I've been a big supporter of the O-Ring renaissance in recent years. I didn't realize how much I loved this 80's staple until it started trickling back into the action figure world a few years ago. And companies like Super7 are riding this renewed wave of popularity hard and producing all sorts of interesting properties. Micronauts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Ghostbusters are not licenses I would have expected to work so well in this format, but they certainly do. My favorite line, aside from G.I.Joe, so far is the classic Universal Monsters. As much as I was always fond of the old Universal Monsters Remco and Placo toys, the production style was a bit unpolished for my tastes and they never included the Bride of Frankenstein.. so I never bothered to collect any of the vintage figures. But now finally getting a Bride in a vintage format scratches an itch I didn't even know was there. I think she's glorious. And I'm already anticipating an eventual GITD or a mummy-head variant. Let's check her out below!
UNITING ALL WOMEN OF PLASTIC
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2026
Super7 O-Ring - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!
Thursday, October 30, 2025
NECA GITD Retro - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!
The 70s and early 80s were a dark time for female action figures. Despite some iconic ladies in pop culture like Wonder Woman and Princess Leia, they had almost no merchandise. You could fit all the female action figures in existence into a shoebox (I'm excluding soft Mego figures). With Universal Monsters, it seems there was always toys around (notably from AHI and Remco), but the Bride was always excluded. In fact, I believe (with the exception of an old Aurora model kit) she was never represented in plastic until 1998 when both Hasbro and Sideshow released figures. The TMNT April O'Neil as the Bride (1994) has such notoriety, because it was the first time her image (even in homage) was in action figure form. Since 2023, NECA has been gifting us with Remco-styled redeco's of the Ultimates figures on vintage cards. I had assumed this line would be limited to the original 6 Remco characters. But then we were surprised by the inclusion of The Invisible Man, Nosferatu, and of course, the Bride.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
NECA Ultimates - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!
I don't know why I waited two years to open this figure. I was very excited to get her back in 2023 and faked an appointment to leave work midday when my local toy shop posted that they got her in. But then time got away from me and I never circled back to her until I picked up the SDCC GITD version of her this Summer. She is really a great action figure. I especially love a Bride figure when there is an alternate mummy look to display, I think the last mummy head included was way back with the 1998 Sideshow figure. When I first saw this NECA Ultimates Bride, I was confused by her brown hair. I always assumed her hair was black in the (black and white) movie and every piece of Bride of Frankenstein merchandise I own sports raven hair with a shock of white hair. But I've come to terms with the fact that the true color is auburn (Elsa Lanchester's natural hair). Plus I really like how it pairs with the off-white color of her robes and her brown-hued makeup. She looks great. Let's check out the Bride below!
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Hocus Pocus - THE SANDERSON SISTERS!
Hocus Pocus is a movie that was almost completely off my radar until very recently. It was released in 1993, when I was in high school, but I was only vaguely aware of it. I gather that it flopped at the box office but gained a massive cult following through continual airing on the Disney Channel and Freeform in the three decades since (neither of which channels I has access to until the last 5 years or so). I even worked at video rental stores for many years and we just didn't stock it. I was forced to watch it a few years ago for the first time. This was by friends who had a deep nostalgia for it from their childhood. Without that wistful slant, I honestly wasn't a huge fan. It was very over-the-top and silly with caricatures I found too childish (and I am very immature). But that said, I was glad to finally see this cult hit. I loved the colorful design of the Sanderson Sisters as well as the actors playing them. I've wanted to add them to my collection in some way, but none of the product so far felt quite right.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Toony Terrors - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!
I'm pretty obsessed with the Toony Terrors line from NECA. I can admit that most of the male figures are not to my liking. True to the line's name, they looks a bit too cartoonish and silly for me. But there is something about the way that NECA treats the female characters that really appeals to me. The first figures I picked up, the Grady Twins, don't even look "toony." I thought that was a fluke, but then the next figures I bought, Elvira and Vampira, were also pretty great. I tend to focus on retro characters so I skipped M3GAN, Ghouliana, Wednesday & Enid (Netflix), Hocus Pocus, Nadja (WWDITS), and Lydia, Astrid, & Dolores (Beetlejuice). That is a lot of female representation in a relatively short time. I feared I wouldn't ever get another classic lady to add to my collection. But eventually they announced this amazing Bride of Frankenstein. Now I just need Morticia Addams and Lily Munster to complete my classic spooky Femme Fatales. Fingers crossed for both of them. Let's check out the Bride below!
Friday, October 10, 2025
World's Smallest - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!
