Land of the Dead - Action Figure Reviews

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Series

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Craftsmanship

8.5 / 10

- Scary without being too gory (though the severed body parts don’t help)

- Easy to keep standing

- Good amount of detail, even if the articulation suffers because of it

Playability

1.0 / 10

- Play with these figures? Yeah. No.

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Land of the Dead

Hey, parents! In case the bloody body parts didn’t give it away, the Land of the Dead figures are “recommended” for ages “14 and up” – it says so right on the box. Also be warned that the movie the figures are based on is rated “R”. The package also warns of small parts that make the figures unsuitable for “children under 3 years.”

Really, SOTA should have just gone the simple route with something like, “Hey! Dumb-ass parents! Don’t buy this toy for your kids – it’s a friggin’ zombie with dismembered body parts for accessories!” Damn government regulations.

So, anyone with half a brain should be able to surmise right off the bat that the Land of the Dead figures are for fans of the film. What do those fans get?

The Butcher (left); Machete (middle); Big Daddy (right) -- what a nasty trio!

Big Daddy

Big Daddy comes packed with a jackhammer, an extra hand (his own!), an assault rifle and a severed arm and head. It all amounts to lots of parts to lose if you actually free the figure from the package. For all the articulation you get, it might

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actually be better if Big Daddy was left in the package. SOTA’s Street Fighter figures have spoiled us all in the articulation department – they’re loaded! – but Big Daddy comes with minimal articulation. It’s too bad because if his arms could be manipulated, rather than just at the shoulders and wrists, it would have been possible to put the jackhammer and

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assault rifle to some practical display use. Besides the neck, the rest of him is immobile, which makes for good balance. The detail, coloring, and faithfulness to the source material is good.

The Butcher

Predictably, the Butcher comes packed with a meat cleaver and three body parts (none of his own). As the name also suggests, his apron is splattered with copious amounts of blood. Of the three figures, the Butcher is the most overtly gory (body parts aside). Again, there’s not much articulation here but the apron practically dictates that this will be the case.

Machete

Though the similarities are actually few, Machete reminds me Arthur Fonzerelli (AKA “The Fonz”) from the television classic “Happy Days.” (To my knowledge, the Fonz never wielded a machete, but the leather jacket and jeans click my brain over to Arnold ’s Drive-In.) Like the previous two figures, articulation is very limited, which stinks because a figure with a machete deserves to be able to look like he’s swinging it around. The sculpting and detail, particularly around the face – handlebar mustaches are cool in any era – is very good.

The Victim

The Victim is “put together” with the various body parts included with the three figures. Really, it’s a big lump of intestines, gore, and hacked limbs. Not being a coroner I can’t comment too much on the accuracy, but as a student in Zombification it just makes sense to include a mutilated corpse. It’s not pleasant to look at, that’s for sure.

Besides being great collectibles for fans of the film, this trio of zombies gets me thinking about a line of “Dead Rising” figures. I’m not sure how the whole licensing thing works but SOTA must have some tie to Capcom due to the Street Fighter figures or at least some kind of in. The protagonist in Capcom’s Dead Rising, Frank West, would make the perfect action figure – just imagine the number of accessories that could be packed with him! Chainsaws, garden sheers, katanas, barbells, rotting meat… the list would go on and on!

Jump to it SOTA!

- Omni

(October 2, 2007)


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