When you think of John Carpenter’s iconic run of movies in the late 70’s and early 80’s, most will think of The Thing, Halloween, Escape From New York, and probably Big Trouble in Little China. But, between his theatrical releases of Halloween and Escape From New York, he directed an often under appreciated gem in The Fog. Released in 1980, the film focuses on the coastal town of Antonio Bay, California. The town is celebrating it’s centennial when a mysterious fog rolls into town, and people are brutally murdered. The town’s celebration falls on the 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Elizabeth Dane, a ship led by a leper named Captain Blake, as he set sail with others to form a new leper colony. But, the ship is purposely misdirected and sinks, killing all those aboard. Now, the ghostly captain and his crew return, searching for what is rightfully theirs, and killing any who gets in their way.
Now, 38 years after the release of the film, we have our very first action figure from The Fog! The new Captain Blake figure is part of NECA’s 8″ scale retro Mego inspired line. The figure is in stores now. We grabbed the figure from sponsor Entertainment Earth. Check out the photo gallery and review after the jump.
Related Entertainment Earth links: Captain Blake Figure, The Nun – Valak Figure, All NECA Horror Figures
The Fog – Captain Blake 8″ Scale Figure by NECA Toys
Pros
- Outstanding looking figure
- Great head sculpt
- Cloth outfit works perfectly here
- The light up LED eyes are a great touch
- Nice paint work
Cons
- The head sculpt peg snapped almost immediately after opening
Overall
Captain Blake is packaging in a resealable clamshell packaging. NECA teamed up withe Devon Whitehead of Cavity Colors for the artwork, where you can purchase shirts and more with the art on it. Captain Blake includes a sword and sheath, as well as light up LED eyes (batteries included).
The NECA Mego style format has given us some great horror and cult characters over the years. While NECA has always mixed in fan favorites like Freddy and Jason, the format allows them to take on some riskier licenses, such as Escape From New York, Silent Night Deadly Night, Re-Animator, and now The Fog. The Captain Blake figure just may be the best use of the format to date, surpassing even the Herbert West release, which was one of my favorites in the Mego style releases. Unlike most horror icons, Captain Blake’s on-screen appearance is very minimal. When we do see him, he is mired in the films namesake fog, with harsh back lighting heavily shrouding his look in mystery. But what we do so see is tattered clothing and demonic glowing red eyes. With such little reference available (at least to the general public), it’s amazing what NECA was able to achieve here. The overall silhouette of the figure is perfect, and that was no easy task.
Once you dig into the figure itself, there’s a lot to like here. Starting with the head sculpt, which is as gruesome as a zombie leper captain who drowned at sea should look. The detail work here rivals most of the 7″ scale figures they do, with nice deep cuts in the face, and lots of scarring. The cloth outfit is handled better than any we’ve seen from them. The fabric used is super thin, giving it a much better fit to the figure than, say, Freddy’s bulkier sweaters. The outfit itself is appropriately tattered, with tears and rips throughout, allowing you to see the gross rotting flesh underneath. By having newly sculpted boots that attach higher up on the calf, this figure loses the typical ankles seen on their Mego releases. While the style is the same, the joint is much stronger feeling. Articulation is the same 20 or so points you see on all of their Mego releases, and range of motion is excellent. The paint work here matches the great sculpting, with mixes of dark purples, black, and brown to really sell the 80’s make up effects that would have been present. The show stopper here are the light up LED eyes, which work amazingly well. The red light is surprisingly bright, even in normal room lighting. In low light situations, it’s downright creepy looking. In the photos below, none of the eyes have received additional brightening during post processing of the photos.
The light up effect did cause one issue though, and it was a big one for me. The plastic used to house the electronics was used on the peg that holds the head to the neck. Unfortunately, the plastic on mine was very brittle and the head snapped at the peg after turning the head twice. I was able to extract the ball joint from the neck, and super glue it back together. It worked well enough for the photo shoot, but I don’t plan on turning his head again.
Breakage aside, this will be a tough figure for NECA to top for my collection. I love the overall look and the execution of the sculpt, paint work and the light up eyes. I hope this figure does well enough for them to explore further less mainstream horror figures for stand alone releases (I suspect we’ll see additional team ups with Scream Factory as well). Below, find some select photos and the full gallery after that.
CompaniesNECA
CharactersCaptain Blake
Scale8 Inch