WEREWOLF

 The werewolf horror genre is one of the worst ever....theres not many werewolf movies out there and even soo only a handfull of them are worth watching. I can count with the fingers of one hand the really good werewolf movies out there and thats really dissapointing but those very rare few good movies are soo damn good!!! And despite the years, they still hold as some of the best in the horror genere.

Thats why is not a surprise theres not much werewolf figures out there, while we have like 400 different Chuckys, Leatherface or Michael Mayers, theres not much in the toy department dedicated to werewolf movies aside of the Wolfman movie from Universal. It take theyr time but gladlly, NECA gives a first stemp and finally give is a Werewolf Ultimate figure from The Howling, one of those very rare brillant wolf movies.

This was one of my most hyped figures of last year and one that fits perfectly along the An Americna Werewolf in Lodon and the Dog Soldier wolfs (and i REALLY HOPE NECA do the Dog Soldier wolf someday too). In perfect scale with everything NECA does, this good boy is shoulders and a head taller than all other figures of the brand, just like a werewolf must be and theres no way he can stand on his own with such long legs and tiny feet soo he comes with a special base but i will take about that later.

This lycan is articulated on the head and neck base, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, legs, knees, half calf, ankles and ....feet? Or are the paws? Soo theres no way to complaing about articulations here since he is nude and nothing block them. Biceps rotate and elbows and shoulders have a very good range of movement while the neck is really long and have ball joints on both side; one conects with the body while other conects with the head and theres two different hair rings made of soft plastic that covers thins long neck section, soo the head have a huge range of movement to the sides, up and down (perfect to pose him howling to the moon).

Chest have a really good range of movement to the front and back while legs, somehow feel a little bit limited but i cant point exactly why. Knees bends very good, just the same as the kalf articulation and "ankles" while the feet can rotate. All this articulations are ratchet soo they are pretty sturdy and hard to bend but i am glad they are since this figure really does needs strong legs to survive....not like that McFarlane Manbat...

Sculpt is reaaaaaallly good, each strand of hair on his body follow the flow of his muculature structure on his back, arms and legs and the the way the hair flows and joint on the center of his chest and belly is just soo natural....like a real dog with long hair. Also the hair on his forearms and thigh hangs behind soo nicelly and his tiny tail is soo adorable. The small feet dont look human at all but dont looks like dog ar all and the hands have such amazing long and thin spidery fingers.

Theres a lot of hair hnaging from the sides of his face (this actually looks like....a long haired cat once in close look) and the size of the snout is perfect along side the tiny eyes and huge fox like ears that gives him a kind of demonic look since they looks like horns. Really the ears are giant but each part of the silhouette mathes perfectly that of the on screen animatornic and costume in the movie.

The tiny eyes are yellow and they have a mini small black pupil and i am surprised how perfectly are painted given the small size. The yellow fangs and red gums looks perfect along side the black lips and nise. The claws are yellow like the fangs and the hairless skin on the paws and hands are actually blue, pretty much everything else here is brown.

Like....a lot of brown and a toon of different browns. The color in the hair is very rich since it have an awful lot of darker and lighter browns perfectly combined in an extremelly natural way. I mean you dont see the different colors until you take a good look at them and i counted 6 different browns soo far along side the grey area in the chest. Everything mix soo perfect and each piece fits soo perfectly, this is one of the best pieces i ever seen on the history of NECA.

Accesorys theres not much but that is understandable. He comes with tree pairs of hands: one is completelly relaxed, one is claw shaped to attack and theres another one in the middle of this two. Sometimes is very hard to see the difference bewteen this hands but they are different and the paint job and sculpt is perfect on all of them and they swap very easy.

Then theres tree different heads: the standar head with the jaw closed (togh his lips are open to show his fangs), another ehad with the moith fully open and a third one with articulated jaw. While the sculpt and paint on the inside of the mouth of the open jaw head is fantastic, the articulated jaw head pretty much negates the other two. Really, why produce two heads with different face expression and a third head with both expression at the same time?

I am guessing this was done only to justufy the price because, aside of this theres nothing more to give to this Werewolf an accesory. Maybe bloody extra limbs?? But wathever the reason, i guess is better to have more heads than missing them. Plus this articulated jaw head dripping blood and looks soo damn good!! This is deffinetly the only head i need for display tough all of them can be swaped very easy.

And lastly is the base. Now theres no way this character cna stand with those werid shaped and small feet soo i am very happy NECA added a base, and not any base....this is a base that actually does work!!! The base consist on a circular transluscent plastic piece with a rod on the center and a clamp in the end. The clamp holds onto the Werewolf hip piece in the base and between his legs .... it holds him from the balls, literally.