I have a huge backlog of Bride of Frankenstein figures to open and review and I'm finally going to try and get through a lot of them this month. I've had this World's Smallest figure for a few years and thought "Oh, this will make for a quick and easy post" (I've been really busy with work and travel lately so easy is good). I thought the size and lack of poseability would equate to speedy work. But alas, the photos were all blurry and it took several sessions to get them halfway decent (and I'm still not satisfied). But at least I finally got the ball rolling. Now I only have to find the rest. The NECA Ultimates is not exactly small so it can't be too hard to unearth in my basement, but the other Reactions and smaller figures may be quite a challenge. In that sense, it's really surprising I was able to find this microscopic figure first. I'm actually pretty much a completist with the Super Impulse action figures. But it's rare to have a female in these assortments. So I'm glad the include the Bride in the first Universal Monster set.
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
POP Funko - HALLOW'S EVE!
I'm a spineless weakling. I broke my Funko Pop collecting parameters by picking up a modern character. I typically try to limit all my Pops to nostalgic Comic, Movie, and TV characters from my 1980's youth. But I have a strong fondness for Halloween and this time two years ago I fell head over heels for the new Spider-Man villain, Hallow's Eve. So when I saw this Pop in Gamestop last week, I couldn't resist. Hallow's Eve is a longtime civilian character in the Spider-Man universe. Janine Godbe was simply Ben Reilly's love interest for nearly 30 years of comics before she was swept up in a storyline involving Limbo and the Goblin Queen, and emerged as Hallow's Eve. I would describe her as a sympathetic villain and a great lead character. She has a bag of cursed masks that imbue her with the traits of that mask character, often with corruptive effects. Her stories are a lot of fun and I can't wait to start re-reading her TPB tonight, it's my annual October tradition. Let's check out Hallow's Eve below!
Saturday, August 16, 2025
Amazing Heroes Retroverse - FANTOMAH!
Fantomah, Mystery Woman of the Jungle first appeared in the February 1940 issue of Jungle Comics #2, published by Fiction House and created by comics legend Fletcher Hanks. She starred in a 7-page solo story and continued to be a regular feature in the next 50 issues until March of 1944. Fantomah appears as a beautiful blonde woman who transforms into a frightening blue skeleton to enact gruesome revenge scenarios on anyone bringing harm to her jungle home. Most comic heroines of the time were built on a solid foundation of beauty. Every other character was a model or a pageant queen in her backstory. And even in their masked crimefighting eras, beauty was always an essential trait. I believe Fantomah was the first female character to embrace being frightful. Even in modern comics, very few characters ever exhibit unattractive appearances. She has been rebooted in modern comics a few times and the skeleton effect is still jarring, even in these desensitized times. This figure is a standout in the series.
Saturday, April 12, 2025
Hero Inside - MUMMYGIRL!
Hero Inside is a 2023 South Korean animated series featuring young comic geeks who can summon characters from within comic pages. It's a really great premise with a potential for almost limitless interesting characters (actually, there are only 100 comics with this power). I've been watching the show on Tubi (Season 3 debuts later in 2025) and I'm really enjoying it. The characters summoned from the comics are diverse and fun. The standout for me is Mummygirl, the daughter of a great pharaoh with the ability to generate and control her bandages. It's hard to describe, but it's very dynamic to see. I'm glad she was selected for the first wave of action figures. These toys are great, but information on them is sparse. I can see semi-recent press releases from Aurora announcing that they are expanding into action figures (from the plush toy market), but not much aside from that. I hope this is only the tip of the iceberg and many more exciting toys are coming. Let's check out Mummygirl below!
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Groovie Goolies - BELLA LA GHOSTLY!
In 1970, Filmation aired an interesting cartoon called Groovie Goolies. This was an animated variety show that seemed like a mashup of The Addams Family and Laugh-In. There were quick "bad-dum-tss" joke vignettes, musical numbers, and wacky animated shorts. All the monsters lived together in Horrible Hall and had a beatnik vibe. My favorite is the building switchboard operator, the vampy Bella la Ghostly. Visually she looks like a typical cartoon vamp of the era, but with a bubbly Brooklyn-type accent a'la Janine Melnitz. There are several regular female characters in the show including Sabrina Spellman and Hagatha the Witch, but the tall Morticia-like characters are always my favorite. Despite the toyetic qualities of this series, the early 1970s weren't a time known for television merchandising. But luckily there was a line of PVC figurines by Chemtoy in 1971 (that now cost an absolute mint in collector's circles). I finally managed to nab Bella at a decent price. Let's check her out below!
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Halloween Kids - THE CREATURE!
