Happy Halloween and welcome to the latest spooky toy
review of the season on Needless Things!
Freddy Krueger is my favorite of the horror movie “slashers”.
He’s the only one that had a real personality and I latched onto that when I
was a kid. Also, he was using the whole supernatural gimmick before the rest
and I found that much more interesting than “big, scary dude in a mask”. Don’t get
me wrong – I love Jason and Michael and Leatherface and could write whole posts
about how great they are, but Freddy is my guy.
Anytime NECA announces one of these new Freddy figures, I sort of sigh and set about the task of figuring out how important which features are and how it compares to the ones I already own. Dream Warriors is my favorite movie from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, so this one bore a bit more scrutiny.
Or at least, that’s what you’d think. It turns out the
only Dream Warriors Freddy I have is
the one from McFarlane’s Movie Maniacs line, and it’s a little questionable as
to whether that one really is or not. It’s labeled as being from the first
movie and includes that poster, but Freddy’s sweater has green stripes on the
sleeves and the marionette from Part 3
is included. Regardless of that figure’s place in continuity, it simply doesn’t
hold up to the figures that NECA is releasing today. I’ll always love that
Movie Maniacs release for what it is, but as far as quality Freddys go, it doesn’t
make the cut.
So to speak.
The one I’m reviewing today is loading with accessories
and has plenty of articulation. Plus, it’s a product of NECA’s current crop of
sculptors and designers, so the quality was sure to be solid. Twenty-five bucks
seemed a little steep, but once I saw it in the store I had to grab one. I’m
glad I did, because I went back the next day and they were all gone.
FIRST
GLANCE
A great-looking Freddy with a heck of a paint job. Not
only does the figure stand out, the accessories all appear to have strong paint
apps. And I’m always a fan of Freddy with a removable hat.
PACKAGING
NECA has gone with the simplest and most appealing
package style for its ongoing line of “Ultimate” figures. The front panel
features the Dream Warriors movie
poster, which is one of my all-time favorite movie posters. It opens up to
reveal a picture of the figure and also the figure itself in a nice window box.
NECA tends to use pictures of the toys on the packaging
and I don’t get it. I’d much rather see a picture of Robert Englund from the
scene being depicted than this picture of the toy. The same goes for the back
of the box. I’d prefer a reference to the movie itself over just a picture of
the thing that I’m buying. I don’t really understand why they do it this way.
Regardless, this is a nice box with an overall fantastic design. When you buy one of these, you do feel like you’re getting a deluxe action figure.
LOOKS
Freddy Kruger is a burned, disgusting mess and NECA didn’t
shy away from sculpting him as such. This one doesn’t have as strong a Robert
Englund likeness as the A
Nightmare on Elm Street Ultimate Freddy,
but the makeup changed quite a bit as the series progressed and Englund’s face
was more obscured later on. The bottom line is that the sculpting is incredible
here and that there’s no doubting that this is Freddy.
There are at least three different colors on the skin
alone. All of the twisted, burst flesh is as vivid as I’ve ever seen on a
Freddy figure. The eyes are centered nicely with a bit of black around the
edges to bring them out. Freddy’s teeth are a horror show. I don’t even like
looking at them (and I meant that in a complimentary way).
This sweater is the one everyone knows. The sculpt of the
knit looks great. The alternating red and green stripes are placed well and the
painted green is thick enough to look good. By the third movie the creators
knew that this sweater was a Pop Culture Thing, so they were playing up the
look and making it stand out. This figure reflects that.
The shape of the torso has the same slant as the last
figure and now I’ve decided I like it. If you burn, your flesh twists and melts
and pops. Once it cools down or gets to whatever state Freddy is supposed to
exist in, it isn’t going to fit the same. So that slant to Freddy’s shoulders
might not be attitude or a pose. He probably just can’t stand any other way
thanks to his melted skin. Gross, I know, but there it is.
The front portion of the sweater is removable so that you
can swap it for the “chest of souls” accessory. I like the idea, but the
execution has left the figure – mine, anyway – with unsightly gaps at the
shoulders.
There might be a hairdryer solution for this. I haven’t messed with it too much yet because I think I’m going to end up displaying the other chest and it doesn’t have this problem.
There might be a hairdryer solution for this. I haven’t messed with it too much yet because I think I’m going to end up displaying the other chest and it doesn’t have this problem.
