Funko and Super 7 Go Retro with New ReAction Action Figures

The power of nostalgia strikes again! Back in 2012, toy companies Funko and Super 7 teamed up to finish what Kenner started back in the '70s by producing a line of 3 and 3/4-inch action figures based on the movie Alien. This partnership marked the beginning of the ReAction line of action figures, one that later expanded to include similar-sized action figures based on the Six Million Dollar Man TV series.

I'm guessing that these ReAction figures must have been a success, because that would explain the recent announcement by Funko and Super 7 to produce even more ReAction figures based on characters from Back to the Future, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Escape From New York, Firefly, Goonies, Nightmare Before Christmas, Predator, Pulp Fiction, The Terminator and other popular films and TV shows from the '80s and '90s. These figures are currently available for pre-order over at Entertainment Earth.

I find it amusing that even after the arrival of highly detailed yet reasonably priced action figures from companies such as McFarlane Toys and NECA, fans and collectors are still willing to spend money on even less detailed action figures that have a design aesthetic similar to Kenner's during the late '70s and early '80s. On the other hand, I have no room to judge--after all, the expanding ReAction line will also include figures based on classic Universal Studios monsters, figures that I'm assuming will appear similar to the 3 and 3/4-inch Universal Studio monster figures that Remco released during the early '80s.

Remco's Universal Monster action figures.

Even though I never collected any of Remco's Universal Monster figures, I eyed them with great curiosity and fascination back in the day when I was just discovering classic monster movies. Remco's line had Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman, the Mummy, the Phantom of the Opera and the Creature from the Black Lagoon; the ReAction line will have the same set of characters along with the Invisible Man. Thus, while I prefer to collect figures that have greater detail, such as Diamond Select's line of classic monster figures, there's a part of me that wants to spend a chunk of change on ReAction figures so that I can have classic Universal Monsters rub elbows with more contemporary horror icons such as the Alien, Predator, a T-800 endoskeleton, and slashers such as Micheal Meyers and Freddy Krueger.

Check out the ReAction Figures and More blog for updates about additions to the ReAction line of figures.

The Universal Studios Jaws Ride Lives on at the Amity Boat Tours Site

Fans of Jaws and its subsequent franchise were crushed when the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida decided to close its Jaws ride back in January 2012. Yet while this piece of Jaws history is gone, it is far from forgotten. The folks behind the Amity Boat Tours Web site, a site that has been around for 13 years, are updating the site into the "Finale Edition" that will serve as an archive for all things concerning the Jaws ride.

According to the site, "(T)he Finale Edition of AmityBoatTours.com celebrates the life, and community of the JAWS World -- from the honorary JAWS Skippers to the Summer vacationers of Amity, this site was built and designed for you. We have received many questions and concerns that the site will close, and grow old, now that the attraction is gone. Quite the contrary has occurred. We have been working, since weeks before the announcement of its closure, to begin crafting a brand-new way to bring Amity Harbor to you and something that we can walk away from proud and dedicated to. The Finale Edition of the site is just that... we are extremely proud to bring this new experience to you, as well as 'bulk-up' the AmityBoatTours.com world."

A bird's-eye view of the Orlando Jaws ride. You can see the most of the places 

where the shark surfaces to terrorize theme park visitors.

I've been looking around the updated site and it appears to be on track (no pun intended) to becoming the definitive resource for anyone who is interested in the Jaws ride and its history. The Finale Edition site features a detailed history of the ride, plenty of trivia and photos, and video clips of the fictitious Amity TV station WJWS that would play on monitors in the ride pavilion to keep visitors entertained while they waited in line. The site also features photos of a similar Jaws ride that still operates in the Universal Studios theme park in Japan.

In honor of the revamped Amity Boat Tours site, I'm posting two Jaws ride video clips that I found on YouTube that are different from most others that are available on the Internet. The first is a video of the ride in anaglyph 3D (think of it as the other "Jaws 3D") and a video from 1990 that will give you an idea of how the ride functioned as it was originally designed Ride and Show Engineering, Inc. In this version, the shark would attack the tour boat and spin it to the side, shortly before the final confrontation between the shark and the boat's "Skipper". As you can see in the video, the shark that was supposed to attack the boat wasn't very convincing; however, the shark that surfaces in the boathouse (at about three minutes into the video) is very impressive with its thrashing head and snapping mouth. The ride was redesigned and re-launched in 1993 due to repeated technical problems, but it's a shame that Universal didn't keep the original boathouse shark.

