HIEROPHANT & MOFISH

 

We are still n the 2000s and having fun with The House of the Dead 2 on the Dreamcast while Plisades is releasing theyr first action figure series absed on the Sega monstruositys. Sadly, they didnt sell well and series 2 were cancelled despite being totally finished and this Thoe House of the Dead action figures remain as the only merch existant of the game for 26 years. In 2022 i was able to get half of the series and now, four years later, i was able to get the remainig half of the collection.

I already reviewed Ken and the Murren Worms in the last post and now is time to take a look at Hierophant and the Mofish. For some reason this figure is extremelly exoensive and difficult to get now day but somehow i found a boxed and brand new one in a very reasonable price soo i didnt doubt i got him, plus this is the special edition exclusive for Tower Records with battle damage.

This is also the second of the bosses figures, the first one being Strenght but this creature is bigger (tough much more lighter) than the big chainsaw wielding zombie but also this is my favorite figure of the collection. I dont know why but Hierophant became one of the creatures that remins on my mind pretty strongly and i really like his design.

This monster fits with anything NECA or McFarlane soo he pretty much first with most action figures in standar size tough despite his hunched pose, he still will towers over most characters. He can stand on his own perfectly with those big claw feet and is articulated on the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, legs, knees and the ribcage opens.

The head, wrists, and waist rotate perfectly while the legs have a very basic up artiuclation and the elbows and knees can bend reasonable well but not too much since they have only a single simple articulation while the elbows are ball jointed soo they move up and down but they cna be open as well and this are the more mobile parts of the figure. The chest can be open but most of the time the arms get in the way but the chest cavity opens enough to reveal his heart.

Made by SOTA Sculpture and Design, this is pretty much the most detailed figures of the series with the lanky musculature on his leimbs perfectly visible but also many many different types of scales!! His biceps have this long scales while his shoulders have small circular ones with big plaques like turtle on his neck and shulders and really, every single muscle part have a totally different scale design and pathern.

I specially like his bony hips since in the back he have a pretty hiddeous werid tail that dosnt looks like a fish tail but i also love those huge feet with black claws!!! Theres fins around his legs, in the back of his arms and four big lines of fins runing from his neck to galf of his back. All this fins are cast in soft plastic and they really looks spectacular, specially the back ones since they end shape i totlaly different between each other.

The face looks realy menacing with his eyes closed and the big mouth fully open and the fish fins on the top almost like wings and since this is the exclusive version of Tower records, this Hierophant is missing one  and have a bullet hole on his forehead and head fins.This wounds are covered in green radioactive blood and they stand out well against the green of his skin.

While his entire body is military green, theres a red soft airbrush on the shoulders and biceps and some other sections while the fins of the head have a blue airbrush while the feet have a much darker tone to make it looks realistic. His stomach is painted in plain white with a soft blue area surrounding it while his neck, biceps and legs are covered  on a phatern that loks like whote dots with black dots in the center, almost like eyes. All the paint aplication is perfect.

While the chest area, once open, it reveale his heart and al kind of organs around painted into a brigth red to contrast with the rest of the body, the fins have a mix of dark red, white and blue details and this includes the net around hthe fingers of his hands, painted in soft and electric blue. This make this figure the best painted of the collection deffinetly and also the most detailed (tough i like more Strenght color palette).

And since he is a boss he does comes with a weapon; a trident. This item have identations all around and bandages stained in green blood near the top. While its very simplistic and dosnt stand out, is pretty eviedent this is no generic trident but something specifically designed for Hierophant and the item have a peg that fits on a hole on his hand, this way the trident stay on his hand perfectly despite his hand not being fully closed into it.

The inclusion of a small enemy in the pack was something very common back then soo this time they included a Mofish that fighst along side Hierophant in the game. Again, there sno jaw articulation but the sculpt is really amazing with all the different mix of scales and the textures on his face, but more importantly, the paint aplication is really oustanding: green/yellow mixed with some dark airbrush, electric blue for the fins and tail, red inside the mouth and white fangs and orange eyes with a black pupil, this little guy looks soo vibrant and colorfull and amazing detailed.

