"You will not remember what I show you now, and yet I shall awaken memories of love... and crime... and death... "

I never really thought about it until now, but I suppose people who aren't classic monster movie fans might get a bit confused when hearing about the characters from the 1932 Boris Karloff vehicle "The Mummy". The main character is of course the mummy himself, who's real name is "Imhotep", but when he's resurrected, he takes the name of Ardeth Bey and moves freely among the rest of the cast, until his true identity is revealed. So, "The Mummy", "Im-ho-tep" and "Ardeth Bey" are all the same person.

The figure is really well made like all the others in the line. The box art is great as usual showing Ardeth Bey poised above the character of Helen Grosvenor (played by Zita Johann), whom he believed to be the reincarnation of his lost love, the Princess Anck-es-en-Amon. A statue of the Egyptian god Anubis stands in the background. I love these box lids that have the vintage poster art on them. They make such great backgrounds for your monster setup.

Ardeth Bey box art

My humble monster collection, with Sideshow boxes on the top row

Ok, so the box is great, but what about the figure? Well, like most toys, it's got it's good and bad points. The costume and accessories (a sacrificial dagger and the Scroll Of Thoth, with which one could raise the dead) are fantastic. The figure can even hold both of the accessories and the Scroll of Thoth can actually be untied and rolled out to admire all the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics which were meticulously recreated. The tarboosh is molded right onto the head and is not removable.

The figure looks just like Karloff did, but something about the paint job feels wrong. I know how the character in the movie looks eerily ancient but here his face looks absolutely petrified (and I mean that in a turned to stone kind of way). I don't really have a problem with that, but you can still see tiny areas of flesh tone peeking through and I feel like the black around the eyes looks a bit too exaggerated, which sort of makes it look "fake". I know that's probably a weird way to describe a toy, but I think if I saw someone who looked like this in real life, I would think "there's someone made up to look ancient" instead of "there's someone ancient". It looked great in the movie, but doesn't seem to work as well in color. Perhaps this figure would have benefited from a black and white "Silver Screen Edition", but one was never made as this was released towards the tail end of Sideshow's run of these 12" classic monsters.

With that said, if that's a problem at all, it's only a problem when you look at it up close. From a couple feet away or while mixed within a collection, the doll is fantastic. And it certainly adds a distinctive flavor to a monster room otherwise filled with your standard Frankensteins, Draculas, etc... I welcome any of the characters who are less seen in toy form.

Ardeth Bey comes with his own adjustable 12" doll stand and was limited to 3000 pieces. It's definitely a great figure for the monster collector and if the paint feels flawed at all, it's only because of the high standard already established by Sideshow's previous releases. But I don't think you'd be too disappointed to have this one in your collection!

"Terrifying monsters from a lost age!"

My shame continues. It's been over a full year since my review of the 8" Mole Man and I still haven't seen the movie. I guess I've been too busy buying toys instead of dvds. And I have added this 12" version of the character to my collection since then.

This toy features beautifully sculpted head and hands. And the paint job is amazing. On the head, you can actually see different shades of brown underneath all the bumps, giving the head's landscape a very rich texture.

The clothing is simple, yet effective. The foot coverings are just the same brown cloth as the pants and shirt. No fancy footwear for these worker slaves, I guess. Of course, this makes it just a bit harder to stand since there are no real shoes to provide traction against a smooth surface and there is no stand included to counteract this. You'll definitely want to get yourself a 12" doll stand for this guy.

For accessories, you get a large sack and 6 mushrooms-2 large, 2 medium and 2 small.

Unfortunately, once again we're presented with a problem with how the hands attach to the arms. The hands are accurate, but the arms are not. Strangely, the arms have been changed to brown instead of flesh colored, but that doesn't really help much. They still don't come anywhere close to matching the hands!

I would have preferred to see something more like the later Frankensteins that have the hands and forearms all one piece. Sure, you lose some articulation this way, but the overall presentation is much nicer. Compounding the problem here is that the sleeves are just a tad too short to completely cover up this shortcoming.

I hate to sound like I'm complaining too much. I like the figure a lot. I'll just have to display it with the arms lowered. The Mole Man was limited to 1,5000 pieces.

"Throw the switch!" Dr. Frankenstein's assistant gets the 12" doll treatment.

Fritz is another sort of subsidiary character to be released by Sideshow Collectibles as a 12" figure. From the 1931 Frankenstein, Fritz was the hunchbacked assistant to Dr. Frankenstein and was ably portrayed by Dwight Frye. It was Fritz who was given the task of obtaining a brain for the monster and would bring back a criminal mind. This plot device was unique to the film adaption and was not in the original book or previous stage plays.

The doll is pretty good, but it lacks the distinctive hump on the back and the crouched over stance. You can probably place some crumpled up tissue under his shirt or something to help achieve this effect.

