Tag Archives: Dracula

#3860: Van Helsing

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

VAN HELSING

HORROR OF DRACULA (NECA)

In horror films, it can be awfully difficult for the hero of the piece to cement themselves as an iconic fixture in the same way that the monsters and villains can. It’s remarkable, though, that for as much as Dracula’s popularity has remained, Van Helsing, the hunter responsible for the evil count’s defeat, has managed to stick around pretty well himself. It helps that Van Helsing has gotten his own share of very talented actors in the role. In particular, the Hammer Horror films had Peter Cushing (an actor very frequently associated with villainous roles, despite his own kind and gentle nature) play the part five times, cementing him as one of the character’s most defining actors. His action figure coverage for the part has been relatively sparse, but improving more recently.  There was a Mego release in 2021, and new NECA’s officially in on the Hammer game, following up their Christopher Lee Dracula from last year with a Cushing Van Helsing!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Van Helsing is an Ultimate release from NECA, the second in their Hammer Horror Horror of Dracula set, following the Christopher Lee Dracula figure released last November.  He started hitting about a month or so ago, so, you know, quite a while after the Lee Dracula had completely dried up at retail.  I’m sure that won’t affect his sell-through at all, right?  Like the Count, he’s based on his look from Hammer’s first Dracula film, which makes a lot of sense, it being the most distinctive and all.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty standard for NECA at this point.  It has its ups and its downs.  There’s certainly some spots where he’s very restricted, but he can generally get into all the poses you might need him to.  Van Helsing’s sculpt is all-new, and handled by NECA sculptors Kyle Windrix and Trevor Grove.  It feels pretty in-line with modern NECA horror offerings.  In his default configuration out of the box, he’s got his overcoat, scarf, and hat.  The hat is attached to the head, and that particular head probably has the weakest of the Cushing likenesses here.  There’s a more standard head, sans hat, which has a more neutral expression, and is generally pretty well-kempt, and it’s probably the best of the Cushing likenesses. Lastly, there’s a more disheveled sculpt, with a more intense expression, clearly patterned on his look during the final battle.  While I don’t think the likeness itself is quite as strong as the neutral one, it’s the sculpt that I feel best captures the character, and by far my favorite.  The overcoat-ed look is more on the restricting side in terms of movement, but is of course a signature look, so it’s the one that I see getting the most play.  That said, this figure comes with a whole extra torso you can swap out, which has him in a vest and tie with his sleeves rolled up.  It’s not a signature a look, but it’s got some better movement.  The figure’s paint work is all pretty good.  It’s a little thick on the skintones, but generally everything looks pretty clean, and he’s reasonably life-like.  In addition to the three heads and two torsos I discussed above, Van Helsing is packed with five pairs of hands (tight grip, loose grip, and relaxed for gloved, and tight grip and relaxed for ungloved), a hammer, a single stake, a bundle of stakes, a crucifix, and the two candlestick holders he uses to make his makeshift crucifix in the finale.  It’s all cool and good, but genuinely the candlestick holders are the only thing that truly matter to me, since they’re such a signature thing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I discussed a little in my review of the Mego Van Helsing, since Jess’s passing in 2021, I’ve read up a lot on Peter Cushing and his life, especially in regards to his relationship with his wife and his reaction to her passing.  In many ways, I find quite a kindred spirit in him, and I like the idea of focusing more on his heroic roles than just the villainous ones.  His Van Helsing has always stuck with me, so I was glad to see another version of it in figure form.  This one’s a pretty solid one, for sure.  In general, he’s really your standard NECA faire these days, but I think he works well with their style, and, most importantly, he can do that one cool pose I really wanted.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2919: Van Helsing

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

VAN HELSING

DRACULA (MEGO)

It’s October, which is classically a kind of a spooky month, I guess.  I don’t frequently get too invested in all the spooky stuff the way some people do, but I can enjoy it well enough, and I’ve certainly got some knowledge of various things spooky.  When it comes to classic monsters, Universal Studios really set the pace in the ’30s and ’40s, but as they began to fade away, many of those same monsters would be reimagined by Hammer Film Productions, whose horror films became a staple of the ’60s and ’70s.  Perhaps their best known work are their Dracula films, starring the late Christopher Lee in the titular role.  Playing opposite Lee in the role of heroic vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, was Peter Cushing, whose take on Van Helsing (and one of his descendants) would help to shape later portrayals of the character.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Van Helsing is part of Mego’s Horror line, and was released in the latest assortment of mixed figures.  He was originally supposed to be released at the beginning of August, but he crept into the end of September.  As with other entries in the line, he’s showing up in a mix of specialty stores and select Targets.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation.  He’s build on the updated Type 2 body, which is a decent enough standard starting point.  Cushing was just a pretty regular guy.  The all-new head sculpt here does a pretty great job of capturing Cushing’s likeness.  It’s not often that we see a younger Cushing in toy form, but it works out well here.  He’s got rather distinctive features, and they lend themselves to this style pretty well.  This is actually the second time Cushing’s gotten a Mego-style figure, since he was also in Classic TV Toys’ Space: 1999 line.  I think the likeness here is a little bit better.  The paint work is pretty basic, but it gets the job done, and everything is pretty much in line with where it should be.  Van Helsing is clearly meant to based on his look from the first Hammer Dracula film, and he gets an outfit based on that.  It features his jacket, shirt/tie (one piece like on the Cheers figures), pants, and a pair of rubber shores.  They’re all really goofy looking, but, of course, that’s really part of the style, and he matches well.  Van Helsing is packed with a rather small stake, which is probably going to go flying the first time he gets jostled, being lost for the rest of eternity.  Or something like that.  Given is tendency to use both a hammer and stake together in the films, just the stake is perhaps a little light.  Honestly, I would have liked to get the candlesticks for the cross he makes during the film’s climactic battle, but I guess those might be a little harder for him to hold properly.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Van Helsing was initially intended as a birthday present from my parents, but he got delayed, so I had to wait a bit for him.  Worse things have happened.  While I’m not necessarily the biggest Hammer Horror fan, I’ve always quite liked Cushing’s take on Van Helsing, and I’m glad he finally got some figure treatment.  He’s goofy and hokey, but I do really like him.

