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Packaging - ***1/2
NECA uses what is now the fairly industry standard clamshell packaging. It's sturdy, but can be tough to store for the MOCers. Still, they'll be happy that it lasts a long time, doesn't require a lot of care in handling, and is not going to get musty or suffer from water damage in a flood.
It will require a knife to open though, and there's a fair share of twisties,
but nothing crazed. The insert is attractive and character specific, a big plus.
Sculpt - Frank, Freddy ***1/2; Leatherface, Tallman ***
While none of these sculpts completely blew me away, they were all solid,
and a couple were better than I expected from early photos.
I hadn't expected to be real keen on Freddy, since I already have about 3
more than the number of stars in the sky. But it turns out that this
might be the best sculpt of the bunch, with an excellent job on the wounded
head and skeletal hands. The long coat looks terrific, and there's
nice detail in the sweater, with the correct textures on the stripes.
The boots look great, and this dynamic pose is my favorite overall Freddy
pose to this point.
Frank the Bunny's sculpt is might fine as well. There's a ton of
furry goodness in the suit detail, with a different texture and feel to the
mask itself. This is probably the most anticipated figure of the line,
and the sculpt (at least of the masked figure) shouldn't disappoint.
Unfortunately for both of these figures, the paint application gets in
the way of what might have been four star sculpts.
The biggest surprise for me was Leatherface. I'm not a huge fan of
his effeminate dinner face, but have to admit that they captured it
well. The pose is also better than I expected, once you get him out
and straighten him up. The 'turned to the side' appearance in the
package doesn't do much for him, but once he's out on his base and facing
forward, in a running pose, he looks ten times better. He would have
ended up at with another half point, had the hair been a tad closer to the
source material. Instead, it looks like he's Brad Pitt, who spent $500
on a stylist to get his hair looking messy.
Finally, there's the Tallman. Phantasm is a true cult favorite, and
I was really looking forward to this character based on the prototype
photos. Unfortunately, he doesn't live up to the expectation.
The head sculpt is a little rough, and he suffers from serious 'loomis'
arms, with very thin biceps. The sculpt isn't God awful, but when you
go in expecting the thing of beauty that we had in the prototype, and then
end up with a sculpt that's only slighty better than the average bear,
you're always disappointed.
Tallman and Frank both stand without their bases, but both Freddy and
Leatherface require them to stay upright. Hand sculpts are designed to
hold accessories where appropriate, and are generally done in interesting
poses as well.
Scale is a tad wonky though. Tallman, at about 8 1/4", is
definitely tall. The other three are all about 7 - 7 1/4" tall
though, which makes Freddy way too big compared to Leatherface.
Paint - Freddy, Tallman ***; Leatherface **1/2; Frank **
I don't think I've said this quite often enough - a great paint job can make
a mediocre sculpt shine, and a lousy one can make even Michelangelo's work
look like crap. This series is an excellent example.
Freddy's not bad, with only one minor annoyance really. The gloss
on the arms is much shinier than the jacket itself. It's not a major
issue, but it did bug me. The gloss on the pants might turn off some
folks, but I believe he wore leather pants in the film, so that's what they
were going for.
In general, the rest of his work is good. His eyes aren't perfectly
on center with each other, but unless you take a photo of him like I did,
you aren't probably going to notice. The masking was fairly good, with
little over spray or bleed, and there are a fair number of paint operations.
The Tallman isn't awful either, but has a handful of minor issues.
The hairline is a bit sloppy around the sideburns, his suit (which was
definitely not leather) is a tad too shiny, and the skin tone on his face is
a little too uneven. But he still deserves ***.
Leatherface doesn't have any real slop, and the uneven tone of his face
is on purpose, since he's wearing someone else's. The small detail
work is pretty good, but the eyes were also off just a tad. But he has
a problem that many other NECA figures tend to have - over use of the
techniques of dry brushing and paint wash.
These two techniques are used to bring out highlights. Dry brushing
(which is poor Frank's problem) brings out the high points, while washes
darken the low points. Leatherface's white shirt has way too much
wash, going from a highlight to excessive. His jacket and pants also
suffer from too much drybrushing, and end up looking a little too much like
a frosted donut.
But his frosting isn't nearly as bad as poor Frank. This is a guy
that was at the donut factory when it exploded. He reminds me of that
I Love Lucy episode where she got into a flour fight with Ethel in the
kitchen.
Okay, it's not quite that bad, but it's not good. Rather than bring
out the detail, it becomes distracting and over the top. The wash on
his shoes is so heavy it ends up obscuring the details of the sculpt, rather
than bring them out.
On another note, Leatherface is also overly glossy, similar to Tallman.
Not sure what's up with that - at least Freddy's pants make sense.
Articulation - Freddy ***; Leatherface, Tallman **1/2; Frank **
These aren't meant to be superposeable. They have enough articulation to get them in one or two interesting movie-like poses, and then sit on the shelf.
