Shout! Factory recently announced that they will be including an exclusive action figure of Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning) from NECA with their new steel book of Battle Beyond The Stars (1980). This does a lot to confirm what I have often suspected of cinephiles in my generation. We seem to be as invested in collecting action figures of characters from our favorite films as a way of augmenting our Blu-Ray and DVD collections.
Around 2009 or so something really cool happened. Companies, including NECA, began releasing vintage style action figures. These four inch figures captured the essence of my generation’s nostalgia and gave movies without prior toy lines a new lease on the memorabilia market. One of my favorite lines of this sort is NECA’s Tron (1982) series. Around that same time Mego toys began to make a comeback as well.
Mego currently has a number of licenses for different television programs and focuses primarily on that department. However, they are also working on a Horror line. Recently they put out a figure of Christopher Lee as Dracula as he appeared in the Hammer Studios’ productions. This figure’s card even totes some art work from the promotional materials for Taste The Blood Of Dracula (1970). If you’re a fan of Hammer as I am you know how rare this kind of new merchandise is, especially in the twenty dollar price range. Personally I find there’s a lot of value when figures of characters who sport capes, like Lee’s Dracula, are issued with soft goods. To me, this is why Mego was ideal for this figure. Sure other companies are getting more on board with soft goods, but it is still uncommon.
The Hammer Dracula figure from Mego is definitely one of my favorite figures in my modest collection. I’ve got him situated nicely, in box, guarding a row of my Arrow Video discs. The fangs of the figure’s well sculpted head are revealed in a snarl that will, hopefully, deter pets from messing with my “movie cabinet”. But he will definitely be moved to partner up with Severin’s upcoming The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee boxed set.