There’s a slightly more serious side to this one as well, I suppose.  In the months since losing Jess, I’ve been trying to find comfort in the stories of people who have experienced a loss similar to my own.  In reading up more on Peter Cushing, and specifically how he responded to the death of his wife in 1971, I really felt like I found a kindred spirit.  His habits and the words he said about his loss really have resonated with me, and the fact that he was able to continue his life in some way after such a devastating loss has served as an inspiration to me.  So this figure, as hokey as he may be, really serves as a symbol to me, and how I can’t just give up.  And I like that.

#0015: Dracula Minimates

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

DRACULA BOXED SET

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS MINIMATES

Happy Halloween everybody!  The Fantastic Four reviews will continue tomorrow, but I thought I’d do something a bit more festive today.  So, I’ll be looking at the Dracula boxed set from Daimond Select Toys’s expansive Minimates line.  This is the first of many, many, many, many, many Minimates reviews, because I have quite a few of these little guys.

For those of you that don’t know Minimates:  What is wrong with you?  Get on that!  In all seriousness, Minimates are a line of two and a half inch block figures produced by Diamond Select Toys.  This set comes from their Universal Monsters line.  Marvel is their flagship license (Waves 50 & 51 were just released last month!), but they’ve also done Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Both Modern and Classic Battlestar Galactica, DC Comics,  Playstation, Street Fighter, Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom, Tomb Rader, Terminator 2, Lost in Space, the Walking Dead, the Expendables,  The Dollars Trillogy, Back to the Future, Knight Rider, Rocky, Platoon, Silence of the Lambs, Clerks, and even Ace of Cakes and Desperately Seeking Susan.  It’s a pretty big line!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The set is based on the 1931 Dracula starring Bela Lugosi.  The set was released in the second wave of Universal Monsters Minimates, along with an accompanying Frankenstein set.

DRACULA

First up is the movie’s title character, Count Dracula himself.  Drac is based on his look from the film.  He’s built on the standard minimate body, which means he stands about 2-2.5 inches tall and has the standard minimate articulation of 14 points.  Most of the detailing on a minimate is conveyed via painted detail, but Drac has a few sculpted pieces as well.  Drac features a sculpted hair-piece and a cape/vest/jacket slip over piece for the torso.  They’re done well, with some nice small details.  As I said above, minimates rely mostly on paint, and Drac is no exception.  His primary paint is the details depicting his face.  They’re nice and sharp, though I’m not sure how much Lugosi I see in the face.  Still, it’s a very nice Dracula face, which is what counts.  Unfortunately, the paint is not as sharp everywhere, especially on Drac’s vest, which has some pretty bad bleed over.  Drac is obviously the draw of the set, and slight paint issues aside, he lives up to that.

DR VAN HELSING

Next is Dracula’s old foe, Dr. Van Helsing!  Van Helsing is also built on the basic minimate body, so he stands the same height and has the same articulation.  Van Helsing features two sculpted pieces:  his hair, and a jacket/vest torso cover.  They do the job suitably, and look pretty good.  His only real paint work is his face detailing.  The face is nice and sharp, and there’s some well-done silver detailing for his glasses.  He’s well-constructed, if a bit boring.

MINA HARKER

Next is the heroine of the piece, Mina Harker.  Like the other two, Mina is built on the basic body.  Mina technically has the same 14 points of articulation, but her leg articulation is rendered virtually non-existent by her sculpted dress piece.  In addition to the dress, Mina also features sculpted hair and a sculpted collar.  The detail work is done well, though she is noticeably more simplistic than the other figures in the set.  Like Van Helsing, Mina is a solid figure, but a bit on the boring side.

RENFIELD

Last up is Dracula’s faithful servant, Renfield!  Like the rest of the set, Ren is built on the same minimate body and has the typical articulation.  Ren only features one sculpted piece, his hair.  It looks appropriate, and represents the character’s look fairly well.  The paint detailing on the figure is really where it shines.  He’s got a great set of suspenders, and his shirt has lots of folds and wrinkles, which give him a lot of dimension.  His face detailing is nice and sharp, and depicts actor Dwight Frye very well, giving him a crazed grin as though he’s about to let out that distinctive cackle.  Renfield is a great example of a figure that could have been quite drab, but was saved by the small details.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really like this set.  I’m a big fan of the universal monsters movies, and this one covers one of the most memorable.  Mina and Van Helsing are kind of boring, but the set is made worth it by the inclusion of a really solid Dracula and an awesomely handled Renfield!