Reviews
[Review] NECA’s Revisit of 8-Bit Jason Is a Thankful Second Opportunity
As some of you may be shocked to learn, many of us at the site love videogames. I myself work in the industry, so it’s kind of a no-brainer. The folks at NECA also love video games, and their line of retro videogame-inspired characters is proof of that. The line started back in 2013 with the Comic-Con exclusive of a glow-in-the-dark Jason Voorhees. The figure was a hit, and while I wasn’t able to get the figure then, I managed to snag it a year later. Now, to celebrate the 13th figure in that line, NECA has released a modified version of Jason, complete with some new goodies.
Packaging:
A big draw of this line is the way NECA replicates the original look of the videogame boxart for whichever figure they’re doing. And in this case, the boxart for Jason is the same as it was for the first figure, albeit with a few differences. As with the original figure, the boxart replicates the original NES box for Friday The 13th, with some modifications (such as the NECA “Seal of Quality” replacing Nintendo’s seal, and the screenshots now showing off the figure itself). The box also features a flap in the front that swings open to show off the figure. This time around, NECA has decided to throw in a light-sensitive chip, that when the flap is opened, plays the game’s theme music clearly and without any distortion. It’s a nice touch, though it can admittedly get annoying if you’re trying to take the figure out of the box. Or, if in my case, the chip won’t play the music as the two cell batteries have died from the cold (Canadian weather and all). Luckily, you can swap the batteries out, or, if you still don’t like the music, remove them entirely. But where’s the fun in that?!
Sculpting/Paintwork:
While the box sports art of Kane Hodder’s Jason from The New Blood, the actual figure is of the late Richard Brooker’s Jason from Friday The 13th Part III. The figure was previously released as part of the first series of NECA’s Friday The 13th line, so those of you who have those figures know the fantastic sculpting job the team pulled off to bring Jason to life. Despite the monotone colours, the details in this 7″ sculpt still come through. Details such as the wrinkles in Jason’s shirt and pants, as well as the way the open sleeves transition into Jason’s arms are replicated perfectly. Jason’s deformed head is appropriately lumpy, again with details such as his malformed teeth and veins all nicely sculpted. It was a great sculpt then as it is now!
Some people thought that the first figure looked ugly with the garish purple and green, but fans of the game knew better. NECA nailed the colours the first time around, and it’s no exception here again. This time around, the figure sports some black linework to bring out some details, as well as having Jason’s eyes coloured a deep pink. Sadly, Jason loses the exclusive glow-in-the-dark plastic for his hands, mask and shoes, but this is a great alternative. The overall painting is clean, with no smearing or bleeding over.
Articulation:
As with the original, the joints were nice and tight. Perhaps a little too tight. Keep a hair dryer handy to warm up the joints to avoid breaking them, particularly the hip joints (I have a sad story and a hard lesson, if you have the time). Jason features over 25 points of articulation as before. The head is on a ball joint, and can look up and down and rotate without problems. The sculpt doesn’t hinder the movement at all. Arms are on pin-and-socket joints, and can move outward and up and down with no problem. The elbow bends at 45°, and can rotate side to side. This is one area where the hair dryer might help. The hands are on a ball joint, and can rotate all the way around without problems.
The waist is on a ball joint, and can swivel Jason side to side, as well as move up and down. The legs are also on a pin-and-socket joint, and can move up and down, inward and outward, as well as rotate. I can’t stress enough to use a hair dryer if your joints are stiff. The legs bend at the knee at roughly 45°, and can move side to side. The feet can also rotate from side to side, but don’t feature any ankle pivot.
Accessories:
As before, Jason comes with his machete and an axe. Whereas the first figure had glow-in-the-dark plastic for the machete blade and axe head, this time around they’re both white. Still, the sculpts are great, and the paint is clean. Jason also has his mask, and it’s the stiff plastic as was the case before. It doesn’t look like it’s a case of the mask distorting this time around, but you’d still best keep an eye out. It fits nice and snug over Jason’s head without any problems. The new accessory this time around is Pamela Voorhees’ floating head. The head is a repaint of the older Friday The 13th 25th anniversary pack that NECA released years ago, and still holds up. The paint is again clean and with the black outlines brings out the wrinkled details of the face, as well as the hair. The head comes on a removable clear plastic stand, so those with diorama ideas can use it without problems.
Overall:
This is again a no-brainer. NECA has taken an already fantastic figure and given it a fresh coat of paint (literally), and thrown in some new stuff that fans of the line will enjoy. Those of you who missed out on Jason’s first figure now get a chance to add Jason to their collection of NECA’s line, and it’s an easy choice. The ones who did get the original Jason will admittedly have some reservations over what’s essentially the same figure with a slightly different paintjob and a new accessory, but if you can find it at a reasonable price, it makes the decision easier. NECA doesn’t seem to be slowing down entries in this line, so grab Jason and wait for more great entries in the future.
Reviews
“AHS: Delicate” Review – “Little Gold Man” Mixes Oscar Fever & Baby Fever into the Perfect Product
‘AHS: Delicate’ enters early labor with a fun, frenzied episode that finds the perfect tone and goes for broke as its water breaks.
“I’ll figure it out. Women always do.”
