SANTA JACK

By now NECA have quiet a long story of releasing action figures but also a lot of other kind of collectibles, like mugs and props from movies, specially back in the begining of the century (actually back then i dont think it was specially focused on action figures, it even release trading cards as well) and it was back then when they released not only action figures of The Nightmare Before Christmas, but also big 1/6 scale statues based on four of the characters. 

It seems they only released 200 of this statues and i am not sure was was theyr propuse since the box have no logo or artwork at all soo it seems they wasnt made for public purchase. Maybe they were online exclusives, or used for promotion? I have no idea, but it took me 18 years to find out about this collectibles and actually buy two of them: Harlequin Demon and the Wolfman but got lucky twice and snatched a third one recently tough it is the less exciting option of the collection: Santa Jack Sklellington.

Yes, the less exciting character because to be honest, Jack´s design is the most simple of the bunch and theres thousands of figures based on him also he have some design issues...mostly size tough, since this is 1/6, this mean this figure is HUGE....like taller than the Hot Toys, or Sideshow or any other 1/6 scale figure (except Hulk i guess).

He is tall, lanky and EXTREMELLY delciate!!! Given his slim proportions i am very afraid to broke him in any minute since the material its pretty hard, like resign. He have no articulations at all of course tough he already lose two of his fingers!!! I wasnt able to find them on the box and since how rare he is, i think i will bite the bullet and stay with this Jack with only two fingers on his left hand.

Of course he cant stand at all, soo he comes with a pretty basic but very thick and heavy black base. While in theory the base should be enough to keep him standing, the pegs are not only kinda short, but somehow they are not in the rigth possition and actually, the base is not big enough since his legs are too open!! Only one peg can fit on the foot while the other foot keeps out of the base. 

I am surprised about this given how perfect is everything else here and with the other figures. I tied a twisty between his feet and the peg just to be safe and rest stress to the ther peg but i think i will just use a base that hold him from the waist, just be be extra extra safe because one little fall and he is going to broke like a crsystal.

The sculpt is the same as the action figure soo is perfect. The limbs have the rigth size as well as the round head and smile and eyes. One could expect this characetr is extremelly easy to render in 3D but is very surprising how many companys did Jack wrong (Diamond Select) but NECA´S interpretation is always spot on, specially on the face with the small teeth scupted.

The paint is really good too, tough theres no wrinkles at all, the red Santa costume have some black airbrush to give it a little volume and shadows. The hat is much more darker than the rest of the suit, at first i toigh it was a mistake but in fact this is because this is the original Santa´s hat soo its made of a different older material than the rest of the suit made by Sally.

The mouth and the little yellow teeth are perfectly painted and theres absolutelly no slop at all and the black eyes have a shiny black paint that somehow make the empty sockets looks more alive. The beard dosnt have too much painting detail tough, just plain white, but dosnt loks bad at all.

His accesorys are the same as with the action figure. A sack full of toys tough this one dosnt have any way to look inside and have a pretty plain and simple grey painting, juts like the smaller version, tough much more heavyer.

Then theres a small little square open present with a white with black like attern on it and a black ribbon. While the ribbon was made with soft plastic on the action figure version, here everything is made of hard resign tough the paint is perfect even with the tricky pattern.

 And lastly theres a little kid with a shurnken head. I love how NECA give us this small characters as accesorys, back in the 2000´s this made the pack much more spectacular. Unlike the small version, this one comes with a thick and heavy black corcular base that makes it looks pretty elegant on the shelve. The scupt is fantastic and reflects Tim Burton´s style perfectly and the paint is also incrediblle precise, specially on the pijama pattern. His hair have a pretty natural wash of dark and light orange and the rabbit slippers are really cute.

Overall, this figure is trully perfect aside of the base not matchign the legs position, everything is pretty good looking, At first i wasnt interested on him because he is really REALLY delicate in plastic form, but in this material, is a miracle this Jack dosnt crumble under hiw own weight. I will use a base to keep him safe but given how rare this is, i think this is a very good addition to The Nightmare Before Christmas collection.

OOGIE BOOGIE VS JACK SKELLINGTON

NECA released 6 serires of action figures based on The Nightmare Before Christmas more than 15 years ago, including many amazing Halloween characters and a bunch of Jack and Sally variations. They also release a few special edition figures sets that include Lock, Shock & Barrel, but the biggest and most amazing set was actually a play set with the protagonist and villian facing each other: Oogie Boogie and Jack Skellington.

