TALISAC

Does "too much" really exist?? For some it dosnt but for most people "too much" is real and it was specially back in last century, even more specially in the toy industry. Poeple was way too worryed Madballs would make kids violent each other or the srping shot weapons of action figures would make them harm each other or themselves. Even He-Man was feared to be just a comercial to sell products to kids (wich it was actually) and then, McFarlane Toys arrive with its products designed for adults: toys based on monsters with some blood splatered around. This made people worry but then, in 2001, they release Tortured Souls.

A brand new series of action figures made by McFarlane Toys and designed by Clive Barker, branded as "the most terrifiying action figures", it cosnststed on a collection of Cenobites - hell´s priests - that participated on a story written by Clive Barker. Each figure came with a chapter of this novel and not only this fused "toys" with "writing", but the characters were EXTREMELLY gory, violent, bloody, they show flesh with no skin, bones, misshaped faces and amputated limbs mixed with a leather fetish.

It was too much. Many toy store refused to sell them and parents were complaining and then, the whole world had its gaze upon McFarlane Toys soo he started releasing his other series based on dragons, miliraty men, Conan, more Monsters....it was am amazing time to be a McFarlane Toys collector, that company means almost everything while other companys were following its lead.

Seven years ago i started hunting this Tortured Souls figures i wasnt able to get as kid and while i got most of them and posted them here in 2020, there was one that i was missing, the rarest one to find in its clamshel and the most delicate of them all but also the most dramatic and terrible one as well; Talisac - The Surgeon of the Sacred Heart.

This figure is actually, pretty difficult to describe. This guy is in the same scale as the other McFarlane figures form back then, smaller than a modern NECA but bigger than a modern Figma, the size is for me totally perfect tough with his.....machine totally asembled he is much bigger. He cant stand on his own soo the only way to display him is hanging from his machine thingy.

This guys is actually a little bit articulated!!! His head rotate as well as his wrists and his left arm also can move up and down, half his thigh can rotate and his ankles too. This dosnt do much tough....the most usefull articulation is the one on his left shoulder that let him rise his arm but the rest of the articulation dont make much difference and the neck one prettu much only gets on the hooks that holds him.

Then agin, the rest of the line and the rest of the figures from back then were not very articulated and were mosre like statues soo this was the standar for back then but still, this is the more static character from the entire line. The sculot is really amazing, the skin have lots of wrinkle skin that hangs from his bones in a very sick way, he deffinetly looks more like a corpse than a living thing, but he is actually alive!! The texture is strikingly real and the expression of pain is very real...i mean, with the way his feet are tense and the way his hands are shaped like claws, its pretty evident this creature is in amazing pain.

The skin color is pale and have a very soft dark wash soo all the wrinkled skin stands out but it looks extremelly natural. Theres a few leather belts here and there: on his neck, on his rigth arm, theres a long belt on his back and something that looks like underwear that cover his ass but leave his front totally nude (this underwear is stitched to his flesh in the front) and theres more belts around his legs and while this are part of the same sculpt as the body, the black paint stands out nicelly in contrast with the pale skin tough the pain job is not perfect and is slopy in some places.

Where the pain job is beyong perfect is on the opening sections: cuts and removal of the skin on his calf, another cut and opening on his rigth knee and another on his left ankle with both his pectorals skin bein removed and hanging while his entire left biceps  have the flesh, again, cut and hanging from the arm like a sleeve. Wath this opening show are raw muscle and an amazing paint job since this sections not only are painted in crimson red, but they looks wet and fresh and the blood dripping around them looks extremelly real.

There is a HUGE scar that start on a hole on his chest and goes down all the way to his pubes where the flesh is opening to reveal an artificual womb. The way the flesh opens for this is amazingly revolting and theres hbig holes that reveals he ahd staples closing this area. Actually the staples are closing the opening on his torso to his chesta dn the way the flesh close in this area and the wrinkles and tension....is just way too much.

His face is very difficult to see because he have hooks pulling out his lips, eye lids, and checks soo theres no face expression here, theres just torn apart flesh and again, the skin is veiny, full of wrinkles and the blood surroinding his eyes and mouth is very realictis but it contrast with the wave of blood coming out from his mouth and the paint job inside the mouth and eye is trully amazing for the scale.

