MUMMY

More horror and monsters for th halloween reviews and more nostalgia from past times!!! This time from the XX century, when Sideshow made its debut in the figure collectors market, they did it with the Universal Monsters and released a chibi line, an action figure line, a 1/6 scale with real rabric line as well as mixed media statues. Those times were pretty amazing to be alive for any Universal Monster fan!!

Sadly i missed many of those and while i am still missing The Creature From the Black Lagoon from the 1/6 line, i am still missing the Frankenstein Monster and the Phantom of the Opera from the action figure line, but here we have The Mummy!! Imhotep!!! Why? Well, years ago i got this figure but with no accesorys and was custom repainted. I liked quiet a lot the new colors the artists gives him but his looked a little bit out of palce with the rest of the line but weeks ago i was able to get the original colored version complete with accesorys.

Soo basically this is a figure i review years ago and i am pretty sure no one will notice soo lets talk about The Mummy!! For a 1998 figure this guy was amde in quiet a tall scale, he is bigger than the NECA version and cant balance himself pretty well but thankfully, Sideshow gives him a pretty elegant base to deal with that.

He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs and knees. all of this are basic cut articulations soo they can only rotate and theres not much sense on moving his legs since he wouldnt be able to stand. Both the knees and elbows have a very basic hinge but this are very delicate. I seen lots of this figures with the arms broken exactly in the elbows.

Soo this figure is not very articulated and dont have a lot of display options but this was the way of the 90s, something that McFarlane was starting to make popular in that moment but Imhotep is not a pretty dynamic character full of movement either and this was the starting point of the "adult collectible" market soo articulations were used to be seen as something "childish". Tough the articulations are extremelly well hidden and almost invisible thanks to the bandages.

The sculpt is FANTASTIC!!! This is Boris Karloff face perfectly rendered along the Mummy make up, the wrinkled skin covering his face, the mark on the nose, the muddy hair, and under all those elements is pretty easy to see Karloff sad and serious expression. The slim body shape and wrinkled hands looks great as well as the bettle ring and the texture of the bandages looks quiet realistic, old and rotten and they wrap around his body with perfect sense. Even the bandages than hang around flows with the body naturally. Of course this is all thanks to Matt Falls, the sculptor that was in chargue to sculpt all this characters for Sideshow using the actors likenes.

The painting is divisive, but thats expected from a character of a black and white movie. The paint job on the bandages is superv, a bone color with some grey washes aplyed carefully as well as a weet texture make the bandages looks extremelly real and covered in oil. Details like the beetle ring and the eyes looks really good and the paint jov on the aged exposed flesh and face have a very subtle wash to make the wrinkles stand out nicelly, all in a grey......green tone? I am not sure wath color is this soo i am not sure if i like it. It makes the Mummy to look too monochrome but i guess this isnt a colorfull character, but also i feel this color is a little too dark and make difficult to notice the details of the sculpt.

This line came with a pretty mini diorama base with a plate in front with the logo of the movie, the actor of the character and the year if release (1932 for The Mummy), this make this figures looks like museum pieces. For The Mummy the base is basically made of sand with a mix of rocks and a couple of big rocks coming out of the sand with hieroglyps on them. While the rocks with the marks looks really good, the paint job on the sand and the other rocks is pretty bad and cheap looking. The tones dont mix at alll and the rocks looks very plain.

The rest of the accesorys tough are much better looking tough: a rock plate with more hieroglyps, a chest that cotains Toth scrool and the Toth scrool. The sculpt on the plate is really good, with cracks all over it and the marks are pretty clear and easy to see while the paint is a mix of yellow and light browns and gives it the looks and feel of an acient piece of rock the base dosnt have.

The chest is the same, it have two Horus sculpted at front just like in the movie and the golden seal on top. The coloring have the same mix of yellow and light brown that makes it looks mudy, ancient and dirty in a very natural way. Sadly it canot be open.

