I’m cheating a bit this week. I already reviewed the first two of the new Lovecraft figures from SOTA at my site, and if you read that review, I suggest skipping the next 5 paragraphs. Trust me, it’s the same background info. See, I’m a lazy bastard.
H.P. Lovecraft was a great horror, fantasy and science fiction writer of the early 20th century. Like many writers, he led a fairly tortuous and difficult life, and like many, wasn’t as well recognized as the great author he was until after his death.
Many of his works were actually drawn from his own nightmares, and so it’s appropriate that SOTA has titled the line of action figures based on his works as The Nightmares of Lovecraft.
He is best known for his creation of the concept of the Necronomicon. This fictional book of dark magic has since been used and mentioned repeatedly in other works from the Simpsons to the Evil Dead.
It was late in his career that he created the Necronomicon (also called the Book of the Dead) and the beings that it’s writers worshiped, Cthulu and Yog-Sothoth. These were Gods of a sort, cosmic and universal in nature.
SOTA has produced three figures from some of the best known stories of Lovecraft – Cthulu (The Call of Cthulu), The Ghoul (Pickman’s Model), and Dagon (Dagon). There’s also a variant on Cthulu, done up in black instead of the standard green, which is a Diamond exclusive. I’m reviewing just the Dagon and black Cthulu here, and I’ve already covered the regular Cthulu and Ghoul at MROTW.
“The Nightmares of Lovecraft – black Cthulu and Dagon”
Packaging – ***
The boxes have the whole collector friendly thing going for them – they are easy to open, require no damage to the packaging to get the toy out, and you can pop them back in for storage or sale later if you’d like. The graphics and text are solid, but even with a wrap around window, actually seeing the figure clearly inside is a bit of a trick.
Sculpting – ***1/2
Both of these figures sport great sculpts, with lots of nasty detail. The textured skin looks terrific, and on Dagon this texturing varies from area to area, giving him a much more realistic appearance. His talons and teeth look deadly, and they both live up to the nightmare title.
Both figures also appear fairly close to the text descriptions of Lovecraft, and he’d most likely approve of the appearance. Lovecraft liked tentacles, and I’m sure Freud would have a romp with that.
These figures need no base to stand, and the sculpted basic poses are dynamic and threatening. The sculpt actually works pretty well with the basic articulation, allowing you to personalize the evil to your liking.
The only negative here is one that was also true of the basic Cthulu and Ghoul – mold lines. Both figures have apparant mold lines that break the smooth appearance of the sculpt, particularly on the under belly of the Dagon’s fat tentacles. Scale may also be an issue for some folks, but the only one that bothered me in regards to size is Ghoul. Both Dagon and Cthulu could use a slightly bigger treatment, but these are adequate in size.
Paint – ***
The paint is where these fall well short of the early prototype figures. That’s not particularly surprising, since the hand painted prototypes were amazing, and getting something like that accomplished with a production figure was highly unlikely. But this is the one area where folks may find some disappointment.
I’m satisfied with the work though, giving both of these a solid B score. Dagon was a particular suprise, because early photos of the production figures appeared more washed out and sporting fewer details. But the production figures I received actually have quite a bit of small detail work, and the variation between the white, maggoty under belly and the darker, scaley skin on top looks excellent. There’s also a nice use of different finishes, matte and gloss, to give the impression of fleshy, wet areas.
The black Cthulu isn’t quite as canon as the green variety, but he does have some visual pop. There’s also great contrast between the lighter colored suckers, claws and eyes, although the black skin is very consistent and even.
Articulation – Cthulu ***1/2; Dagon ***
The general designs of these characters don’t allow for a ton of articulation, but SOTA did a decent job of getting in what they could.
Dagon has a ball jointed neck that has a greater range of movement than you might anticipate, a hinged lower jaw, ball joints at the shoulders of all four arms, and cut wrists on all four arms as well. None of his fat tentacles can move however, so the majority of the pose personalization is through the arms.
Cthulu fairs a little better, largely due to his bendy tentacles. All six of them can be positioned in any number of ways, and hold positions quite well. The wings have ball joints where they meet the torso, and there are ball joints at the shoulders and neck as well. Cut joints at the wrists round out his articulation. A cut joint at the elbows would have been nice, but not completely necessary.
Accessories – Bupkis
Yep, bupkis for both of these guys. No accessories with either one, which isn’t surprising considering the characters (it’s not like Dagon used batarangs), but at this price point things are going to feel a tad light for most folks.
Fun Factor – ***
Both of these characters actually make some pretty cool looking monsters for any sort of bad guy/good guy action. Pit them against a six inch scale Batman or Superman, and most kids won’t care who Lovecraft is.
Value – **
These run around $18, depending on the retailer. That’s the high side of the current specialty market, where most figures run in the $13 – $15 range. While they have some bulk, and are slightly bigger than something like the Mcfarlane Dragons, they still lack the size and paint quality to really command this price point. Had they been in the $15 range, they would have picked up another half star here.
There’s a scale photo below with a 6″ Batman and an 8″ Hellboy. And yes, that’s the green version of Cthulu rather than the black, to give you some idea of the difference in color.
Things to Watch Out For –
Other than the usual warning about picking the best paint, there’s really nothing else here to watch for.
Overall – ***
Photos of these were released a few weeks ago, and fans were disappointed. They appeared far less detailed, and much lower quality, than the original prototypes. Now, of course they’d never match the quality of hand painted prototypes, but fans were concerned that they had suffered greatly in the process from prototype to final product.
I’m happy to say that this is not the case, particularly with these two. While they still do carry a price tag that may put off some folks and keeps their score from getting too high, they are much better in quality than I had expected based on those recent photos. Dagon was a particular surprise once I got him out of the box, and may just end up my favorite of the bunch.
Where to Buy –
These haven’t quite hit stores yet, but should in just the next week or two max. Some options:
– Amazing Toyz has the singles for $17, or the set of three for $52.
– CornerStoreComics has the individual figures for $18.50 each, or the set of three for $54.
– YouBuyNow has the regular Cthulu for $19.
Related Links –
I reviewed the other two figures in this series earlier this week.
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