American Horror Story is no stranger to remixing real-life history with ludicrous, heightened Murphy-isms, whether it’s AHS: 1984’s incorporation of Richard Ramirez, AHS: Cult’s use of Valerie Solanas, or AHS: Coven’s prominent role for the Axeman of New Orleans. Accordingly, it’s very much par for the course for AHS: Delicate to riff on other pop culture touchstones and infinitely warp them to its wicked whims. That being said, it takes real guts to do a postmodern feminist version of Rosemary’s Baby and then actually put Mia Farrow – while she’s filming Rosemary’s Baby, no less – into the narrative. This is the type of gonzo bullshit that I want out of American Horror Story! Sharon Tate even shows up for a minute because why the hell not? Make no mistake, this is completely absurd, but the right kind of campy absurdity that’s consistently been in American Horror Story’s wheelhouse since its inception. It’s a wild introduction that sets up an Oscar-centric AHS: Delicate episode for success. “Little Gold Man” is a chaotic episode that’s worth its weight in gold and starts to bring this contentious season home.
It’d be one thing if “Little Gold Man” just featured a brief detour to 1967 so that this season of pregnancy horror could cross off Rosemary’s Baby from its checklist. AHS: Delicate gets more ambitious with its revisionist history and goes so far as to say that Mia Farrow and Anna Victoria Alcott are similarly plagued. “Little Gold Man” intentionally gives Frank Sinatra dialogue that’s basically verbatim from Dex Harding Sr., which indicates that this demonic curse has been ruffling Hollywood’s feathers for the better part of a century. Anna Victoria Alcott’s Oscar-nominated feature film, The Auteur, is evidently no different than Rosemary’s Baby. It’s merely Satanic forces’ latest attempt to cultivate the “perfect product.” “Little Gold Man” even implies that the only reason that Mia Farrow didn’t go on to make waves at the 1969 Academy Awards and ends up with her twisted lot in life is because she couldn’t properly commit to Siobhan’s scheme, unlike Anna.
This is easily one of American Horror Story’s more ridiculous cold opens, but there’s a lot of love for the horror genre and Hollywood that pumps through its veins. If Hollywood needs to be a part of AHS: Delicate’s story then this is actually the perfect connective tissue. On that note, Claire DeJean plays Sharon Tate in “Little Gold Man” and does fine work with the brief scene. However, it would have been a nice, subtle nod of continuity if AHS: Delicate brought back Rachel Roberts who previously portrayed Tate in AHS: Cult. “Little Gold Man” still makes its point and to echo a famous line from Jennifer Lynch’s father’s television masterpiece: “It is happening again.”
“Little Gold Man” is rich in sequences where Anna just rides the waves of success and enjoys her blossoming fame. She feels empowered and begins to finally take control of her life, rather than let it push her around and get under her skin like a gestating fetus. Anna’s success coincides with a colossal exposition dump from Tavi Gevinson’s Cora, a character who’s been absent for so long that we were all seemingly meant to forget that she was ever someone who was supposed to be significant. Cora has apparently been the one pulling many of Anna’s strings all along as she goes Single White Female, rather than Anna having a case of Repulsion. It’s an explanation that oddly works and feeds into the episode’s more general message of dreams becoming nightmares. Cora continuing to stay aligned with Dr. Hill because she has student loans is also somehow, tragically the perfect explanation for her abhorrent behavior. It’s not the most outlandish series of events in an episode that also briefly gives Anna alligator legs and makes Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian kiss.
“Little Gold Man” often feels like it hits the fast-forward button as it delivers more answers, much in the same vein as last week’s “Ava Hestia.” These episodes are two sides of the same coin and it’s surely no coincidence that they’re both directed by Jennifer Lynch. This season has benefitted from being entirely written by Halley Feiffer – a first for the series – but it’s unfortunate that Lynch couldn’t direct every episode of AHS: Delicate instead of just four out of nine entries. That’s not to say that a version of this season that was unilaterally directed by Lynch would have been without its issues. However, it’s likely that there’d be a better sense of synergy across the season with fewer redundancies. She’s responsible for the best episodes of AHS: Delicate and it’s a disappointment that she won’t be the one who closes the season out in next week’s finale.
To this point, “Little Gold Man” utilizes immaculate pacing that helps this episode breeze by. Anna’s Oscar nomination and the awards ceremony are in the same episode, whereas it feels like “Part 1” of the season would have spaced these events out over four or five episodes. This frenzied tempo works in “Little Gold Man’s” favor as AHS: Delicate speed-runs to its finish instead of getting lost in laborious plotting and unnecessary storytelling. This is how the entire season should have been. Although it’s also worth pointing out that this is by far the shortest episode of American Horror Story to date at only 34 minutes. It’s a shame that the season’s strongest entries have also been the ones with the least amount of content. There could have been a whole other act to “Little Gold Man,” or at the least, a substantially longer cold open that got more out of its Mia Farrow mayhem.
“Little Gold Man” is an American Horror Story episode that does everything right, but is still forced to contend with three-quarters of a subpar season. “Part 2” of AHS: Delicate actually helps the season’s first five episodes shine brighter in retrospect and this will definitely be a season that benefits from one long binge that doesn’t have a six-month break in the middle. Unfortunately, anyone who’s already watched it once will likely not feel compelled to experience these labor pains a second time over. With one episode to go and Anna’s potential demon offspring ready to greet the world, AHS: Delicate is poised to deliver one hell of a finale.
Although, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, “How do you expect to be a good conclusion if this is what you’re chasing?”
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
‘Abigail’ Review – Radio Silence Delivers Another Gory Good Time at the Movies
You must be logged in to post a comment.