When Mcfarlane Toys announced their 3D posters, I was not impressed. They’d already started doing 3D album covers, and these were small, overpriced, and underwhelming. On top of that, other companies had already forayed into the world of 3D posters, and the results had been fairly weak.
But with the release of their Jaws and Friday the 13th posters, my opinion changed. First, they were much larger than I expected, running around 8.5″ wide and 12 – 13″ tall. Second, they managed to capture the best elements of the original posters in unique ways, making them more visually appealing than the originals in some ways. And third, at twenty bucks and the larger size, they weren’t a bad deal.
Since those two, they’ve released several others, including the uber-cool Alien poster (it even lights up!) and the nice Rocky Horror ‘lips’ poster. I’ve been sticking with the horror related ones, and recently bought the Nightmare On Elm Street.
Nightmare on Elm Street 3D poster
While the original poster doesn’t have quite the visual impact of, say, Alien or RHPS, it is still a solid piece of poster art. In exectuting this one, Mcfarlane diverged a bit from the previous style. Does it still work? Let’s see…
Packaging – **
The packaging on past posters hasn’t been terrible, but has always been fairly basic. That’s alright though, especially if you give the box a huge window and let the poster itself do most of the selling. Once again, that’s the case.
Unfortunately, this box fails in a critical test. The window is right against the blades of the fingers, especially the ‘twinkle’ that’s been sculpted and attached in plastic on the end of the index finger. This is almost center in the window as well, where the box provides the least amount of support. Any hits against the front of the window, even light ones or extended pressure, can damage the ‘twinkle’ or the blades. Pay attention to this when picking yours out to ensure there’s no damage.
Sculpting – ***
Like previous 3D posters released by McToys, this one has excellent sculpte details. The finely textured hair, the sinewy fingers of the hand, the rotted flesh of Freddy’s nightmare face…all are done with a deft hand for small detail work. They’ve also managed to pull of the ‘3D’ work extremely well, sculpting in relief about 80% of the actual poster art. The only parts not sculpted are the top section above Freddy’s eyes, and the lowest section showing the small credits.
The best thing about this poster is the way they handled the nifty star of light that glints off Freddy’s index finger. They did this in a translucent white plastic, and the look really works much better than I had anticipated.
The poster itself had one major failing – the dopey expression on Nancy’s face. I always assumed she was sleeping with her eyes open – very open – and that’s why it seemed so much like a mannequin, even in the original poster. That’s also true here, and even more obvious in three dimensions. The bizarrely wide eyes with lax expression make the expression very unnatural. Like I said, I’m assuming that’s because she’s really a asleep, and you can’t really fault this representation of the poster for it, because the poster itself was identical.
Another flaw that existed in the original but is much more noticeable here is the thumb. Again, it’s just a little stub, which is true in the original work. But when you pull it out from the page like this, it becomes all that much more obvious and odd looking.
But if those two areas were my only complaints, this sculpt would have easily gotten another half star. The reason it didn’t isn’t because of the quality of the sculpt, but rather the changes to the basic design. The previous posters were encased in ‘boxes’, with four sides, which gave them a) more depth and b) more of a poster feel. This one lacks the outside box, which also makes the poster itself much thinner than the previous ones. This means that to stand it on a desk or table, they had to include the little feet. While this new look isn’t terrible, I prefer the original shadowbox design.
Paint – ***
The paint work is fairly good across the entire poster, with some really excellent work on both sets of eyes. Mcfarlane exhibits they’re usual capabilities with the consistent skin tones and garish exposed flesh, and when they’re necessary, they have very clean cuts between colors.
There is one glaringly odd looking spot, right above Freddy’s left eye, where it looks like the white of the eye is actually on the flat section of poster, although the entire eye is in 3D below. This odd spot should have been filled in with color, and it’s surprisingly noticeable in person.
My only other complaint is that some of the highlights in the hair are too light, clearly where too much paint was rubbed off. They were going for three levels of color – natural dark, slightly lighter streaks, and very light streaks. It was an admirable attempt, but the lightest streaks ended up looking like mistakes or damage rather than streaks.
There’s one other item worth mentioning, but I didn’t factor it into my score, because the jury is still out on whether I like it or not. There is one section of text on the poster that actually follows the flow of the sculpted poster, rather than laying flat. That would be the name of the director, Wes Craven. This text actually flows with the rippling bed sheets, and I’m not sure if I prefer that, or one of the other options. They could have sculpted a section inset into the covers to paint it on flat, or they could have raised the letters above the covers (like they did the movie name) so that while they were raised, they were still flat from left to right. Like I said, I’m not sure which I prefer, but I thought I’d point it out to you so you’ll never be able to look at the poster again and not see it.
Accessories – *
Okay, so there aren’t really any accessories as we generally think of them, and there really shouldn’t be any. That means this category won’t mean much come Overall score time. But I did want to mention the small feet that come with the poster. These attach to the bottom so it can stand on a table or desk. It’s best to insert the front of these into the bottom of the poster first, then snap them into place toward the back. They work alright, although they’re a bit tough to get off once they’re on.
Value – ***
At around $20, these are actually a pretty good price. These will look good even in high end home theaters, and yet are cheap enough for a dorm room budget. In the distant future, when we all have flying cars and I’ve finally remodeled my basement, I plan on hanging them on the wall myself.
Things to Watch Out For –
Not much. Be sure to inspect the hand in case of any damage on the peg, but other than that you should be riding high.
Overall – ***
I’m not as enthralled with this poster as I am with the previous three I’ve picked up – Jaws, Alien and Friday the 13th. This is largely due to the change in style, which doesn’t do much for me. Interestingly enough, from early production photos it looks like upcoming releases (like Rocky and Robocop) go back to the shadowbox design.
This is a line that I’ll be picking up hit and miss, selecting those posters that translate the best or fit a general theme. I suspect that will be true for most buyers, and if you’re a huge fan of these films, I suggest taking a close look at them. Several of these also fit in well as backdrops to various sixth scale figures, and adding this poster to your Sideshow Freddy and Furnace diorama will really spice it up.
Where to buy –
Your local comic shop may have these in, but online is your most consistent opportunity:
– Dark Figures has the Alien, Friday the 13th and Jaws posters available for $25 each. They haven’t listed the NOES one yet.
– Entertainment Earth has them listed in stock at $25 each, with preorders up for the next three in the series.
– for the U.K. readers, Forbidden Planet is sell them for about 20 pounds each.
– Clark Toys is always a good source for all things Mcfarlane, but don’t have this particular poster in. However, they have pre-order pricing up for a number of upcoming posters at just $18 each!
– Amazing Toyz and CornerStoreComics have this guy in stock for just $20, with some of the earlier posters on sale even cheaper!
Related Links:
There’s my reviews of the Jaws and Friday the 13th posters from last year.
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