Kidrobot Madballs Horror and Sci-Fi Series - Toyark Photo Shoot - The Toyark

Last week, we shared details on a Best Buy Exclusive Assortment of Madballs. For this release, Kidrobot worked with parent company NECA to bring six licensed Madballs to life. Featuring horror and sci-fi icons from the 70’s and 80’s, these Madballs have already proven to be a big hit with fans. If you haven’t checked, these are available now from Best Buy stores! Included are:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Leatherface
A Nightmare On Elm Street – Freddy Krueger
Friday the 13th – Jason Voorhees
Predator – Unmasked Predator
Alien – Facehugger
Aliens – Alien Warrior

I was able to run out and grab the full assortment from a local Best Buy this week. After the jump check out my thoughts on the Madballs as well as a full gallery.

Kidrobot Madballs Horror and Sci-Fi Series

Pros

Excellent assortment of iconic characters
Fun designs
Look great with existing Kidrobot Madballs

Cons

None

Overall
Like the main 4″ line of Madballs, this horror and sci-fi assortment comes in simple packaging. Each ball is packed in a nylon netting with a hanger tag for easy hanger rack display in stores. Fans who are opting to keep these packages, the hanger tags works great with a thumbtack to hang on a wall. The packaging is simplistic, but does a good job of showcasing each individual Madball.

When I first reported on these back in June, before they were officially announced, I knew these had the potential to be big hits with fans of not only Madballs, but the individual franchises these were portraying. While the solicitation art was fun, the physical designs look even better. Each character has received a highly stylized cartoon makeover. NECA and Kidrobot made sure to add some nice nods to the overall franchises in each design as well. a few exaples include the Facehugger, which is sitting on a poor Nostromo crew members face, includes a Nostromo baseball cap and a “Game Over!” pin on the hat; Freddy Krueger has an exposed brain, which pays homage to Freddy’s revenge; Leatherface has his hammer from the original film embedded into the back of his head. The list goes on. The Madballs are cast in a soft foam similar to the original line up. The sculpting is excellent, though you will likely run into some mold flashing (excess foam) on the seams. That’s typical of these designs tho. I was really impressed by them in person. Each characters is a nearly perfect mix of creepy and funny. While heavily stylized, they are instantly recognizable versions of each character. Of the six, both Leatherface and the Unmasked Predator stood out as particularly excellent designs and wound up being my two favorites from the assortment.

At $9.99 each, these are the same price as the smaller kid-targeted Madballs that you can find in most retails stores. These are about an inch larger and more detailed than those, evoking more of the classic Madballs designs, much like all of the Kidrobot Madballs. If you’re into Madballs, then it’s easy to recommend picking up all six. Even if you’re not normally into Madballs, these are the perfect entry pieces to go with a Freddy, Alien or Jason Voorhees display as a fun, quirky addition. Check out some highlight photos below and the full gallery after that.