The Age of Feature-Length 3D Horror and Sci-Fi Cartoons in America Has Arrived

Feature-length cartoons have been around in American cinema since Disney released Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs back in 1937, but cartoons for genres outside of fairy tale-based musicals have been very rare for most of the time since that milestone. Thus, I've been ecstatic that three horror-themed cartoons--ParaNorman, Hotel Transylvania and Frankenweenie--are being released in American theaters between August and October of this year. Furthermore, all three of them are in 3D and two of them were shot using stop-motion animation, a special effects technique that has almost completely vanished from live-action films.

To be sure, these titles aren't horror cartoons per se--they are mostly comedies with plot points and imagery based on the horror genre. Yet having three of these films debuting in American theaters within weeks of each other is unprecedented and I think that it reflects what 3D and CGI technology can contribute to cinema animation in terms of the kinds of subject matter that animators can explore. I've already posted about how 3D technology has found a home in video games and feature-length CGI cartoons; here, I'll examine how 3D and CGI have sparked new life into animated storytelling, which has resulted in a selection of horror and sci-fi themed cartoons (five of which I will discuss in this post) that will pave the way for new generations of horror and sci-fi fans. In a time where live-action horror and sci-fi films that are released on the big screen have been overrun with remakes, reboots and retreads, this can only be a good thing. Read on ...

For the longest time, the only horror-themed cartoon movie around was Mad Monster Party, which was produced by Rankin/Bass Productions back in 1967, yet that stop-motion cult classic was a rarity even among certain groups of horror fans. I first saw it on syndicated TV when I was just a wee lad during the late 70s (the film was followed by a broadcast of Son of The Blob, which scared the crap out of me before I was old enough to know better). I didn't know the name of the cartoon movie when I first saw it but I remembered enough of Mad Monster Party's visual style and plot that I could tell my friends about it in the years and decades to come, even though none of them had the slightest idea of what I talking about other than to remark that they had no idea that the makers of such holiday favorites as Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman would produce something so monster-centric. Tim Burton would eventually make his own contribution to horror-themed cartoon movies with A Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993, but that still left only two animated titles that dealt with horror themes and visuals amid a long list of American cartoons that didn't.

Things have been picking up for horror and sci-fi cartoon movies in the years since thanks to CGI and 3D technology, even to the point of getting Nightmare Before Christmas re-released in 3D in 2006. Sure, these films aren't as serious as the horror and sci-fi cartoons produced in Japan (then again, what other country is more serious about animation than Japan?), but the fact that American animation companies are willing to expand their subject matter into horror and sci-fi territory is a step in the right direction that is long overdue. In chronological order, here are five examples of 3D horror and sci-fi cartoon movies done right, the models that future 3D animators should follow when blazing new paths of their own.

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Monster House (2006)

When Monster House arrived in 2006, I was amazed. It was produced using top-notch CGI, it was in 3D, it had a great voice cast, and it was an obvious homage to the many kid- and early teen-friendly horror/sci-fi/adventure films of the 80s, films such as Gremlins, Goonies, The Gate, Explorers, The Monster Squad and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. (Then again, with executive producers such as Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, two filmmakers who excelled at these kinds of movies during their heyday, what else would you expect?) Even though Monster House is told from a kid's perspective and is largely devoid of violence and gore, it still tells as a satisfying ghost story that can be enjoyed by an audience of varying ages. If you're looking to introduce kids to the horror movies, Monster House should place high on your list of titles.

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Meet The Robinsons (2007)

Meet The Robinsons has everything: A goofy sense of humor, an intriguing story that is both a parody and a homage to the plot device of time travel, a tribute to Walt Disney's futurism, and a heartwarming message about family, belonging and making peace with an uncertain past to move onward into a brighter, better future. In particular, retro sci-fi fans will love the movie's chrome-plated, tail-finned vision of the future that's skillfully rendered in 3D.

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Coraline (2009)

2009 was a fantastic year for horror/sci-fi 3D cartoon movies, beginning with Coraline. Henry Selick applied his animation magic to an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's dark, twisted fairy tale, and the results were astonishing. Not too shabby for the first stop-motion animated feature to be shot entirely in 3D. Also, even though Coraline is not a CGI-animated film, it could not have been animated without computers: The characters' different facial expressions were molded by a 3D printing computer program, which allowed for up to 207,336 possible face combinations for a single character.

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Monsters Vs. Aliens (2009)

There are so many nods to Atomic Age horror and sci-fi movies in this cartoon that it's impossible for a creature feature fan like me to resist it. It features homages to such classics and cult favorites such as Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Blob, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly and Mothra, and it casts Stephen Colbert himself as the President of the United States--what's not to love? Monsters vs. Aliens is also the first computer animated movie to be directly produced in a stereoscopic 3D format, instead of being converted into 3D after completion.

