31 Days of Halloween: Frightening Frankenstein Figures!

One year ago: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

It's Frankenstein Friday once again! Today, we're gonna look at some of the Frankenstein action figures I've picked up over the years!

This is another figure from that Toy Island set I mentioned a week or so back. Lime green skin and green clothing, which is kinda weird. I've seen him in a green coat pretty regularly on various merchandise, but rarely with green pants as well. (They appear gray in this photo, but they're greenish in person.) Anyway, this is a pretty cool figure, with a good deal more articulation than most classic monster figures tend to have. Ideally, he'd be a bit larger; the scale was rather inconsistent with this line. Still, I was pretty pleased to get him.

This came from a Scooby Doo two-pack, and ran me about $4. I don't collect Scooby Doo stuff, but I had to pick it up when I saw this in the set. I love the design, and they did a fantastic job translating it into three dimensions. He doesn't have much articulation, but smaller figures like this rarely do, outside of GI Joe. He looks great on the shelf with the other stuff I have that's a similar size.

This came from a line Jakks Pacific did close to ten years ago. It included Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the Frankenstein Monster. Each had a diorama, and came in both color and black & white versions. They were pretty overpriced, but I picked up this one and the Wolf Man on clearance. (Dracula was long gone by that time.) This is a recreation of the scene from Bride of Frankenstein where the Monster has been subdued by a large mob; temporarily, as it turns out. The sculpting is good, with a strong Karloff likeness. The details are pretty accurate to his appearance at this point in the film. Articulation is adequate, but not that great. He does have a ball-jointed head with a great range of motion, though. Gotta give Jakks props for making it so he can work well either in or out of the chair. There is a lever built into the chair that, when depressed, raises the Monster's arms, mimicking his escape from the chair in the film. Unfortunately, this means he has a big hole in his back when you remove him from the chair. Still, I leave him in it all the time, so it's no big deal.

Finally, we come to this guy. Large and in charge, this Frankenstein figure is the build-a-figure from that Toy Island line. Yes, the BAF was just a larger version of one of the regular figures in the set. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but there it is. He makes a nice display piece, even if his large size makes some of the flaws more apparent. For instance, there's this weird ridge around his pants, just below the knees. (They're on the smaller version too, just not as obvious.) The only thing I can think of is that maybe that's supposed to be the tops of his boots, but if so, it still looks very odd. The hip joints do not work at all. seriously, they don't move. I've seen other complaints about this, so apparently it was a widespread issue. I just leave him in a standing pose so it's not a big problem, but it's still kind of annoying. His skin is a more subdued shade of green than the smaller version, and he looks all the better for that. I always intended to add some more scarring and repaint him, but I've never found the time for it. Maybe one of these days...

That's it for today! We're supposed to go to the Terrortest haunted house tonight; it should be fun! Do yourself a favor and head to a local haunted house yourself this weekend, you've only got a couple more weeks before they're gone for another year!