NECA's Big Year Of Awesomeness
Text by Paul Nomad

NECA emerges this year as the unmatched kings of horror, tackling everything from Terminator to Predators to Gremlins and on and on into every nook and cranny of your plastic desires. You wanted Lost Boys? You got them. You screamed for Beetlejuice and a certain young lady that spits pea soup? They are hanging from the pegs as we speak. Now the challenge becomes what to do next. What hasn?t been done before and more importantly, how do you re-visit those iconic characters we can?t get enough of, but deliver something we?ve never seen before? NECA finds a way.

Believe it or not, Evil Dead 1 and 2 have never been explored in collectible form, save for those pretty Necronomicon editions of the DVD releases featuring recreations of the demon book in latexy materials. Not one action figure to date? until now! NECA will focus their efforts on Evil Dead 2 for 2012, boasting the most articulated and detailed Ash figures you?ve ever seen. In addition to the points you spotted in the prototypes, NECA has added leg articulation for a fully posable, action packed lord of boom sticks. We?ve been told the articulation is similar to Predator 1. The line kicks off with Deadite Ash (with his girlfriend?s head and the reel to reel recorder into which the translation of the Necronomicon was read), Farewell to Arms Ash (with his evil arm, an axe and a shotgun), Hero Ash (with his evil hand, chainsaw arm and shotgun)?and just when you think this is the Ash show, we bring you HENRIETTA!! SOMEONE?S IN MY FRUIT CELLAR!!!! This fat wad of naked old lady plastic is horrifically detailed and comes with an alternate head with the stretchy neck which we?d gather is bendy, since that?s how NECA rolls.

A Nightmare On Elm Street is one of those properties we?ve been seeing toys from since the first moment McFarlane Toys thought it would be awesome to get the pegs a little bloody. NECA heads back into familiar territory, now focusing on some very specific and awesomely creepy moments shared by you and a man named Freddy Krueger. Series 1 is shipping now including Original Freddy with an additional set of super long arms and an extra head with his torn away face and ?Freddy?s Revenge? Freddy with gloved and ungloved hand (with blades coming from his fingers) and a screaming head with exposed brain to give Jesse a piece of his mind! Series 2 follows this October with ?Dream Warriors? Freddy with a torn away shirt exposing his chest-full-o-kids for ?you?re all my children now? action and the little house made of tongue depressors and Nightmare 4 Freddy chock full of arms and faces all revolting against their dream demon captor. We asked if it was challenging to come up with THE iconic look for Freddy from each film and were told Team NECA subjects themselves to tireless hours of movie watching, sometimes going frame by frame to pinpoint the exact moment they want to capture. Lead sculptor Kyle Windrix is meticulous when roughing out every figure, locking down the perfect pose before the rest of the team dives in to add every detail you crave. This line is set to contain the most screen accurate Freddys you?ve ever seen with each figure containing details specific to their moment, right down to every facet of his tiny little killer glove! If a blade was welded back into place for the story, the corresponding figure shows it. Even the burns on the face, which a casual fan would assume are consistent from film to film, are different in each figure released. The only pieces re-used are the pants and under-torso!

We tried to pry some details on further releases for the super affordable Walking Dead mini-bust line, but this seems to be a ?wait and see? situation. If the first series sells well, we will surely see more zombie heads in our future!

A quick look over Terminator items you should be familiar with from February?s Toy Fair and the pegs at your nearby Toys ?R? Us led us to the cyborg you are really interested in?ROBOCOP!! NECA is planning a few different versions of your favorite police cyborg for next year?s anniversary of the film, but for now, we get the ?basic? model with an additional interface spike arm. Upcoming versions include Robo with his faceplate removed revealing Peter Weller?s likeness and a battle damaged version from the end of the first film when he fights ED-209. SPEAKING of ED?will we get one to fight Robocop?! NECA would love to do this, but currently, the costs on something so large are far too high. Never fear?if there is a way to make it work, NECA will find it. These are the guys who brought us a giant Balrog and huge Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, aren?t they? For now the plan is just the 3 Robos, but we had to press further and ask about additional characters from the film series. Again, this is something NECA has thought about, but their license does not include Clarence Boddicker and his small army of unforgettable, blood thirsty henchmen. This is also why we?ve only gotten the Predator and no Arnold to play with from that film. Every license is different and very specific as to what you can use from the films.

Speaking of freaky man-hunting aliens, the Predator line continues! NECA have wrapped up their Predators line and is moving onto the ?Lost Tribe? from Predator 2. Future releases include the City Hunter, the feature Predator from the movie along side all the Preds from the final scene of the film. These are all new bodies with more and better articulation. Expect these to drop in waves of 3 with variants of the main Predator throughout with masked and closed mouth versions accompanying the Shaman, Stalker, Guardian and more to complete the 8 from the final scene.