The scrool is a piece of yelowish paper with the edges cut all rough and more hieroglyps printed on it. We never see the scroll fully open on the front side of the movie but since this is the main object of interest n the movie, its very nice they detailed it this much. the scrool can be rolled up and it also have a golden ring to hold it in plce soo Imhotep can hold him.

Sideshow always add accesorys that are top quality and exact replicas to the items on screen soo they never disapoint in this. The paint of the base is the only dissapointing part and Imhotep face paint could be a little bit ligther but aside of that, this is the perfect representatio of the classic monster.

This line could looks silly now tough, with the limited articulations and sometimes odd paint choices, but from 1998 to 2021, this figures were the best loosking toys based on the Universl Movies and also the only ones using the actors likens. Not even Diamond Select came close to this even with its best peices and i find amazing that this figures were the Rolls-Royce of the horror collectors aroudn the world for more than 20 years.

Even tough i already have this guy in my collection with a totally different color palette, i am very happy to have him on his original form as well as with all his accesorys. Now if only The Phantom and the Frankenstein Creature could apeare like this in front of me....

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.

NATHAN DRAKE

After the odd attempt of SquareEnix to bring Nathan Drake to the action figure realm and the kind of boring statue from the collectors edition of Uncharted 3, Sideshow took the torch once more to bring Nathan Drake to life this time in theyr sicth scale deluxe serires, made with nop notch quality and a pretty high price.

I remember how broke i was when i got this figure years ago but i also remember how excited was i and i had no doubts to get him. He was one of the mst expensve items on my collection...."was" because for today standars he was a bargain and he deffinetly was a jack pot considering his quality.

The box is actually really discrete and simple tough the figure is not and it even comes with a background of the desert behind the blister tough the background is too small to display it with the figure. Drake is big, really big, is one of the biggest figures i have since Sideshow figures are usually an entire head taller than Hot Toys, but despite of that he can stand on his own perfectly.

Where to start? He is incrediblly articulated: on the neck, chest, waits, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes and ankles tough i cant be sure since the articulations are under the clothes soo aside of the wrists they are all hiden. All the articulations works really good and are really sturdy and strong, this is mostly why he can stand on balance despite how tall he is.

Of course, the pants stop the legs to move too far and the shoudlers sometimes get stuck with the shirt but that can be fixed easy. Thanks to Drake´s simple outfit nothing stop his range of movement and he can achive an awfull lot of poses. Another reason is of course the material since his entire body is made with softish rubber material.

The sculpt is fantastic; the strong jaw, the nose, the eyebrows, everything is perfectly done and the material match the quality since the plastic is a little bit translucent and have this...super realistic skin texture. Up close look you can see Drake´s wrinkles on his forehed and lips as well as the soft texture of the beard. A HUGE improvement over the Play Arts Kai.

Of course, despite his serious expression his eyes are full of life. I am not sure but i think his eyeballs are separate pieces or maybe the sculpt is way too deep because his eyelids and eye balls looks separate. His blue eyes are full of life and wisdom...they even shine under the light.

 The rest of his body is as perfect as the face because his arms have some hair sculpted and his hands are made with the same rubber material they are soft and fleshy, almost creppy. And under his shirt he have a hairy and muscly torso with sculpted nipples....you cans ee the articulations but its extremelly nice looking and even from behind, his ass looks form and athletic....

Uhhmmm anyway, this is deffinetly one of the most handsome figures i ever seen. The tailoring on his outfit is really nice too, with his green cargo pants, each pocket and section is made perfectly and the pants looks soo used and old and even have stains on the lower half. His shirt is made with a pretty fresh fabric but looks as used as the pants, anyone would expect it to stick.

The boots are perfect too and he even have small sock under them, Sideshow attention to details is trully stuning. But my favorite part of the outfit is deffinetly the blue scarf, looks soo dirty but adds a lot of movement to the display. Then it comes the weapons holster and the bandolier that fits over his torso by joining tiny belts on each side. In one side he have bullets, in the back theres a lot of pockets.

