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Jason and Leatherface
Cinema of Fear

   "The following is a guest review.  The review and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the guest author."

Guest reviewer Phil steps in tonight with a look at a couple relatively recent Cinema of Fear releases - tell us all about them, Phil!

Mezco's Cinema of Fear line has brought some some classic horror icons. In series 3, they bring us Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, Jason from Jason Goes to Hell, chef Freddy from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and the Hitchhiker from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Here I'll be reviewing Leatherface and Jason.

Packaging - ***
These figures come in the standard Cinema of Fear packaging: clamshell with some nice graphics on the backing card and a rundown of the other figures in the series on the back. I didn't pay attention with the Leatherface figure, but the Jason figure came with 4 twist ties that were absolutely pointless.









Sculpting - Leaherface ***1/2, Jason **1/2
I love the sculpt on Leatherface. The boots and pants are very detailed but they didn't go overboard with the folds on the pants. The wrappings on his forearms are also very well done and detailed. The rings on his fingers are very clean, which is surprising at their scale. My only real complaint about Leatherface's body sculpt is the tie. The sculpted it on so that it appears to be blowing to the side slightly. This doesn't make a lot of sense seeing that the figure's pose doesn't really make it look like he is moving with any speed. Even though the apron issomewhat of an accessory, I'm going to count it as part of the main sculpt since the figure came with it already on. The design looks very leather-like. The folds on it look very realistic and the fray on the bottom is great. It also is very easy to put on and take off and it seems to be very durable. Plus, when it's on it covers the odd looking part of the tie, which is a nice bonus.   

The head sculpt on Leatherface is nice, if not 100% accurate. They did a very good job of giving the hair a wild look. The holes for the mouth and eyes do a great job of making the mask look real and not just the character's skin.

Jason is not a bad sculpt by any means, but it is very over the top, which is saying a lot considering that this version of Jason was probably the most outlandish version in any of the movies. Jason is a big guy, but for some reason there appears to be a lot of excess material in his clothing, especially his pants. There are some very large folds at the bottom end of his pants and his arms. I really like the tears and the exposed skin. The hands on this figure are very large, though I believe that this is true to the film. They have an almost skeletal appearance, which is very cool looking. The biggest issue I have with the hands is his right hand, which is designed to hold his machete. The thumb is pointing straight down, instead of pointing towards the other fingers.  

Jason's mask is supposed to look like it has been on so long that it has grown into his head. The straps are sunken into the head and it looks like the head is popping out around it. The mask itself is a bit disappointing. There is some attempt to make it look like it is sunken, but with the depth the straps are sunken in, the mask looks like it is sitting on front of the face. The nose is also very pointy which takes away from the look of the face probably more than any other feature.

Paint - Leatherface ***1/2, Jason ***
Both figures have some great painting on them.

Leatherface has some of the cleanest paint I've ever seen on one of these figures. Very little slop or bleedanywhere on him. It is a little disappointing that his entire lower body is solid black, from his pants to his boots to his belt. Granted these are supposed to be black, but some variation would be nice.

Jason has some great detail work on him as well. The paint gives his clothing a cool aged look and the color on his skin looks amazing. His belt buckle and the buttons on his shirt are also painted a nice silver, adding to the  realism. One annoyance is that the joints on his shoulders are not painted, leaving gray spots on his blue shirt.  Once again, my biggest issue is the mask. Jason's trademark head wound, one of the few details that has stayed with  him in every movie, is simply red paint on the mask that doesn't like up at all with the sculpted scar on his head. With all the rips and tears sculpted on the mask, it is a shame they didn't sculpt this detail.

Articulation  - Leatherface ****, Jason **
Leatherface has quite a few points of articulation. He has a ball joint waist, cut biceps, ball joint shoulders, pin elbows and cut/pin wrists. All of these are great and let you put Leatherface's upper body in pretty much any pose you want, but my absolute favorite feature is the neck joint. I guess you could call it a double ball joint, with a barbell shaped connector with a ball in the neck of the figure and a ball in the head. This gives you the ability to put Leatherface's head in some really cool and menacing poses.

Jason isn't nearly as good. His ball joint shoulders and waist are nice, along with the cut/pin wrists, but that's where the good news ends. I think the neck has the same double ball joint as Leatherface, but the head sculpt gets in the way and limits it to the mobility of a single ball joint neck, which isn't bad, but a bit of a letdown after Leatherface. The absolutely horrible parts of Jason are the pin elbow joints. This might qualify as a sculpt issue, but the joints are pointed about 45 degrees inward, severely limiting your ability to pose them. I gladly would have sacrificed some of the cool upper arm sculpt for some cut biceps.  

Accessories - Leatherface ***, Jason **1/2
Leatherface come with his trusty chainsaw, a sledge hammer, an ear collection and an extra head. The chainsaw is so completely evil looking. It has some great detail and fits into the figure's hands very well. The ear collection fits the character but I'm not much of a fan of accessories that the figure can't carry and are so tiny. The unmasked face is pretty nice. Leatherface is only seen for a second unmasked in the film, and that is in bad lighting, but Mezco fills in the blanks in a pretty believable way. My only complaint is that there is a lot of slop of the flesh tone paint on the head's hairline, which is surprising seeing how clean the main head is.

Jason comes with a demon dagger, a heart, "demon Jason" and his machete. The dagger is decently detailed, but mine was bent when I took it out of the package. It is also annoying that the dagger will not fit into Jason's hand. The heart is nicely detailed and sculpted and the demon Jason is a nice mini figure, with 3 points of articulation. The machete is probably may favorite machete design out of all the Mezco Jason machetes. It looks clean, sharp and lethal.

Fun Factor -  Leatherface ***, Jason **
Obviously these aren't toys for kids, but if you wanted a figure to play with, Leatherface wouldn't be a bad choice. Jason is honestly more of a display item and a toy.

Value - Leatherface **1/2, Jason **
For the most part you will probably pay between $15-$20 for these. Leatherface was on sale at Hot Topic for about $16 and I found Jason online for $12 ($19 after shipping). Jason has apparently become a bit rare and I have seen him going for around $40 online and it took a bit of searching for find his for what I would consider a fair and reasonable price.

Things To Watch Out For -
I have not seen seen these figures outside of the ones I got, so I can't really say how consistent the quality is.

Overall - Leatherface ***, Jason **1/2
Leatherface is a very nice figure, made even cooler by the fact that it is very different from a lot of the other Leatherface figures. Jason doesn't have nearly as much going for him and honestly may not be different enough from the other Jason figures to make it a worthwhile addition to your collection. 

Scoring Recap:
Packaging - Leatherface ***, Jason ***
Sculpting - Leatherface ***1/2, Jason **1/2
Paint - Leatherface ***1/2, Jason ***
Articulation - Leatherface ****, Jason **
Accessories - Leatherface ***, Jason **1/2
Fun Factor - Leatherface ***, Jason **
Value - Leatherface **1/2, Jason **
Overall - Leatherface ***, Jason **1/2




Figures from the collection of Phil

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