I never seen a base like this from NECA before but it works and keeps the Werewolf standing no matter the legs position. But this feels so damn delicate....i mean, one mist be carefull soo the legs are posed to reach the ground soo the rod dont need to hold the entire weigth of the figure, but i am afraid to broke the rod or the clamp that holds the balls soo the addition or emoval of the base must be handle with extreme care and is really tricky and even with that i am not sure how much time this base will hold.

Soo this figure cant stand but thats to be expected thanks to his design and i am happy NECA made a working base just for him i just hope is not that delicate as it looks....aside of that, this figure is complete perfection, even with the lack of accesorys, articulation, sculpt and paint is just spectacular from every angle and makes me wish they give us a Dog Soldier wolf as well someday.

I think is not necesary to say how good this looks on display on any horro collection and how necesary it was for me to get this beautifull beast in my hands.

THE WEREWOLF SNOW-CAPPED MOUNTAIN

 I AM NOT A FURRY BUUUUT... i admit i really like the "Furry Obscura" branch, the part of the furry world dedicated to horror, more precise to the Werewolf or Wolfman. The Wolfman has been always my favorite Monster since the 40s Lon Chaney Jr movie from Universal and some of my favorite movies  and fiction includes them (tough to be honest, theres not enough werewolf movies out there compared to vampires) making them my top monster to collect (tough again...theres not many werewolf toys either).

Some years ago a chinese company called Coo Model released 1/6 scale figures based on the classic monsters: Dracula, th Wolf man, the Mummy....and they looked trully amazing and hard to belive they were real, they looked like beyond posible figures and while theyr price was beyond any logic as well, they were extremelly difficult to find or to even track them down since theres almost no infor about them on the internet aside of a couple of buggy chinese pages.

For some reason, Coo Model re-release the Werewolf some years later but this time in 1/12 scale and with no accesorys, since the original 1/6 version could be transformed into human form. Of course this was too a much more smaller price as well and named "MONSTER FILE pm 001-003"with 3 different versions of the wolf: one on brown, one on black and one in white. Just recently i got the 003 version titled "The Werewolf Snow-capped Mountain", a snowy white version.

This is not based on any movie, game or comic or character, this is a totally original or "generic" Werewolf and thanks to the unatractive and plain box and scale, he dosnt looks like much at all, tough the text in red "HANDMADE FIGURE" in the front reveal wath to expect once the ugly box is open. 

Being a 1/12 scale this guy is in perfect scale to anyhting NECA, McFarlane or any standar modern action figure series and looks perfect with Figma or Figuarts as well given the beastly nature of this creature. He is digitigrade soo he needs some balancing to keep him standing but is not that bad, he can balance pretty good tough he also comes with a totally useless base.

He is articulated on the jaw, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, legs, knes and ankles, all ball joints but the jaw soo he have a good range of mobility. His chest ball joint dosnt move too much tough and thanks to the fur on his neck his head tilt is very limited as well but the rest of the articulations works great.

The sculpt is really good, with a pretty lupin style of head, reminiscent to An American Werewolf in London or even The Howling, with the pointy ears and grotesque giant snout and fangs tough i got the feeling his eyes are a little too small, the detailing of the bags under them is really good as well as the magnificent fut coming out from around his head and snout. The fur sculpt is very very sharp, something good for this small scale and the rest of the body have the same great quality sculpt. 

With his abs and chest having no fur, the texture is a little plastic but since this is a monster i dont expect every bit of him looks natural. The under part of his feet are very natural looking tough with a lot of wrinkles and details that makes them looks like real dog feet, i just got the feeling his legs are a little to short as well? Or maybe i got this impression because his arms and hands are way too long, his shape is a little awkard but maybe this was intentional.

The paint is brillant as well, with the fur having this icy blue/grey tone with darker greys giving it shadow and some white detailing that looks like snow, this is a montain wolf from the north and the colors are perfectly mixed to make him looks natural but not boring. The areas with no fur - his abs and chest and feet - have some soft purple as well as grey, like some kind of internal brusing. Of course, this is due to the cold weather and makes this parts looks like those of a iced corpse.

The tiny yellow eyes are eerie as well as the big yellow fangs and pink gums and inside of the mouth, the only section with bad paint aplication is the black around his lips. The black line is thick and and strangelly shaky...

There is a spray of blood around his mouth as well as his chest and big claws. The blood have a vibrant red tone that stand out on top of the rest of the cold color palette.