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Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Whenever filmmakers decide to take a short children's book and adapt it into a feature-lenght movie, they really need to look at Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs as the example to follow. Not only was this film able to take the book's original idea and expand upon it in a way that could sustain a full movie, but doing so also allowed the filmmakers to do a hilarious parody of the science-running-amok plot that has become a cliche in horror and sci-fi movies. Furthermore, Cloudy's 3D effects are amazing, and this level of quality carries over into the 3D Blu-ray version of the movie.

Nerd Rant: Someone Actually Paid $70 Million to Make a Film Called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

I've seen a lot of things at the movies. Gory things, offensive things, full-frontal things, and so forth. Some were great, some were good, some were average, and some were very, very bad. Yet of all the things that Hollywood has put into the movie theaters lately (as opposed to the wild and woolly world of direct-to-video), last weekend's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter leaves me speechless. During the same summer as Battleship, a movie based on a board game, and it's this film that leaves me speechless. I thought that the humorless The Raven from last April that featured Edgar Allen Poe as an amateur detective was bad enough, but now we get the 16th President of the United States as a dour vampire slayer.

Come on, Hollywood! You've got a film about an axe-wielding president who kills monsters and this is the best that you can do? What, did the $70 million budget give you cold feet so you decided to play it serious for fear that a campy horror film would alienate or anger viewers? Did you get so high on CGI that the resulting digital haze made you forget how ridiculous this whole idea is? We live in a time where a toy series called "Presidential Monsters" is making its rounds among the horror collectibles crowd and yet you couldn't bother to include some inspired, morbid mayhem to salvage your misguided mash-up of historical drama and creature feature?

Yes, this action figure really does exist. Yes, a Lincolnstein movie would be

much more entertaining than Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

I think they should've cast Hugh Jackman as Abe and rewritten the script into a movie musical, where Abe could sing and behead vampires while swinging his axe in rhythm with the tunes. Imagine Abe slaughtering the bloodsucking undead while singing the Gettysburg Address; what could be cooler than that? Throw in roles for other stage theater-inclined X-Men movie vets for name recognition purposes (e.g., James Marsden, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, etc.) and change the title to something more outrageous--say, Honest Abe vs. Dracula--and this could've been a b-movie blockbuster smash.

A 19th century historical figure that fights vampires? 

Been there, done that, and on a cheaper budget too.

There is so much wasted potential in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I guess we'll just have to wait until September for FDR: American Badass!, which stars Barry Bostwick as FDR, Ray Wise as General MacArthur, and Kevin Sorbo as Abe Lincoln. Yes, really.

Here's Abe clobbering the cyborg version of John Wilkes Booth (a.k.a. "John Wilkes Doom")

during a time travel team-up with the Dark Knight on Batman: Brave and the Bold.

The Return of Dracula (1958): A Classic Monster in Eisenhower-Era America

I was looking around Netflix's on-demand list of horror titles the other day when I found this curiosity: The Return of Dracula from 1958.

When I was growing up in the 80s, books about horror movies usually divided Dracula movies into two eras: the Universal era during the 30s and 40s, and the Hammer era during the 50s, 60s and 70s. Thus, to see an American Dracula movie from 1958 listed anywhere was a surprise to me, so I decided to watch it to see how the King of Vampires fared in America during the 50s.

The Return of Dracula begins with Dracula (played by Francis Lederer) fleeing the authorities in Transylvania. He murders and assumes the identity of Czech artist named Bellac, who is traveling to America to visit his cousins in California. While maintaining his guise as Bellac, Dracula stays with Bellac's cousins while he begins to build a new army of the undead. In other words, this movie is Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) but with vampires.

Given the time it was made, I could see why a Hollywood studio would think that Dracula could fit in with the Cold War paranoia that was prevalent during the 50s in America. After all, the movie features a foreigner with a strange accent and a strong aversion of Christian iconography who arrives in small town America to seduce young people into a depraved lifestyle; if that isn't a Red Scare-based film plot, I don't know what is. Furthermore, if my anti-communism assumption is correct, then it's fun to see a movie like this depict a Halloween costume party--which includes a kid dressed up as Satan--as a wholesome, all-American activity. (Boy, how times have changed.)