Finally, theres a flap of skin hanging from his head and revealing his bre sckull. This is bone but the redish paint make it looks like is driping of flesh blood. This guy looks more like a corpse in the morgue that suffered a big accident than anything, even the opening on his torso looks like an autopsy.

His artificial womb is transluscent plastic and cab be removed to reveal an huge empty hole carved on Talisac´s groin area and this is also painted realistically in pink and reds to make it looks like fresh meat. McFaralen Toys didnt leave a single corner without attention.

The womb can be opened to reveal the Mongroy, another of the Tortured Souls figures in an state of of grow. The littl creature dosnt looks human at all and shows a thing with his limbs all twisted around and a mouth full of teeth while his skin is all wrinkled around. The little figure is also painted in an uber realictic flesh tone, with some splays of blood here and there and perfectly white fangs. For a figure not meant to be displayed outside of his womb, the amount of detail is amazing.

Talisac is installed in a pretty strange machine that demanded a whole lot of asemble!! The base is dortito shaped and have small whels that actually works soo this man can be moved around by his own personal dwarf nurse that is not included here. The base have spikes, in case the good doctor wants to hop down for any reason, well, he cant do it.....tough this spikes are made of soft plastic and thats a very nice surprise.

Theres this thick main column structure that i had to use hot water to inser of the spiky base that acts as main support of the fogure. Theres another very thin almost wire column that conects on the base and reconects on the top with a little flat conection that is totally useless but it helps to give to this machine a whicked and complicated look.

Theres a third column that actually looks like a dorsal clumn since is sculpted with spikes and little section that makes it looks like bone.This structure is totally made with soft plastic soo it can bends following the main column shape and size and while it conects to the base in the bottom, the top part conects tto two big generators that, at the same times conects with two black soft plastic tubes to Talisac body. For what porpuse? I dont really know, but one tube conects to his leg while the other to his stomach.

Then the metakic structure continues and curves to the left side. In the point of turn theres this weird feather like structure that is articulated and the top of the metal structure contonues in a T shape that stands out of it and at the end if its sides, it have chains that conects back to the main structure. Real chains, no plastic grey chains...this was an era where McFarlane Toys pretty much put everything at risk and they use to have not only soft plastic mixed with hard plastic,but also real metal items.

The end side of the structure have a chain with four extrangelly shaped instruments that it sees they are Dr. Talisac surgical instruments (because, yes......this thing actually is a dosctor and he perform surgeries hanging from this machine). At the center of the structure theres six chains with hooks in the end that holds Talisac in place. While the chains are real, the hooks are plastic and inser them in Talisac small face holes is a HUGE pain in the ass.

Then theres this big metalic hook that hands form the structure with a clip. This big hook enter into Talisac back side and comes out from the hole on his chest and is the real thing that keeps him levitating while the chains only act as support but while it does the job, the tunel on the body is too curved and dosnt let the hook to penetrate entirelly since the hook is also curved soo it only penetrates half the torso.

Lastly, theres a blood bag thathands of a hook the clips on top of the metal structure. This blood bad have soft plastic tubes that also conects with Talisac on the ribs, chest and neck. This tubes are very anoying and get in the way of the arm movement and the blood bag is just painted in red and looks very cheap but with everythign thats going on around it, is imposible to pay attention to it despite the high contrast.

The entire machine is painted in a gun black metal finish, dark grey with some dark wash that gives it a very sofisticated, old and elegant looks that actually does looks like metal while the chains on it (including the h¿ones hanging from Talisac neck )looks almost like jewels in contrast.

This figure is no fun at all. Theres not much to do than just look at it since its almost no articulated and is extremely delicate (over the eyars i seen him docens of times with some broken in some way) and it demands a lot of asembly but the enginering needed for this leave me speechless....i mean, McFarlane did a Manbat that they didndt manage to make stand on his own and yet, they did this?? A figure hanging from hook on a machine conected with tubes and chains?? And the way everythign is sturdy and how the wheels works llave me in awe.

But as beautfull as this is, its also terrifiying. Unlike the other Tortured Souls, Telisac looks more like a victim, hanging with his body totally open and giving birth to a monster. This is one heck of a dramatic and distorbing figure to look at and the more you look, the worse it gets. I am not only amazed McFarlane Toys managed to build something like this, but i am amazed they also had the balls to design and release this. This was Clive Barker at his best and McFarlane didnt back off.

