Universal Monsters Select Lucy Westenra – Toyark Photo Shoot

In the original Dracula novel by Bram Stoker, Lucy Westenra is a victim of Dracula, who is slowly draining her blood, causing the young woman to become gravely ill. While Van Helsing attempts to save her, she is ultimately killed by Dracula, becoming a vampire herself.  She begins to stalk an feed on young children, draining their blood slightly, but ultimately dooming them to become vampires themselves if she continues. Van Helsing intervenes and ultimately releases her from her undead nightmare by driving a stake through her heart, decapitating her and stuffing her mouth full of garlic, which would prevent Dracula from resurrecting her again. .

Lucy Westenra is the third figure from the latest wave of Universal Monsters Select Figures from Diamond Select Toys. The new figure from Diamond Select Toys re-imagines Lucy as a monster hunter. With the help of Van Helsing, she is able to control her bloodlust and use her vampiric strengths to hunt the monsters. She’s been out for a bit, and is readily available at comic and specialty shops now. I finally had a chance to review this figure, and I have over 45 high resolution images. Read on to see the gallery and check out my thoughts.

Universal Monsters Select Lucy Westenra by Diamond Select Toys

Pros

• Beautiful sculpt
• Lots of fine details
• Plasma/ecto rifle is a great looking weapon
• Very good articulation
• Nice paint apps
• Two very different interchangeable head sculpts
• Great companion figure to the previously released Van Helsing

Cons

• Strap holding plasma/ecto rifle is too thin
• Packaging shows accessories not included

Overall
Like the previously released Universal Monsters Select Van Helsing Figure, Lucy Westenra is a completely original design and is sculpted by the great Jean St. Jean. Lucy is decked out in Monster Hunter gear, with wooden stakes (not removable), some kind of plasma/ecto rifle with a backpack, swords and a pistol. There are a ton of small, fine details throughout the figure. There are nice texture differences between the different surfaces on the figure. The skin is very smooth, while the outfit has more stippling effects and rougher edges that give a realistic look to them. The hair is handled especially well here, as it has a great look of flowing movement to it, and the few strands can be repositioned as desired. There are two included head sculpts. The main one is a standard female “beauty” sculpt. The alternate head is Lucy as a vampire, wearing goggles and with a removable hood. Both are excellent sculpts and work well with the design of the figure.

The figure has plenty of articulation to go along with a solid sculpt. There’s easily over 16 points of articulation here. There are some soft vinyl clothing pieces around the waist and hips, which allow for a more full range of movement. None of the sculpting hinders range of motion. Thankfully, there was no paint locking and I never had the need to heat up joints to loosen them. Weapons fit comfortably in the hands as well as their holsters. The paint application here works well. There’s some nice transitional colors in the outfits, with darker washes overtop to bring out the details. Each of the different materials is handled well, with metallic pieces having more of a shine to them, while wooden and worn leather have a bit of a matte finish to them.

Lucy includes a stone path diorama base. It seems to go nicely with the grave scene included with Van Helsing and the diorama base with the Wolfman. The figure has a kind of supernatural weapon I’m calling the plasma/ecto rifle. It has a tank, which is fixed to the figures back. A soft vinyl tube connects the tank to the main gun, while a leather strap holds the gun at her side. Keep in mind, the pieces connecting the strap to the gun is very thin, and mine ripped almost immediately. A pistol is included, which can fit into a holster on her side. Lucy includes two short swords, which can fit into sheaths on her back. The included weapons are each unique and fun to pose with. However, the packaging and preview images had shown a much longer sword, similar to Van Helsing’s, as well as an archway for the base. Neither is included, with the sword being swapped out for two short swords and the arch replaced with the plasma/ecto rifle.

Being an all new design, this is a very solid addition to the Universal Monsters line up. It helps to build up the hero ranks of the line, and makes a great companion piece to Van Helsing. The figure is available now and sells for $25 or less.

*Diamond Select Toys provided the figure for review purposes.