This film isn't nearly as bold and stylish as Hammer's Horror of Dracula, which appeared later in the same year, so it's understandable why this movie didn't lead to more American-made Dracula films in the years since. Nevertheless, The Return of Dracula does have its charms, particularly Lederer's portrayal of Dracula. Even though the body count achieved by this Dracula is quite modest in comparison to other versions, Lederer's interpretation of the role reminds viewers that Dracula's greatest power is neither his superhuman strength nor his invulnerability, but his seductive, indomitable will.

If you can get past the idea of Dracula resorting to the lowly crime of identity theft to continue his feedings, then I strongly recommend The Return of Dracula to Dracula film completists and retro-horror fans. If you wax nostalgic for the times when syndicated TV stations would run older and sometimes lesser-known horror and sci-fi movies on the weekends, this movie is for you.

When Hotties and Horrors Collide at Atomic Cheesecake Studios

Pinup models and pulp art for horror and sci-fi go together like peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, and hacking and slashing. This has been a winning combination for decades, adding curves and creeps to countless movie posters and covers of novels, magazines and comic books. Yet with many modern horror and sci-fi posters and publications trending towards heavily photoshopped pictures, what will become of this dynamic duo that fired the feverish imaginations of fantasy and fright fans for so long?

Meet Stacey Barich. She owns and operates Atomic Cheesecake Studios in Baltimore, Maryland where she specializes in portrait photography that captures the classic pinup look that was popular during the 40s and 50s. Given her choice of style, her models often pose with classic fashions, cars, furniture and other items from the Atomic Age. Click here to read an interview with Barich over at the Pinup Directory site. She will also have a special edition of Retro Lovely Magazine completely devoted to her work; click here to order your copy.

Thankfully for us vintage horror fans, Barich has done a few photo shoots that pay tribute to horror comic books and movies from the same era. Click below to see some examples of her glamorous and ghoulish work.

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Attack of the 50-foot pinups!

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Pinups vs. carnivorous jungle plants!

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Pinups in printed peril!

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Halloween pinups!

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Of course, Ms. Barich is open to monster-themed ideas suggested by clients. Below are three Frankenstein-themed photos that Barich took as part of an engagement portfolio for graphic artists Paigey Pumphrey (see her work here) and Phil 'Ballsy' Balsman (see his work here).

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Go to the Atomic Cheesecake Studios site for more examples of Barich’s photography, as well as information about pricing, scheduling, and how to prepare for a shoot.

Rotted Cheesecake: Here’s a zombie enjoying his preferred kind of pinups.

Classic Movie Monsters Terrorize Toy Fair 2012!

Well, the annual Toy Fair has come and gone yet again. There were many familiar licenses present at this year's event, including Star Wars, DC and Marvel superheroes, and revived 80s-era toy lines such as G.I. Joe, He-Man, Thundercats, Transformers and Voltron. Yet among these popular titles were a few faces from Hollywood's classic creature features, thanks to Diamond Select.

I've already posted about how Lego is including classic movie monsters as part of its kit sets, and I mentioned how Diamond Select was continuing its Retro Cloth Universal Monsters line as part of the ongoing legacy of the Mego Corporation. Yet when I was looking through the comprehensive Toy Fair 2012 photo galleries on the Cool Toy Review site, I was very pleased to see that Diamond Select has much more in store for classic movie monster lovers in 2012. Click below to learn more about why you should be saving your money for this fantastic new items, along with pictures that were provided courtesy of Cool Toy Review.

I may have grown up with the Star Wars saga and the superheroes of the DC and Marvel universe, but nothing brings a smile to my face quite like whenever a toy company decides to pay tribute to the creature features of yesterday by releasing high-quality replicas of their titular monsters. (If anything, classic movie monster toys certainly deserve as much attention among fantasy, horror and sci-fi collectors as the umpteenth action figure, statue, bust, or model kit of Darth Vader, Batman, and Spider-Man.) Diamond Select already released high-quality action figures of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and each of those figures came with equally impressive accessories. As you can see from the pictures below from Cool Toy Review, this year's selection will include the Phantom of the Opera, Quasimodo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (two separate figures), and creatures from B-movie classics such as This Island Earth and The Mole People.

It should be noted here that Diamond Select is also releasing figures from yet another tribute to classic movie monsters: Mad Monster Party, a 1967 stop-motion animated film by Rankin/Bass Productions.

Click here to see all of Cool Toy Review's coverage of Toy Fair 2012.

Nerd Rant: To See or Not To See The Phantom Menace in 3D

I sense a three dimensional disturbance in The Force.

