Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Chucky
NECA
Michael Myers is back! Right in time for Hallowee...er...Christma...er...Valentine's Day! Jeez, NECA, what took so long? Better late than never, I am very pleased to have the top talent in the slasher field in my collection. And today he's joined by his good pals, Freddy Kruger and Chucky!
I bought Chucky on Ebay from China. Mistake? The price was right, but the quality is...iffy. There are some plastic flaws in the hands and parts of the heads leading me to believe this is a knock-off or partially stolen figure with know off parts. For the $16 I paid for it, it works. It's still got some great articulation and a large amount of accessories. It even came with the Good Guys box.
This version of Freddy is "Ultimate Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors" Freddy. That's a mouthful. I waited to add Freddy to my collection for this specific figure. Dream Warriors is easily the best of the series, and he's got some great accessories to showcase that: removable hat, hypodermic claws, alternate burned-in crucifix head, mini-puppet Freddy, "paper-mache-and-popsicle-stick" house, and an interchangeable torso cover with screaming soul faces. Gross and awesome at the same time! Man, the FX in that movie are top-notch 80s!
It took a long time for NECA to get Halloween back in their stable of horror icons. I think the last time they had the license was 2002 with their Reel Toys line...pretty rare and expensive these days. Patience pays off with this new ultimate figure. The modern articulation alone was worth the wait. They started with the new Halloween sequel Michael, which is fine by me. I mean, it's not like the
Shatner mask The Shape changed that much over time. I like the extra lines and dirtiness of it. They really did a good job with letting you see the eyes behind the mask...not a lot, but just enough to be creepy-cool.
You get some pretty gruesome accessories, my favorite being the severed, "jack-o-lantern" head. You can actually get Mike's fingers deep in those eye sockets, and the hole from base to mouth runs all the way through. Too gross? Well, he also comes with a traditional jack-o-lantern, complete with yellow light-up effect when you push down on the top.
You also get a couple sets of hands (the coolest missing a couple of fingers), and some murder weapons (fire poker, butcher knife, hammer.) The hammer is probably my weapon of choice...
my favorite "kill" from Halloween 2. There is an alternate Michael head included, but it's purpose is kind of a head scratcher. I noticed only slight differences: the eyes behind the mask aren't visible and the hair is less mussed.
These pretty much close out all my needs for my
small horror toy collection, unless NECA decides to release proper action figures that have been doomed to their crappy 8-inch clothed figure line. Joining
Captain Blake from the Fog, they're doing a set of the
Halloween 3 mask kids AND
Night of the Creeps Tom Atkins in this Mego throwback? LAME. And a set of aliens from They Live that will be out of scale with my multitude of Roddy Piper WWE figures? WEAK. Ugh, why are you doing this to the best of John Carpenter?! This 8-inch clothed trend is close to displacing my hate for Funko Pops!
"Me no am last DC Mattel exclusive!" - Correct, you are the last of your kind, Bizarro Superman. The end of an era. But what a better way to close up shop than with a great, new rendition of an old favorite? Well, maybe a classic-colored Superman on the new buck they are using here? Sigh...Anyway, Biz is showing up at Walgreens stores now and you definitely need him in your DC collection.
He sports the same buck as the Rebirth Superman from a few waves back. It's a great attempt at a new articulation set-up. Some would argue not as good as Marvel Legends, but it gets the job done. Like Superman, you get some interchangeable, flat flight hands good for salutes, karate chops, and...well...flying. 
While he does not come with a Collect-and-Connect part, he is packed with accessories that make it worth the $20 price point. He's got a removable cloth cape, a-la the old Superpowers line. The clip around the neck does look as bulky as in olden days, but it's not so much of an eyesore that I'm going to cannibalize another figure for a plastic cape...especially since this one has the correct, classic yellow "s" shield on the back (backwards, of course.) I'm not usually a cloth cape fan, but it's necessary here for the awesome accessory gimmick.
