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.

WOLFMAN

 Exactly a year ago i was pleasantly surprised by Jada Toys, a company that makes vehicle toys of all kind and - unexpectedly - they started to do "action figures" starting with non other than the Universal Monsters (just like Sideshow and Mezco did 20 years ago). This premiere action figures Monsters have a much more discreet quality than the NECA figures tough while theyr Dracula and Frankenstein Monster are correct, they did an amazing job with the Bride of Frankenstein and the Creature of the Black Lagoon.

It tooks them an entire year but serires 2 is finally out, tough sadlly instead of 4 figures we only got 2: The Invisible Man and the Wolfman. Of coruse the Wolfman is my favorite Monster and a must have soo i pick him in seconds. This Wolfman is the same size as Dracula and a little shorter as the Frankenstein Monster and the Gillman. Its really nice that Jada Toys really makes this guys in perfect scale with each other (something very few companys does).

He is articulated on the head, neck, chest, waist, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, thigh, knes and ankles. Eeveyrhting is ball jointed and the elbows and knes have doulbe articulation soo the range of movement is HUGE. The figures from last year have pretty stiff shoulders for some reason but that gone with this Wolfman, Jada Toys gives him a pretty soft shoulder articulations.

Given his simplistic design theres nothing that can get on the way of the movement. His chest piece is made with hard plastic soo of course he cant cross his arms, but aside of that he have total freedom of movement. Also he can stand on his own....i mean, he is not digitigrade anymore.... i guess Jada Toys didnt find a way to make him balance standing on his toes and refused to give him a stand, soo they chose to redesign his antire feet.

The sculpt on this guy is really good: the strands of fluffy hair, the serious look on his eyes, cute nose and fangs coming out from his bottom lips, the scult is really really good given how tiny the scale is. I am not sure if i see something of Lon Chaney Jr in here but is not necesary, the character is perfectly clear even on his face expression.

The body proportions are good too and the shirt and pants have totally different texture to give them a look of different fabric (in the photos this texture is pretty evident but n person is really hard to notice). The hands in hands are not in generic claw shape, instead they have a pretty expresive gesture and the feet, while sculpted in "normal human" mode, they keep the design with the protunding bones soo iconic of the character.

Paint is kind of a mixed bag. The brown color on the fur looks good as well as the nacre on the nails on both hands and feet. Theres black lines on his hair to divide each strand and the eyes, fangs and pink bottom lip are painted perfectly. BUT....i wish they give him a little bit of ligther browns on his face soo the details can be seen more easy. He looks a little too....dark....dark with just shiny eyes and fangs.

The paint of the rest of the body is much more basic, blue pants, brown belt and green shirt tough this time with some darker tones on airbrush to highligh the wrinkles on the cloth and how it wraps around his body. He looks much better than Frankenstein Monster for sure.

His accesorys consist on an extra set of hands to hold items. They are pretty easy to exchange tough nothing can beat the basic claw hands.

He also have an extra head with a fierce (???) face expression. I mean, i cant see too much difference between one ehad and othe other. The second one is looking down and you can see his upper lip and upper fangs soo i guess is more like he is about to bounce? I wish his mouth was more open and his eyes more focused or something, i really like more the basic serious head.

He also comes with the same accesorys the Sideshow and NECA version shave (i guess theres not a whole lot of options to give him): the silver cane that is used to kill him and a bear trap. The cane sculpt is a little fuzzy and soft soo thers not much detail on the wolf head tough is easy to see wath it is and it fits on his hands perfectly (for wathever rreason he would be holding it).

The bear trap looks really fake and plastc...just grey with some orange aribrush tough somehow they give it a real chain. The sculpt is good i guess and can be closed on the Wolfman´s leg, i just wish they used a different material.

And thats it. This Wolfman is basic and stirdy enough to be a kids toy but he is pretty enough too to be an adult collector, also i feel like i cant complaing too much about him given hos cheap, cheap really cheap he is. Also, in asingle year Jada Toys release more Monsters than NECA already....

I got the feeling i would have loved this serires when i was a kid, in the 90s, this feels like my dream toy serires. They arent as perfect as the NECA or Sideshow ones but theres just something cool about having this Monsters in such a small scale and soo crazy articulated! I am just not loving at all to wait an entire year for the Mummy.

DRACULA

 Last year there was a resurrection of the dead: for no aparent reason we had an influx of new merchadise of the Universal Monsters, something that didnt happend since 2010 (and this characters are not the only ones resurrected from the dead). Many companys started producing action figures of the Monters and one of them was Jada, a company that until now only created car models, never before an action figure.

