Placo Toys Universal Studios Monsters Dracula and Mummy (1991)
In 1991, Placo Toys launched a new line of Universal Monsters action figures. The first wave consisted of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and The Wolf-Man. More monsters like the Bride of Frankenstein and The Creature From the Black Lagoon were planned for a second wave, but apparently the first wave didn't sell well enough to warrant it. The figures were 10 1/12 inches tall and featured very limited articulation, with swivel joints at the neck, shoulders, wrists, and waist, and no movement at all for the legs. They are sculpted in a very generic, cartoony style, based on the Universal style guide of the time, with no attempt to be accurate to the films. I was never very impressed with the photos of these I saw online, but I stumbled on these for very cheap on ebay recently, only paying about $8 for the set of The Mummy and Dracula. At that price, I figured, why not?
A Face Only Your Mummy Could Love
In hand, I kind of like them more then I thought I would. They have a solid, hefty chunkiness to them that feels good in my hands. I could see a kid having fun playing with them and just bashing them around. I don't really see them being a big part of my action figure collection, though. Their 10 1/2 inch size doesn't match up with any of my other action figures. I think these guys are going to become more of a Halloween decoration in my house, instead.
"Space Vampire" Buck Rogers in the 25th Century - Season 1 Episode 14 Originally aired January 3, 1980
Space Vampire
Buck and Wilma are dropping off Twiki for a tune-up at a space station, when a derelict space-freighter crashes into the station. The ship is the I.S. Demeter, carrying 8 crew members and 1 passenger, with all on board appearing to be dead. The passenger was a bounty hunter named Helson. If these names sound a little familiar, that's because "Demeter" was the name of the ship that Dracula traveled from Transylvania to England on in the novel "Dracula," and "Helson" is derived from Professor Van Helsing. That's right, this episode is Buck Rogers vs. Space Dracula!
Space Vampire Gets Zapped by Buck
Believing the people on the I.S. Demeter to be the victims of a disease, the space station is quarantined. Soon enough, the people on the space station start falling victim to the same malady, which is a state of suspended animation closely resembling death. But the real threat is not a disease but a space alien known as a "Vorvon," which sucks the life energy out of it's victims' necks using two extended fingers. Unfortunately, the monster can only be seen by it's intended victims, and it has set it's sights on Wilma. The creature also has the ability raise his victims from their "death" and have them serve him as zombies. Fun stuff.
Buck is Attacked by an Astro Zombie
Most of the episode has the alien stalking Wilma, while Buck Rogers begins to suspect that he is fighting a Space Vampire, but has a hard time convincing anyone else that it is real. He eventually lays a trap to destroy the Vorvon, but by then Wilma has been enthralled by the vampire and she gets caught in the trap as well, forcing Buck to make a last-ditch effort to save her life.
Wilma's Eyes Glow With Evil Energy
All in all, it's just a quick retelling of the Dracula story in sci-fi drag, but it is colorful, fast-paced and entertaining. If you're a fan of horror and 1970s and '80s sci-fi cheese, there are worse ways to spend and hour this Halloween season.
Bela Lugosi as Dracula 8 Inch Retro Action Figure - Mego Corporation (2018)
In 2018, new action figures from Mego hit the store shelves for the first time in 35 years! Mego was the king of action figures in the 1970s, but they didn't make the adjustment to the rapidly changing toy market in the '80s, and went out of business in 1983. But now Mego president Marty Abrams has brought his company back, with an exclusive deal with Target stores, and new waves of figures are on sale now. The second wave of figures is hitting Target stores and their website as I write this. The first wave of figures featured characters from Star Trek, DC Comics, and various other characters from TV, movies, and music. The best of that bunch, in my opinion, was this one: Bela Lugosi as Dracula.
"The light!"
