAND OF THE LIVING - EVERGLOT SET

 

Corpse Bride was one of the most inspired moments in the carer of Tim Burton but it was also one of the last points of inspiration of McFarlane Toys since they not only released an action figure serires but they also sis miniatures, plushis, dolls and even a giant talking Scraps. Not even The Nightmare Before Christmas had this much merchadise at launch.

After the action figures the minatures were the collest item to collect since they came in sets with different themes. The Land of the Dead had the main character as well as some of her deceased pals while the Land of the Living set was divided into the Vandort and Everglot set featuring both familys together.

The main character from the Everglot set was of course Victoria, wich is extra special for me because i dont own her action figure soo this is the only figure i have from her. Again, hes sculpt is really exquisite, specially on her dress and her delicate face features, tough her face expression is kinda lost.

The paint is really well done, specially on the strips of her dress and she can stand on her own perfectly thaks to her body shape.

Finis Everglot is Victoria´s father and he is one of the most difficult figures to handle since he is just a huge ball with a pair of tiny little legs. He cant stand on his own soo he have a metal rod coneccting his back to a base designed like the floor of his mansion.

The evil face expression and grey color palette is a perfect match to how he looked in the movie also, the chain from his clock is a real metal chain and is a little bit tricky to fit the clock inside the jacket pocket.

Maudeline Everglot is Victoria´s mother and she is the tallest of the set and she can stand perfectly thanks to her dress but really, she is a proof of the amazing cartoon deign of Tim Burton. Her body shape is really amazing and her HUGE head contrast a lot with her thin and small neck, soo eventually she broke her neck and i had to glue her back (wich was a challengue).

The sculpt and color on her dress is really minimum but the detailing on her hair and face expression are brillant, specially the curl in the center of her hair.

The last figure from the set is the main villian of the movie, Lord Barkis Bittern. Is weird that Victor and Victoria´s parents were not made into big size action figures, but is even more strange that McFarlane only did the main villian of the movie as a miniature.

Barkis comes with the same base Finis have and again, his pose is full of personality as well as his relaxed and evil smile. The color palette is completelly blick and white this time tough.

While this tiny figures dosnt look like too much once you get to a closer inspection it gets pretty clear they didnt skip any detail on both sculpting and painting and they even had higher quality than many of McFarlane big standar action figures. Its a shame they didnt explore this scale after this serires, and maybe thats why this things are ultra expensive now.

LAND OF THE LIVING - VANDORT SET

 

With the release of Corpse Bride on teathers, McFarlane released an spectacular collection of products for the movie even moving to uncharted terrain for him like glases or plushis. After an amazing collection of action figures the company entered into a kind of obscure era where all theyr products had a free fall of quality, soo i cant stop feeling nostalgia for theyr Corpse Bride serires as one of the last McFarlane figures i fall in love with.

I already reviewd the action figures i own here (i am missing most of them!!) and the first set of miniatures as well: "Land of the dead - Corpse Bride set", a testament of McFalrane state of the art sculpt and paint for perfect miniatures, is hard to belive they didnt explore this scale given how good they did in here and soo it came the second set of miniatures called "Land of the Living - Vandort Set" and basically consist on Victor´s familly.

The first figure is Victor and he is more like a stick than anything, standing tall and holding his tie with an anxious expression. The sculpt is really good tough this time is less definned than the action figure. The aint is good too, specially with the lines on his pants tough he is almost black and white...there is almost no color on him at all.

Since he cant stand on his own given his tiny frrt, he comes with a wooden base, a pretty discret base and the opposite of the grotesque and huge base of the dead characters.

The second figure is William Vandort, Victor´s father. The interesting thing about this figure is how important of a character he is and how he never was released as action figure, soo this miniature is the only figure in existance of him. He is lanky and almost reminds me a muppet, actually his face looks similar tough, with his hige hat and tiny golden gases, leaning on his cane. 