Despite this figure being a cheap version of a 1/6 figure, he is dressed in real clothing: a shirt and some pants with a rope as a belt. The tailoring is pretty basic and each piece is turn appart pretty heavilly and is really really dirty. The shirt is grey with some red stains here and there and the pants are blue with lots of dark stains. The clothing looks ancient, the ageing is really fantastic and swits really good with the figure color palette.

The shirt is really baggy but this is soo the legs can articulations are not restricted. Same for the shirt torn into pieces, it dosnt block any of the articulations at all and made me wish 1/6 figures had this kind of tailoring!!!

Theres no extra heads, claws, swords of effects, theres absolutelly no accesorys in here aside of one of the worst bases i seen in my life: a simple corcilar black stand with a black rood  and a thin wire that enters in between the Werewolf legs. Is like a 1/6 scale base but this one dosnt works at all and keeps falling apart constantly.

At first i had my doubts with this figure thanks to the bad quality box and complet lack of accesorys, but the figure itself is beautifully done and makes me belive in the "handmade" mark on the box. Is very fun to pose him around and looks great on any horror movies collection or even as an enemy of any other series (like the Ninja Turltes or Gargoyles). I really wish Coo Models release the Vampire and the Mummy in this same scale someday but the mistery behind the brand is deep and imposible to discern. 

THE ORDER 1886 - THE ENDLESS DUEL

 By now is hard to belive there was a time where almost every game came with an Special or Collectors Edition packed with pretty cool items as well as high end figures just for $30 or $50 extra over the base game price. Rigth nos Special Editions are not that common and they cost the same as a PS5 console (and they comes with more digital content than physical items).....that was the golden age of Special Editions and those who lived them we manage to get a very impresive collection of big and really spectacular statues: Uncharted, Injustuce, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, Batman, Aliens, Assassins Creed, Metal Gear Solid...

That era tough was still kicking in at the begining of the Playstation 4 life span soo we still got some really nice stuff, like The Order 1886 Deluxe Edition. The game itself was a kind of short affair that felt more like a movie with QTE than an actual game, very fun to look at thanks to very high production values but pretty forgettable to play with but Sony really belived on the project as the first exclusive for the Playstation 4 and give is not one, but two special editions: one was the Collectors Edition with a Grayson taking cover in some rubbles statue and the other one was the Deluxe Edition, more expensive and containing "The Endless Duel" statue.

The Endess Duel, a pretty fancy title for a figure that sound more like an art piece for a museum, but this figure is actually an art piece manufactured by Pure Arts, a brand that release very VERY expensive high end statues and 1/1 scale busts. I love theyr work and i never managed to afford one of theyr products except this figure and i am still surprised Sony commisioned them for an item of a Special Edition.

A battle scene between Grayson and a Lycan, this are two characters with a small piece of diorama that, going against al logic, stand itself pretty perfectly. The square base is really thuck and VERY heavy, soo despite Grayson being almost levitating at the side of everything, the base keep the whole scene in perfect balance and yes, a strong hit could detach Grayson from the base but soo far, after 8 years he his only connected leg to the base has resisted the time and keep him in position perfectly. This is testament of the high quality materials used here.

Where to start here? The whole scene is pretty good looking with Sir Galahad jumping backwards while aiming his weapon directly to the lycan, while the monster is launching himself agains Sir Galahad, read to cut him in half with his sharp claws while destroying a railing in the pricess as well as the floor with his weigth.

Theres no front side of back side here, every point of view reveals new details and every side you display shows an specuacular scene, being focused on Grayson or the Lycan attack. Is pretty rare to see a figure with no blind side tough, with soo many multiple display options and that needs an extremelly prices planing from the artists behind it. While the point of view wont be an issue to display this, the size will be....this statue is HUGE. The Lycan himself is the same size of a Hot Toys or Sideshow figure, plus his extended arm and the whole base and Grayson....this figure takes a whole lot of vertical and horizontal space.

The tiles of the base are perfectly sculpted, mixed with some broken tiles form the Lycan feet as well as wooden pieces  from the rail but the paint is also really perfect, with a pretty fot blue and white, the tiles but nly are full of scartches but they looks really really dirty with some yellows mixing with the white, they have an extremelly realistic floor look and the sides of the base is not just plastic either, but it have a cement texture in the four sides that flows perfectly with wath we see under the tiles.

The wodden rail is also perfectl, projecting the broken pieces with the power of the Lycan movement, not only the sculpt of the columns is really exquisite and the texture is realistic, but the paint in the broken sections also helps to make everything looks much more natural.

Sir Galahad is really handsome, with the material used for his skin having a soft transparency and texture that looks like real skin, while his mustache, sideburns and lips carefully painted as well as his yellow eyes. Theres not much of an expression on his face tough and thats weird given the intensity of the scene, but he is really good looking.