They come in the biggest box of the entire serires with two figures and a background diorama. The very first figure is Jack Skellington, pretty much the very first release of the character (thats why i didnt get it) with a small variation, an angry look on his eyes. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs and knes and he cant stand on his own at all, to keep his balance he have a black token like base but even with this base, make him stand is really tricky.

The articulations are extremelly delicate and easy to brake, tough my figure is still perfectly safe, his arms are not strong enough to keep them in pose, the same issue all Jack figures have. Also the articulations cut the strips on his outfit soo as important as the character is, i think he is the weakest part of the play set.

The Oogie Boogie tough, he is golrious, just.....glorious and HUGE, he is the biggest monster of the collection and make all other Halloween Town citizens like dwarfs, no wonder why all of them fear them (except the smallest monsters in town, Lock, Shock and Barrel....how ironic). As big as this figure is, he is hollow soo he is really light weigth and can stand on how own perfectly despire his small feet.

He is articulated only on his shoulders and his jaw. This makes him a big statue tough it helps to make him looks like a whole creature with no divisions. His body have a burlap texture and the way he is turning to his side and the wrinkles on his body follow the movement, and how looks like all the weigth of his inside fall on his stomach is proof of how good this sculpt is. His green neon color have also shadows and soft washes to make him looks realistic and make him stands in an amazing way.

While the articulation on his shoulders dosnt have too much of an use, his jawy can be opened to reveal his yellow snake tongue with black strips. Its a shame the snake is not articulated, but it adds a lot of personality to an already amazing figure, seriouslly, even the sew on his sides are deeply sculpted, is amazinh how such a "simple" looking character have soo many details.

His only accesory consist on a pait of orange dices with gothic skulls sculpted on each side. This dices fits perfectly on his hand with the help of a peg and a hole tough is very easy to lose them given how tiny they are.

The playset consist on half a giant roulette with two giant cards on the back, its very simple to be called a playset actually, but is a damn good looking diorama. All the pieces are black with a stone texture, with the roulette having white spikes and some gothic deigns of skeletins and cats on a very dark red paint, this gives the feeling the scene is taking place on a dark room and let Oogie shine even more.

The cards with the King design are really good looking as well and even have articulated arsm soo they can open and be used as hazards agains Jack Skellington. The attention to details is really amazing adn adding more would make the scene looks busy. Also the roulette have pegs hidden on the texture to help Oogie and Jack stand more easy (specially Jack!).

This piece was really the cherry on the cake for the TNBC action figure serires and fits perfectly with the other figures. It seems NECA also had plans to release a second version of it with brown color Oogie but it never happens, but it dosnt worry me too much since i find this version perfect as it is.

Up to this point, NECA was already releasing lots of different licences with an amazing quality but very few was as complete, special or surprising as theyr first The Nightmare Before Christmas series (specially by looking to wath Diamond Select is doing now).

PUMPKIN KING JACK

After an odd series 3, with very little accesoryes and a lot of recyling, it wasnt very clear if NECA would continue theyr The Nightmare Before Christmas action figure series, but with the arrival of series 4 it was clear they had still inspiration to continue. The very first figure from series 4 was Pumpkin King Jack, the very first character to appeare on the movie.

Of course i didnt doubt to get him, this is probablly the coolest and most awesome variation of Jack Skellington and works both as a figure and as part of the diorama. He is very tall like all Jack figures and is very well articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knes and ankles. All articulation works good but it suffer the same fate as the other Jack figures: easy to break articulations.

The sculpt is really good, with the thorn shirt fliying around and his hands looking like branches, most of the figure is cast in plastic color soo the paint is keept as minimom (only on his straw under body and face,wich gives him a pretty clean look.

His accesoryes consist on the always usefull and discret black base as well as four different pumpkins. This pumpkins are recycled from Sally and the first Jack, but this time around is good to have more pumpkins to add to the display, also all four are totally different to each other and have theyr own personality. Jack cannot hold them of course, but this little guys can help to hide the base on his feet.

His other accesory is the Halloween Town sign, that have a trully good looking texture and paint that looks like ancient wood. The sign fits on a hile on his back and it can be moved up or down if theres not too much vertical space to place him.

And overall this is an extremelly good looking figure that works amazing displayed with the rest of the Halloween Town citizens or by hows own, all alone and surrounded by pumpkins. Despite the fact i had to glue his wrists, he is one of my favorites of the NECA collection.