And finally theres a base that consist on a oval shape stone piece with skuls and some ivy covering the The Hosue of the Dead logo. The sculpt is good and while the paint is a little too simple is not the focal point of the figure and i really like the design a lot. Also the base is purelly ornamental and dosnt help the figuere stand at all. Actually the huge feet of Hierophant covers most of the base.

From the sntire series this is deffinetly the figure i was looking for the most, not only is one of my favorites but is also the tallest and more detailed and even the Mofish looks soo damn good. Just like with the Vampire Hunter D figures, this set may looks dated deffinetly, but its shows perfectly how things used to be done back when collecting was much more simple and fun than now, when creativity was much stronger too. 

Palisades exist no more, but they really did a good job.

KEN & MURRER WORMS

 After staying in 2001 for the last reviews....lets turn back in time a little bit more, to 2000. Back then the Sega Dreamcast was on its best moment and one of its gems was The House of the Dead 2, a game that, after 26 years is still as fun and entertaining as it was back then and with all videogames having action figures all of a sudden (Resident Evil, Tekken, Samurai Shodown, Street Fighter, Metal Gear Solid...) it was the best moment to give The House of the Dead some toy love and it was Palisades the studio that release an action figures set for the Sega shooter.

Back in 2022 i was able to get half the set: Johnny and the boss Strenght and now, four year later i just found the second half of the collection in the most sudden and unexpecting way. Lets focus now on Ken and the Murrer Worms: Back then both Toy Viz and Moobydick decided to release the Resident Evil figures in a two pack mode, a human with a monster or a big monster with a smaller one together and somehow Plisades continue that tradition not only with theyr own Resident Evil figures but with The Hosue of the Dead as well.

Soo the main dish in this two pack is deffinetly Ken, the spidery and jumping zombie with an iron mask and claws. The character design of this games were something else in close inspection....soo anyway, Ken is in perfect scale with most action figures like McFarlane or NECA toigh he is pretty light weigth given his slim build.

He can stand on hiw own perfectly (just like all other figures from this line) and is articulated on his neck, waist, shoulders, wrists, legs and knees. The head, waist and wrists cna rotate while the shoulders have a ball joint soo they can move up and down and open up to the sides as well while the legs have a very basic articulation to the front and the knees dont bend too much but this was more articulation that we used to have back then and while the movement is kind of basic, is more than enough to pull a few poses that dont look that bad.

Sculpted by SOTA Sculpture and Design, this living dead is really nice looking and while the pants looks OK with all those straps and the metalic armor on the legs looks allrigth, the best part is the torso with the dry and mummyfied skin tight into the rib cage and with the intestines hanging on the waist. The back side have the spinal cord uncovered while the giant claw hands are sculpted in soft plastic and stands out a lot.

Plus this is the limited edition exclusive for the Plisades website soo this figure have a battle damage head sculpt different that then normal version. In the normal version Ken is....well...complete and his iron mask can be removed but here the lower half og his head has been blown byt the Agents shots soo not only he is missing one eye but his entire lower face is completelly gone and theres a piece of his jaw hanging from the side. 

Looks really gruesome but only at a close look since the effect kinda got lost with the messy paint job. Theres black blood covering the dark blue skin soo its a little too dark and only a few teeth stand out. The metalic paint on the mask is good while its splattehered with some green radioactive blood but my favorite part is the shiny orange eye since it contast nicelly with the entire figure.

For me tough, while thr sculpt is good the paint really dont mae justice for it and dont mae the sculpting details to stand as they should. Ken´s skin is dark blue while his mane is also dark blue in a different tone and while theres some brown brush in the bomy parts, i feel like this dont make the skin texture to stand out. Also theres a lot of green blood here but is painted in splochs and if camouflages more than it should.

The metalic claws and boots have some black and brown brush mixed with the metalic paint and also a lot of green blood splathered around and this is the section where the green blood stand out the most. The paints are plain black while the straps are green and brown but theres not much to say about them.