Jada´s Frankenstein Monster was OK but i was really blown away by the Bride and the Gillman super high quality. The only one missing was Dracula, who didnt pick my interest at all but given the incrediblly low price this figures have (cheap as a brand new Funko Pop) i ended completing the collection with Dracula.

He is on a really good scale with the others, shorter than the Monster and the Ceature but taller than the Bride, tough he is still taller than your acerage Figma figures but not by much, this is a small scale collection. He can stand on his own perfectly and is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knes and ankles. He is entirelly made with hard plastic but given the simplicity of his design, he can total freedom of movement except on the shoulders, the shoulders are pretty difficult to move for some reason but this is the same with the other 3.

Like i said, the plastic he is cast on is pretty rigid and feels cheap, tough the sculpt is good, with nice proportions and his entire suit lacks any kind of texture, the culpt on his chest and face are the most intrincate. He is in a weird limbo tough...just like with the Monster, he have Bela Lugosi face features but looks more like a guy dressed as Lugosi but not real Lugosi. Is hard to nail the reason but of course i dont see the Lugosi Inc logo on the box, soo is obvious Jada didnt sign any contract with the Lugosi familly.

The paint is OK too, his skin is almost grey and his lips purple, looks nice for a living dead and his eyes are blue, tough the skin color is invading his hair and is not the only area the paint is sloppy since the red ribon on his chest is also stained with the whte of his shirt. His vest is perfect tough, specially with the buttons and thats it, pretty much the rest is solid black with ho shade or anything to give him any volume.

Now the cape, i am never a fan of real clothe costumes in such a small scale figures for this reason. The cape is made on a pretty nice and soft material, pretty thin, like the Bride dress tough is not accurate in color since they give it a red interior and Lugosi´s cape was grey, but is also made of 3 pieces with a thic embroid where the pirces join, givin the cape and off shape, it cannot rest on Dracula,s shoulders at all wich is pretty anoying.

The cape is put in place with a cuple of pins on Dracula´s back and while this is really cheap, since everything is black, the pins are almost invisible and they actually work good to keep the cape in place, tough there is a big black spring at the front, around his neck and looks really really cheap and tacky.

His acceosyrs are an extra pair of hands in claw shape, for attack mode, tough one detail (or lack of it) is that they dosnt have fingernails. The hands exchange is pretty easy and works good and there is also an extra head with a fierce expression and fangs out and they really overdid things here (not a surprise considering how easy si to overdo things in such a small scale). This extra head dosnt looks at all like Lugosi and it shares the sloopy paint job tough the fangs are the worst part. Yes, his mouth is pretty detailed even you can see his tongue, but the fangs are soo thick they looks like plastic fangs from a halloween party.

There is also a candelabra made with extremelly soft plastic that fits perfectly on his hand and have a cute dragon sculpted on it. The paint is really perfect here tough with gold and rubber tones and a nice white applyed to the candle. 

And lastlly there is also a vamprie bat with a nice sculpt and a total lack of paint. This little fellow have his feet shaped like rings soo he can stand on Dracula´s finger. Its really silly looking but i gues sis better than having the little guy liying in the ground.

Overall, from the four figures wave this Dracula is the weakest. Part of the reason is Dracula´s design of course since he is not specially exciting looking, but the poor materials and lazy paint also ruin a descent sculpt. Tough in the end he still looks good surrounded by the other Monsters and is a nice apeticer unti NECA release theyr Ultimate version.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

 It is rare when high quality and low price meet, specially on toys and figures, its much more rare and even more rare is when this sacred fusion comes from a name no one ever hear before: Jada Toys. Of course, no one who collects action figures, since Jada is well known on the modeling and toys car section. They decided to start in the action figures area and they did it with Universal Monsters. The result was warm (Dracula and Franskenstein) too pretty hot nuclear stuff (the Bride and the Creature from the Black Lagoon).

Of course, the rarest of the set is the Creature of the Black Lagoon and also the most expensive, like in every other Universal Monster line but he was my main interest point on the line from the begining. He is in small 90s action figures scale (like a Figma), a little smaller than Frankenstein but much taller than the Bride and he can stand on his own perfectly with thise huge slipers.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, abdomen, legs, middle legs, knes and ankles and every single articulation works fantastic and have a total freedom of movement, really this guy is soo easy to take an pose and since the material is sturdy, i think he resist any rough play.