Also, whats going on here? In the novel Talisac is not only a surgen but he manages to build a Frankenstein like creature called Venal Anaomica while hanging from this machine and also it seems he himself put himself there....and he experiment on himself as well soo alll the openings and wounds on his body are made by him and he managed to impregnate himself too....this is too much from both McFarlane and Barker. This was too much in 1002 and is too mich in 2026.

And after soo many years.....theres never has been other figures like this and i got the feeling there will never be again.

VENAL ANATOMICA

Back in the 2001, when McFarlane Toys was on its prime toy stores had an invasion of Tortured Souls; McFarlane figures designed by the amazing Clive Barker.

I been a fan of Barker Cenobites since i was a child soo i was fascinated by this collection of figures. Sadly, i was a teen back then, with no job and my parents felt really repulsed and sick just by watching this figures. I had no way to get them at all and many years went fliying.

Clive Barker once called them objest that repulse and obsses, and i have to agree, since 15 years later i still felt the obsession of owning this characters, display them and explore them since they are soo uniqueand shocking. No toys were like this before McFarlane produce them and soo far theres still not many toys like this (there is more shocking toys now days? I dont remember any).

Now i have 30 years old (mmmmm) and i finally take the risk to get them. They were pricey, but still affordabele and nothing compared to Play Arts Kai or Hot Toys.

The first one i got is Venal Anatomica, the “Haunter of Primordium”, creation of the Doctor of the Sacred Heart; Dr. Talisac. I always feel attracted to this character given how interesting is his face design and his silhouette, square-ish and elegant, he is kind of hunky looking, something that scares me a lot.

While he is the standar size of the McFarlane toys from back then, everything else is different to wath they used to produce. First of all he is very articulated. His neck, shoulders, elbows and wrists, his legs too. He is not as estatuesque as i was expecting. Also, he can stand perfectly by his own, even with the chains moving around and hanging.

The sculpt is brillant (something to natural), with sculpted veins on his arms and skin texture on the exposed flesh and the fabric texture on his “suit, his costume is extremelly elabroated and complex and full of textures. His body is made with standar plastic but the “leather” suit is made with soft rubbery plastic and the chains are metal. My only complaign is that the blades and spike ball and hooks are made with soft plastic as well  wich makes them looks really “toy-ish”.

Differently to everything McFarlane did, the pain work in here is totally flawless. The skin looks damaged and pretty natural, with blood in the rigth spots and every teeth perfectly divided with black, even his gums have painted shadows and lights.

The black leather outfit is not a black piece of plastic, is actually painted as well with dark blacks on the wrinkles and greys to highlight the details, the level of detail is insane for this size of figure.

His head is covered by a transparent membrane that can be removed. I dont know exactly wath this membrane is, but it adds a lot of deep to the strange and bizarre design. The back is also amazing, with a kind of “insecotid” structure on his neck and flesh erupting from the holes, i can see A LOT of H.R.Giger in here as much as Barker.

The only accesory this Cenobite have is the chapter V of the Six Destinies story from Clive Barker. A little boocklet with a design as scary and unsetting as the character, it really shows the love to the detail they had with this series.

Sadly, this chapter leaves a lot to be desired since it revolves around sec between two of the other monsters and dosnt explain too much of this creature aside it was created by Talisac ( its hilarious to think how a man hanging from hooks can create a creature like this).

I am extremelly happy with this guy and even if hes not that big, he stands out A LOT on my display. This Tortured Souls project between Todd McFarlane and Clive Barker was indeed a peculiarity on the history of the toy industry.

LUCIDIQUE

Being a fan of Clive Barker and collector of figures, the Tortured Souls line became sort of an obssesion for me. An obsession that dissapeared for a long time but always went back suddenly. Soo now that i had the chance to get some of them i decided to get Lucidique since she stands out as the only female of the group.

The “Avenger”, she is daughter of a senator of Primordium but while her father find his end by being a way too good of a person, she is soo evil that even the mafia of the city is scared of her. Somehow, she knows about the cenobites, and trick the assasin of her father to became one but later she decides to give herself as well as a suplicant of Agonistes and find immortality as a she-demon.

This figure was full of surprises. First of all, while the the guys are more articulated to the usual McFarlane statues, this girl is totally static. She can only move her head and one of her arms and thats it. She is mostly a sculpture. Gladlly, she can stand by herself soo theres no harm done.