Jumping into the world of video games, we take a peek at the upcoming Assassin?s Creed figures including Ebony (Gamestop Exclusive available in October), Ivory and un-hooded (Toys ?R? Us) versions of Ezio with new articulation. Ezio also gets some transportation this year in the form of Leonardo da Vinici?s Flying Machine, also available at Gamestop in October. Ezio actually fits in this rig, which shoots a projectile from its fireball cannon to smite your enemies with medieval death from above. Yarg. My initial observation after seeing the flying machine is that NECA may be opening a can of worms by introducing their first vehicle! What of the Gears of War fans? Who would you kill for a COG Silverback mech suit, gear heads??!! No comment from NECA, so keep wishing. We then asked about other characters from the game and was told that, for now, the focus is on Ezio, who is the clear easy sell to retailers.

We saw the Gears of War releases at Toy Fair in 2 up form, so we?ll just do a quick run through there. A Marcus and Locust 2 pack will be available at Toys R Us along with new releases for Marcus, Dom, Anya, Baird and Carmine, broken up across 2 waves with the first drop in September and new villains for next year. Also noteworthy are new scale replica Lancers, now twice as big as the old Lancer! These will be available through Gamestop. The Gold Lancer is a UK exclusive. There will also be a Butcher Cleaver in foam and metal versions..you know..in case you want your kids to join the fun and now cleave their little playmates in two. Or for LARPING!!! Yay.

Now the Valve deal is really new, so there isn?t much more to say than was shown on the concept boards, so for the sake of a full report, here?s the rundown. Portal 2 kicks off with Atlas and P-Body, those wacky robots, as well as prop replicas of the Portal Gun and resin and plush weighted companion cubes. Left 4 Dead includes Boomer and Smoker?zombies? Monsters? Yeesh. These things are a damn mess. Team Fortress 2 starts with Pyro, Heavy and Demo. Lastly, Halflife 2 will bring Gordon Freeman in his HEV Suit. NECA is in the very early design stages for these properties, so stay tuned!

And now ?our favorite line of the show?GREMLINS!! Again, NECA went above and beyond to get these little critters as accurate as possible with help from a wide range of reference which included the actual puppets! Series 1 will hit any day now with Gizmo, Lenny and George Mogwais. Save your pennies as September sees further releases with Flasher, Daffy and George Gremlins. Next we go back to 3 Mogwais in October with ?Rambo? Gizmo, Stripe and an unhatched Gremlin cocoon followed by 3 more Gremlins in the winter with Lenny, the acid burned Phantom of the Opera gremlin and the Electrified Gremlin. This collection is going to be MINDBLOWING!! There was also a mention of the female Gremlin being released before the line shifts back to Gremlins 1 into 2012. We asked about the absent Spider Gremlin and we labeled it as an ?ED-209 Issue?, which is to say the sucker is too big to be affordable. NECA is still exploring ways to get him out, though. We suggested a ?Build-A-Gremlin? format, as most fans we know will be in for every release in this line anyway, so a bonus Gremlin would rule! NECA says this idea has come up and they have released a few different properties that would be awesome for the Build-A-Figure format. We suggested that the Green Lantern release of Parallax with the main torso packed as a single figure and then his parts included with other figures seems like an awesome way to go. Trust me when we say they are dying to make this and if it is at all possible without breaking the bank, we?ll see him made real.

Last in the case was Philly?s favorite son, Rocky Balboa! NECA has the first 4 films to draw from and promises these won?t be 7 inch statues. Rocky will be jam packed with articulation and detail with an emphasis on nailing those all important likenesses. Expect beat up and ?clean? versions of every figure including Rocky, Apollo Creed, Ivan Drago and Clubber Lang (if all goes to plan). NECA even wants to make these figures in scale with each other, so the giant Drago towers over Rocky! Point of fact, NECA say all the figures across all their lines are actually somewhat in scale with each other so they look correct when put next to each other on your shelf.

While on the subject of Stallone movies, we took the opportunity to talk about NECA?s upcoming Rambo figure. They promise they will have lots of Rambo to show next year, but right now the line is in the very early stages of production. Films 1-3 are on board with plans for a First Blood Rambo kicking it all off. There will be a couple of versions from the first film before they move onto part 2 and so forth. At the time that the Rocky, Rambo and Evil Dead 2 licenses were floating around, it was rumored that The Howling, Total Recall, and,the oddest of the bunch, Bill and Ted?s Excellent Adventure were all up for grabs as well. To the best of our source?s knowledge, none of these additional licenses were nabbed by NECA, so my dream of Bill and Ted figures dies once more. ?For now!