Speaking of hairdryers, Freddy’s glove is a fucking mess.
It’s made out of rubber, so of course the blades were going to get warped.
Somehow the pinky and ring fingers are fine, but the pointer and middle finger
blades are all warped like the fingernails of those crazy people that don’t ever
cut them. I heated them up, but they warped back some. I suppose I’m going to
have to boil this thing. Fortunately, it looks fantastic. The sculpt is
incredibly detailed, with the metal plates standing out nicely and the inside
looking particularly impressive. NECA got all of those little details. The
paint is all spot-on.
Freddy’s trousers are just black trousers with some nice
details, but those shoes look great. The stitching and soles are well defined
and there’s a wash of dark paint to make them look grimy and old. Even the
eyelets are painted.
ACCESSORIES
This Freddy comes with a “chest
of souls”, Kritsten’s papier-mâché model of the Elm Street house, Freddy’s hat,
two syringe hands, an extra screaming head, and Phillip’s marionette with a
stand.
The chest of souls looks
fantastic. The sculpt is great and the paint matches the rest of the figure.
There’s no difference in the sweater colors between this and the main body. It
switches out fairly easily and on my figure this one fits better than the
default chest. When this one is plugged in, it looks like it’s just how the
figure came.
The house has a ton of sculpted detail. Shortcuts could
have been taken, but weren’t. The thing is clearly made of popsicle sticks. The
shite portion has a wash that gives it the look of papier-mâché and the red
door and green parts are intentionally amateurish. I love that NECA is making
things like this and the tongue phone, but I’d love to have Nancy and Kristen
figures to go with them. Heck, I’d buy figures of everyone from Dream Warriors, even Nancy’s dad.
The syringe hands are rubber
like the default glove hand, but the syringes have more substance than the
blades and didn’t get all bent up. They look great and even have translucent
tubes. The left hand is easy to switch out, but the glove hand is a real pain
in the ass. There’s a barbell that connects the hand to the arm and the hand
connection is so tight that it tends to pop out with the hand. I shouldn’t need
the hairdryer every time I want to switch these hands, but I do.
The extra head is glorious. It’s Freddy screaming as he dies or is banished or whatever it is that happens to him at the end of every movie. The sculpt is great, but the glorious part is that the cross on his forehead is clear plastic that connects to a larger clear piece in the back of his head:
That’s right – NECA put
light piping in Freddy’s head so that the cross can light up like it does in
the movie! I wish they’d used a more solid plastic for the rest of the head,
though, because if you get a bright enough light source to make the cross look
good the whole head lights up.
Still, “A” for effort. I love light piping when it’s done right and this is close.
Still, “A” for effort. I love light piping when it’s done right and this is close.
The marionette looks much better than the McFarlane version. It has three points of articulation and a little stand so that it can stay upright. I love it.
FUN
Freddy has ball joints at the head, shoulders, waist, and
hips. The knees and elbows are hinged with swivels at the top. The hands are on
barbells and have a very tiny degree of motion, but mostly just swivel. Same
goes for the feet except that they’re restricted by the trouser legs. Which is
fine.
The elbows don’t have a ton of bending range. They can’t even
make it to ninety degrees. The knees bend a little deeper, but without ankle
joints there isn’t much point.
The head isn’t actually so much a ball joint as a peg on
a stick. It swivels just fine, obviously, but doesn’t have a whole lot of range
otherwise.
But you do still have a whole heck of a lot more posing
options than most other Freddy Krueger action figures, and plenty of
interactive accessories. The removable hat is awesome enough, but once you add
in the hands and head and chest options you’ve got a veritable plethora of
options for playing with ol’ Fred.
OVERALL
I’m still looking forward to that sweet spot where the
Robert Englund likeness and the costume are both at their peaks (I think it’ll
be for The Dream Child), but this is
a great action figure of my favorite slasher from my favorite installment in
his franchise. They hit the right accessory sweet spots and aside from a few
issues put out a figure that fits the “Ultimate” description.
4
out of 5
If you want one, buy from Amazon and help Needless Things
pay the bills!:
Nice review. I already have the 30th anniv Freddy from NECA, but this one and the New Nightmare versions are both tempting.
ReplyDeleteI saw the New Nightmare Freddy in TRU the other day. I didn't want to spend $22 on him, but now I'm kind of regretting it. I think I'm gonna stop in today on the way home. I need to check for the new Joes again, anyway.
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