Apparently
this is “Old Toy Month”.
NECA’s
“Ultimate” Freddy Krueger came out last December and I just never
got around to reviewing him. Sometimes even though I might really dig
a new toy, I have trouble getting motivated to do a review. I sold
off all of my Pacific
Rim
toys recently and barely reviewed any of those. Although to be honest
I think it was a lack of excitement over them. I love that movie and
the toys were beautiful, but I think that NECA might not have been
the best company to make them. Pacific
Rim is
about monsters and mechs beating the shit out of each other, but
those were some “toys” that were equally fragile and dangerous.
You could kill someone with the sharp points on the Kaiju and if you
did more than blow gently on the Jaegers pieces would fall (or break)
off. I would much rather have had toys that could actually be played
with from Hasbro or Mattel. Or heck, even JAKKS probably could have
offered up some kickass figures. They would have been huge, at least.
Even
though it’s the original sweater that started it all (or whatever)
and it’s canon and blah, blah, blah – I do not like this version
of the sweater. It will never stop bothering me that the arms look
unfinished. And obviously I’m right, because they fucking
changed it in all of the other movies.
But otherwise this figure looks fantastic and comes with a bunch of
critical Freddy goodies, so I had to get it.
Freddy
is a bit more posed than I thought he’d be. NECA has progressed far
beyond the statues with five points of articulation they used to
make, and this figure certainly isn’t that, but the specific shape
of his sweater, the angle of his hips, and the slant of his shoulders
mean this figure won’t ever have a truly “neutral” pose.
Freddy
is a very kinetic character with a specific style and body language,
so maybe it would be wrong to have a regular figure without these
things, but that’s kind of what I was expecting.
The
box is quite fancy, as the packaging for these releases from NECA
tends to be. The front panel is the art from the one sheet for the
original movie. It’s one of my favorite horror movie posters ever
and I’m always happy to see it. This panel opens up to reveal the
figure and accessories behind a window. I love the sweater print on
this side; the picture of the figure on the opposite panel less so.
I’m not a fan of pictures of action figures on packaging unless
it’s the rest of the line on the back. I’d much rather see
concept art or something.
The
back features more pictures of the figure and a synopsis of the
movie. It all looks good enough that I can almost excuse figure pics.
I love the flame motif recurring in the graphics.
Freddy
comes with three heads, but for this section I’m going to talk
about the one that comes attached to the figure in the box – let’s
call it the stock head. I’ll cover the others in a bit.
The
stock head is easily the best Freddy Krueger head sculpt I’ve seen.
Even considering the sixth scale versions and McFarlane’s 18”
inch figures, this one is incredible. The look of a burn victim has
never been captured better. The scarring has so much depth and
definition it’s almost painful to look at. The flesh looks as
though it’s been melted and stretched to the breaking point. The
paint is also fantastic, with more hues and washes than I can count.
Freddy’s eyes are perfectly applied with glossy paint and both
irises looking in the same direction, slightly askance.
The
sweater isn’t quite as perfect. The sculpt looks very good – the
trim around the neck, waist, and shoulders is a larger knit than the
rest of the sweater. I particularly like the folded over cuff on the
left hand. The smaller knit that is on the body of the sweater looks
great. It flows with the folds and hang of the garment.
Here
are the things I don’t like about the sweater:
The
stripes are not painted on well. The edges of the paint apps do not
line up with the edges of the sculpt. Also, the green looks less like
there’s aging than like it just wasn’t applied well.
I
can’t find a lot of good reference pictures of this sweater from
the movie – there are a shit-ton more pictures of the all-striped
sweater – but the ones I can find seem to show that the lack of
knit on the arms is incorrect. I can’t imagine this is an
oversight, so NECA must have had good reason for producing the figure
this way, but it doesn’t look right to me.
The
glove is remarkable and is the best one I’ve seen at this scale. No
detail is overlooked. The basics are here – the blades connected to
the plates and the rivets holding it all together. But NECA also
nailed the glove itself. It has the holes in the palms and fingers
that you’d be forgiven for not noticing. And the paint is
excellent. The metal portions look aged and the glove sees positively
ancient. Pose-wise, if you’re only going to include one gloved
hand, this is the one.
The
trousers have a great worn look thanks to a light wash over the
black. The seams and folds add a lot and look just like the baggy
pants Englund wore in the movie.
The
shoes are chock full of details. The treads are intricate and the top
portions have stitiching and laces with wonderful definition.
Freddy
comes with two additional heads, a hat, a face, an extra left hand,
and a telephone.
The
first extra head is smilin’ Freddy. Though not seen much in this
movie, it is the expression most people are probably more familiar
with. The sculpt and paint are just as good as the stock head, with
the addition of grody yellow teeth.
The
other extra head features the most grotesque skull I have ever seen
on an action figure. Which I just realized also looks very much like
the skull in the movie poster. This thing is straight-up nasty. The
line where Freddy’s flesh has been torn away to reveal the skull is
so well-defined and gross.
The
heads all switch out easily and stay put.
The
face is super creepy. The paint and sculpt are excellent, but it
looks fake. But that’s what it looks like in the movie. So it
works.
If
you’re making a Freddy Krueger action figure, the fedora is just as
important as anything else. This couldn’t be just some hat. And it
isn’t. The sculpt suggests years of wear. The paint is subtle, but
adds just the right amount of extra texture. This piece fits
perfectly on all of the heads and stays nicely.
The
extra hand is missing two fingers, because there’s a scene where
Freddy lops his digits right off and it’s disgusting. The hands
switch out easily.
I don’t specifically remember Freddy being full
of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Slime Pit/quarter machine ooze, but
now I’m thinking that and “Oozin’ Freddy” figure would be a
great idea. Get on that, NECA.
The
phone represents one of the most horrifying and effective scares ever
in horror. It looks fantastic and the paint is wonderful. Freddy’s
tongue is suitably nauseating. But as great as this thing looks, it’s
missing one thing – Nancy. I understand the desire to make this
accessory, but now I am never going to feel complete as a human being
without an Ultimate Nancy Thompson action figure.
Dammit,
NECA. WTF?
While
nothing will ever top the fun of the Freddy action figure from The
Dream Master,
this one is pretty great. It’s loaded with meaningful articulation,
and while it isn’t as poseable as a Marvel Legends figure, this is
Freddy Krueger, not effin’ Spider-Man.
Memo
to Myself: Draw Freddy Krueger as Spider-Man.
The
arms have a wide range thanks to ball-jointed shoulders (that mesh
very nicely into the holes on the torso) and elbows with swivels and
pivots.
The
legs also have a nice range, though the ankles could have been better
(which is the case with almost every ankle NECA produces going back
to the days of the infamous rubber feet).
The
figure itself would be good enough, but the wealth of accessories add
tons of play value. The figure can interact with most of them and
they’re all ghastly fun. This figure is leaps and bounds ahead of
McFarlane’s and I’d even put it up against one of the
super-articulated Japanese figures (if one exists) because the joints
don’t look like ass.
I
would love to say that this figure is a must-have, but if you’re
like me and prefer a fully striped Freddy this is only going to annoy
you. It’s not NECA’s fault, it’s Wes Craven’s. I’m also not
thrilled with the posed portions of the sculpt and the arms that lack
texture, though I can’t find any proof that that’s “wrong”.
If
you need any and every Freddy or just want one that can move around,
this is for you and you won’t be disappointed. But it wouldn’t
surprise me one bit if we see an updated version at some point with a
better sweater and even more outrageous accessories.
And
hopefully a Nancy.
4
out of 5
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