Don’t we all feel a little lost once in awhile? And yet somehow we manage not to become monsters of the night. Not so for Keifer Sutherland and his teenage friends in the cult classic The Lost Boys. Released back in 1987, it features a much younger Keifer than his 24 fans are accostumed to, along with one of the most attractive actresses on the planet, Jami Gertz. If you’ve never seen the film, go rent it. Right now. I’m serious.
The latest set of Cult Classics from NECA features two figures from this film. One is David of course, the vampire leader played by the young Sutherland. The other is Michael, the new boy in town, played by Jason Patric. He ends up a vampire through a ruse by David and his gang, and has to destroy David if he wants to break the curse. Of course, you knew all that because you’ve seen the film. Right? I was serious about renting it right now.
The Lost Boys – David and Michael
These two figures joint the Hare Krishna Zombe from Dawn of the Dead and the S-Mart Ash to round out the full series 6 of the Cult Classics. I have a review up of the other two over at MROTW.
Packaging – ***
The’ve gone with the usual clamshells, of which I’m a big fan. Sturdy on the peg, fairly easy to store, and they show off the figures nicely. I could have used some instructions to figure out what the Hell I’m supposed to do with Michael’s chandelier, but that’s a minor nit since putting it together wasn’t all that difficult.
Sculpting – David ***1/2; Michael ***
The sculpts on all four heads and all four sets of hands is solid, although some of it might be getting lost in the somewhat mediocre paint.
I was really impressed by the David 2 Up that was at SDCC, and the smaller version looks like it translated well. The bared fangs, spikey hair, and rough look are all there, but the paint is obscuring a bit of it. The human head isn’t quite as good, but that’s more of an effect of the attempted expression than the actual likeness. It certainly looks like Keifer as David, but the slighty odd smirk throws off the accuracy a bit. The human head also has a bit of a Maniac Cop jaw going on here, larger and squarer than Keifer’s own. This is partly due to their attempt at sculpting the unshaven face.
The work on both sets of hands – gloved and bare monster versions – are also nice, with some interesting bare vampire feet too. The size, scale and proportions on the body are good, and I love the many small details in the clothing. In fact, David’s outfit is perhaps the best work of this wave.
Michael’s head sculpts are both solid, but not particularly exciting. The detail is there, and while the likeness isn’t quite as strong as with David, it’s still reasonable. The heads on both figures pop on and off easily enough, and yet aren’t prone to falling off on their own or with basic posing.
Michael’s outfit is screen accurate, but a tad dull of course. This is a figure I’ll be leaving in vamp mode for the shelf, since an unknown vampire is more visually interesting than an unknown guy in a sweater.
Both of these figures can stand on their own, which is pretty important for Michael. Unlike the other three figures in the line, he has no holes in the bottom of his feet, and his display base does not have any pegs to keep him standing.
Paint – ***1/2
While I’m not dancing on the roof tops over the paint job here, particularly on David, it still does appear that the majority of the big issues NECA was having in this area earlier in the year are solved.
It might be that they just went for too much this time around, and couldn’t quite pull it all off. There’s an awful lot going on with David’s face, between the spikey hair, fanged mouth, and attempt at an unshaven look. They pulled it all off in the sculpt, but when they added paint, things didn’t look quite as good.
The two big problem areas are the mouth and beard. The teeth lose definition, and one side of the unshaven face is darker than the other. These errors aren’t as agregious as some we’ve seen from the previous factory, but they hurt the final figure for me.
Michael has a bit more slop than I’d like, particularly on the vamp face, and again he loses some definition. They may have went for too much paint detail here, and detail actually get lost in all the noise.
Even with those issues though, I gave these guys high marks in this category. You’ll want to pay special attention to David on the peg, because I saw some that were much better than the one I received in the mail.
Articulation – **1/2
These aren’t supposed to be highly articulated. Understand that, and you won’t have as much issue with the few joints that are here.
Both figures sport very, very good ball jointed necks. I got a very nice range of movement out of both of them, and they really added to the posing possibilities and the personality of the figures.
Both also have the usual NECA ball shoulder joints, but on Michael they are a bit more funky looking than David. David’s coat has been used to blend them in a bit better, creating a nicer looking line.
Both have cut wrists of course, since the hands are swappable, and they have cut ankles as well. Both have cut waists, and a cut joint on the left elbow. Michael adds the extra cut elbow on the right arm as well.
You can get a couple decent poses out of them, particularly with David, but these aren’t super articulated, and you shouldn’t go in expecting too much more than plastic statues.
Accessories – David ****; Michael ***1/2
The cost of specialty market figures has risen at the local retailers, but NECA has countered that wallet pain slightly by upping the ante on the accessories.
David has a nice display base with an attached section of wall. There’s a sculpted Chinese take out box with worms crawling out, right from a specific scene in the film. He also has his extra head, extra set of gloved hands, and extra set of booted feet. The hands and feet go on and off fairly well, but be careful with those small fingers!
He finishes off the rather impressive set of accessories with the bottle, also from the film. That’s quite a solid number of accessories for a figure in the $12 range.
Michael also has a small display base, but his is flat (well, actually it’s the wood floor from his house, I believe) without any peg or sculpted additions. He does have his extra normal head along with normal hands, but there are no additional feet.
He does have one huge accessory though – the chandelier that played a role in the movie. It’s a nice idea, and it goes together well. But what should I do with it? Lay it on the ground? Prop it in a corner? Throw it at the cat?
Fun Factor – **1/2
While these aren’t exactly toys, they are both vampires which increases the fun a bit. Kids love vampires, even when they have absolutely no idea who they are. The only problem is the lack of articulation, holding these back from being more fun.
Things to Watch Out For –
The swappable hands and feet have fairly short pegs, and you’ll want to take care removing and replacing them. The hands were particularly tricky, since the fingers are much softer plastic than the posts. Bending and breaking the fingers while forcing in the pegs is a distinct possibility.
Overall – David ***1/2; Michael ***
If you can snag one of the David’s with the best paint jobs, you’ll be quite pleased. The vampire sculpt is great, and the added accessories really make him pop on the shelf. Michael isn’t quite the hit, but fans of the film will appreciate him.
Score Recap-
Packaging – ***
Sculpting – David ***1/2; Michael ***
Paint – ***
Articulation – **1/2
Accessories – David ****; Michael ***1/2
Fun Factor – **1/2
Overall – David ***1/2; Michael ***
Where to Buy –
While you might eventually be able to find the full set at Hot Topic or Suncoast, I’d suggest going for an online option:
– CornerStoreComics has them for $12 each or the set for $46.
– Amazing Toyz has the singles at $12 each as well, but the set of 4 is $55.
Related Links –
There’s been plenty of Cult Classic reviews:
– last was series 5, including Lector and Jigsaw, series 4, series 3 broken into two reviews of McClane and Bubba Ho-tep, and Flyboy and the Endoskeleton in another. Finally, there’s also reviews of series 1 and series 2.
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