He comes with a base based on the street of the town he lives in and both the base and figure have a really exquisite sculpt and paint. His hair and mustache looks awesome and he is a little bit more colorfull than Victor thanks to his brownish suit.

The third figure is Nell Vandort, Victor´s mother. Again this is the only figure of her since they never released in standar action figure scale wich is a shame because i fond her shape really interesting and "Burtonesque". Both the feather and her fan are made with sort plastic but my favorite details is deffinetly the dead fox around her neck, this kind of details really bring her to life.

To life, that strange given how dead is her color palette since she is as black and white as Victor and the shadows on her eyes are kind of creppy looking, gives her a n expresionist look. Thanks to her dress she can stand perfectly soo theres no base.

And the final figure is Pastor Galswells, the ancient autorithy and rigthousnes embodiment. Even with his hunched position he is as tall as Victor and even tallest thanks to his hat. He can stand perfectly and have the same dull and grey color palette the other living characters share. His pointing hand and face expression makes him looks kind of menacing and he is the only figure with an accesory: his staff.

Despite the boring color in this set i really like it given the heavy importance this characters have and how this was the only scale for them. Having the Vandort familly together is really nice for the display and again, i ams till amazed by how good looking are this figure with theyr tiny size.

LAND OF THE DEAD - CORPSE BRIDE SET

 Its hard to belive that its been more than 15 years since Tim Burton released Corpse Bride, one of his best movies and very different to wath he does today, but it was also back then when McFarlane stoped caring and let his figure brand to fall into oblivion for quiet some years. While is getting on track now, Corpse Bride was one of the last lincenses that keep the soul that made McFarlane Toys soo big and impostant.

McFarlane Toys released not only action figures of the Tim Burton characters, but also released tall dools, plushies, glases and other merchadise as well as sets of mini figures. The very first set and, of course, the most important as well was called the "Land of the Dead - Corpse Bride Set" and contained the main character as well as other citizens od the land of the dead.

The Corpse Bride or Emilly, have a very amazing sculpt, based on exactly the same mold of the standar action figure soo the anatomy and shapes are exactly the same, with the sot plastic veil and her legs sculpted under the dress, the paint is mostly a vibrant blue with the white chest piece and pink lips, her color looks really ghostly and almost ethereal.

She is holding her bouquet between her hands and is not articulated of course. All this, pose, sculpt, paint is much more impresive given how tiny she is, this is a miniature and yet the design in her dress and veil as well as her tiny eyes and eyelashes are perfectly painted and theres no fuzzy details or paint in the wrong places, the work done on this figures is trully amazing.

The second figure in the set is Bonejagles and he is the most delicate from the set since he is incrdiblly thin and light, but still his pose is really full of life and very dinamic, walking with a gesture of presentation for Emilly. While he is just bones with a hat, he is not just white, the paint have different tones of yellow and grey to make him looks like real bones, to divide each teeth from his mouth and each bones and his only eye looks really amazing.

Unlike the Bride, he cant stand on his own soo he comes with a huge base that is much bigger than him. The base consist on a very chaotic and realistic looking wood board floor, most likelly from the bar.

The third figure is two for the price of one: the Skeleton Boy and Girl that comes together like in theyr action figure version. This pair is an exact copy of the bigger figures except they are tiny, trully tiny and have no articulations but pretty much the rest is the same, the Girl have her arms in front and the Boy is looking down like starting to walk, the paint is really pefect, brigth and vibrant and they also come with theyr toy boat with a little cord for the Boy to hold.

This two have also metal roads on theyr back connected to a base to be able to stand and the base is exactly the same as theyr action figure version, an irregular shape piece of dirt from the Land of the Dead.

The fourth figure is Scraps but sadly, this is the same Scraps theyr released along Victor in the action figure serires, an exact copy soo i got two Scraps and also, he is not in the same scale as the other mini figures since he is the same size as the Skeleton kids. The sculpt and paint are brillant tough and this time around he comes with a piece of the Land of the Dead floor as a base (that he really dont need).