Then we got the Murrer Worms, some of the most iconic enemies of the game. Theres two included and while they are smaller than Ken they are really thick and both have a different sculpt since one is moving to the front and the other is turning to the side. Sadly i was almost sure they had articulated jaw but theres no articulation here while the body texture is really good looking and the teeths looks hiddeous.

They are plain brown but they have a black paint around every corner and ident and that makes the sculpt to really stands out. The gums are radioactive green while the inside of the mouth is red and the teeth plain white and that makes this little guys very colorfull and faithfull looking to the in game designs.

And laslty, theres a base for Ken. Is not that big and looks like an irregular ovar of rock and stone with some skulls in the front and the back side, ivy radomnly covering it and The House of the Dead logo in the middle. Sculpt is really good and paint is a little simple but somehw i really like this base design even if it dosnt helps stand the characters at all and is something totally ornamental.

And i almost forgot!!! Theres one missing accesory: the iron mask. In the original version the mask is removable and reveals Ken skeleton face but in this version the mask cant be removed and i dont know if i like that.

To be honest paint was always the main issue of Palisades with theyr Resident Evil line soo in this line that is a year older the problem was even more evident: while the sculpt in Ken is good i feel like the paint could be better since details really camouflage and even the damage on his face dont stand out as much as it should but still i am damn happy with anything releated to The House of the Dead and this is no exception. 

STRENGHT

 Each time Sega logo appeare on screen is easy to think on Sonic, but in fact Sega had an awfull lot of iconic games and characters even before the blue hedgehog was born. One of theyr most iconic serires was born along side Resident Evil, but in arcades instead of consoles: The House of the Dead. 

Palisades Marketing was born just when The House of the Dead 2 was released on the Dreamcast soo they decided to start with an action figures serires completelly based on the zombie creatures of the game. The first serires consisted in two "standar" enemies; Johnny and Ken along side a couple of smaller monsters, and a couple of big bosses monsters; Hierophant, boss of stage 2 and Strenght, boss of stage 4.

Hierophant cost a fortune by now soo i only got Strenght who is actually taller than Johnny just by a little bit, but is deffinetly much much wider and heavyer and can stand on his own perfectly thanks to his huge feet. He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, wrists, waist and legs, all cut joints with one direction movement except the shoulders that are ball joint, soo his arms have the best movility while the rest of the body is very static but thats mostly thanks to his huge frame.

The sculpt is....well, Plaisades - or better SOTA sculpture and design - took some artistic libertys with this creature. In the game he is muscly but mostly lean and athletic, but here he is like Hulk muscly, he is HUGE, his hands are gigantic as well as his feet and back, tough thanks to this he stands out nicelly. If they used the original style of the game he would looks kinda...generic, but in here they manage to highligth the masive musculature the character was supposed to have.

The rest is accurate to the game: the bandages, the ripped shorts, the corset. The bandages have a pretty nice texture as well as his skin, given how big his muscles are the skin sculpt got a lot of attention and looks really good with the open cuts too. Like with Johnny, this is not the original version but an alternate one with the sack that cover his face torn, revealing his face underneath traped in an iron cage, something that happens on the game halfway the battle against him.

The paint is simple, just a light blue for the skin but the color looks pretty nice alongside the venomus green of the wounds and blood and Palisades actually used a brush this time to splater the green blood around those muscles. The face is a little hard to disscern tough thanks to the metal cage and the pants and bandages are lacking some darker tones to make them looks old. They have just a solid color and thats makes them looks pretty unnatural. Even with this, the color is much better than Johnny´s.

Thanks to his masive size, he dosnt comes with a smaller companion creature but only his main weapon, a masive chainsaw. The sculpt of the chainsaw is really good and the paint as well since yellow color of the base is full of dirt and blood, this tiem actually looking like an old and used artifact. The blade reads "BLAME" and is made with soft plastic and that makes the weapon really light soo Strenght can hold it without loosing balance. He can even hold it above his head like Leatherface.

Put the chainsaw on his hands is a little tricky tough thanks to the lack of articulation on his elbows but aside of that, his other accesory is his base, with the logo of the game on a red brick piece with ivys and skulls. This base is extremelly good looking tough really small for Strenght and totally useless.