Happy Halloween! One of my favorite recent toy trends is the representation of the simplistic Ben Cooper costumes of the 70s and 80s in action figure form. NECA has the Ben Cooper Costume Kids which are 5" fully-articulated figures wearing soft-goods costumes. And Super7 has the ReAction Halloween Kids line, which don't appear to be officially branded for the vintage costume companies, but they definitely give that classic homage. This Creature from the Black Lagoon girl is my first purchase from the line, and I'm quite obsessed. As my favorite of the Universal Monsters movies, she was always going to grab my attention. But the fact that the figure is female (as is the NECA Creature figure), further appeals to me because I feel it pays tribute to the creator of the Creature costume, Milicent Patrick, who was only properly credited in recent years (read The Lady From the Black Lagoon book for more!). I can't help but think the gender of these toys was intentional because of that. Let's check out Creature below!
Monday, October 28, 2024
Royale High - DARK FAIRY!
When I find myself shopping for toys, I enjoy perusing all the aisles. I like to get a sense of what the market trends in pop culture are and I like to keep my eyes open for unique new product lines. This was how the Royale High line caught my eye a few months ago. I'm always intrigued when dolls are completely sculpted with no soft goods. But these went further by combining several popular genres. I see elements of Roblox with the geometric cylindrical heads (they are actually a Roblox spinoff), Bratz with the heavy makeup, minimal noses, and sultry expressions, and Polly Pocket with the swappable outfits and hair. I always knew I would have to buy one eventually, and that time came when I saw this vampy, spidery, Dark Fairy character in Walmart last week. I discovered that Royale High is an online roleplaying game on the Roblox platform featuring a variety of princesses in a High School setting. I personally love how wicked and dark many of the characters look. Let's check out Dark Fairy below!
Saturday, October 26, 2024
Trollify - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!
I have had a long fascination with Trolls. When I very young in the early 80s, my parents had a puzzle with a collage of vintage toys pictured on it. Buried in the heap was an image of a Troll doll from the 1960s. I was obsessed and would ask every adult I knew if they had Trolls when they were kids. Believe it or not, the toy line was a scarce thing then and the license was in a sort of hibernation. In the 90s, they came back in full force. They were everywhere and unavoidable. However, I did not like these at all. They had neon hair, they wore human clothes, and they had gemstones embedded in their bellies. The folklore-ish aspects we gone. The earthtone palettes, woodland aesthetic, and overall connection to nature were replaced by whatever trending fad the manufacturers could think of. My original childhood intrigue was rekindled in 2013 with the Zelfs line and ever since then I've been really appreciative of all the modern Troll spinoffs and homages. And these Trollify figures are a great example.
Wednesday, October 23, 2024
The Simpsons - WITCH MARGE!
The Simpsons has created a lot of great traditions over its record-breaking run, but I think the best one would have to be the annual Halloween Treehouse of Horror episode. I'm proud to say I watched the first one as it was broadcast back in 1990 (The Raven and How to Cook Humans segments still seem permanently fused into my psyche). I certainly haven't watched all 34 Treehouse episodes (although they are all grouped together on Disney+ right now) but I always appreciate the merch that comes from them. This Witch Marge figure comes from the 8th episode segment Easy Bake Coven (1997) where Marge and her sisters are exposed as witches in puritan Springfield (Sprynge-Fielde) and inadvertently invent Trick-or-Treating. I just watched the segment right now and it's pretty clever. Other common Halloween Marge toys we commonly see of are Skeleton Marge and a Blue Cat Marge, but this green witch version is always my favorite. Let's check her out below!
Monday, October 21, 2024
Marvel Legends - LILITH!
In 1992, in the pages of Ghost Rider #28, the second character named Lilith was introduced into the Marvel Universe. The first Lilith was Dracula's Daughter and has been a fixture in Marvel's more macabre comics since 1974. But this new character was very different, both visually as well as her role in the comics. This Lilith is an ancient (Atlantean) deity known as The Mother of All Demons. She actually gives birth to demons who are forever obedient to her. I remember reading her first storyline as it was published. There was a random X-Men/Ghost Rider crossover (#26-27) that got me to read my first Ghost Rider comic, and the immediate next issue (which I decided to stick with) was the start of the Rise of the Midnight Sons arc that introduced her. She has always been a visually iconic character to me. But I won't lie, I had completely forgotten her name until this figure was announced. This action figure is a blast from the past and a really great Halloweeny character to revisit. Let's check her out below!
Sunday, October 20, 2024
The Munsters - LILY MUNSTER!