And the last figure is again a two for the price of one: the Black Widow and the Maggot. Both cannot stand on theyr own soo they comes with a very similar base of that of Scraps and just like Scraps, they are not in the rigth scale with the minis (this two would be almost invisible!!!) and instead they have the same size as the Skeleton kids. This makes them looks awkard but also makes them perfect to display along side the action figures serires since they fit perfectly.

The sculpt and paint of both of them is really brillant. The Black Widow have this hairy sculpt with her long legs made with soft plastic and a metal rod on her abdomen soo she can stand and her eyes, red lips and red mark on her back are perfect. The worm is even more impresive with those green tones and the amazing painting on his face.

I never liked too much miniature figures, like the Kaiyodo minis or Nendroid, i find them hard to handle and lacking details (except Nendroids) but this figures are realy amazing looking, the more you look, the harder to notice how small they are. 

SKELETON BOY & GIRL

At the begining of this century, McFarlane Toys was the king of the action figures market and created some really fantastic original figures as well as based on movies of literary works. NECA was very close following McFarlane specially with theyr Nightmare Before Christmas serires tough McFarlane pick up the licence of the most new work of Tim Burton, the Corpse Bride.

I wanted all the figures in this serires tough for some reason many of the characters seemed kinda pointless and wasnt as charming as the Halloween Citizens (specially Mayhew), from all of them i really regret not getting Victoria since she was such an important character, but i did get the Skeleton Boy and Girl since they were the most fun looking characters from the Land of the Dead.

This pair is really really small and are only articulated on the neck and shoulders soo theres not a lot of different poses for them, also given theyr small legs they cant stand on theyr own at all. Despite all this theyr sculpt and color is magnifiscent, McFarlane Toys at theyr best.

Theyr colors and vibrant and brigth, yet they have a lot of washes thatmakes them looks old and used, the girl pink dress and boy sailor outfit looks almost hand made, and theyr bony texture is clean with a sharp sculpt (i specially like theyr soft grey tones on theyr sockets.)

Thy come with this oddly shaped and huge base emulating the irregular and ugly streets of the Land of the Dead, with two holes to insert this metalic rods that conect with the Boy and Girl back´s. The rods are metalic and having them in pink and blue is a nice touch even if theyr are very well hidden behind theyr legs.

The Boy comes with a small toy boat with a very old look. The little toy is attached to the base soo the only way the Boy cna interact with it is by holding the rope that ties to the boat. The Girl have a....something... i dont know wath this is, is a weird looking base with an imposible to understand design... and they also have a football ball with a greta looking leather texture. Tough is nice to have all this toys, theres no real way to pose the skeletons playing with them.

I think this is the perfect example of McFarlane Toys products, the figures are exceptionally good looking, but they are mostly statues and ony can be displayed in a couple of ways and no more. This is not bad at all since this are not really toys for kids. I can complaing on how anoying is that big base or how delicate are the neck of this little kids but in the end they looks terrific with Emily and Victor.

ALBERT

Back in 2005 my main objective was to get the entire line of Corpse Bride action figures from McFarlane Toys, tough after getting Victor and Emily, somehow all other characters looked a little pointless and i let go most of the line.

The only one i got from series two was Albert, a side character totally unrelated to the main storyline (like most of the cast) and a citizen who´s only porpuse was to give a little life to the Land of the Dead.

McFarlane did an amazing job on this guy with both an amazing sculpt and awesome paint. The sculpt is sharp and 100% fathfull to the actuall pupet. Details like the ribs on his side or the long and extremelly thin fingers give him a stylish an beautifull looks to an otherwise simplistc character.

The bony appearance and paint on his head is really good but my favorite paint part is his outfit. His jacket is painted in a beautifull and vibrant purple with a hard to describe texture….a kind of washing with different tones that makes it looks aged and almost like made with paper (?). It looks almost like a hand made figure for a Day of the Dead shrine (we had A LOT of figures like this in Mexico years ago).