Fritz comes with a stone replica base, a walking stick, a plastic container with removable lid and a brain to store in the container. The container is labeled "Normal Brain". If it were up to me, I would have made it say "Abnormal Brain" since that is the one he actually takes in the movie. Perhaps you can display it fallen at his feet.

Besides adding a hump, maybe the only other way I could think to improve this figure would be to make the clothes look dirtier. I always think of Fritz as being filthy from digging up graves and what not. His clothes here look too new. Otherwise, this is a nice addition to the lineup and, unlike some of the other smaller characters released, he carried a nice price tag at only $20. Fritz was limited to 3,500 pieces.

Not my favorite monster character by any means, but a great 12" figure!

While I can't say that I've ever been a huge fan of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, there is no denying their importance in the history of horror movies. The same year that the Wolf Man made his first appearance, the story of Jekyll and Hyde was being released for the FOURTH time already, having been made in 1912 as a short, 1920 as a full-length silent feature with the great John Barrymore in the lead, 1931 with Frederich March and finally in 1941 with Spencer Tracy. The 1941 film is probably my favorite of the bunch, but it is the 1931 portrayal of the character that was made as a 12" doll by Sideshow Collectibles.

The figure comes all decked out in a tuxedo and looks magnificent. A separate cape can be tied around his neck for added flair. A nicely detailed cane is included and can be held, fairly well, in the right hand. He still doesn't exactly have a firm grasp on it, but it works better than most Sideshow 12" monster accessories. He also comes with a great 12" doll stand that has an image depicting the characters dual nature. The final accessory is the flask that contained the potion which affected his transformation from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde.

Of course, although the toy is labeled as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", you only get Mr. Hyde. There is no swappable heads or anything like that which would allow you to display either character. I guess it would be cool if there were, but hey, who really wants to display Dr. Jekyll anyway, right? It's Mr. Hyde you watch the movies for and it's Mr. Hyde you'd buy the figure for.

This is a great looking doll. The costume is well done and so is the sculpt and paint job. I love the packaging as usual. But there's always that one thing......

Wanna hear the most annoying, mind boggling thing you've probably ever read on this site? Then dig this...

Twisty ties are evil. We all know that. Twisting them around the doll underneath the clothing is excessive. I think I've
covered that. But this doll went way, way beyond the realm of rational thinking. This one actually had string sewn into the collar and run out through the back of the cardboard insert and tied. I had to actually cut the string at the collar in order to free the doll and make it look presentable. Insane, isn't it? A similar thing occurred on my 30" Superman, but at least on that toy, the string simply ran through the cape and could be slid out. Not so here. I had to actually cut the thing away, being very careful not to damage the costume in the process.

Other than that, and maybe that it's not the most interesting character to me, I must say that I love the figure. Mr. Hyde was limited to 2,000 pieces.

This figure is nicely done, but I can't really recommend it to anyone but the most dedicated of monster collectors or Bela Lugosi fans.

In "The Wolf Man", Bela Lugosi portrayed a gypsy fortune-teller also named Bela. His role is small but significant, as it is he who infects Larry Talbot with the curse of the were-wolf.

The 12" figure by Sideshow Collectibles is nicely done, but may not really be a vital part of your monster collection. You wouldn't even know it was related to the monster genre without having seen the movie. In that way, it's similar to the Larry Talbot doll . Nice in and of itself, but still remaining somewhat outside of the realm of monster collectibles.

The doll looks great overall, but he wears something of a slight smile that belies the sense of dread and menace that the character in the movie exuded.

Bela comes with a pipe accessory as well as three sets of Tarot cards. Each set does feature cards with individually printed artwork on each!

The interior of the box has some nice imagery of the dark forest, which made me think it would have been cool if all the boxes has some nice sort of cutout displays that you could place behind the figures. Of course, most adult collectors probably wouldn't cut them out even if they did. I know I wouldn't.

95008

Superman is to Clark Kent as The Wolf Man is to......Larry Talbot.

The Wolf Man is a memorable monster character with classic, iconic makeup by Jack Pierce. But Lon Chaney's portrayal of the tormented Larry Talbot is what carries the film.

I'm not sure it's good enough to carry it's own toy though. Don't get me wrong. It's well made, but basically, it's just a guy in a suit.

He comes with a stone replica base, a removable hat and the famous silver-tipped wolf's head cane from the movie. The clothing is nice, but seems a little loose. That's not that big a deal. Where the real problem lies is that, again, they re-used hands from a previous figure so he can't actually grasp the cane and hold it properly.