His uniform is also really good looking with the metalic chest plate having a tiny little red cross n the center. I emand, even the small buttons on his jacket are both sculpted and painted perfectly as well as the lions motif on his shoulders and other different ornaments on his complex outfit, most parts are sculpted on blue and brown plastic soo everything looks pretty clean and this lets each detail stand out nicelly.

His back side is really spectacular looking too with leather belts and straps and some red mottifs with golden ornaments but also theres a small dagger and a granade that can be detached from his belts. Sadlly, he cant exchange them for his main weapon, but is a nice detail to be able to detach this small weapons and see how perfect is theyr sculpt from every side as well as the paint.

And for me, the Lycan is really the central star here and is really beautifully horrible and disturbing. The face expression full of fury with the protunding yellow fangs is amazing but even more amazing sre the little wrinkles that forms around the muscles of hus jaw, checkbones, forehead, nose and the texture of almost rott meat on bis skin, the veins under his almost rransparent skin, a mastefull mix of sculpt and paint, the looks of this creature is terrifiying natural and realistic.

The whole body matches the quality of his fac as well since you can see the muscle structure barelly covered by very tigth skin, with the veins sculpted on his arms and legs as well as the bony structure on his hips and center of the abdomen, revealing a canin physical structure mixed with human features. Theres some flap and soft skin here and there mixing with some hairy sections.

For a werewolf he is not that hairy but he matches perfectly the concept of one of this crature: a fusion between beats and human that is not one or the other but something totally inuque, a monster, an aberration. The cool and very sharp claws as well as the big animal feet are deffinetly my favorite part, but the whole image is acentuated by the spray f blood coming from his mouth, driping on his shoulder as well as covering his claws, a pretty intense and vibrant red that stand out agains his brownish skin.

Some brown sections may need a softer transition, but over all the whole production of the lycan is pretty amazing with soo many different colors here, some browns, some grey, even some purple in the articulations mix to create a pretty unique skin look that almost looks like a corpse.

Again, i am pretty impresed Sony added this figure to the game since, sold as a stand alone figure from Pure Arts site this figure would cost a fortune and theres no way to complaing, since every part of this figure matches a 3 numbers price perfectly.

This is one of the most spectacular examples of the golden age of videogames collectors edition and while no one remember this game anymore, this peice is excelent for any horro themed display thanks to the powerfull scene it shows as well as his trully menacing and firghtning this lupin monster is.

KESSLER WOLF

 

Its almost christmas and wath a better way to celebrate than with monsters and horror, really this season is getting some amazing figures that reminds a lot the 23 years old line called Movie Maniacs. That line give us the monsters from the best horror films from the 80s and 90s but while that line died in McFarlane´s hands long time ago, NECA surelly continue the tradition in a really spectacular way.

Just just fresh from the Comicon here it is the Kessler Wolf, the monster from An American Werewolf in London, one of the best and most disturbing and memorable horror and wolfmen movies along side Dog Soldier and The Howling. And this is the best time to release action figures based on this movie since is the 40th anniversary of the film.

This monster is MASIVE....the box that contains him is really huge and feels almost like a vehicle or a playset from a 90s toy line. In scale with all ther NECA figures he reaches the chest area of all other action figures, on all four since standing on two legs he wold be huge. He is articulated on the neck, torso, shoulders, elbows, wrists, half "hands", legs, knes, ankles and half feet. I am not sure of i should call them feet or hands or ankles at all since his legs have a totally different anatomy, lets just call them half the legs?

The articulations are extremelly sturdy and stiff since they need to bear the hevy weigth beast, but they can sotate and move pefectly except in the torso, the midle torso movement is really limited but really, while articulations are fantastic and perfect they are kinda useless. You can put this beast on any possition aside of standing on four since he is a big hound and his back legs are too small to sopport him and the good foolks at NECA fixed this by NOT ADDING A GODMAN BASE...

Even getting a generic base is extremelly difficult since not even Play Arts Kai bases can support the masive weigth of this hound.

He is made with hard plastic except his torso and the middle section in between his shoulders and head, a mane of soft plastic to cover the ball joint on his head. The sculpt is TERRIFIC.... really, the fur texture is extremelly well done as well as his huge head, the small eyes with the evil expression and huge fangs protunding agresivelly out of his mouth.

The paint aplication is just FANTASTIC, just as good as the sculpt. There is an awfull lot of colors here, not just brown. There is different tones of brown to highlight the volume of the fur but there is also black shadows in strategic places and well as blue tones on his face. All this colors mix perfectly and looks incrediblly natural, even his blue feet dosnt looks out of place, they looks really organic.

