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.

DRACULA

 Its pretty odd to give closure to a collection in an unconsiou way and then, years later reopen it, feels odd but is not that rare while collecting toys, specially vintage. At the end of the 90s Sideshow Toys make they debut releasing the Universal Monsters action figures, the very first time we got articulated figures of this characters but also the very first time we had the linkness of the actors as well, figures 100% faithfull to the characters on the screen, in a big scale and with museum quality sculpt and paint. This Sideshow Universal Monsters figures where the gem in the crowd in the horror collectors from back then.

Sideshow released 5 series with 3 figures each but somehow, the last series was exclusive to theyr web, and back in 2001 it wasnt as easy online shoping as it is today, soo series 5 was extremelly rare and had a very low production and one of the figures it included was Dracula, one of the most basic character of the collection. Soo for 25 years i literally seen Dracula pop up rarely online at 200$-500$ prices but last weekend, i finally find him in retail price and brand new!!

I am not sure waths the scale of this figure since they are like half a head taller than a Storm or NECA figure soo ially for back then standars, they are twice the size a McFarlane figure from the 90s soo they have a really good presence in the shelves and the base deffinetly makes Dracula stand out even more, tough this guy cant stand on hiw own thanks to the sculpt on his legs, soo he needs the base all the time.

Articulations are very limited, like they used to be back then. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists and waist and thats it, not articulation at all under the waist and the artiulations are all cut joints soo he can rotate his head to the sides, and his shoulders, bend his elbows a little bit but thats it, this Dracula is mosty an statue that can achive just a couple of poses.

And speaking of elbows, the other figures have an extremely rudimentary and basic articulation that ends breaking way too easy after 25 years but this Dracula tough have a double sided joint that makes the articulation much more sturdy. It was pretty good to see Sideshow Toys learn from theyr mistakes but too bad they implement this upgrade only with the very last of the figures.

Sculpted by Oluf W. Hartvigson and using the linkes of Bela Lugosi, the sculpt is really amazing. I mean, it cant be seen on the hotos i took, but theres wrinkles on his forehead. The attention to detail is really stuning, the shape of the face, the awkard smile and size of the nose, the bags under the eyes, this really captures Bela Lugosi face features completelly as well as his manierism.

He is thick, just like Lugosi back in the 1930s and the suit is pretty simple bu nicelly sculpted, specially n the arms and the leg that is bending because the wrinkles flows pretty good along side his body. The bow and the vest have a pretty rugged texture and the articulations on the elbows have sculpted the wrinkles of the suit soo it dosnt matter if you have his arms bend or not, the articulations will be always hidden!!

The paint is really simple but effective. While the whole suit is black it have some darker brushes in the wrinkles to make them stand out and the shoes are shiny black as well as the line on the side of his pants and the collar of the jacket and buttons. The handkerchief on his chest is white as wlel as the best and shirt under it but that makes the chain ont he vest stand out as well as the golden necklace with the red ribbon. Theres not a single drop of paint invading the black of the suit.

The skin tonse also have a pretty pale and natura looking color, with a pinks wash on his hands as well as his fingernail painted and the lips, eye bags and his face expression lines softly painted to look natural, but the best aprt are the eyes: deep electric blue with the pupil painted on them as well as a drop of white to emulate a shining. The paint jub here is extremelly exquisite from now day standars but back in the 2001 this level of quality was trully unreal.

The cape is made with real fabric and while the outtside is black, the inside is grey soo is reallya ccurate the the Lugosi outfit used in set and it holds on his neck with a black rope in front. While the rope is a little too rough looking it dosnt stand out too much and it does the job nicelly but i am afraid it got lose over the years. Also, while the cape is not wired but its a little thick for the scale and dosnt flow perfectly, the lenght of it is perfect to cover Dracula completelly.

Unlike the other Monsters in this collection that are mostly on museum pose, this figure is preposed to reproduce a particular scene of the movie; the very first time Dracula is on screen, with a candle in hand, inviting Renfield to come over and walk the stairs up to the insides of his castle soo aside of the soft smile and motion moving up the stars and the extended hand inviting, he also comes with the candelabra with the lit candle on top.

The sculpt is really good, with the shape of a spidery dragon like creature painted in golden and the candle have wax rolling down painted n dark grey with the flame on top in red. The sculpt and paint are really good tough it feels like a delicate accesory and fits perfectly on Dracula´s hand since he left hand have two fingers extended for it.

His other accesory is a vampire bat that can be conected to the stand with a trasnluscent hollow rod. The rod lack of color make it looks like is fliying around Dracula completin the look perfectly tough extra care should be used when posing it because it can be blocked by Dracula´s extended hand and cape. The bat itself is nicelly sculpted with a hairy texture and a latherish texture on the wings, painted n black with some blue hues on his wings and white fangs, but the overall design is extremelly silly since his body looks like a croquette and his wars are gigantic. It looks very cartoony but i am guessing this kind of bats are the ones they had in set? I dont remember...

and lasly, theres the base: a set of Dracula´s castle stairs for him to follow up along side a sign in front that reads "DRACULA . BELA LUGOSI . 1931" painted in brown on top of a black surface. The sign in front of this figures base gives them a very museum look and the stairs looks soo crazy realistic here!! The stony sculpt is amazing but the grey used to color them is fascinating since theres like 3 different greys and browns and some blues, all mixed together in a completelly natural look and that pretty stuning for a figures from 2001. It even feels cold to the tact.