The sculpt is amazing. Every single scale of his body, the different plates, even his slim build and the dorsal fin looks really good and his face looks just as good. The gills on the sides and all the wrinkles around his nice area and above his eyes, everything is perfect. His claws could be sharper tough but thats just a too small detail, specially considering how tiny he is.

The paint is just as good: brigth green, with a whole lot of darker and lighter tones around to give his face volume and expression. Yellow on the fins and gills and even some red tones on specific place to give him the rich color palette of a fish, there is many colors here but all ov them blend in a natural way. Also i am glad they didnt give him red lips and instead they make them pink, they looks lees obnoxious that way. And his expresionless eyes are really cute.

He have an extra hand to hold the spear gun and an extra open mouth head and bot can be exchanged easy. The hand....is soo weird....i dont know who in Jada tough it was a good idea to make the Creature hold the weapon that kills him but this is the very first figure that is able to hold it. The head dosnt have too much a different expression, tough the sculpt and paint of the inside of the mouth is really fantastic, the shape and side walls really make him looks like a fish.

His other accesorys are, like i said, the spear gun wish is only painted on the handle and looks really cheap. He also have the fosil hand, with a very basic sculpt and even more basic paint job but i guess is OK for the small scale. There is also a net to catch him, made with real fabric, in a yellow color.

He basically have the same acesorys the Sideshow version have but is nice the net is still made with real fabric, i mean that alone make this whole line some steps above the McFarlane Toys trashy figures since they are adding fabric and metalic chains for such a low price.

Again, i cant say this is the perfect Creature figure since Mondo already took that title, but deffinetly take the first prize as the most posable and in such a small and easy to handle price, is pretty hard miss him. Jada had proved how good they can be in this field and made me excited for they wave 2 of Monsters next year. Heck, i am even going to buy they Dracula just to have them all together.

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.

FRANKENSTEIN

 Last years i was discussig with a friend how no one care or even know the Universal Monsters, how they started to fade in obscurity. Now in 2021 we got NECA releasing Ultimate action figures for them as well as Mezco and now out of obscurity, Jada Toys is also making an action figure serires. I never before hear of Jada but it seems its a toy company that works on toy cars and models, but they decided to make theyr debut on action figures terrain with the Monsters.

This are the cheapest figures i ever bough in years. Dracula looked....not very good to be honest soo did Frankenstein Monster, but i ended getting him anyways to see if this was a recipe for disaster. Aside of coming on a really pretty looking box, this guy comes in a really small scale, same size Figma or vintage action figures soo he is the smallest Frankenstein Monster i ever have (not counting the Funko Pop) and he can stand on his own perfectly.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, middle leg, knes and ankles and thats A LOT for such a cheap figure. All articulations works perfect and have a huge range of movement except the shoulders, for some reason they are pretty stiff and the chest articulation dosnt move at all. Also the jacket gets in the way of the legs a little bit.

The plastic used for him is really cheap, tough the sculpt is not bad at all. The texture on his pants and jackets are really good as well as his size and build. The face sculpt is pretty clean and it levitates in a weird limbo between "Boris Karloff" and "This is not Boris Karloff". The face features are the same as the actor and is easy to recognize the character, soo this is not an entirelly "generic monster" tough is still not spot on...in some sides he looks like Karloff but in other like someone dressed like him.

The paint is really good. The metal on his forehead, the red bloody scars, the decaying green with lots of shadows and brushes on the wrinkles to give volume to the face, for such a small scale he looks amazing and perfect, tough were the paint aplication fails is on his clothing. His pants looks kinda plain and his jacket is just green....with no shadows or shines for the details, soo it make him looks like just a cheap toy.

As accesoryes he have a pair of claw shaped hands and a fierce looking head. All 3 can be exchanged pretty easy and crash with the "cheap toy" concept. I mean, extra hands and heads are a luxury or McFarlane Toys. The second head have a perfect paint as well and the expression sometimes look like a smile but still its much more fun and menacing than his sad basic expression.

His other accesoryes is pretty much the same accesory he always have on every action figure to date: handcuffs with chain. Is not like you can give him lots of weapons or items to use anyway and instead of one he comes with two chains, one longer and one shorter. While the handcuffs are plastic and opens pretty easy, the chains are real metal. Again, very impresive for such a cheap figure. McFarlane would envy.

All my uninterest i had when i saw him on photos prooved to be wrong. Sure, his jacket need a paint job and the blurry Karloff portrait keep it away of perfection, but this figure is not too bad. He is pretty damn descent, fun to move around and pretty resistant. Pale compared to NECA´s Ultimate edition, but the quality is pretty high for the price.