His orange and brigth eyes, his yellow teeth, his weet gums and lips, the paint job is 100% perfect and looks like a museum replica of the wolf animatronic from the movie.

His only accesory is an extra head that cna be exchanged pretty easy and showcase his open mouth. If the closed mouth looks is already demonic and figthning, his open mouth is even more stuning and nightmarish since his fangs are covered in fresh blood and his tongue and palate have such a realistic texture and color. Really, you can count every single tooth on his mouth and each one is sculpted and painted independently.

I have to say, unlike the Dog Alien and Rino Alien, Kessler Wolf dosnt have too many pose options and feels really static, but i am impresed by the sky high quality on movement, sculpt and paint. There is literally no difference between this and the prototype and that is quiet a feat not many companys accomplish, specially at this range price.

They also released the nigthmare demon wolf from the movie but i am happy just with Kessler, i never dream having action figures from that particular movie. NECA is working on the monster from The Thing too but i am excited to see wath other monsters they release, i am already extremelly tired of Jason´s, Freddy´s, Chucky´s and Pennywise´s.

WEREWOLF

 

At the end of the last century McFarlane Toys was changing the landscape of figure collecting first with his Spawn line, and secondlly releasing pretty controvertial figures like the Movie Maniacs line, based n monsters from cinema. But before that was the McFarlane Monsters, a serires of play sets of the Universal Monsters redesigned by Spawn´s father.

As a kid i loved this play sets to death. I loved the Dracula set and while i wasnt very thrilled by Frankenstein simplcity, the Werewolf was trully an spectacular set for me since it touched the same cords Dracula did: displaying a pretty traiditional horror landscape with a disturbing twist and some gore.

The central piece of the set, the Wolf himself is bigger than Dracula and he is pretty damn awesome, with his long torso and supernaturally shaped claws, he looks really twisted in a cartoony way but the sciulpt and paint was detailed enough to give him a weird realstic nature. 

He is articulated on the legs, waist, head and shoulders but all of them are simple cut joints, the standar articulation from the 90s. The sculpt is amazing, again, every muscle and the fur on his back, his small head and huge animal feet and the torn clothes, this is actually a much better looking design for a Werewolf than the big scale action figure McFarlane did in 2002.

And the paint is just as good as the sculpting, with different browns to give him a pretty good volume. The opposite of the spectrum is the secondary figure: Richard, a huntsman using a generic outfit with a brigth orange vest, gloves and cap. And he is soo generic, bald, with a mustache and glases, but the sculpt is soo funky, his hands soo big and he have no neck at all....and of course, the paint is as muddy and shaddy as the sculpt.

He cant stand at all and he can barelly keep his weapon on his hands and not even his cap fits on his head...he is an incrediblly frustrating little figure that looks extremelly boring and he is not articulated....or is he? Actually, he can be dismembered completelly, lose one of his legs, his two arms and his head revealing his bones. Pretty cartoony bones but still, theres is gore in here somehow.

All the removable sections can be moved around tough it dosnt help to make him posable since his only propuse is to be the victim of the savage hunger of the wolf, being dismembered by him and nothing more.

And how we know his name? At the side of the display base there is a plaque that reads "Richard He Deserved what he got!". A pretty nice detail that can be a little creppy at times, like why is he bing killed by a Werewolf over his own tomb? It was destiny or hes actually a ghost? I love how this playsets have this tiny details are allround.

The set consist on a path in a forest tough this is no pretty path with pasture and flowers arund, the soil is dry and muddy, there is no green in here eccept for a dry, dead and hollow tree on the side. The sculpt and painting of the base is gritty and matches perfectly the horror setting and the tree looks pretty natural too. The road is inclined soo is extremelly difficult to put Richard on it but the Werewolf looks spectacular on top of it.

The tree can be open and Richard can be hanged inside with the help of a hole on his back and a peg. Of course he fits inside once he lose his limbs. Open the secret door on the tree and there he is, hanging with his arms and head liying around, like some kind of butcher basement.

Is cool to think that the Werewolf is soo smart to store his food like this, i mean, he is part human, he must be smarter than your average wolf. The sight is pretty gruesome, tough as a kid i really loved it.

I really dont know if i like this playset more than Dracula. I hate Richard but everything else is pretty impresive tough i can say i like this design much more than the later version McFarlane released in 2002. And i like it more than the playsets that i am misisng on my collectiob, Frankenstein and Quasimodo (i never liked the Hunchback as part of the Monsters line up).