Much like the Renfield doll, I can't help but imagine this one as a talker. Pull the string and hear Larry lamenting his plight. ["Don't try to make me believe that I killed a man when I know that I killed a wolf!"] But that's just a pipe dream, unfortunately. And as a result, overall this is a rather bland entry in the line. Fortunately, I managed to snag this guy for less than half the initial $40.00 price tag.

Here is another release from Placo's line of Universal Monsters...

This is the second toy from this line that I've managed to acquire recently. I'm not a big fan of any of them, but I got them all in trade for stuff I would have been just as happy to throw away. The Mummy stands just shy of 10" tall and is articulated at the waist, shoulders, neck, ankles and wrists. Made entirely out of soft vinyl, the sculpt and paint job can be described as crude at best.

The seam along the waist joint is really ugly, as you can see. It doesn't line up well and you can see daylight along the edges. The sculpt of the face is particularly bad. I know the Mummy is thousands of years old, but here he looks like he's taken his dentures out.

And being thousands of years old, you would think his wrappings would no longer be pure white. The paint application must be to show it's age, but honestly it just looks like someone spilled a cup of coffee on it. On top of that, the purple of the cardboard insert has rubbed off on several areas, like the back and the feet.

The box is different from the Dracula and Frankenstein that I have. The printing on the side is dual-layered. It looks almost as though it is meant to be in 3D.

You can see at a glance why this line was not a success. It just looks like there was no love put into making them. I don't mind having them as a way to expand my monster collection, but as I said, I got them for basically nothing. Because they're not worth much more than that.

"Even a man who is pure in heart
and says his prayers by night
may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
and the autumn moon is bright."

The way this toy is packaged, for some reason, made me think I wouldn't like it. I have no idea why I thought that, but I'm happy to tell you that I was totally wrong. In doing these reviews, I've had to take many of these toys out of storage and most were put back when I was done. But not the Wolf Man!

I think part of the problem was that in looking at the toy before taking it out of the box, I had just assumed that the big log that was included was nothing more than a decorative accessory. In fact, it actually serves as a great stand. Place the figure's feet onto the pegs and he stands up pretty well. This is great too, because the toy is constructed in such a way that he is intended to hunch over, as though he were about to leap at you.

And overall, you can get some more dynamic action poses that most 12" figures cannot do.

The other accessory is a trap that can be connected to the log and that also opens and closes. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually have a realistic snapping action.

The quality of the sculpt, paint and clothing is excellent and although the interior torso is flesh colored, the lower arms and legs are brown or fur covered so it matches well. I guess the only bad part about this one is that the feet are designed so that he is always up on his toes, so you really can't stand him up without the base. But that's a very small price to pay to attain the poses you can make because of that design. The Wolf Man's a great entry in the line. A real keeper.

"Beneath your dancing feet are the tombs of tortured men----thus does the Red Death rebuke your merriment!"

With beautiful, bright red flowing robes and a feathered hat, this 12" figure of The Phantom of the Opera decked out as the Red Death is a real standout doll. Fully articulated like all the Sideshow dolls, the real draw here is the costume. It's just so eye-catching.

I think the sculpt of the face is the same as the regular 12" Phantom, just painted differently. But that's ok since in all likelihood you'll want to display this with the mask on. The mask is beautifully done and stays on just by pressing it to the front of the face. There are holes for eyes and if you look closely you can see the eyes in the head underneath.

Besides the hat and clothing, the other accessories are the standard base (best to get yourself a 12" doll stand though) and a staff. The staff has a snake winding up to the top and a skull in the mouth of the snake. As with other figures in the lineup, it would be better if this had a unique hand designed to actually hold his own accessory but unfortunately that is not the case. The best way to display it is to simply put it in his left hand and let the bottom end rest on your display surface for stability.

This is a great figure and a huge improvement over their 8" Red Death Phantom. It was released in 2002 and limited to 7,500 pieces. Maybe the only thing I don't like about it is that the box art is a little bland, especially in comparison to the figure itself. The artwork from the poster depicts the scene in the movie, but doesn't actually show the skull face of the Red Death!

A cartoonish Frankenstein from Placo Toys.

Placo Toys' Frankenstein is a pretty cartoonish looking version of the character. He looks more like something based on a Scooby Doo episode than the classic Universal Studios movie. And I consider that something of a redeeming quality. It's not a good Frankenstein, but it does have a certain charm.

This one seems to be made out of three different plastics. A squishy soft vinyl for the torso, head and hands and a harder vinyl for the arms. The legs and feet (which are one piece) is a cheap polyethylene. I have no idea why it was made in this fashion while the others in the line were not.

10" tall with articulation at the neck, shoulders, wrists and waist. The sculpt on the face is probably the best in the series, although for a dead guy, he sure seems to have a rosy complexion.

Another thing that stood out to me is that his hands are huge. And check out the back. I have no idea why, but there is a huge circle molded into it!