This figures lack of articulation could feels really dated by now days standars but this collection in particular was pretty much the very best action figure representation of this characters for 20 years, until NECA came and managed to have the same quality of details but with lots of articulations, but even soo this particular Dracula stands out for other elements, like the pose and the stairs diorama.

Now i am missing only the Frankenstein monster tough i seen him multiple times over the years, i really need to get him since now with Dracula in my hands i really can complete this collection perfectly.

DRACULA

 

It is hard to belive but a few years ago i was complaining the Universal Monsters were fading away, with no merch or anything related to them and now, we got lots of stuff based on them and even badly and deficient remakes that, as bas as they are, keep theyr names afloat. Its a great moment to be an Universal Monster fan but other versions of the characters dont have that luck. Like for example, the remakes made in the 50s-70s from Hammer Studio. 

The Hammer versions are soo far the only succesfull ramakes of the Monsters that managed to leave a mark in history and generactions of movie goers, but merch about them has been extremelly rare. A couple of years ago Numskull released duck version of this Hammer Monsters in theyr Tubbz series, but aside of that theres only been a handfull of very expensive statues but never action figures, until now.

Once they release all the Universal Monsters, NECA started to release the Hammer Monsters!! Or at least a single one soo far: Dracula from 1959 Horror of Dracula movie portrayed by Christopher Lee. This figure matches the scale of all other NECA figures of course and can stand on his own with no problem (this has to be noted because sometimes NECA figures refuse to stand for no aparent reason).

He is articulated on the neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, legs, knees and ankles. Bll joints all around and with no problem for been moved. His jacket is amde with soft plastic soo it dosnt block his legs or waist movement too much tough he cant achive extreme poses deffinetly but thats not a problem for this particular character. 

This is Dracula, soo he is extremelly simple looking, and unlike Bela Lugosi´s version, this one have a full jacket closed in front soo theres no white shirt underneat or vest, and this make this figure like...90% blackness. Then again this isnt a bad thing since this Dracula have quiet a presence.

His entire suit have very natural looking wrinkles in the rigth places to make the fabric look like it flows along his body underneath and while the jacket and pants are made of mate black, the shoes are made in shiny black. He is using a shiny purple handkerchief on his neck along side a red jewell, but this is completelly blocked by the cape.

The sculpt and paint of the face is extremelly good loking!! the long shape of the face, the round eyes, the lips, this is completelly faithfull to Christopher Lee face features  but the paint is also extremelly good looking with a very natural skin color as well as color on the lips, very VERY subtle beard shadow, eye bags and the eyeballs shine and sparks with life despite the serious expresion. The hair is black but it also have a little bit of silver in front that mix with the rest of the hair perfectly, this make it shine and put in evidence this Dracula is a mature man with some grey on his hair.

His cape is made with fabric, a very thin and soft material that flows extremelly well with this scale. The lenght is the rigth one and it joins to the collar of the cape that is amde with soft plastic as well as a sculpted cord around the neck. To remove or add the cape back his head must be removed but this makes the cape stay in place all the time. Its a shame tough the cape is completelly black since in the movie the inside is crimson red, but i guess add a secon layer to it would make the cape more stiff and thick.

He comes with a pair of hands in a claw shape, ready to pounce on his victims as well as asecond pair designed to hold items and an extra left hand with a pinty finger. All of them can be swaped really easy and they helps a lot to changue his look.

Aside of the basic serious looking head sculpt, he comes with two extra heads: one with his mouth open and showing his fangs, his eyes all bloody red, and another one in a fierce animalistic roar, with his eyes wide open and his hair all messed up. I LOVE this heads, i really doo!! The red veins on the eyes looks fantastic, the yellow teeth and fangs are soo perfect as well as the inside of the mouth and both heads have blood splated around his mouth as well.

The blood shines soo much!!! The messy hair is such a subtle touch and attetion to detail and the overall effect is really shocking!! This version of Dracula was the very first one to have fangs and also it was the very frst one to show the count with blood all around since this was also the very first Dracula in Technicolor soo this makes Chrstopher Lee version of the character pretty important for the development of the character.

He also comes with a shovel. Is pretty thin and it have dirt on the back side while is painted in metalic grey with some brown details and a ark wash to make it looks old and used. I find odd to see Dracula with a shovel tough, i am used to see Fritz or even Rendfield with an item like this but not the count himself, tough its pretty difficult to find accesorys for him.

The other item is a candelabra, just like all other Dracula figures. This is totally different to the Lugosi Dracula´s candelabra since it have a less gothic design and looks much more medieval, like the tower of a castle with the candle on top and a flame. The sculpt is really good as well as the texture of the candle, the body of the candelabra is metalic black while the flame have a very nice looking yellow mixed with orange.

