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Packaging - ****
The box is huge and impressive, and is easily one of the best looking
boxes they've produced for the premium format line. The outer
cardboard shell is fairly thick and heavy, but slips on and off much easier
than some of the previous attempts. This sleeve has a slash across the
front showing the graphic on the inner box of Jason's face, and the Sideshow
Exclusive version has an interesting printing effect on all four sides,
showing some graphics and text only at a certainly angle.
There's plenty of text on the back as well, and both the box and the
bottom of the display base are numbered with the edition size and this
particular figure's number.
Sculpting - ****
This sucker is huge. Really huge. It's hard to impress on you
his sheer mass until you have him in hand. He stands a whopping 21
inches from boot bottom to head top, and dwarves just about everything
else. I have a shot of him below with the recent 20" scale
Gandalf from NECA (who isn't standing on a base so is already shorter), and
a regular 12" Highlander figure. You'll see a little of what I
mean, but until you actually see him in person, you won't really understand
how big he really is.
The entire body is polystone, and is sculpted with care. The torso,
although covered by clothing, is still sculpted including wounds and
damage. The legs and arms are not sculpted for naked realism, but
clothed realism, so the structure follows the clothing pattern. This
makes the tailoring of the clothes that much better, and less likely to
appear baggy or poor fitting.
The hands, head and boots are what it's all about though, and here they
did an excellent job. The exclusive has the left hand sculpted holding
the hilt of the machete, into which you slip the all metal blade. The
right hand is sculpted holding Freddy's head, and features his sliced off
fingers as well.
The boot sculpt is good, with a nice realistic appearance, accented by
the paint. This head sculpt is based on the Freddy vs. Jason film,
which we never actually saw on screen. However, this is what he looked
like under the mask. It's not my favorite design (I much prefer the
zombie appearance from part 7), but you can't fault the exceptional
sculpting. The fine detail is quite amazing, especially in the teeth
and mouth. You have to see the teeth up close and in person to realize
just how realistic they appear.
There are several tufts of hair coming off the back of the sculpt, and
these are attached well with little change to fall off without putting some
effort into it. There are a number of gashes and cuts added to the
sculpt, again coming from his big battle scene with Freddy.
The exclusive also has this Freddy head sculpt, with grotesquely severed
neck. Freddy appears to be looking up at Jason, yelling obscenities at
him as he is hoisted along. Again, the realism of the eyes and teeth
is really quite remarkable and somewhat creepy.
Paint - ***1/2
The paint ops on this statue is what really makes it come alive. I
downgraded it slightly from four stars for a couple minor issues, but that
shouldn't diminish the fact that there really is some outstanding work here.
The mottling of the skin on Jason's head is excellent, with an almost
lizard or snake like appearance without the scales There's buckets of
blood of course, and all of it is the shiny, bright red kind, not the flat
dull kind. Much of the blood also has a black thickness to it, like
the blood from major organs. Ewww. No complaints there.
My major issue is with the skin tone on Freddy, which appears much whiter
than I had expected. Perhaps it's the dark color of Jason's skin, or
the dark color of the blood running down Freddy's face, but whatever the
case, his own skin tone seems much more pale than it should be.
The mud and dirt work added to the boots is good, but the blood on the
machete doesn't work quite as well as it does on the various body
parts. Here it looks much more like paint, perhaps because if it was
that thick in real life, it would be dripping off left and right.
Accessories - ***
Jason comes with three accessories, technically - his heavy display base,
his mask, and his machete.
The machete is rusted and covered in blood, and is made from actual
metal. It's quite heavy, and the hilt is actually sculpted into his
hand, so that you slide the metal tab from the machete into the hilt for
display. That works fine, and seems quite sturdy. I'm not sure I
like the tilt of the left hand when holding the machete as much as the
regular version, but I can sacrifice that for the cool head in his right
hand.
The mask is based on the Freddy vs. Jason film as well of course, and has
the deep cuts and gashes sculpted right in. The leather straps fit
tightly on his head, but you should be careful putting it on and taking it
off to avoid scratching the face paint. It fits fairly well, but not
quite as snugly as I'd like.
The display base is very heavy, solid polystone, and his back (left) boot
has a square metal peg that fits inside. The fit is tight, and it will
keep him standing indefinitely. The base is done like wood planks,
similar I suppose to the docks where this battle occurred.
Articulation - Bupkis
I'm not going to be taking anything off the overall score due to the lack of
articulation, but it's worth noting it in case you were expecting the same
wire armature that older quarter scale figures had. That's not here
this time around, and I don't think you can move either arm at all - but I
wasn't going to push it to snapping just to find out.
Outfit - ***
When I first saw this figure at a con of a Toy Fair, I was blown away by
the look of the clothing. Check out the prototype photos at Sideshow's
site and you'll see what I mean - they were scary in their realism.
The final product isn't quite as nice, and I was a little
disappointed. There's still a fair amount of distressing in the
clothing, but not as much, and what's here isn't as well done as the
prototype.
The fit of the outer jacket is a little off as well, although it's not a
major problem. The fit of the shirt, sweater and pants is excellent
though, and they've even lined up the outer cuts with the inner sculpted
wounds.
Value - **
I'm assuming you're paying the full $275 for this, since getting the
exclusive through Sideshow is about your only bet. If you buy the
regular version though, you can find it as cheap as $230 at some of my
sponsors.
These premium format figures are not inexpensive, but as high end display
pieces, they can't be beat. If you're looking for something to sit on
a shelf in a media room or home theater, this is the type figure you want.
Things to watch out for -
Be careful when placing the mask over his head or removing it, since you
could scratch the paint or damage the hair.
Overall - ***
He's not cheap, that's for sure, and there were a few minor issues with
the tailoring and the paint. Still, I'm very glad I have him, and
he'll look kickin' on the shelf next to the quarter scale Freddy.
If this one is out of your price range, NECA is producing an 18"
scaled Jason later this fall in the $40 range. The plastic jacket and
shirt just aren't going to have the same level of realism that actual cloth
does, but he'll be a lot more easy on the wallet - and he'll talk on top of
it.
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