If you’re a fan of the old Universal horror movies, then you’ll know exactly who Rondo Hatton is. In films like the Sherlock Holmes flick The Pearl of Death, House of Horrors and The Brute Man, Rondo played a disfigured killer often called the Creeper. His unusual looks landed him many uncredited and bit parts in films from 1936 until 1946, when a complication of the acromegaly that plagued him took his life.

Acromegaly is the disease that afflicted other famous actors like Ted Cassidy or Richard Keil…even Tony Robbins. It causes excessive growth hormone to be produced, and when it strikes late in life, as it did with Rondo, it causs the extremeties and soft tissue of the face to become disfigured and deformed. The disease was not well understood at the time, and certainly not easily curable, but rather than allow it to destroy his life, Rondo turned it into a short but prolific movie career.

Rondo Hatton sixth scale figure

Amoktime is producing a whole bunch of very, very cool sixth scale figures based on the old monster movies of the Saturday afternoon’s of my youth. Rondo just started shipping, and will run you about $50. They only produced 500 of these in the initial production run, and I don’t expect those to last too long.

If you have any questions or comments, just drop me a line at mwc@mwctoys.com, or visit my site at Michael’s Review of the Week. I’ve got a ton of other reviews of figures like this, including lots of Sideshow’s Universal Monsters, over there.

Packaging – ***1/2
Amoktime is following in the foot steps of other current sixth scale manufacturers, and going with collector friendly, attractive fifth panel boxes for their figures.

There’s nice photos of the character on the box, as well as some good background text and additional graphics on the fifth panel. There’s a couple twisties, but nothing major, and nothing you have to damage to get the figure out.

Sculpting – ***1/2
Rumor has it that Rondo was voted most handsome in high school, but that might just be an attempt at retro-irony. In any event, he was certainly a better looking man when he was young than in his middle years. Amok has done a nice job capturing the details of his face, compared to the few still photos that we have of the actor. The distorted features look quite accurate, and the scale of the hands and facial extremeties looks great.

The forearms and hands look terrific, and are sculpted in a gripping or strangling pose, just perfect for the character. Similar to the old Sideshow monsters, there’s a cut joint up on the forearm where they attach to the standard body, and mine were both detached in the package. No worries though – they just popped right back on.
Paint – ***
There’s certainly no slop here, but the skin tone is a bit darker than the photos on the Amoktime site. I’m fine with it, but it may conflict for some folks who are expecting the whitish skin of the old black and white movies.

The darker skin tone is very consistent, and the detail work, especially on the lips, is well done. I would have liked to have seen some gloss on the eyes, but it’s a minor quibble, and folks that hate the painted catchlight will be happy to see it’s not present.

Articulation – **1/2
These bodies are certainly not what we expect or get from companies like Medicom, Takara or Hot Toys, but they do fairly well with this type of character. He has some issues standing, but they are not caused by the body but rather by the shoes. More on that in the Outfit section.

The joints are tight, and most that you expect are present. The neck isn’t going to tilt and twist quite as much as you probably would like, and the body is really a few years out of date, but I was able to get him to hold his classic poses.

Accessories – **1/2
Rondo comes with the obligatory display stand, which looks and works fine for those interested, and he has two hats. He often wore this style of hat, sometimes more beat up than others, and they’ve given you a fairly clean version, as well as a worn out version. Both fit on his head well, but I prefer the cleaner, less beat up version.

Outfit – ***1/2
I was very pleasantly surprised by his outfit. Although it’s a basic shirt/pants/jacket combo, it looks very much like his classic clothes, and fits extremely well. The pants are very well tailored, and don’t excentuate the skinny legs of the body (unlike many of the older Sideshow figures that used a similar body). There’s an actual belt in there holding up the pants, and the body has been padded (much like customizers have often had to do with other figures) to fill out the chest and arms. It works well, and makes the clothing look extremely good.

Another surprise is the buttons. They’re real! By that I mean there’s a button hole in the shirt (or jacket..and even the shirt cuffs!), and the buttons actually insert into these holes to hold the clothing together! I don’t recall ever seeing this before on a sixth scale figure. There’s two downsides to this though – first, the buttons are slightly oversized. I wish they’d gone with a black button on the shirt rather than the white, so they would have blended in better and seemed a bit liess obvious. Second, it’s tough to get the buttons in the button holes if you have clumsy, fat fingers. You probably need to ask one of your kids to help.

The only negative I have with this outfit is the shoes, and this holds true for the other figures that re-use these basic black shoes. They are a bit rounded across the sole, probably from the manufacturing process. That makes it tough for him to stand, even in basic poses.

Fun Factor – **
For these old ‘monster’ figures to be fun for current kids, they have to have a truly monstrous appearance. Rondo might be a monster to those that saw him as the Creeper, but for you’re average 8 year old, he’s just a weird looking dude in a suit.

Value – ***
Amoktime is filling the void for sixth scale figures in that $40 – $50 range, left when Sideshow and Hot Toys went uber-expensive. They’re doing a nice job for their first few releases, but they do need to look at adding additional accessories when possible, especially as they get larger and start doing larger production runs.

Things to Watch Out For –
Not a thing! You might be able to flatten out those shoes with a hot water/cold water treatment too, but I hvaen’t tried it yet.

Overall – ***
Amoktime gets some brownie points here just for tackling a rather obscure actor like Rondo. With proper monster lighting, he’ll make a great addition to your classic monster display shelf. He’s certainly not for everyone, but for fans of the old black and white movies, he’s a truly unique addition to the collection.

Score Recap:
Packaging – ***1/2
Sculpting – ***1/2
Paint – ***
Articualtion – **1/2
Accessories – **1/2
Outfit – ***1/2
Fun Factor – **
Value – ***
Overall – ***

Where to Buy –
You can pick this up directly from Amoktime for $50, or from one of these online retailers:

– Corner Store Comics has him for $47.

– Alter Ego Comics has him for $48.

– Things From Another World has him for $68.

Related Links:
I’ve already covered the Gort and Klaatu from Amoktime, as well as the Saucer Men (Invasion of the Saucer Men).

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