All the gimicks found on Venal Anatomica are here; her body is made with hard plastic while her leather suit os made with sift rubber, giving her rich rich texture.The chains are metalic but, again, her hooks and blades are plastic. Maybe McFarlane was afraid to release toys with soo many metalic little blades.

Her suit is not plain blackness, since its painted with different tones of greys and have a lot of silvers in the buttins or small nails in between the belts she have. Unlike Venal Anatomica, her skin is smoth and soft with an ethereal transparency that gives her a pretty realistic looks. I have Olga and Fortune from McFarlane Toys from back then (2001) and they deffinetly dosnt have this materials or level of sculpt and paint.

Her face is softlly and beautifully sculpted, an impresive feat given her small size. Her eyes are terrible fearsome and savage, like the eyes of an animal and they are yellow. Her eyes are tiny and yet, they are perfectly painted as well as her teth.

The black tendrils/tissue/horns that form her hair are also made with soft plastic and they can be moved over to reveal her back. She does have accesoryes, in the shape of an extra chain and hook (is pretty fun put they chains in different places) a blade like sword and a mechanical device with many blades, like a claw. This weapons are useless since they cant be placed on her hands, but they fit on small holders on her back.

As pretty as she is, i have to say i am not excited by her design at all. I think Barker went for the idea of “ugly inside pretty outside” because she is extremelly beautifull and looks alien between the other monsters. Some parts of her dress are biting her skin and theres blood in here and there but she is mustly “normal lookin”. You need to remove her “hair”to reveal her wounds in the shape of a skinned back with raw muscles. The back is incrediblly detailed, with the spinal cord revealing in the middle and the muscles having a weet/bloody feel. Really neat for such hidden view.

She have a leg with no skin too, the hidden one behind her dress and thats it. Her craneum looks like the skin of a dragon and the little horns that give shape to her hair are cool but i dont understand them as a torture. Its more like she is mutatin but still looks aesthetic.

She reminds me a lot Shuna Sassi from Nightbreed/Cabal.

I would have liked a lot more a female as monstruous and hiddeous as the male characters, it would be much more memorable but maybe McFarlane didnt wanted to mutilate a female character or they just wanted something pretty between the monsters?

Either way, she is a great looking figure and have a neat little back story in the Chapter II The Avenger text she comes with. I read Six Destinies years ago and it was dissapointed by the way it ends, but Lucidique back story was one of the few chapters that are worth reading.

SCYTHE MEISTER

Zarles Krieger, the transformed assassin of Primordium, responsable of the falling in its dinasty of rules, was the piece i was more looking forward from the Tortured Souls line.

Back in 2001, i had the feeling this guy was a puzzle i wanted to experience. I didnt fully understood his design just by looking at promotional photos, and see him in pieces inside his clamshell was no better. Once i got him last week, i had my doubts to open him since i wanted him in mint condition, but i am really glad i open him (and the rest).

This is a toy that must be seen in person to be belived.

As much as i try, the photos i took are not able to show the full deep of this mechanical peacock and his many details that appeare suddently every time you watch him.

Like Venal Anatomica, he is fully articulated with his legs, shoulders, wrists, elbows and head and can stand on his own perfectly (amazing!!!). The mechanical device on his back is fully articulated as well as the arm on his shoulder.

Again, his costume is made with soft rubber like the rest and perfectly painted n black and grey and the extra pieces of flesh hanging from his chest are made with a pretty thin layer of suft plastic with a weth texture. No other McFarlane toy have this many textures.

His face is a nightmare, and to my surprise, one of hes eyes is peeking below the straps. His eyes have veins and a blue pupil, perfectly done for such a hidden detail and with this small scale.

He comes with many chains and hooks coming out from around his body, like tentacles. This chains can be wrapped around his body or weapons to form a spiderweb of metal and chains. This chains are bloody of course.

One of this chains comes with a knife (sadly, is plastic) with carvings on the blad and blood stains. He also have a pair of giant scissors/scythe like weapon that fits into the structure on his back. By moving the small handle in the rood, the blades open and close.

The structure on his back have a veil of chains that join on the back on his head, into a weird plug, and the closer they are to his head, the bloodyer they are. My only complaing is that this structures and weapons are all plastic. This mades them extremelly delicate. One of the stinges that keep his flesh pinned to the wheel on his head was broke even inside the package. I am afraid to try to fix it soo i will leave it like that but a sturdier material for this pieces would be much better.