I love 3D movies, I love Star Wars, and I love the special effects work done by George Lucas-backed companies such as Industrial Light and Magic. However, I have no desire to see the re-release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 3D. The reason is simple: Based on several reviews I've read, the converted Phantom Menace movie doesn't take full advantage of the new dimension it is supposed to have. It ranked fourth during its first weekend at the box office but I doubt that's enough to justify the cost of converting just one film to 3D, let alone six. Furthermore, if Phantom Menace falls off the top ten list this upcoming weekend, then the future of a complete Star Wars saga in 3D is more doomed than Alderaan.

What gives? This is George Lucas we're talking about here. If there's anyone in Hollywood who has easy and ready access to the latest special effects technology, it's him--and yet Phantom Menace didn't get a decent conversion to 3D? Really?

Naturally, I'm severely disappointed that the Star Wars 3D movie experience that was supposed to be probably won't happen at all. Yet the real reason why I am posting this rant is that deep, deep down inside of my little geeky heart, I'm hoping that someone will give the high-definition 3D treatment to one or more of the older anaglyph 3D classics, classics such as House of Wax and Dial M for Murder. Thus, I'm sure that the box office performance of re-released, 3D-converted titles such as Phantom Menace will have an impact on whether or not that happens. After carefully considering what has happened so far, I think that this could very well be the first time that Lucas' technological savvy has been trumped ... by Disney. Click below to learn about how the House of Mouse has beaten The Flanneled One to the 3D punch.

To be fair, while Lucas has invested a lot in advanced film production technology, Disney has plenty of experience when it comes to distributing their products. Add to that Disney's large catalog of titles, and it becomes clear that it takes more than technological sophistication and a huge built-in fan base to make 3D conversions profitable.

I think that Lucas' mistake is twofold: that the 3D conversion was lackluster and that he released it within months of the Blu-ray release of all six Star Wars movies--and less than two months after the Christmas shopping season, when I'm sure plenty of fans got their Star Wars Blu-ray sets. If you already have a Blu-ray player and a high-def TV, then there's no reason to pay extra cash for a disappointing 3D conversion when you can watch crystal-clear copies of the Star Wars movies (as well as the hours of bonus features that came with them) in the comfort of your own home. Even if you don't own the Star Wars Blu-rays yet, you'd be better off saving your money to get them than to spend it on higher-priced tickets for a 3D experience that doesn't deliver.

In contrast, Disney has been tinkering around with 3D for years by now, both with first-run 3D releases and 3D conversions. Its conversions include Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story and Toy Story 2, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Each time Disney re-releases a converted title, the distribution plan adheres to the same strategy: The title is released in theaters for a limited engagement, which is quickly followed by the release of the title on 3D Blu-ray. This strategy has worked quite well for Disney so far, although it's not the only way to do it. For example, Dreamworks converted its 2D Shrek movies to 3D and then released them on 3D Blu-ray without bothering with theatrical re-releases.

Regardless of which release pattern is followed, each would fail if the 3D conversion process didn't yield impressive results. I don't think that it's a coincidence that the most successful 3D conversions all happen to be animated. CGI animated movies are easier to convert to 3D than another other film, but that doesn't explain the successful conversions of 2D hand-drawn animated features and stop-motion features. Without knowing the exact processes and technology involved, it seems that the less moving elements there are on the screen the easier it is to convert it to 3D. The animation in Lion King and Nightmare Before Christmas is gorgeous, but none of their scenes are nearly as busy as an action scene from a Star Wars film--and there I believe is where the problem lies.

It could very well be that the 3D conversion process--at least for the immediate future--should strictly be limited to the domain of animation. If Lucas really wanted to enter the 3D movie arena, he should have taken a feature-length story arc from the CGI animated Clone Wars TV series, convert it into 3D, and then release it on 3D Blu-ray with a few behind-the-scenes featurettes. Yet even if 3D conversion is limited to animation, that shouldn't rule out the conversion of older, live-action films that were already shot in the 3D into a superior 3D format.

In summary: Disney can keep doing what it does in 3D because it does it well. But for Lucas, James Cameron and all of the other filmmakers who want to convert their older movies into 3D, I can only say this: Don't. There are many older films that I would love to see in 3D (click here to see my 3D conversion wish list) but please, please, please wait for the technology to catch up--even if it means waiting for the conversion of movies into holograms if that's what it takes. In the meantime, work on updating movies that were already shot in 3D, movies that were ahead of their time and are long overdue for a comeback.

Now ... who's finally going to release a high-def double feature Creature from the Black Lagoon/Revenge of the Creature 3D Blu-ray set?