Pennywise and Jason

Pennywise and Jason

NECA "IT" and "Friday the 13th Part V"

Ultimate Figures

Happy Halloween!  What better way to celebrate than with a pair of scary looking action figures on your Halloween mantel display?!  Neca's "ultimates" line may come with a higher price tag than most figures ($25-30) but you really do get all your money's worth and more in accessories and execution.  

I was going to stick with my 8-bit video game Jason from a few years back, but when I saw this one, I had to have it.  So many wonderful head/mask variations that I'll never need another!  Worms, dirt, blood, and even the dream sequence "Humungus Griswold" mask!  The dirty-wet shine on the figure really brings Jason to life...literally!  So much for that makeshift tombstone...Jason never dies!  You also get a machete, ax, ice pick, and an interchangeable, split-fingers hand.

 

While the new "IT" movie is far superior to the TV movie, you just can't forget Tim Curry as Pennywise.  You get four different heads: happy, frowny, "eat your arm off",  and "this is battery acid, you slime."  He also has hands appropriate for showcasing Georgie's boat, a noisemaker, and balloons.  The balloon effects really push this one over the top, with each plastic orb attached to a bendable cable that can support its weight and be posed different ways.  

With these figures hard to pass up, I find myself collecting more and more horror figures than I ever though I would.  Never sleep again...Ultimate Michael Myers and Dream Warriors Freddy is coming up next!

Star Wars Xcavations

Star Wars Xcavations

Uncle Milton

Celebrate the death of Star Wars by collecting the skulls of your favorite characters!  And do so under the guise of “education”. Ha!  You weren’t fooling anyone with that line back in 2006 with your traveling costume and prop show at the Museum of Science and Industry, Star Wars, and you aren’t fooling anyone now!

They’re 3-part, plastic skulls in kinetic sand.   There’s very little excavating to do:  pop the top on the box, flip over, and “plop.”  No hammer and chisel required.  Though you may need an old nail or toothbrush to help get the sand out of all the details of the skulls.










The skulls themselves are quite nice.  Highly detailed and good stand-ins with any 12-inch figure collection.  I don’t collect 12-inch Star Wars...3 3/4 inch figures forever!  Anyway, they could stand a nice black paint wash to help some of the sculpting stand out a bit more.

  

I threw the sand in the trash, but the space-techy crates they come in are keepers.  They will look nice with a variety of 3 3/4 and 6 inch figure collections...minus the embossed “Star Wars” logo on the top.  A sticker or some sand paper will fix that right up.

The first (and probably only) wave consists of Darth Maul, Jabba the Hutt, Salacious Crumb, Bossk, Greedo (Yes, I do know their species names.), and a Gammorean.  I think my favorite is Darth Maul.  Not because of his cool horns, but just the reminder that he is dead.  I guess some Gungans or Naboo workers at the Theed power plant fished this memento out of a core shaft during some routine maintance?  No, he did not survive the end of The Phantom Menace.  Accept it and move on.  He’s dead...your franchise is dead...move along...

Slimer Candy Bowl

Slimer Candy Bowl

Ghostbusters

Rubies Costume Company

So this isn't really a toy, but it is a nice display piece that works with any Ghostbusters collection.  I bought it for convention and event display tables for the Ghostbusters of the Ozarks.  It's made of a thick latex foam material that is pretty lightweight but should be durable enough as long as people don't outright try to pull his arms off or you overload the candy bowl with 5 lbs or more.  I wish it were more of a hard plastic shell to put my mind at ease...oh well, it wasn't all that expensive, coming in at under $30.  

Where it shines is the sculpt and paint.  Slimer stands at close to 20 inches tall, and the detailing on him...all the wrinkles, pustules, and blots..really makes him look like the real deal.  An ugly little spud, isn't he?  He may not be as big as movie Slimer, but he's gotta be close to the inconsistent scale of Real Ghostbusters Slimer.  Now, you do only get 2/3rds of him.  He's hollow in the back and really looks best backed up against a flat surface like he's phasing in.  It wasn't a deal breaker...even if you don't get to see his excellently huge, ghost butt.