SANTA JACK

The action figure series 1 of The Nightmare Before Christmas from NECA was trully a fantastic line that came from nowhere, soo seing a series 2 released soon after was a surprise since its not rare that figure series get cut off after a single release if they dont sell well wich wasnt the case in here. And the first figure is series 2 was actually another Jack, this time christmas themed.

Santa Jack shared the same size, articulations and features than the original Jack and it also shared the same fault design: pretty delicate articulations that strugle to keep a pose!! Somethign to be expected tough all articulations works really well and five him a big range of motion and soo far i still dont broke him!!

With his brigth red tones, this ime Jack have a long sculpted beard hanging from his head and this beard actually block some of his head articulation but not by much. He also have a removable hat that fit on his head with a peg (but for some reason the red paint on it is darker than in the rest of his suit) and a coin like black base to stand. The stand works but still he have troubles keeping balance.

His other accesoryes are a sack with presents, wich is actually very good looking since it have a burlap like texture on it tough Jack cant hold it soo the sack stays in ground. Also a gift box that have been opened, a little box with black stripes and a black soft plastic ribbon. Again, i wish Jack could hold this little box properlly.

And the best of all, a little kid! A totally independent figure with arm articulations of the first kid Jack visit on christmas. The kid have the puzzled lookon his face while holds the shrunken head from the box Jack give him in one of my favorite scenes of the entire film. The kid sculpt is really good as well as the paint and looks too much as a stop motion puppet.

At first it sounds like i dont have too much fun with this Jack, i actually do tough he is not one of my favorites, hes perfect for the christmas display and thanks to the kid accesory he is really a must.

VAMPIRE JACK

Now with Halloween soo close i think is the perfect time to review one of y favorite figures series i have and the one that made me meet NECA Reel Toys; The Nightmare Before Christmas. It was at the begining of this century (such good times) when NECA started a four figures series based on Tim Burton´s movie and i was blown away by the quality that even the clamshell had, not only the manage to catch the movie´s design perfectly, but the figures where extremelly accurate to the movie puppets and they were loaded with toons of accesoryes.

Such high quality for such a low price was really hard to belive and it was when NECA started to shine with theyr excelent figures. Sadly, i never get the very first figure (and i regret it!), Jack Skellington, the most basic of the series 1, but instead i will start the reviews with a figure that is out of any of theyr series since it was a Comicon Exclusive: Vampire Jack.

This figure was extremelly odd since show Jack dressed in a way totally different never before seen. An original design from Neca, maybe some took it as blasphemous but for me it was a pretty cool idea perfect for a Comicon Eclusive. He is standar scale with Neca action figures wich means he is really tall, probablly 3 heads taller than a standar action figure and double the size of a Figma and is articulated on the head, neck, shoulders, elbows, bicep, wrists, legs,calf and knees.

He is really supper articulated BUT, his limbs are soo slim and articulations are soo tiny, they are extremelly easy to breake. Literally this figure is like a branch and even his arms are soo thin they sometimes cant support the weight of theyr hands. This is unfortunate but i guess is imposible to avoid given the character design, Jack is one of those characters born on the 2D but a really challengue to build in 3D.

This also means he cant stand on his own either tough he have a small transluscent base that is a little tricky to use, but fix his feet and cape together soo he can stand, tough even with the base he needs to reach certain balance.

Despite this character issues, the figure is really superv, with Jack having a fierce and menacing expresion showing his yellow teeth. One could say doing a Jack sculpt is really easy since he is just a ball, but i seen LOTS of horrible Jack figures over the years that dosnt manage to even do his head rigth (Diamond) but this is not the case.

His tie is totally different that he usually use, with a more aerodynamic shape since this is a vampire tie! And he is also using a simple and elegant looking black smocking with no strips and a cape with a big neck piece. The inside of the cape is soft purple with some sparkle on it, the only color on the entire figure.

His accesoryes are a candelabra to emulate Dracula´s iconic scene on the star case tough is really difficult to make him hold it given the spideresque nature of his fingers and his lack of muscles. His other accesory is a very funny looking rat that perhaps looks a little too cartoon but is very different to the rats featured on the other figures soo thats a big plus.

And finally my favorite accesory is a set of vampires fliying around him. This things have an excelent sculpt nd are extremelly cool looking and have a transluscent and big base soo you can hife it behind Jack and give the impression the vampires are fliying around his head. Really, this acceosyr is usefull not only for this figure but it fits to soo many!

As a fun variant this version of Jack is really supperv, even with the character design issues (delicate limbs) this figure is really good looking after more than 10 years and puts to total shame the Diamond Select version released a years ago.