A Nightmare On Elm St. Ultimate Freddy Krueger - Toyark Photo Shoot - The Toyark

NECA is starting a new series of figures that they are dubbing their “Ultimate Series“. The idea is to have highly articulated figures with very detailed sculpts and some coll accessories. The series kicks off with an all new version of Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare On Elm Street series. We have over 60 photos of NECA’s newly released figure. Toyark sponsor Entertainment Earth has supplied us with the figure. Check out the images and my thoughts on the figure after the jump.

Related Entertainment Earth Links: Ultimate Freddy Krueger, All Freddy Krueger Figures, All NECA Action Figures

A Nightmare On Elm St. Ultimate Freddy Krueger 7″ Scale Figure

Pros

Highly detailed sculpt
Lots of articulation
Cool accessories
All 3 heads are great
Perfect packaging

Cons

Can’t hold any of the accessories
Falls over a lot
Accessories don’t all fit with the character
Heads are a pain to swap

Overall
This version is based on his original appearance in A Nightmare On Em St. That means no striped sleeves, a bulkier sweater and more gruesome looking burns. The colors of the sweater are more muted and the makeup was a little puffier. Over subsequent films, the sweater changed and the make up was refined and made less bloody looking. Your initial reaction to the figure will depend on which version of Freddy you are more drawn to. If you love the dirties, grittier original design, then the Ultimate Freddy Krueger is going to be a delight…Initially.

Right off the bat, the packaging let’s you know you’re picking up a special figure. The front of the box is covered completely with the original film poster art by Matthew Peak. It acts as a great backdrop when you display your figure. Once you get to the figure, you will notice that the the sculpting is impressive. Each wrinkly burn of his face, every fold of his sweater and every rivet in his glove are beautifully recreated. They spared no expense on the paint either. They have a great wash over the figure to bring out the sculpted details. It also makes Freddy look appropriately dirty and nasty. The figure also has more articulation than any previous Freddy Krueger from NECA. They finally caved and gave fans a fully articulated torso and leg design. The upper body has much the same articulation that you’d expect from a recent NECA figure. Included are three different head sculpts, and alternate sliced finger hand, a “tongue” phone and a skinned Tina face. Each item and head sculpt harkens back to an iconic scene from the film. When standing there or posed in your favorite slashing stance, the figure looks near perfect. ANOES is my favorite of the franchise, so having a figure that looks this nice, and with this much articulation, justifies the effort.

The figure, though dubbed an “Ultimate” Freddy Krueger, does have a few drawbacks. For starters, the figure falls over…A lot. Regardless of how I had it posed, be it standing straight up or in a dynamic pose, Freddy would topple over after a few seconds. It has pegs in the feet, so I highly recommend a figure stand for this version. The accessories, while beautifully sculpted and great on their own, don’t all fit with Freddy as a release. The biggest issue is that he cannot hold any of the accessories. He can’t grip the phone, can’t hold the face well (I just sat it on his flat hand for the shoot) and he can’t grip onto his hat. So the phone and skinned face will either just sit in the box, or at his feet. Also a bit frustrating is the head swapping. The heads do not want to come off or go on at all. It takes much more force than I felt comfortable applying to pop them off and on, making it a chore, rather than a joy, to swap out the heads for the different looks.

I know I’m harping on the problems, but it’s only because the figure is so close to perfection. With a fantastic sculpt, quality paint apps and three unique head sculpts, this is a great representation of Freddy. But the constant falling over and the accessories that don’t quite work seem like odd choices. But, if you grab a figure stand, and don’t mind leaving the accessories to the side, then pick this up ASAP.