31 Days of Toy Terror Takes the Universe: Frosty Bite from Frosty Frights by Wendy's

 

   Today I'm being a bit silly again as we're taking a look at Count Dracula as.... a Frosty? Yup. Starting during the first week of September, if you got a kids' meal at Wendy's you could get a little minifigure of the Wendy's Frosty dressed up like a classic monster. Have you always wanted a Frosty dressed up like Dracula? Then Frosty Bite is for you! These should definitely appeal to fans of Halloween goodies like the classic McNugget Buddies. There are six different sculpts, five of which have two different color schemes, so you've got 11 different figures overall. Let's take a look at this chilly child of the night after the break...

31 Days of Toy Terror Takes the Universe: Bedtime Bear as the Mummy #1628 from POP! Movies: Care Bears X Universal Monsters by Funko

 

   Today's a Sunday so it's time for another review of the Mummy and this time we've got something really scary! It's.... a Care Bear? Yup. A Care Bear. One of the most unusual mashups of 2024 surely has to be Care Bears X Universal Monsters, a mixture of cute and creepy that I don't anyone saw coming. Why? I don't know but I'll be honest; I was kind of intrigued when I first hears about these and I picked up the Funko POP! vinyls as soon as I saw them at a local GameStop. Well, a couple of them. Bedtime Bear was the only Care Bear I had as a kid, so I'm sort of partial to the sleepy little guy. Well, sleepy during the day. You see, Bedtime Bear stays up all night to serve as the night watchmen for Care-a-lot, so no wonder he's drowsy during the day. Of course now he's awoken from his thousands of years of slumber and he's roaming the pyramids looking to restore his original power. Or he's just Bedtime Bear cosplaying. Let's check out Bedtime Bear as the Mummy after the break...

31 Days of Toy Terror Takes the Universe: Invisible Man from Monster in My Pocket by Matchbox

 

   

   The Invisible Man is back! This time we're checking out Griffin, the Invisible Man himself, from Matchbox's 1990 Monster in My Pocket minifigure line. I love these rubbery little guys! I had a few as a kid but over the years I've amassed more of them. They're always fun to look back at, especially as part of 31 Days of Toy Terror. I'm a huge fan of the Invisible Man, both the original H.G. Wells novel and the Universal Studios films. If you've never seen any of the sequels, they're worth checking out. Vincent Price is the invisible star of The Invisible Man Returns and plays Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe, a friend of Dr. Frank Griffin, the brother of the original Invisible Man. Radcliffe is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and Griffin secretly gives him the serum to turn invisible until his innocence can be proved. It's quite good! The Invisible Woman is also legitimately funny, though a straight up comedy that's not really related to the others. The lovable Virginia Bruce plays Kitty Carroll, a struggling model who volunteers for an experiment but uses her invisibility to get back at her boss, improve working conditions for her coworkers, romance a rich guy, and stop some gangsters (one of whom is played by Shemp Howard). Anyways, we're looking at the original Griffin today, so let's check out this minifigure after the break...

31 Days of Toy Terror: Frankenstein from Universal Studios Monsters by Sideshow Toys

 

   Today for Franken-Friday I'm checking out a Universal Monsters figure from the 1990s: Frankenstein from Sideshow Toys' Universal Studios Monsters line. And, yes, they do call him Frankenstein here. And, yes, that is perfectly acceptable. Anyways, I was looking back at my review archives and realized I've never reviewed any of these figures on the site. The Universal Studios Monsters was a cool set of 8 inch figures released by Sideshow Toys from 1998 through 2001. Sideshow did a lot with the Universal Monsters license back in the late 1990s (after Hasbro had a run with the license), including a lot of stuff on the lower end that was sold at retail in places like Target, Toys R' Us, and Media Play. Sideshow is still releasing Universal Monsters product but it's now mostly higher end collectibles. This line was definitely indicative of many collector lines of the time with limited articulation, diorama like elements, and a focus on display over play. Still, they were neat and they covered a wide range of characters from 1923's silent version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame with Lon Chaney to 1956's The Mole People. Frankenstein (or Frankenstein's Monster) was part of the first series in 1998, along with the Wolf Man and the Mummy. Ready to check out another tribute to the Boris Karloff's Monster? Then join me after the break...

Action Figure Review: Clock King from DC Multiverse by McFarlane Toys

 

   It's time for another regular action figure review to break up the Halloween season and all of the Toy Terror I'm subjecting you to on a daily basis! Since time permitted, today I'm checking out another one of the "premium" DC Multiverse McFarlane Collector Edition figures: Clock King! Listen, the Clock King's history is a mess. There are multiple Clock Kings with different names and I'm not even going to pretend that I can keep them all straight. This guy is the original Clock King, though: William Tockman. Originally a bit of a Green Arrow villain in World's Finest Comics #11 from 1960, over the years the Clock King has tended to be an enemy of Green Arrow (he was part of the Longbow Hunters and in the show Arrow) but shows up more often in Batman related stories and media, including the 1966 series. He's been part of the Injustice League, the Suicide Squad, and Justice League Antarctica, has fought a number of Batfamily members, showed up in The Lego Batman Movie, and is married to the Riddler in the Harley Quinn animated series. For a Silver Age gimmick villain, the Clock King sure has legs. Or hands. He's a villain I'm quite surprised to see and while I'm pleased, it's pretty odd to get a more obscure villain when the DC Multiverse line hasn't even given us a comic book based Harley Quinn yet. No Harley Quinn, Power Girl, or comic Two-Face and Poison Ivy, but we got Clock King? Eh, we'll get to those eventually, right? I'm definitely enjoying McFarlane's random villains to add to Batman's Rogues Gallery. Let's check this guy out after the break...

31 Days of Toy Terror Takes the Universe: Creature from the Black Lagoon (Glow-In-The-Dark Costume Colors) from Universal Monsters ReAction by Super7

 

   Today's a Thursday, so I'm back with another Creature from the Black Lagoon review and this time it's a toy that isn't from my collection. This glow-in-the-dark version of the Gill-man is from Adora's collection and was a Christmas gift from a friend a year or two ago. Adora was thrilled to let me take some pictures of him for 31 Days of Toy Terror Takes the Universe this year. While I've now reviewed the Funko ReAction Creature from the Black Lagoon, I haven't owned any of Super7's versions of the Creature personally. While this is a wildly colored version based on classic 1970s era Halloween costumes, the sculpt is much sharper and nicer than the original 2014 Funko figure. This guy has a nice healthy glow, wild colors, and a cool display box that mimics an old Halloween costume package. Ready to dive in for another Creature from the Black Lagoon review? Then join me after the break...

31 Days of Toy Terror Takes the Universe: Wolfman from The Wolfman by Mezco

 

   

   While most of the reviews this month are based on the classic Universal horror films and silent films released between 1923 through 1956 or 1960 (there's a bit of differing opinion there), Universal has returned to these characters multiple times over the sixty plus years since the classic era ended. Today I'm checking out an action figure based on one of the better modern era remakes: Benicio del Toro's Wolfman from Joe Johnston's 2010 film. The move came out in February of 2010 and I was really excited for it. The Wolfman is definitely a top tier Universal Monsters film in my book and I actually liked how the 2010 film set the film in 1891, fifty years before the setting of the 1941 film. Mezco released a few products for the film at the very end  of 2009 and early 2010, including a blood spattered variant of this figure (as a Blockbuster exclusive!) and a 1/6th scale figure. I think I purchased this guy at Toys 'R Us and he's the basic version of the Wolfman. Ready to check out the Wolfman from one of his more recent outings? Then join me after the break...