Slasher Action Figures
and Other Memorabillia
For years as a child I hoped and prayed for someone to get around to making
action figures based on slasher characters. Though it didn't happen until I was
18-years-old, the dream finally did come true in the form of Todd McFarlane's
Movie Maniacs toy line.
Todd McFarlane began as a comic book artist and has turned into a virtual
entreprenuer of every form of media. He started out working for the comic
biggies Marvel and DC, then formed Image Comics with some other artists and
gave the world his own character creation, Spawn. Since that event in the
early 90s, McFarlane has dominated the comic world in more ways than one. He's
successfully seen his vision brought to life in both a popular HBO animated
series and a feature film (though the movie left much to be desired). He has
also founded what has swiftly become the premiere action figure company, McFarlane
toys. McFarlane's figures are the most detailed and accurate toys on the market,
and so it was a blessing to slasher fans everywhere that when the time came to
create figures based on the characters from popular slasher flicks, it was
McFarlane who took the job.
The first line of Movie Maniacs was released in the fall of 1998, distributed
primarily to comic book stores and specialty shops. The line consisted of figures
of Freddy from the Nightmare On Elm Street Series,
Jason from the Friday the 13th Series, and Leatherface
from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, as well as
the non-slasher figures of Eve and Patrick from the absolutely horrible flick
Species II. Freddy and Jason were both released in two versions (a "bloody"
and "non-bloody" version), with the less-gory figures shipping to Toys R' Us stores
everywhere (Leatherface wasn't included in the Toys R' Us shipments).
Click on the links below to view images of the Series 1 figures:
Freddy
Jason
Leatherface
The second line of Movie Maniacs is scheduled for release in the fall of 1999.
As of right now, the exact details of the assortment are not know for sure, but
the following figures have all been confirmed to be in the line: Michael Myers
from the Halloween films, the Ghostface killer from
the Scream series, Tiffany and Chuckie from Bride
of Chucky, as well as the Crow and Pumpkinhead. It is also rumored that
there will be a second Chucky figure which will be the character from the earlier
Child's Play movies, before he was ripped apart and
stitched back together. The figure that is getting the most attentiona and
speculation is that of Anthony Perkin's depiction of Norman Bates from the
Psycho films. There's a lot of heated debate about the
Bates figure--some swear the figure will be in the line, others swear he won't
be around until Series 3.
Click on the links below to see images of some prototype figures for Series 2:
Michael Myers
Ghostface
Tiffany and Chucky
The Crow
Pumpkinhead
Many thanks to Figures.com for the pictures.
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