This is not the Universal Monsters Dracula, rather, this is a figure licensed from the Bela Lugosi estate, and features a great likeness of the actor. There have been many figures of Dracula made over the years, but hardly any of them have had the rights to Bela Lugosi's likeness. As a result, we've gotten a lot of "generic" Draculas, that look like the character more or less, but lack the distinct facial features that make Lugosi's Dracula so special. I'm a big Bela Lugosi fan, and I'm really excited to finally have a figure that actually looks like him. Mego have really hit it out of the park with this one, too. The facial sculpt is superb, the paint job is great, the costume is really, really nice. This figure is just a much higher quality than what I would normally expect in an 8 inch retro figure.
Bela Lugosi
It's not totally perfect though. One issue that a lot of the Bela Lugosi figures have is mismatched arms or hands. When you buy the figure in the package, his hands and arms are covered by his cape. But when folks have been bringing them home and opening them up, some people have found two right hands, or two left hands, or sometimes even two of the same arm, so that the elbow will bend in the wrong direction. I read about this online at the Mego Museum, and when I opened my figure up, sure enough, I had this problem, too. My figure has two left hands. Weirdly enough, it doesn't bother me, though. It almost makes him seem more of an unnatural or supernatural being, like two left hands is part of his vampire curse.
Two Left Hands!
Wave 2 of the new Mego figures are hitting the stores now, and there is a new Frankenstein figure in that wave, hopefully I will be picking that up soon, and when I do I'll try show it off this month for the Countdown to Halloween. In the past, I've tried to post every day for the Countdown, but that's not happening this month, I just don't have as much spare time to blog as I used to. But I've got a total of 8 Halloween TV show reviews that are already written and uploaded to the blog, which are scheduled to go online about every 4 days or so. And in between, I'll be snapping photos of some of my monster action figures, and posting reviews of them as I go along. So hopefully I'll have something new every couple of days. And in the meantime please click on the link to the Countdown to Halloween and check out all of the other blogs that are participating this year!
50 years ago today... "Dracula: Prince of Darkness" was released to the theaters on a double bill with "The Plague of the Zombies."
Drac Attack!
Dracula: Prince of Darkness is the third film in Hammer's "Dracula" series. The first film had Dracula, played by Christopher Lee, squaring off against Professor Van Helsing, played by Peter Cushing, and ended in Dracula's death. In the second film, Dracula remained dead, and the the film starred Cushing's Van Helsing fighting a new vampire threat. In the third film, Cushing is out, but Christopher Lee returns, as Dracula is resurrected to bite innocent necks once again.
Dracula Awakes!
Christopher Lee's performance in this film is unusual because he doesn't have a single line of dialogue. Lee claimed that the dialogue in the script was so bad that he refused to speak it, although the screenwriter disputes this. The screenwriter says the part was written with no dialogue. Either way, it actually works really well in the film, and gives Dracula a mysterious, unknowable presence. He seems more like some sort of evil force of nature than a human being.
"Pull my finger."
Dracula "dies" again at the end of this one, trapped under ice and drowning in a frozen-over lake. However, after coming back to life once, it seems a safe bet he'll be back again in time for the next sequel.
The Brides of Dracula is not the most accurately titled movie, as neither Dracula nor his brides appear in it. Rather, it follows the adventures of Doctor Van Helsing, who killed Dracula in the previous film in this series, "The Horror of Dracula."
Van Helsing and the Baroness
Dracula is still dead, and now Van Helsing has set his sights on another group of vampires, led by the evil Baron Meinster. This is where the film falters a bit. David Peel, who plays the Baron, has absolutely none of the menace or charisma that Christopher Lee had as Dracula. When ever the Baron appears on screen flapping his cape or making bloodshot googly eyes at his victims, the effect is comical rather than scary.
Baron Meinster
Still, Peter Cushing is excellent as Van Helsing, and the rest of the cast is solid. Over all it is still an effective horror picture, even without Christopher Lee, although his absence does prevent "Brides" from being a classic on the level of it's predecessor.
After the commercial success of "The Curse of Frankenstein" In 1957, Hammer Films decided to try their hand at remaking another classic Universal Horror picture: Dracula. Titled "Dracula" internationally, and "Horror of Dracula" in the United States, the film, like "The Curse of Frankenstein," once again pairs stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Cushing plays vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, and Lee plays Count Dracula. Cushing and Lee both became major horror stars from these films, essentially their generation's versions of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, and starred in a total of 22 films together.