While he is the same size of the rest, he looks much bigger and menacing that the rest thanks to his satanic peacock design. Sadly he have a pretty pathetic end in Clive Barker´s story. While his background was really nicelly done, he later is killed thanks to his pathetic love for Lucidique. I wish Barker had a better story for this incrediblly characters.

I really doubt i get more of this toys tough, maybe Agonistes but i am happy with this 3 monsters. This one specially is an almost ethereal vision, a trully frigthining and surreal toy that could drive anyone into madness if he was in real life scale.

For creating a toy this size that is trully scary and this hellish looking, McFarlane Toys trully deservs devotion for this avant garde works of art.

AGONISTES

A year ago i started to collect the Clive Barker´s Tortured Souls from McFarlane Toys, a series i always wanted to own but didnt had the liberty to get until now, and i was susprised to see how damn good are this characters.

I been searching them everywhere and its very tricky to find them in theyr package (specially the 6″ series). I really dont want them “used” since they are pretty easy to broke and i saw many heavy damaged.

Tough i ended getting Agonistes this time, the very first character of the series. The creator of life, shaper of flesh and bone and builder of monsters, is he the responsible for the rest of the characters  and he is also one of the direct creations of God. His chapter from the novel; “ The Secret Face of Genesis” has been my favorite soo far since it was beautifully written by Barker and is pretty revelatory.

Yet, the poor guy dosnt have too much participation in the main narrative but Barker didnt had too much room to work anyway since how short are the little chapters.

Aside of that, i am impresed with the amazing work McFarlane did on this guy. Just like with the rest, he is really outstanding. He is a little bit smaller than the rest (same size of Lucidique) tough at the same time, he is the tallest thanks to his mechanical legs.

There is soo much richnes of texture in here: metal on the chains, soft plastic for the flesh, rubber for his clothes… and the paint job is amazing as well. His clothes are not just jet black, but they have grey shades and tones to make it looks like old leather and all the clips and stitches on it are perfectly painted. No splotch anywhere and each choulder pad and each boot have totally different sculpts.

His face is a mass of meat, with no eyes or nose or ears, just amputated flesh and yet, each of his fangs are both sculpted and painted perfectly, his gums and the wire on his troath are beautifully defined.

His skinles arm is also impresive, with a pretty realistic paint that mix red and withe to make it looks like raw muscle and tissue and his hand have skin… but is made with a pretty soft plastic that make it looks (and feel) like a dead meat hanging. Is the most disturbing part of the figure for me.

The “spider legs” on his back and shoulders are actually very detailed and constructed with metal tubes, barbed wire and gears with arcane writting on the sides. They dosnt looks like plastic at all and are fully articulated. Even the “nails” at the end are articulated with an engine like contraption and then theres the face…. Agonistes face stretched in between the legs, suspended above his head.

The face skin is made with pretty soft rubber and if you stretch it a little, you can see the opening of his mouth and eyes. To make things even more horrific, the back of the face is all bloody with rest of muscles and tissue and is still pretty weet…

The only thing that kills the image for me is Agonistes mechanical crown… its soo thick and is not painted at all, given it a pretty cheap look compared to the artistic look of the rest of the character. The crown is soo thick it gets in the way of the mechanical legs.

This is probablly the busyest design from the Tortured Souls…the crown is way too much and i am even tempted to remove the crown and display his bare head.

He can stand on his own and he can move his legs and shoulders, elbows and wrists, tough the skinless elbow feels a little fragile with the mechanical wires attached to it and the hand of the same side is soo soft…i am afraid to move them and broke them. In the end, he is like a statue, just like Lucidique, tough most of his articulations comes from the robotic legs.

At the back he have a kind of cape made with chains, with two hooks that can be used as weapons (one of them is bloody already) tough he have lots of knifes and swords hanging from his suit already soo he is the best armed monster from the collection.

I can see this toy for hours and find new elements here and there, like the opening on his troath or the missing skin of his stomach, or the small writting on the belts of his blades or the demonic shapes sculpted on the back of his suit…. this figures are just amazing for theyr size and 16 years later, they are still as amazing looking as they were back then.

This guy is as beautifull and elegant as the Scythe-Mesiter and one of my favorites. The excesses on his design are soo surrealistic and nightmarish, is imposible to stop looking at him…