 The bowl itself is pretty lame, made of a thin plastic like most disposable fast-food cups.  It fits firmly under Slimer's tongue and in his hands.  On it's first outing, it was a little windy, so it may need some counter weight in the hollow portion to keep it from tipping over.  Minus the wind, pretty sturdy...sturdy enough for a bag of cheap Dum Dums and a bag of green peppermints.

Oh, I forgot to mention...he glows in the dark!  Bonus!  Again, a great looking display piece that has been tested for the purpose he was made for.  And when he's not peddling candy, he can hold some of your smaller GB props.

Black Phillip

Black Phillip

from "The Witch"

Funko Pops

Appropriate...every time I purchase a Funko Pop I feel like I've sold out to the Devil.  I could have bought a goat pvc from Schleich and called it a day, but I just had to have the "official" merch.  How can you pass up merch from a movie like "The Witch?!"  You can't!  It's so weird that it even exists and it's just too sweet!   






























It's got a unique sculpt (for Funko Pops), bloody horns, a little apple, a base stand...Buy it! Who the hell doesn't like to live deliciously?!  You totally need it for your Halloween display, right? Just sign on the line and take Black Phillip home today!  Your kids will thank you!

Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors

Funko Pops

Let's get this over with...more stupid, license-grabbing landfill trash from Funko!  They've got their greedy hands on yet another one of your beloved properties!  And I bought them because there isn't much merch for this movie out there!  I wasn't going to pass up the only plastic toy version of Steve Martin...I love Steve Martin!

Anyway, they are what they are, and what they are is okay.  Funko at least had to put a bit more effort in sculpting the little Audrey II that Seymour is holding.  And the big Audrey II is quite the hunk of plastic...nothing hollow about the Mean Green Mother!  She is almost proportionate enough to fit in with some smaller figure lines.

To add to the annoyance of buying from Funko, they have a couple of variants that you will have to - 1) Shell out big bucks for on Ebay or some other scalper outlet

2) deal with your set being incomplete.

There is apparently a bloody, chase version of Audrey II and a baby Audrey II in the Maxwell House can that is a...oh, no...TARGET EXCLUSIVE?!  I HATE TARGET MORE THAN I HATE FUNKO!!

Gah!  If only I still had that old "Feed Me" game from Milton Bradley...maybe I could have resisted these.  Don't feed the plants, kids.

Ghostbusters P.K.E. Meter

P.K.E. Meter

Ghostbusters - Spirit Halloween

The third and final Ghostbusters costume/prop from Spirit Halloween arrived in my mail last week: the PKE meter.  I had ordered it sometime back with the trap, but from what I gather online, there was a bigger demand for this one.    Mattel's $60 version is hard to come by this days (especially for that price), so Spirit has made another decent quality prop that will fill that void nicely.  

Like the goggles and trap, you don't get all the bells and whistles you would from the higher dollar Mattel replicas.  You don't get to switch GB1/GB2 light patterns and there is no speed-control wheel this time.  However, you still get a decent light and sound show for $35.  The two silver button sets at the bottom activate the opening wings, blinks, and blips.  One button activates a continuing cycle from calm to extreme ghost detection that you can shut down by pressing it again.  The other offers the same cycle, no repeat, and then shuts down after it finishes.  At least, that's what I think it's supposed to do.  It came on a blister card with no real instructions, and some users have reported wing malfunctions and inactive lights.  

It sizes up pretty closely to the Matty release, but is a little more rounded here and there in it's general shape.  Like the Spirit trap, it has a plastic clip on the back for quick belt access.  For the purists, I have seen pictures online of how to take it apart and remove the clip from the inside.  There are a handful of great PKE holster ideas out there that can be purchased at most hardware or home goods stores.

I find it odd that both the Matty and Spirit PKE Meters do not replicate the sounds from the movie accurately.  Rights issue?  Not sure.  The substitute sounds aren't terrible, just not the same.  The Spirit one does have a kind of annoying "ambient sound" with its sfx.  

Even with it's detractors, I wouldn't pass up the Spirit PKE meter if you don't already have a different model.  (Hell, even if you do have one, can you really have enough GB gear?)  It's a great "close-enough" prop, especially at the price point.