Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Action Figure Review: 30th Anniversary Ultmate Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street by NECA

   It's part five of my Christmas haul and never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate being 31 and receiving a Freddy Krueger action figure from my parents for Christmas! Sure enough, though, this guy was under my tree on Christmas morning and I'm a happier collector for it. This isn't just any regular Freddy Krueger action figure, though: This is the 30th Anniversary Ultimate Freddy from NECA. Based on the original A Nightmare on Elm Street film, this version of the iconic boogeyman portrayed by Robert Englund comes in a five panel box with three different heads, swappable hands, and a few cool little extras. Ready for a closer look at Freddy? Then join me after the break. Just don't go to sleep....





 The Facts:
Height: 7 1/4 inches.

Articulation: Ball jointed ankles, swivel/hinge knees, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge hips, ball jointed waist, ball jointed mid-torso, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel/hinge elbows, ball jointed wrists, and a ball jointed head.

Accessories: Smiling head, angry head, "skull faced" head, blood spurting hand, fedora, "face" mask, and tongue telephone.
 The Positives:

*The articulation on Freddy is killer. He's extremely well designed, durable, and you can get him into plenty of great poses. He's sculpted with a bit of a lean to his posture which really adds a lot of character to the figure. The sweater is made from a soft rubber and allows his waist and torso joints to function with no interruption of the sculpt.
 *Freddy has three alternate heads that swap without too much fuss. Just apply solid, even pressure when removing them the first time or two and you'll be find. The paint and sculpt on these are amazing. This is the sad old man Freddy. He's my least favorite of the three, but he still looks amazing.
 *This is my favorite! It's just so classically Freddy! Look at that grin! Is he being menacing? Cracking a joke? Cashing a royalty check? The grin is just super wicked and the teeth look excellent.
 *This one's the most fun! It actually looks wet and slimy. I love the way that the eyeballs are sculpted and the open mouth is just amazing. Seriously, NECA freaking outdid themselves with this toy. The package credits quite a few folks, but I'll mention that sculpters Kyle Windrix and Chris Gawrrych, fabricators Trevor Zammit and Anthony Minichino, and painters Jon Wardell and Geoffrey Trapp should be darn proud of themselves. Randy Falk has an amazing team at NECA right now.



*I don't usually mention packaging but the fact that this packaging is so cool definitely warrants a mention. It's a five panel box that features the original A Nightmare on Elm Street poster on the front. Open it up and you get a great view of the figure and all of its accessories. I'm loving these boxes so much more than NECA's clamshells.
 *Freddy's hands are removable. While there isn't an alternate right hand, you can still remove his claw for whatever scenes or dioramas you might have in mind. I do want to mention that the hand is firm enough to look menacing but not brittle where I'm afraid it will break. I really appreciate that.








*The left hand swaps out for this hand with the green blood squirting out of Freddy's finger. This is from the scene near the beginning of the film when he's chasing Tina and tells her to "watch this," proceeding to cut off his own fingers. (The skull face is from this same scene.)
 *This is the face of Nancy's mom that Freddy wears at some point, right? Honestly I can't remember (and I just saw the movie again in an honest-to-gosh theater right before this past Halloween) but that doesn't make it any less cool. It stays attached to the non-smiling Freddy face perfectly.






*Remember the scene where Freddy calls Nancy's disconnected telephone and asks her if she wants some tongue or something? Well, NECA did too and thus we have the super cool corded telephone with Freddy's tongue popping out the bottom. This is such an intricate accessory that it probably sells the figure as much as any other cool feature on the toy.
 *Last, and not least, is Freddy's fedora. It fits on any of the heads perfectly and looks really, really good. I mean, this thing is just completely amazing and really is the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae.
 The Negatives:

*The only negative I have is that one of the interior pieces of Freddy's waist and hips is molded in a pale pinkish color and left unpainted. Thus, in certain positions, you can sort of see it poking out of Freddy's pants. It's not very noticeable although it is kind of disturbing. And perhaps not too out of character for old Fred.
      This figure is amazing. It's well designed, durable, excellently articulated, and packed with amazing accessories. Honestly, other than the one minor issue I mentioned this figure is just incredible. I feel like I'm gushing but I cannot say enough how impressed I am with this version of Freddy Krueger. There have been lots of Freddy Krueger toys released but this one tops them all. Easily an Epic figure. I'm really hoping that NECA follows this figure up with some other Ultimate edition of horror characters. I really, really want NECA to take another stab at Michael Myers. It's been a few years and that guys needs a new action figure suitable for terrorizing the kiddies. If this is a taste of what we can expect from NECA next year, collectors are truly in for some good stuff.

I've only reviewed two A Nightmare on Elm Street toys on my site:

A Nightmare on Elm Street by NECA
Freddy Furnace Diorama


ReAction Horror Series by FunKo
Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street

2 comments:

  1. Looks fantastic! I like this one alot...much better than i imagine it would be.

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  2. He's awesome. I really, really hope that NECA releases some more Ultimate Edition figures down the line. I've love to see a number of different horror characters get this treatment.

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