Christopher Lee as Count Dracula
Horror of Dracula is a great film. It' s colorful, violent, and stylish, and cemented Hammer's position as the new home of cinematic horror. It was also the most successful film SERIES from Hammer, spawning a total of 9 films. Like The Curse of Frankenstein before it, Horror of Dracula is a must-see for any fan of classic horror films.
Beginning in 2010, Diamond Select began releasing retro cloth Universal Monsters figures in the vintage Mego style. The figures were designed and sculpted by Emce Toys. I'll be reviewing every figure from this line this month as part of "Mad Monster Month," and I'll begin with Dracula. This Dracula was part of Series 2 of the Universal Monsters line, and was originally released in 2011.
It's a really nice looking figure, and is a more modern take on the old Mego style, while still retaining the vintage vibe. The cloth outfit fits the character very well, as opposed to most vintage Mego type figures, which either tended to be overly baggy and loose looking, or skin tight with the details screen-printed on. This figure has no screen-printed details, his vest and tie are made out of separate layers of cloth, and his medallion is made of plastic and cloth. One fun tie-in to the original Mego Mad Monster Dracula are the shoes, which are identical. Whether that was a deliberate homage, or just a cost-saving measure (why design new shoes when perfectly good ones already exist?), it works out great.
Dracula Up Close
The sculpt is very nice, too. Like virtually all official Dracula products, it does not feature Bela Lugosi's likeness. It's my understanding that the Lugosi estate is very picky about granting a license to use Bela's likeness, so you can't blame Diamond Select or Emce toys for that. But even though it doesn't look like Lugosi, it does capture that same suave, yet menacing European vibe that Lugosi had. I think it's one of the best classic Dracula sculpts I've seen to capture the feel of Dracula without being able to look like Bela Lugosi.
From 1974 to 1976, Azrak-Hamway International (aka AHI) had their own line of 8 inch, cloth outfit, Universal Studios Monster action figures, that were heavily inspired by Mego's similar figures in the 1970s. The figures were fairly cheaply made, and were obviously imitating Mego's figures, but unlike Mego's figures, these were officially licensed from Universal Studios, so they were actually able to get closer to the likeness of the characters from the movies. In 1980 and 1981, AHI revisited this license through their child company Remco, producing a series of 9 inch Universal Monsters figures with cloth outfits. Aside from being slightly bigger than their original figures, these all had an arm closing action feature when you pressed a button on their backs, it sort of made it look like they were grabbing ahold of their victims and crushing them to death.
The 1980 Dracula figure's face is nicely sculpted, although it looks closer to Frank Langella or George Hamilton's Dracula than Bela Lugosi. It's body looks quite a bit bulkier than Bela's, as well. His vest, medallion, and tie are screen printed on to his shirt, similar to the Mego Mad Monster Dracula. He also has a black cape with red lining, like the Mego version. One nice feature is that his cape has loops on it that fit over his wrists, so that when you activate his arm crushing feature, he actually wraps his cape around his victim along with his arms, which definitely has a great "Dracula" feel to it.
The doctor is in, and he wants to suck your blood! It's Dr. Dracula, the vampire figure from Matchbox's Con-Nec-Tors in Europe, and Ertl's Socket Poppers here in North America. I reviewed a few other Socket Poppers this month, but to refresh your memory, these are 3 3/4 inch action figures with head and limbs that can be removed and swapped with other figures in the line to create wacky combinations. Plus, they also make great cartoony action figures on their own, even without the parts swapping. Let's check him out after the break!