I never really watched the original The Munsters TV show (1964-1966). I was somehow always aware of it (as well as The Addams Family, but they just never played on my childhood stations (I only had 4). So, that said, I didn't have any nostalgic scrutiny making me overly judgmental when I watched The Munsters (2022) film. I found the movie to be fun, and Lily Munster was a standout for me. It reminded me vaguely of the comic Gloom Cookie that I was obsessed with in the late 90s - specifically in how dating in the goth world can be comically frustrating. Sheri Moon Zombie (Rob Zombie's wife) played Lily with a bubbly vampy tone that set the her apart from other similar characters (like Morticia). Sheri is not new to the toy world either. Her characters in House of 1000 Corpses and Devil's Rejects both got the action figure treatment. Whether you liked the movie or not, this toy is pretty spectacular. The faces are great and the mix of soft goods with sculpted drapery creates a unique effect.
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Haunt - WITCH!
Haunt is a 2019 slasher film featuring a haunted house run by sadistic killers. I haven't seen this film. Despite starring several young actors I am a fan of and having really imaginative character design, I just have no stomach for movies like this. However, when I saw these figures in a local toy shop earlier this year, I really appreciated the creepiness of almost plain-clothed characters wearing traditional Halloween masks. Neca's Ben Cooper Costume Kids and Super7's Halloween Kids were hitting the shelves at this time and celebrating the playful imaginative nostalgia of Halloween. These Haunt figures were embracing the same theme, but in an unmistakably threatening execution. I'm biased, but I personally think the Witch is the best character (and her hot poker is the scariest of the torture devices, too). This is my first purchase from Trick or Treat studios and I'm impressed by the quality and sculpt. I'm looking forward to their True Romance and Goosebumps figures now. Let's check out Witch below!
Thursday, August 1, 2024
DC Universe Classics - SILVER BANSHEE!
My favorite villain in Superman's vast rogue's gallery is definitely Silver Banshee. I think villains that need to be stopped with brute force tend to be boring - and that rules out a ton of his foes. Second only to Kryptonite, Superman's most criminally underused weakness is magic. So a creepy nether-witch is a wonderfully contradictory image to his Boy Scout appeal. There have been two distinct versions of Silver Banshee in the comics (1987 and 2012 respectively) but both are young Gaelic girls named Siobhan who are stricken with a curse due to their family's legacy with the netherworld. Both versions of Siobhan take on a ghostly skeletal visage when they become the Silver Banshee and can emit a Death Wail that shrivels her victim into a lifeless husk. Shrieking skeletons are honestly a true childhood phobia of mine so I find her terrifying. In 2009, Target had a DC Universe Classics spinoff line for the Public Enemies animated movie that gave us this cool figure (and others). Let's check her out below!
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Willow - QUEEN BAVMORDA!
Willow (1988) is a classic fantasy movie by George Lucas and Ron Howard. It took years to develop and evolved quite a bit, but it's an oft-spoken piece of trivia that Lucas approached Warwick Davis about the movie when David was just 12 years old and filming Return of the Jedi as Wicket. I saw Willow when I was a kid, and honestly I found it confusing. But I've been exposed to it again as an adult (by some rabid fans, and I even briefly knew a cat named Elora Danon) and I have come to really appreciate it. It has some classic story homages, like The Hobbit with an unlikely diminutive hero going on a grand adventure, or the story of Moses where a young child with a predestined path washes up on the banks of a river. Or my favorite, Snow White, where an evil queen hears a prophecy that a young girl will usurp her power. That insecure evil queen is the iconic Bavmorda of Nockmaar played by Jean Marsh. To me, she was always the standout of the film, but I am always partial to a wicked sorceress.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Marvel Legends - GOBLIN QUEEN!
Sometimes I feel bad for all the casual X-fans tuning into the movies and cartoons and trying to figure out the history of Jean Grey. She is an intriguing character that finds herself in the epicenter of the X-Men's greatest stories. But even as a longtime fan, I can't deny it gets a bit confusing. One of her most iconic incarnations (for me) is when her clone, Madelyne Pryor became the Goblin Queen in the Inferno storyline from 1988-89. I was an avid reader of The New Mutants (and X-Terminators) at this time so I was getting a live feed of this story as it was being published (albeit focusing on Illyana). When the promotional material for X-Men '97 was first shown last year, I was excited to see the Goblin Queen. The Inferno storyline was one of the few major X-events that wasn't ever touched on in X-Men: The Animated Series. Amusingly, even though we've now seen the Goblin Queen in the new series, the story was barely scratched. But, hey, at least we got this great figure of her. Let's check out Madelyne below!
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