Just like Johnny, the paint is the weakest part of the figure but still is a much better looking figure since his color palette is much more easyer to the eye and much more cleaner giving a better chance to see the great details on the sculpt. I also like a lot the half shown face and the sculpt is terrific, this zombie is really wicked looking, i dare to say he is actually quiet sexy.

Sadly, this figures didnt sell well back then soo Palisades canceled a pretty good looking second serires with figures already painted soo in the end, this are the only figures in existance of The House of the Dead, making them treasures at least for me and i hope i can get the other two i am missing before i die.

JOHNNY & BOUERE FROGS

 Starting new year with something from 22 years ago, back then was an interesting moment for action figures since, thanks to McFarlane Toys, figures were starting to be geared towards mature collectors and videogames started to get a big popularity and they became the subject of lots of new born companys. One of them was Palisades Marketing that produced some astonishing Resident Evil figures, the Pink Panther, the Muppets, and many other, but it started with all with the Sega Dreamcast, producing figures of one of his most iconic serires: The House of the Dead.

It wa deffinetly really popular back then and Palisades had the brillant idea of ignore the main characters (who everyone stoped remembering them minutes after turning off the game) and focus completelly on the zombies that used to be soo well known back then, starting with Johnny and the Bouere Frogs, somethign really common back then, add smaller characters with the standar characters for a two pack feature.

Sculpted by SOTA scupute and design, Johnny is one of the most well known faces of the serires, he is the axe throwing zombie and have some issues standing byt how own, given to his small feet and the sculpted pre-pose on his legs (walking) he needs to find the exact point to be able to stand. The frogs tough, while the four leg one have no problem, the one in two legs cant stand at all soo he is destined to be liying around forever.

Johnny is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, half arm, waist, legs and knes tough the legs articulations are useless because, while they have a descent range of movement, if you want him to stand you better leave his legs completelly alone. Also the shoulders are the only ball joints, soo the rest are cut joints and only move to one direction. This is specially tricky with the elbows since with a rotation they change from stretched to bent. I really hate how tricky and limited is this movement system, i am glad figures dont use it anymore.

The sculpt is good, he is lanky and his mouth full of pointy fangs looks really good and the sculpt on the frogs is also pretty good, with theyr huge human teeth and fingers and wart covered back, tough they lack any kind of articulation. Johnny tough is a variant, something very common back then, they produce a lot of color and sculpture valiant exclusive to specific stores. This Johnny have half of his head blown soo he is missing and eye and have a huge weird hole that makes his head appeare miuch more ligther. I love it, i love how gory this is and is deffinetly very "house of the dead".

The paint s a different matter. His shirt have stripes and thats always troublesome with articulated figures but th main issue is the skin. I dont know wath kind of tools they had back then for painting, but instead of add brushes they pretty much added green stains and spots in different tones that looks very unnatural.I mean, even for a zombie, this dosnt looks like a rotting flesh.

His face is covered in green blood too and that kind of block the details, its looks pretty messy along side to the darker color of his hair and beard (it should be blonce) and the result is kinda difficult to see....i mean, from a distance looks like a mess and just in closer look, you cans ee the details on the face. I like the wet texture on the head hole tough.

Strangelly, the Bouere Frogs have a much better paint, with just different tones of green, huge yellow eyes and white teeth with just some bloody stains on theyr mouth, just enough to not cover the details of the sculpt.

Aside of the Frogs, Johnny comes with his trademark axes. Again, the sculpt of the axes is good tough the paint is really primitive and looks like they are painted by a child. Also, is kinda difficult to put the axes on the hands thanks to the hard material. The last accesory is a base with The House of the Dead logo carved on a rocky ground with some green vines and grey skulls around. The sculpt and paint in the base is FANTASTIC (how ironic) tough is purelly decorative, since theres no peg for Johnny feet soo the figure is just standing on his own force.

I dunno wath to say about this guy. The paint job is really poor and the articulations could be better, tough this was the standar for 22 years ago soo i guess i cant be too hard judging. The second figure was Ken with the Murrer Worms but sadlly i dont have him but i will look forward to find him someday.