The Ides of October are upon us. If you’re like me, that equates to roughly 7-8 viewings of Hocus Pocus whether you intended to watch it or not. Somehow the Sanderson Sisters appear on virtually every electronic device in my house all day every day during the month of October. My only safe place is my basement full of figures, from which I bring to you this week’s Figure Friday column! In keeping with the horror theme, I’ve got two recent offerings that fit the bill.
First up we have NECA’s Ultimate Jason from Friday the 13th Part VII (The New Blood). This figure is based on Kane Hodder’s first performance as the iconic Jason Vorhees. Chances are that this is the version of the character that pops in your head when you feel someone lurking behind you in the shadows while you’re walking the dog on a cold autumn evening. My collection has some horror representation and, in my opinion, if you’re only going to have one version of this character on the shelf, this is the one. This figure is disgusting, and I mean that as a sincere compliment.
It looks like something you don’t want to touch because it’s probably sticky and smells like a festering wound. The paint work on this figure is highly effective. If you can stomach going hands on with Jason then you will be rewarded with one of the most beautifully detailed sculpts, I’ve seen. Perfectly tattered overalls made of soft rubber are layered over a fully detailed corpse. Rotting flesh, protruding bones and a fully exposed spinal column and rib cage that a mint on card collector will never truly appreciate. From an articulation standpoint, you wouldn’t expect much from a character that is more about brute force than agility. Expectations in this case are exceeded. I was shocked to discover that Jason has double elbows. Not because I wasn’t expecting them, but because I couldn’t see them. The joints are incorporated into the sculpt inconspicuously, as are nearly every other joint on the figure. It truly is the perfect representation of this character in figure form. Not sold yet? How about an entire shed full of tools to murder, maim and dismember? Packed inside your traditional NECA window box you get a masked head, an unmasked head, a broken mask, a trimmer with spinning blade, a sickle, a long scythe, a knife, an ice pick, a machete and an axe. All of the accessories are given the same attention to detail that the figure features. At a $29.99 price point, this is tremendous value. If you see this guy on shelves, grab him before he grabs you!
If one exposed rib cage isn’t enough for you, I offer you the Marvel Legends What If? Zombie Captain America. Zombie Cap feels like what you get when you dismiss all preconceived notions about what you can and can’t do on a figure designed for mass retail. You can literally see through the legs straight through to the other side. This figure looks like all new tooling from the head down to the pale blue toes. Chunks of flesh are torn off, exposing bloody bone. This grotesque beauty is painted in a vibrant palette inspired by the hit Disney Plus series. As a wrestling figure collector, we’ve begged for bloody variants for years, always to be told that retailers don’t want to carry figures like this in the toy aisle. Those days are long gone because Hasbro is going to sell a ton of these.
The only challenge about this figure is the boot vs the bare foot. It poses beautifully but due to the unevenness, it will take some work to get him to stand in place. Cap does come packed with a bloody shield, which is a nice touch, especially given the amount of new tooling and high quality of the paint application. If you have John Walker Captain America figure, this is a nice replacement if you feel the need to deal out some street justice. There’s so much to like about this Zombie Cap figure, especially given the $22.99 price tag.
As the curator of The Cap Cave, Captain America has a special place in my heart. I’ve pretty much seen it all at this point, which is why this figure feels so special. It’s like nothing else we’ve seen in the Marvel Legends line. Hasbro can create an entire line of new figures in this Zombie style and every single one of them will be a must buy if they put the same amount of love into the product development as they did this figure. This is an outstanding unconventional offering. I applaud the willingness to challenge the status quo with this figure. The execution is nearly perfect and is easily on my Figure of the Year list. I’ve been dying to get my hands on Zombie Cap and I’m happy to report it was worth the wait.
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