In an interview with IGN, Todd McFarlane revealed that McFarlane Toys will be returning to its roots in a big way. It was announced that McFarlane Toys will be reviving two of its most iconic brands in Movie Maniacs and Tortured Souls. They will also be producing new figures in their Spawn and Twisted Fairy Tales lines. From the article:
“So we’re gonna go back to our origins and we’re gonna go, hey, for all you people who like Tortured Souls? There’s gonna be more. For all you people who like some of the Movie Maniacs? There’s gonna be more. But even the new — the stuff we just created, like Dragons? More. Spawn? More. Twisted Tales? More.”
Movie Maniacs was born out of the numerous monster liens that McFarlane was producing in the early 1990’s. Instead of crafting original creatures, McFarlane Toys began to license some of the most iconic characters from horror and sci-fi. By combining legendary and modern horror icons with some of the best sculptors in the business, McFalrane crafted a long running, dedicated line, where every figure could be displayed together as a cohesive collection. The line started in 1998 with characters such as Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface. This also allowed McFarlane to license newer films, and run them concurrently with Movie Maniacs with the same scale and craft fans had come to expect. The line eventually ended in 2004 after series 7 of the main line, as well as numerous 12″ and 18″ figures. NECA’s own Cult Classics were spun out of this line, after multiple employees, including Randy Falk, migrated from McFalrane Toys to NECA in 2002.
Tortured Souls was done in a similar vein to Movie Maniacs, however it focused on the creations of iconic horror master Clive Barker. This series focused on original creations from Barker that looked like they were ripped from the Hellraiser films. Each figure came packaged with a novelette, giving the figures their own world. That line ran for 6 figures in 2001.
Along with these announcements, he revealed that McFarlane will begin selling direct to consumer, in order to more effectively compete against the ever changing retail landscape. As the dedicated toy store becomes more difficult to maintain, and with toy aisles becoming more and more competitive, it only makes sense for a company of McFarlane’s scale to finally offer items direct. From the article:
“Unfortunately, the stores we were selling to at that point, like Tower Records and Suncoast and Babbage’s and KB Toys, and all these other ones, they’ve all fallen to the wayside.
So we end up having to follow the game plan of the Fortune 500 companies and having to do big brands. But we’re gonna just start selling more just direct to the consumer.”
McFarlane Toys Bringing Back Movie Maniacs and Tortured Souls
I for one think we need Movie Maniacs back. NECA is great at what they do but they really shy away from niche licenses which I think Todd really excelled at, even if the articulation was lacking.
Hopefully too they all have actual articulation and not just be statues since that's the only way McFarlane Toys can be more competitive with other figure lines.
This is fantastic news! Tortured Souls are what started my addiction.
I'm actually curious to the approach they'll have here. Movie Maniacs was more than just a figure. It was a mini statue, complete with dio elements that was meant as a complete display. Are they going back to that? Will they be going to their current articulation style (such as Star Trek and Stranger Things)?
Wow this is a pleasant surprise, I loved the tortured souls line back in the day, in fact I was just thinking the other day that I need to re-aquire the line, and movie maniacs were always one of my favorite lines and one of the few lines I don't mind lacking articulation, because as Joe stated, they came with detailed bases/dios (not always ofcourse), hmm maybe we can convince Todd to produce new John Carpenters The Thing figures.
Also I have to commend them for going the direct to consumer route, which should allow them to produce more niche products.
Personally, unless articulation is like 100% in like Figuarts and Mafex style, I'd rather they not bother. Just do the Staction Figures and own it. Do the best damn Staction Figure it can be. 90% of the time it's in a single pose after I mess with it so if we can get better sculpt and paint, accessories and dios out of it, then skip it.
That being said, if we had McFarlane / Neca sculpt and paint, mixed with Figuarts articulation, then that would be utter perfection.
That being said, if we had McFarlane / Neca sculpt and paint, mixed with Figuarts articulation, then that would be utter perfection.
As someone who has every McFarlane Dragon this is definitely fantastic news to me! Articulated dragons would be a dream come true but even if it's just like the original line with minimal articulation I'm down.
Hopefully we get the cancelled Cursed Dragon finally.
I just hope the sculpting and paint are as good as they were 12 years ago.
I don't curse but I though fuk yeah!!!!!
I want competition. I want companies to challenge NECA in terms of horror. I want some 12 inch figures that are sculpted. I am hoping they will do this. I am excited. LOVE HORROR!!!
Anyone ever see the Terrifier...that needs a figure. Great news!!!!!
I want competition. I want companies to challenge NECA in terms of horror. I want some 12 inch figures that are sculpted. I am hoping they will do this. I am excited. LOVE HORROR!!!
Anyone ever see the Terrifier...that needs a figure. Great news!!!!!
I'd love to see more Tortured Souls, especially if they go back to the more cenobite-style designs of the originals.
That being said, if we had McFarlane / Neca sculpt and paint, mixed with Figuarts articulation, then that would be utter perfection.
It would be great if they mimicked SHF or Figma style articulation but theres no reason to think they will.
Since NECA is pussing out on giving us The Thing figures, maybe McFarlane will man up and do it. However, it's a bummer knowing they wouldn't be able to touch NECA's quality...McFarlane's paint, sculpts, and articulation are all behind the times, even with the improvements they've implemented recently.
One exception is their The Thing figures...the Blairmonster and Norris spider-thingy both still look pretty fucking good.
NECA really needs to do an entire Kurt Russell line- Snake, MacReady, and Jack Burton. They'd sell.
I'm really glad that most of the comments here seem to positive!
I'm pretty happy with the sculpting and articulation of McFarlane figures the way they are now. Hopefully they get the Hellraiser license if NECA isn't interested.
I have been wanting new Spawn figures for years. (Not those "rehashes" from a couple years ago) Still one of my all time favorite lines. Those things are works of art. And I hope they don't add articulation to the Spawn series. Those were meant to be staction figures. Just concentrate on giving us a good pose (comic covers??) on an awesome base with good sculpts and paint apps and I will be a happy man.
If they include articulation like they did with the Picard and Kirk figures then I'm for it!NECA needs some competition to help them move faster with some licenses, lol.
Keep reading: McFarlane Movie Maniacs and More Coming Back - Page 2
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