His shoes are really pointy and looks great but they are not helpfull to stand, soo he comes with an extremelly neecesary base. The base looks like a big chunk of plankets/wood coming from (probablly) the bar. The shape of this base is grotesque and irregular, wich gives it a lot of personality but makes it extremelly anoying to find a place to land.

The base dosnt fit on any of my limited space shelfs and demiands a lot of free space.

He is articulated on the head, shoulders and elbows and thats it, soo theres not a lot of pose options at all. Also, i am afraid to broke his bony neck because the ball joint on his head is stuck, soo i am not touching that particulart articulation.

The pipe on his hand is no removable, soo he has no accesoryes at all.

And thats it, theres not a whole more to say about him. This figure have a really good sculpt and paint but there is not too much to do with him and he falls as a kinda boring action figure not very suited for a stand alone display but perfect to place along all the other Land of the Dead citizens.

CORPSE BRIDE & VICTOR VANDORT

More than 15 years ago, Corpse Bride was one of my most hyped Tim Burton movies soo i naturally get the action figures from McFarlane. Back then, NECA was doing an amazing job with The Nightmare Before Christmas and McFarlane pick up the Corpse Bride serires since each blockbuster movie had a McFarlane Toys series, now that i think about it, this Corpse Bride action figures are probablly the last thing i liked from McFarlane Toys.

I managed to avoid the singular release of the figures and i got the Limited Edition two pack to conmemorate the DVD release of the movie, a nift and pretty cool box with the poster artwork and a window with the two figures mimicking the same artwork.

The main character, Emily, is probavlly the best figure from the series. She is extremelly faithfull to the movie model in both details and anatomy with beautifull and vibrant blue colors and pink lips (is she maybe too blue???). She is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows and wrists and her waist can turn around and can stand on her own perfectly thanks to her dress.

Her leg and skeleton legs are perfectly sculpted and painted but they are not articulated, soo theres not a lot of poseability chances with her since her dress is one solid plastic piece. She cant be posed in a karate kick or anything like that.

Her wedding dress have an extention “tail” that is pretty tricky to place but gives her a trully amazing look. The dress is really long and magnifiscent and looks almost iridiscent thanks to the white color with blue washes and tones. Her veil is not transluscent sadlly, but is made with soft plastic soo it can be posed flowing around her head.

Victor Vandort is amazinglly close to the movie figure as well, maybe more than the Bride herself. His hair, face expression, jacket, everything is sharply sculpted  with a monotone and greay color palette.

His face expression is perfect for him as well, surprised and confused. I just wish Emily dosnt look this sad and melancholy.

Victor is much more articulated than Emily since he can move his legs a little bit more, tough the jacket restric his legs movement as well. Since his feet are soo tiny, he cant stand on hiw own soo he have a small island like base.

This double release pack have some differences over the single release figures: character´s dosnt comes with theyr accesoryes (the Bride´s bouquete and Victor´s books and butterfly) but instead they come with a Scraps figure.

This little dog is not articulated but have a really intrincate and amazing sculpt and complements the poster display perfectly.

 The other difference with the single release are the characters eyes; they are looking to each other. This detail gives a lot of personality to theyr faces but it limits the posibility to display them a little bit.

One could say Emily´s color is a little simple but in my opinion, this two are perfect from a visual point. My only complaing is how delicate they are. The Bride´s limbs are pretty thin and i am afraid to brike her neck thanks to the weight of her hair and veil. Victor articulations get stuck and i am afraid to add force given how incrediblly thin he is.

This is not too much McFarlane´s fault but a distinction of Tim Burton character design and McFarlane actually… had some pretty delicate material used as well.

Gladlly, after more than 10 years, this figures are still in perfect shape and i displayed them for quiet some time years ago and now rest on theyr box perfectly. This is one of the reasons why i miss McFarlane Toys soo much…