This are the most delicate pieces since they are made with leather imitation plastic and with the time the material is peeling and cracking. I try to add some shoes oild to keep deteroration at bay but the end result dosnt looks too bad considering how old and used the rest of the outfit is.

And a couple of spectacular details: a wrist watch and Sir Francis Drake´s ring as necklace, both are mede perfectly and specially the watch have a lot of details.

He dosnt have too many accespyes aside of a bunch of softish hands, his pistol and the riffle. The hand change is pretty easy tough the material is soo soft the hands have problems holding down the riffle. The gun is pretty simple and small, done with a metalic silver paint and fits no problem on the holdster under Drake´s armpit.

The riffle looks great and have an articulated arm section as well as removable bullets pin and there is one more single accesory: the map to Ubar, the City of Sand. This map have a great quality impression and in one side have the map and in the other have some sketches that help to solve certain puzzle on the game. Deffinetly this accesory works really good to improve the display.

Also, he comes with a big black base with the logo of the game. Is not neccesary for him to stand but its better than dont have any base and it makes him taller than he already is.

Overall, after having this guy on my collection for soo many years i think he is one of my favorites sixth scale figures i have, mostly because the big range of movement and how sturdy he is combined with the great quality of textures and materials used. Time flys and he still looks as cool and aesome as the first time, standing out from the rest of the figures. This is deffinetly the best Uncharted figure produced.

NATHAN DRAKE

If someone i know wanted to start playing videogames and asked me wath game they can use to be intoduced to this hobby, Uncharted would be one of my suggestion. It is one of the most rounded videogame i ever played, from its concept, story, art direction, simplistic gameplay and gunplay, it is one of the most perfect games i ever played and for a long time it shined like if it was brand new.

Sadlly, Uncharted 1 and 2 didnt had any merchadise as i remember (the special edition of the second game came with a replica of the tirual dagger) and it wasnt until Uncharted 3 that we started to get figures based on the protagonist, Nathan Drake. The very first figure actually came with the game since it was part of the Special Edition along side a ring and a buckle and steelbook.

The figure is in fact an statue, with no articulation at all and it wasnt too big either, just your acerage action figure scale tough it was produced by Sideshow and shows Drake as he look in the cover of the game, walking on the sands, with his weapon in hand and his scarf moving by the wind.

The sculpt is good, with lots of detail on his outfit, like the bullets on his chest, the belt buckle, the marks on his pants and adds some textures on his scarf and shirt but dont overdone it too much. The face is OK tough i got the feeling he looks much more older than he was supposed to look, the look on his eyes and mouth looks very different from the artwork of the cover.

Paint is OK, very deffined in some parts like - again - the bullets, but very soft and indefined in others, like the skin tone or the shirts and pants. Theres a few dark areas to accentuate shadows but they are very few and between soo the paint is mustly simplistic. 

At first i tough it was the paint why he looked soo sold, but in fact i think the issue is more on the sculpting, since the paint on the face is mostly flawless wit exception of the shaky hair line. His blue eyes and lips are perfectly deffined, i mean for the small scale of the figure.

His only accesory is his weapon, a riffle that can be put on his hand with no problem and the sculpt and paint are good and correct and the last items related to the figure is the base since Drake can be removed from it. The base is big and blocky and very sandy, with a brownish and very light tone and mostly depends on the texture. The mst detailed part is the Uncharted 3 logo at the front that sports a perfect paint.

Actually, for a Sideshow figure this is extremelly poor, tough once you take note of the price of the special edition of the game, this figure was extremelly cheap and not bad looking for the price and to be the only figure based on Drake. Gladlly they later released more figures of him and Sideshow even made things right with an spectacular Drake soo this figure is just a small memento from an already far away era of special editions in games.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

Having get both the Mummy and the Wolfman, i had no choice but also get my favorite of them all!! The “Gillman” from the Creature From the Black Lagoon. Out of the tree, he was the most expensive… but if i didnt get him it would be much more difficult to find him later. Somehow he is always the more expensive and rare to find in any collection….

