Toy Review: Four Horsemen Studios: Figura Obscura: The Ghost of Jacob Marley (Haunted Blue Edition)

  

Even for action figures, that title's a mouthful. Let me attempt to break this down: Four Horsemen Studios is a company producing toys for collectors, which means the quality is going to be several steps above what you'll find in the toy aisles, and the same goes for the price tag. This seven inch figure ran me seventy bucks before tax and shipping - roughly three times what you'd expect for a similar size toy from a mass-market toy company. Was it worth it?

Yes, actually, it was absolutely worth it, but I'll get to that in a moment - first I need to finish explaining the name and what it is.

Four Horsemen Studios mostly produces original fantasy and sci-fi figures. The "Figura Obscura" line is used to make figures drawn from myth, folklore, and classic literature. They produced a Krampus a while back, but I balked at the price tag. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't regretting that, by the way.

That brings us to their sub-line within Figura Obscura dedicated to characters from A Christmas Carol. Technically, this isn't exactly the first figure in that line, as this is a variant of the Ghost of Jacob Markey released in 2023 - again, I held off too long because of the price... but they gave me another chance this year.

Well, sort of. Again, this is a variant. The original was a paler blue with translucent boots (I think I prefer the Haunted Blue, but it's close). The gimmick on the rerelease was supposed to be that the figure would glow in the dark, but apparently there was a mix-up during production and that feature didn't materialize. The company made sure to give those of us who'd pre-ordered a chance to cancel, but - to be completely honest - I'd either forgotten or failed to notice it was going to glow in the first place. I suppose it would have made for a fun little extra detail, but I'm not complaining.

Let's move on to what we're really here to discuss: the packaging! No, really, it's worth talking about this time, because they did something unusually cool here. The box is designed to open like a book, with a cover wrapping around three edges. This isn't permanently attached but rather held in place by magnets - pull it off, and the exterior transforms into a backdrop.

It's attractive, sturdy, and potentially useful, if you've got the space and inclination to use it that way. I'm planning on displaying this without it, but I certainly appreciate the thought that went into it.

In terms of accessories, they weren't cheap. This is a big part of why I think the $70 price is justified - Marley comes with a lot. You get two extra heads, three extra sets of hands, two door knockers, twelve keys, a booklet containing the first Stave of A Christmas Carol, and - most importantly - the character's iconic chains. Short of giving us the chair he sits in, I can't think of a damn thing Marley's ghost interacted with in the story that's missing. This is really a rare situation where I can only look at what's here, shrug, and say, "No notes."

I suppose the door knockers are as good a place as any to start. These are taken right from the book, they look fantastic, and they're absurdly fun little extras. I'm not entirely sure what to do with them absent a pair of 1:10th scale Victorian doors to hang them on, but considering these were in no way a required inclusion, I'm just grateful to have them.

Let's talk heads. Aside from the standard sculpt, the other official inclusion is a version where the cloth securing his jaw has been undone, leaving his mouth gaping open. This probably was required at this price point, and they did a good job adapting the description from the book. The image is perhaps a bit cartoonish for my tastes, but that's absolutely in keeping with the source material. I'm going with the default version for my display, but anyone looking to recreate one of Marley's most famous moments is going to be extremely happy with how this looks.

I'm less clear with the reference for the last head, which is essentially a metal skull mask connected to a chain. Actually, I'm not even sure whether this was intended to be used as an alternate take on Marley's ghost, or if it's here as a sort of bonus for kit bashers and customizers. It initially came in the safe and doesn't seem to have been pictured in promotional images - I think they were literally treating it as a surprise gift.

Whatever the rationale, it's a really cool sculpt that I won't be using in this display (which, so we're clear, isn't a problem because the standard head they gave us is already basically perfect).

The extra hands are likewise a nice addition. As you can probably tell, I picked out the ones I wanted and stuck with them. The hands were easy enough to swap out and I had no issues with any of the joints (the pegs all felt sturdy), but at this price point you'll forgive me if I was reluctant to take too many risks.

The booklet containing the first fifth of A Christmas Carol is likewise fun - I assume the series will ultimately include five figures (Marley, the three spirits, then most likely Scrooge himself), with each coming with a similar pamphlet containing another Stave (I can already confirm this is true of the Ghost of Christmas Past). The quality and size aren't anything special, but - again - these aren't the sort of thing anyone was expecting, so including them at all is a plus.

Same goes with the bizarrely large pile of keys. Note these are in addition to similar keys attached to his chains. We didn't really need all these, I can't think of anything to do with them, but... hey... free toy keys!

As you may have noticed, I saved the best for last. Marley's vest of chains and locks, connected to money boxes, ledgers, keys, and a goddamn safe, is nothing short of jaw dropping (insert joke about the alternate head sculpt here). The vest is a little tricky to figure out - Marley's arms need to be removed first - but once on it looks incredible. The chains are metal, incidentally, and the safe and money boxes all open.

If I have one complaint it's that they were too generous in having the boxes open: the bottom pieces kept falling off whenever I was moving the figure. Eventually I realized it worked best if I just set up the figure first, then attached the little boxes to their lids as the last step.

Stylistically, they've given the figure an exaggerated appearance, more in line with comic book sensibilities than reality. Despite a relatively constrained color pallet, a great deal of detail comes through thanks to a variety of textures in the layers of clothing and spectral skin. My guess is they drew inspiration from illustrations accompanying various incarnations of the classic book. Regardless, it looks fantastic. It's clear a great deal of thought went into developing this.

Articulation is more or less what you'd expect if you've been collecting action figures over the past few decades, along with a few surprises hidden by the sculpt. The knees are elbows are ball-and-pin joints, and there seems to be a ball joint tucked under the vest - it's mostly constrained by the outfit, but you might be able to adjust his pose slightly.

When I ordered this, I honestly didn't know whether it would be worth it. The pictures were gorgeous, but $70 plus shipping can be hard to justify for a six inch action figure. But as soon as I had this in hand, my skepticism vanished - this is an exceptional display piece.

Who else has seen the 1970 musical?