There is a second candelabra tough this one is on flames,with a blaze of fire covering from the top to the handle, amde with softish plastic. A pretty cool looking item for a very action oreiented pose, rpetty rare for a character like this but in fact, Christopher Lee Dracula was extremelly violent and physical.

Its odd because this figure is super simple looking and in the end, is just another Dracula, but this is one of the most special versions of the character since it help add fangs, blood and violence to the character, while being less seductive and more savage sexual, this version help define the king of the vampire for many generations.

I really hope NECA wont stop here, because this particular version of the Monsters has been neglected a lot, for a horror fan, having a figure of this particular version is such a threat but having the Hammer version of the Frankenstein Creature, the Mummy and the Wolfman would be such a dream come true.

DRACULA

 More Dracula!! Before the pandemic i would never expect to review this much Dracula or Universal Monster figures at once!!This classic monsters are being resurrected pretty stronly by both old and new toy brands since Jada Toys - a brand that only produced toy cars - debuted in the action figure field a year ago with the Universal Monsters and produced a pretty impresive line with lots of up and downs but made it pretty clear they had the skills to produce some really impresive products.

Tough the weakest figure of the line was, in fact, Dracula and incredible enough, a year later they decided to fix it and re-release Dracula once more but this time under the Lugosi State license, with a sculpt based in Bela Lugosi. I dont like this method to re-release a failed figure with a better version, specially if its just a variant and nothing more, but the presentation really made me imposible to get him.

I dont usually post pictures of the box of such small scale figure, but this time around i make an exception since the box itself is really impresive: black with the Dracula logo on it and the crest of the Lugosi State in front in high deffinition, with spider webs and bats hidden underneat. The sign of Bela Lugosi himself in red in the side and still of the movie in the other side, the box opens to reveal a scenario for the figure based on a dak alley in London with some posters of the paly of Dracula and in the side, the figure in a blister shaped as a coffin.

Pull the red string on the side to reveal a drawer that showcase the figure accesorys. Its incrediblly pretty, classy and gothic looking and thats amazing for such a low low LOW price. Also, before the Dracula movie came out, Bela Lugosi played the character in theatre play for many years, soo this figure seems aknowlege that part of Bela Lugosi career thanks to the background with the posters and that makes it soo unique.

The figure is in the scale of a Figma soo its really small and have the same heigh as the firts version of Dracula. He can stand on his own and have the same articulations as well: ball jointed neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, thigs, knes and ankles and can stand on his own perfectly. Actually the body is just the same as the first release....or almost the same since this is the Dracula in London and instead of the star necklace with the red ribbon on his neck, this Dracula have a chain.

The real change here is the head, this time not just a generic Hallowee Dracula but Bela Lugosi himself. Actually just by comparision this new head is not that different from the first one: the shape of his mouth and side of his face are different as well as his frown but those small details were enough to make him reach that Bela Lugosi look.

Of course, the sculpt is not as perfect as NECA´s Ultimate, but this figure is half the size and that makes face features much more difficult to sculpt and i think Jada Toy did a good job in here to catch Bela Lugosi expression and steel eyes. The paint is the same as the first version, pale skin with purple eye bags and blue eyes.

Another change here is the cape too. The cape of the first figure was terrible, pretty bad looking and here the tailoring is much more elegant. Since this is the London Dracula the cape have a white inside but also it have a wire all around it to make it flow to the wind. Also instead of using the horrible black srping around his body they used a trasluscent one that is almost imposible to see, upgrading the figure look a lot.

The cape is not perfect tough, since thanks to its two fabrics; white and black, the cape is really thick looking and the wire inside it dosnt help. Also its kind of short oo its imposible to wrap Dracula,s body on it. The cape is much better looking deffinetly, but still i think the wire is an unecesary element and i wish they make the cape longer.

His accesorys are an extra pair of hands to hold on his posters and an extra pair making the hypotic movements soo classic from Lugosi version of Dracula. Both hands can be changed prettye easy and works perfect but they also add an extra head with a fierce looking expression. I feel this sculpt miss a little big of the Lugosi spirit tough is not because of the sculpt but because of the small scale, tough i admit they didnt give him fangs unlike the first version.

He also comes with a big size poster, two mediom size posters and two small size posters all printed in parchment paper except the smallest one. Full of images of Lugosi as Dracula and text all over them, presenting "The screen´s master of horror" or "Mr. Horror himself" in "our stage", "RKO Capitol" or "In person in Vista Theatre", the visual richnes of this poster replicas express nicelly the stardoom of Bela Lugodi as well as the amazing world that was the theatre 100 years ago.

Overall, while this figure have some issues with paint of the cape, it was deffinetly an upgrade over the first version and dosnt feel too much as a Dracula figure, but much more as a tribute to Bela Lugosi himself and his career on theatre and thats make it stand out from other figures of the character. Also i cant complaing thanks to the low price and fantastic presentation, this is a figure that feels much more expensive than it really is and thats pretty rare rigth now.