Mainlining Christmas

Early this year Fresh Monkey Fiction released the third wave in their "Naughty or Nice" line of Christmas action figures, and in the process added something fans had been hoping for: reindeer ( I grabbed a couple of those, myself ). In addition to "normal" deer, they also produced a couple variants playing into the "Naughty" side of the line. One, called Rottenhoof, seems to be a companion for Zombie Santa . The other, Gorgon, isn't a deer, at all (or at least its primary head isn't), though it uses the same body. I skipped Rottenhoof due to limited display space but grabbed Gorgon. In theory, Gorgon is a demonic goat intended as a companion (or, if you shell out an extra $20 for the saddle, a mount) for Krampus. He's also got an alternate decaying reindeer head we'll get to when we talk accessories, but neither relates to why I bought this. While I don't know for certain where they drew inspiration for this character, there's a gre...

  Over the past few years I've been looking at action figures from Fresh Monkey Fiction's "Naughty or Nice" line of Christmas-themed toys. Wave 3 arrived in January of this year and for the first time included reindeer. They made four basic deer, and anyone so inclined could order two of each along with a pack of heads to round out the team (and if you wanted to get one extra, the head pack included one with a red nose, as well). That's in addition to a couple alternate versions of the deer (one of which I'll be getting around to in a later review), some optional accessories (which I decided I didn't need) as well as new variations on Santa and Krampus. The deer were around $45 each, which is about what I'd expect given the size. Or rather that's what I'd expect it to cost if it were produced by a larger toy company. I continue to be impressed with Fresh Monkey Fiction's ability to produce collectibles that don't feel like they're p...

  The second figure in the Four Horsemen Studio's line of A Christmas Carol figures is, naturally, their take on The Ghost of Christmas Past. If you missed my review of Marley's Ghost , this line (or sub-line) recreates characters from Dickens' classic as seven-inch action figures. These aren't cheap (the first two figures ran me $70 each), but the quality, attention to detail, and generous accessories go a long way towards justifying that price tag. They've followed the lead of several adaptations in making the spirit female. Dickens' original implies the spirit itself is non-binary, shifting between forms as its light flickers like a candle's (that's also the rationale behind the figure having four arms, an image pulled from the original story). Because the character's always shifting, you could make the case any visualization is accurate to the source material. Personally, I like this interpretation quite a bit. As was the case with Marley, the bo...

   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 de...

To recap, I've been looking at several figures from the second wave of Fresh Monkey Fiction's "Naughty or Nice" action figures. Today, I'll be talking about the figure I was most excited about: Father Frost. Does it live up to the hype? Read the rest of the review to find out!  Wait. I hate when reviews pull that shit. The answer is, "mostly." The figure's pretty goddamn great, with a couple minor caveats. First, let's talk a little about who this guy is. Father Frost is a Russian midwinter figure best known to American audiences as the inspiration behind the Winter Warlock in the Rankin/Bass special, Santa Claus is Coming to Town , though the Russian film, Morozko , features a much more authentic version of the character. Both takes on the character seem to get nods in the accessories of this version, though it's fundamentally a new spin on the character. As you'd expect, the figure's body (and several of his accessories) are reused ...

I'm continuing my look at a handful of figures from the second wave of Fresh Monkey Fiction's "Naughty or Nice" line of holiday action figures. Today, I'm reviewing "Nasty Krampus," and I'm going to start with what's probably my largest complaint in the review: I'm not crazy about that name. Does that matter? Not at all! But still, it feels like a rather dull descriptor for what's a pretty exceptional toy.  Naming conventions aside, this combines the  Krampus head, hands, and tail from Wave 1  with the naked torso used on the Wave 2 Barbarian Santa (no judgement: creative reuse is the name of the game when it comes to action figures). I don't have much to say about the individual components I haven't said before: everything looks great up close. I slightly prefer the paint on the first wave face, where the horns were a lighter color, but that's personal taste (and I'm really stretching to find something to nitpick here). O...