The man responsible from the sculpt of this guy, as well as the other monsters from Sideshows, did a great job capturing each detail as well as the perfect balance and size of the Gillman strange anatomy. While the Diamond Select have some issues and dosnt looks 100% similar to the character (specially the first version) this one is really faitfull to the 1954 costume used on the movie.

This is from the second series of figures, soo both the paint and articulations has been enhanced. The articulations are not as fragile as with the Wolfman but they are still really useless. Only to justify the “action figure” classification, but they are nicelly hidden with the little scales soo the only noticeable articulation is the one on his abs.

He is not just plain green, he have many tones of greens inbetween each one of his scales and they finally managed to do softer transition between colors. Theres golden tones on his fins and feet and orange and yellow shades on his chest and forehead. This is one of the most colorfull figures of the character, yet eveything looks organic and natural.

And like the Wolfman, he comes with the tool of his own destruction: the spear gun used to kill him on the movie. Its actually really big and have a strong retro-50s-ish design tough they also paint rust on it to make it much more realistic. His other accesory is a net to catch him. Tough is a pretty small net, its made with fabric material to make it realistic.

He can stand on his own but also comes with his decorative base. Island style, with some vegetation and sand athmosphere and with a transluscent plastic that looks like water, this is probablly the best of the bases thanks to this small detail. A watery base… i bet it was really cool looking back in the 90s. The box on the front reads “CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGGON. THE CREATURE. 1954″ and is interesting how it dosnt have the name of the actor under the scales…

This is probablly because Sideshows didnt wanted to give importance to one over another (the creature had two different men under his skin).

I am not sure if this is the best action figure of the character, since the second version of Diamond Select is really fantastic, but is deffinetly the most acurate to the original design. Now i am hunting down  the Phantom of the Opera and Dracula (and the Frankesntein Monster too).

WOLFMAN

After getting the Mummy from Sideshows i had to have another one of this action figures (yes…i know i have a problem) and my most obvious choice was the Wolf Man, another one of my favorites. Tough this one was brand new on his blister package.

Sculpted by Oluf W. Hartvigson, this wolf is the cheap/toy version of the 12″ figure in almost everything.

He is shorter than Im-hotep wich make sence, giving his crouched position and can stand on his own perfectly, something amazing given the inhuman nature of his feet. His articulations are pretty basic and kinda useless, like they used to be back in the last century, but they are really well hidden and are almost invisible.

Sadlly, they are really really cheap as well, soo it feels like his arm is going to fall apart each time i move it. Its a shame but i guess is to be expected given the price range this had 18 years ago.

The sculpt is fantastic, the puffynes of his hair, his nose, the size of his shoulders, the fold on his pants, everything looks perfect compared to Lon Chaney character on screen, this is, i think, the best figure of the Wolfman to date (tough the Diamond Select version wins over articulations).

The paint is a little more basic i am afraid, while certainlly is solid and have the rigth tones, with no slopynes anywhere (not even in his small eyes and fangs) some colors on his hair needed a softer transition. The light brown on his face is a little too defined and his shirt is very dark as well.

He comes with some movie props too, a bear trap with no articulation at all and the best one, the silver cane with the wolf head and the pentagram. This cane is 100% faithfull to the one from the movie and that validates this figure a lot. Tough is strange he holds the cane considering is the tool of his demise.

He also comes with his base, in the same style as the Mummy. A small island with river rocks, vegetation and a log. Is simple but nicelly detailed and the comes with the same box as the rest of the figures that read “THE WOLFMAN . LON CHANEY JR. 1941″.

Overall this is a pretty neat and cool action figure that looks fantastic on display. Is true it comes with a couple of rough elements but considering the time it was made, this guy is really impresive.