JEREMY'S TOY BOX PRESENTS: NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

The Nightmare Before Christmas is just about my favorite movie in the whole world. Surprisingly, though, it has never spawned great action figures. Sure, when the movie was originally released, Hasbro made some decent figures for the time. That was over ten years ago, though. Toy making has excelled leaps and bounds since then, and the figures weren’t terribly accurate back then either. I mean, come on: Doctor Finklestein came standing, despite the fact that, in the movie, he\'s confined to a wheelchair!

 

Luckily, NECA Toys has come to the rescue with the definitive Nightmare Before Christmas toy line.

 

This first in hopefully a long series of toys gives us four figures: Jack, Sally, The Mayor, and the tall vampire. And they\'re fantastic! The sculpts and paint applications on all of them are very close to the film puppets. From Jack’s bat bow tie, to The Mayor\'s doubled visage, every detail is spot-on accurate to the film. Even better, a variety of materials were used to achieve an accurate representation of each character. Sally, for instance, has soft flexible hair, and is wearing a soft, rubber dress. Little touches like that make the figures really come to life.

 

As cool as they look, however, the articulation is what really surprised me. Jack wins the trophy for most blood drained in a single evening-- I mean, most points of articulation. He can hold pretty much any pose, albeit his dapper, emaciated frame makes posing him a careful venture. And the tall vampire’s got bendy arms, which is a perfect solution to the character design.

 

Like many public officials, however, The Mayor steals the election when it comes to the most inventive articulation. He has a really intense ball joint at the waist and head. With them, he can make any number of weird, outlandish poses-- further accentuating his portly, Liberty Bell-shaped body.

 

If that wasn’t enough to get you running to the mall, each figure comes with a slew of accessories-- most of them being the wonderfully demented Christmas toys from the film. Each character does come with at least one signature item, however: Sally has her basket, Jack has his ghost dog Zero, The Mayor has his megaphone, and the vampire has his umbrella. The bendy arms make the umbrella really hard to hold, but it\'s the thought that counts.

 

How could I find a flaw with such a great series of toys? Easy: four figures are not enough! Come on, NECA: there is a whole town of loveable miscreants that are dying to get the action figure treatment: Finklestein, The Behemoth with an axe buried in his skull, Oogie Boogie, and Lock, Shock, and Barrel, just to name a few. I mean, the vampire looks really silly and desperately lonely without the other two.

 

With all the other toy series under development at NECA right now, like The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Pirates Of The Caribbean, and Sin City, I hope there is enough manpower to do this line justice. Now get to work, NECA. I’m going to grab a bag of chips, plop on the couch, and watch Star Wars for the 500th time. I’m waiting....