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| |
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| Brand new Dead: McFarlane's
monster Ash figure... |
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| ...and Evil Ash from Movie
Maniacs 4. |
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| The oddly-sculpted Ash from
MM 3. |
| Points of Articulation
Action
figures and the Evil Dead.
September 28,
2001
The
first of the Evil Dead films I saw was, I believe, Army of
Darkness. At the time, I thought it was one of the greatest
things I'd ever seen. Then I saw Evil Dead 2, deservedly
called the best of the trilogy. Finally I saw the first film, which
is good, but tough to take, in my opinion. Now, having seen Army
of Darkness about 10 million times, I can't stand to watch it
anymore; and The Evil Dead I could only stand to watch once
or twice anyway. But Evil Dead 2…now that's a classic film. I
can watch that over and over.
What does this have to do with toys, you ask? Well, as
any Evil Dead fan could tell you, those movies begged for
toys once the action figure boom of the mid-'90s made it clear that
just about anything could be turned into a toy line. And when
McFarlane Toys' Movie Maniacs line rolled around, it was clear that
this was a match made in heaven. The trouble was, McToys couldn't
get the license...at least, not for a little while. I still have a
usenet post saved, written by McToys staff member Chet Jacques, that
said they had no plans to do Ash. He concluded it with, "Zombies,
chainsaws...been there, done that."
Right.
Now McFarlane has produced no less than four action figures based
on the Army of Darkness property, and Ash was the only figure
in Movie Maniacs 3 to consistently sell out across the country.
There's mud in your eye, Chet!
I joined the McFarlane Toys message board shortly after the Ash figure
was announced. It became clear that Ash's figurehood was largely the
product of a concerted, tireless effort by a virtual legion of
Evil Dead fans. For weeks, we harassed McFarlane employees
with specific questions about what the Ash figure would look like.
Since they had the license only to Army of Darkness and not
Evil Dead 2, there was a great deal of concern that Ash would
not be wearing his torn blue shirt (which could be either from AOD
or ED2), but his stupid blue sweater and cape. There was actually
quite an argument over which would be better, in the usual manner of
message boards.
Ultimately, it turned out he had the torn blue shirt, and a bevy
of awesome accessories: chainsaw hand, metal hand, shotgun, mini-Ash
(with a tiny fork), and, of course, the Necronomicon. Life, it
seemed, was complete. Many, many people could now die happy.
But...
The sculpt. Oh, the sculpt. I like McFarlane's work (I admit, I
liked it more a few years ago), but they messed up somewhere along
the way with Bruce Campbell's likeness. Everything else was perfect
(aside from the statuesque stance and limited articulation, both
understood trade-offs for McFarlane Toys fans), but that facial
sculpt...if you looked at it from the right angle, in dim light,
with your glasses off and squinting, it kind of looked like
Bruce. But mostly, it looked like some sort of zombie-like travesty
of Bruce. Add to that an iffy paint job that on some figures was
perfect and on others splotchy, and even a diehard fan like myself
has to admit that the Ash figure was at least a mild disappointment.
But the figure sold well, and McFarlane quickly realized they
were on to something. This month, we get an Evil Ash in Movie
Maniacs 4, as well as an exclusive Movie Maniacs set with last
year's Ash figure and another monster, the Pit Deadite (a.k.a. "Pit
Witch"). Finally, there's a monster 18" Ash figure, with a better
likeness (though still not as good as the Crow or Leatherface
figures). And who knows what plans McFarlane has for the future.
But McFarlane isn't the only one bringing us Evil Dead
figure goodness. Since apparently you can buy the rights to 6" and
18" figures without also buying the rights to 12" figures, Sideshow
Toys has announced it is creating a 12" Ash figure, due out next
year. Presumably, this figure will have fabric clothing, excellent
accessories, and real articulation, something McFarlane consistently
lacks. Expect a good facial likeness too, perhaps even a Real Scan.
I caught on to the Evil Dead cult movement just as it was
gathering momentum, in the mid-to-late '90s. It's surreal how
popular these films have become, especially since Army of
Darkness failed so miserably at the box office (and yet, it has
the most mainstream appeal of the three films). The original Star
Wars trilogy isn't available on DVD, but we've already got
super-mega-deluxe-THX-approved versions of ED2 and AOD, with the
original Evil Dead uber-DVD on the way. Bruce Campbell's
autobiography, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie
Actor, has been in the top 20 of the New York Times
bestseller list.
Clearly, the Evil Dead franchise and its purveyors have
embarked on a full-scale campaign of world domination. Next thing
you know there'll be a bronze statue of Ash in Central Park, and
fanboys will make yearly pilgrimages to Michigan to worship a few
fireplace bricks, all that remains of the original Cabin.
Groovy.
--Good, bad, Jason
Clarke's the guy with the gun.
Photos courtesy of McFarlane Toys.
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