The Mini Monsters were a line of 3 3/4 inch officially licensed Universal Monsters action figures released by Remco in 1979. They are very similar to classic Kenner Star Wars figures and have the standard five points of articulation. Dracula originally came with a vinyl cape that was black on the outside and red on the inside, but my figure has a replacement cape of all black. The action figures joining Dracula in today's photo series are a vintage Kenner Princess Leia, Zica Toys' Six Million Dollar Man, and Funko ReAction's The Goonies Sloth. One note, my Dracula figure has a piece of paint chipped of off his nose, but I touched it up in the photos.
And now, on with "The Remco Dracula Picture Show..."
The Mad Monsters were originally made by Mego in the 1970s. These were Mego's version of the Universal Monsters. The four figures were Human Wolfman, Dreadful Dracula, Horrible Mummy, and Monster Frankenstein. Mego didn't have the license from Universal to do official versions of these characters, so they are all a little bit off-model, to avoid being sued. For instance, Frankenstein has his bolts on his head instead of his neck.
The Monster Frankenstein and The Human Wolfman
The vintage figures are pretty pricey. Mint condition figures in their original packaging go in the hundreds, and even a loose figure that has been played with can go for $50 or more. Since that's a bit out of my price range, I was happy to buy reproductions of the Monsters by Figures Toy Co. Figures Toy Co. is also known as Classic TV Toys. It's the same company, but they have different websites. I'm not really sure what the deal is with that... I think they might be trying to transition away from the name Classic TV Toys, but I'm not really sure.
The Dreadful Dracula
Figures Toy Co. is the company that is making reproductions of Mego's World's Greatest Superheros Batman figures. They are also adding some new figures to that line that Mego never made, like Alfred. Plus, they are coming out with a line of 8-inch retro figures based on the classic 1966 Batman TV show. While surfing their sites, looking for info about their upcoming Batman toys, I stumbled on a great deal for the Mad Monsters. On the Figures Toy Co. site, the figures sell for $14.99 each, or the set of 4 for $59.99. But on the Classic TV Toys site, they have a deal were you can buy all 4 of the figures loose, with no packaging, for only $29.99! I don't collect figures mint-on-card. I like to open them up, play with them, and display them. So I was pretty excited to be able to buy them so cheap loose. They have some other deals on the CTVT site that aren't on the Figures site as well, so you'll probably want to comparison shop both sites before you buy anything from them.
The Horrible Mummy
Judging by photographs on the internet (I don't own any of the vintage Mego figures for a true side-by-side comparison), the CTVT Mad Monsters are not as high of a quality as the original Mego figures were. The sculpts look a little soft. This is probably because these were made by making a cast of the Mego figures, instead of being produced in the original molds. The paint on the figures' eyes and eyebrows looks sloppier on the CTVT figures than on the original Megos. The figures have glow-in-the-dark hands and eyes, but the glow in the dark effect is pretty faint. I could see it, but just barely. There are also several paint defects on the Mummy's face (check out the photos to see).
The Snarling Face of the Human Wolfman
I've heard mixed reviews about the quality control on CTVT's action figure bodies, lots of stories about figures being cracked, or broken, and what not, so I was curious to see what I would get. Right away, I was happy to see that none of my figures had any serious issues. Nothing was broken, or missing, or anything like that.
Dracula is goofy looking from the front, but is actually kind of evil looking in profile.
All of the CTVT figures can stand on their own, which was a pleasant surprise. Mego-style figures often have issues with that. You'll still probably want to get a doll stand for them if you want to display them, but that's true of all figures of this type. The range of motion on the shoulders of my Dracula, Wolfman, and Mummy figures was limited, and it was hard to pose them. I would chalk that up to the limitations of this type of retro action figure body, but my Frankenstein figure had much more poseable shoulders, and I could move his arms in many more positions. The Human Wolfman figure also had very loose wrists. No matter how you posed them, they would just flop back into the same position.
Overall, I would rate the quality of these figures as acceptable, especially for the price I paid for them. However, I might end up buying some higher quality replacement bodies from someone like Doc Mego, and just swapping out the heads and costumes on to them. Supposedly the quality of Figures Toy Company's toys has been increasing lately, so hopefully I won't have any similar complaints about their upcoming Batman figures, because I really won't to like those.