Frank has the least joints, with only the ball jointed neck and cut
shoulders. He also has cut ankles, but the are almost completely
restricted by the sculpt. He looks good in one pose, and one pose
only.
The Tallman also has the ball jointed neck, always a big plus, along with
ball jointed shoulders, cut wrists, cut waist, and cut ankles. In fact, his
feet are removable, and come off his body in the package, since he's too
tall to fit otherwise. Some additional arm articulation would have
been nice, since the ball jointed shoulders don't do you much good without
an elbows.
Leatherface also has that ball jointed neck - praise the Lord! - along
with ball jointed shoulders, cut elbows, cut wrists and a cut waist.
There's no leg articulation, but the arm and ball jointed neck work really
adds to the figure. He is also very capable of holding the chainsaw in
both hands.
Freddy is the most articulated, with the ball jointed neck, ball jointed
shoulders, cut elbows, cut wrists, cut waist, and cuts at the top of both
boots.
Accessories - ***1/2
The Cult Classics line is doing a great job of adding in interesting and
cool accessories.
Each figure comes with a base. For Leatherface, it's some sandy
ground with a couple plants sticking up. His feet attach easily, and
it holds him up great. It has nice detail work, and really adds to the
appearance of the figure. He also has a armadillo with him, which
sports a great sculpt and paint job, but seems a tad too small to be in
scale. He also comes with his bloodied chainsaw, which fits nicely in
his hands. The mask is NOT removable - trust me, I tried. You
can get it off, but there' little sculpting beneath.
The Tallman's base is the portal thingamabob from the film. It's a
tad plain, but it was in the flick as well. He also has one of his
nasty balls and a very cool evil minion figure. The little guy (who is
about 4" tall) has cut shoulders and wrists AND a ball jointed neck all
his own!
Freddy has two heads, with *slightly* different sculpts. And I mean
slightly. I'm not sure what the point was of giving us two heads so
close in sculpt, and it really doesn't add much to the package. I do
love his base though, with the swirling snakes and busted up column.
He also has his hat of course, and it fits pretty easily on either
head. Ah, and let's not forget the script, with tiny print you can
even read!
Frank the Bunny has his extra head as well, and the sculpt is pretty
decent. The work on the missing eye is particularly realistic and
gruesome. However, this head is MUCH smaller than the prototype
version, almost to the point of pinhead size. After playing around
with it awhile, I decided that it's not so much the size of the head that's
off, but the size of the neck. Anyone in a suit, especially a big
furry suit, always looks like they have a small head when the pull off the
mask. Think about it for a minute, picture someone maskless in a fur
suit, and you'll know what I mean.
But the neck that this head is supposed to connect to is ginormous.
I could barely get the head to fit on the post, and the difference between
the head and neck was really obvious to the eye. Add to that a very
different skin color between the neck and head, and you get a very odd
appearance.
Frank also comes with a terrific base, showing the mailbox of Roberta's
house, along with the rocky yard. The mailbox sculpt is fantastic, with
lots of cool weathering, and the door opens up. There's a letter for
dear Roberta that can slip right inside as well.
Fun Factor - **
None of these is designed to be a toy, so this score won't reflect in the overall with any real weight. Still, if you were thinking your five year old might have a good time with Leatherface, I'd rethink it.
Value - **1/2
Expect to pay around $12 each for these, which is pretty much the average going rate of the specialty market movie based action figure these days.
Things to watch out for -
Be careful popping the heads on and off for Freddy and Frank, as they are
all quite tight on the posts. Other than that, I didn't have any
concerns.
Overall - Freddy ***1/2; Leatherface, Tallman ***; Frank
**1/2
I was surprised that once I considered everything, Freddy was the best
figure of this set. I hadn't expected that, so it kind of snuck up on
me. But the sculpt is great, I love the pose and base, and the paint
ops work the best.
Leatherface turned out better than I expected, and if he hadn't had the
overdone paint applications, he would have scored another half star
higher. He looks better in the running pose once he's out of the
package, and the sculpt is good, if you can get past the hair.
The Tallman and Frank were disappointments to me. Not so much that
they won't take their place on the shelf with my other movie figures, oh
no. But considering the high hopes I had for both, they didn't come
close to living up to them.
The Tallman sculpt simply didn't survive the process from prototype to
final product in tact, and Frank's paint job turned what appears to be a
fantastic sculpt into an average figure at best.
SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpt - Frank, Freddy ***1/2; Leatherface ***; Tallman **1/2
Paint - Freddy, Tallman ***; Leatherface **1/2; Frank **
Articulation - Freddy ***; Leatherface, Tallman **1/2; Frank **
Outfit - ***
Accessories - ***1/2
Fun Factor - **
Value - **1/2
Overall - Freddy ***1/2; Leatherface, Tallman ***; Frank **1/2
Where to Buy -
There's plenty of online opportunities - here are some good ones:
- omgcnfo.com has the individual figures for $10.50 each. They also have preorders up at that price for series 3.
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