A Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger Figures Review

I started out thinking on a review of the new NECA Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street pt 2, but I have a lot more than that on my chest when I look at my N.o.E.S. shelf. I missed out on a lot of the Freddy figures as I began my actually collecting phase late. By the time I really hit my stride McFarlane already had Movie Maniacs series 6 and had to do a lot of back date buying to catch up. The thing is, at the time those figures were so popular that I missed out on a lot and I knew little about the other toy producers like NECA or Mezco or whatever.


The only Freddy I could get was the Wes Craven's New Nightmare one and unfortunately, that isn't actually Freddy as in the movie it's a demon that chooses the form of Freddy Krueger from the movies. So for years now, I've been stuck with only one "Freddy" and it wasn't even really him and it has always bothered me. Recently I've been doing some catch up and have been picking up what (original Elm Street) Freddy's I could. After looking at the ones I've picked up, and seeing the latest release from NECA, I decided a review isn't enough. I had to do a versus.


So, let's start with NECA/REEL Toys NEW NIGHTMARE "Freddy". It's a nice little figure; comes with a solid base that has a part of a pillar on one end. You can remove his hat. He comes with a tiny script like in the movie, and a second head which is the demon form. His hand with the blades on it is muscle and the claw/glove is actually bones that lead to the fingers and become the blades. It's very movie accurate and because of all this, I didn't mind owning it. It's a good figure to have even though it hasn't gained any value and you can still easily get it:

Cult Classics New Nightmare Freddy 7" Action Figure










More recently I picked up the McFarlane Movie Maniacs Freddy, a retro buy for me as it's series 1. It was available pretty cheap so I figured why not. When I got it I was a little disappointed, the thing didn't look like Robert Englund. Now I know it's supposed to look like Freddy, but my basis for any figure that comes based off of a movie or show is that it looks like it does on the screen. Robert Englund plays Freddy and you can totally see him through the makeup/masking and so I expect any Freddy Krueger figure to take that into consideration.



I'm actually a little surprised because back then McFarlane was the balls when it came to making figures that were movie accurate, while everyone else was playing catch up. I guess back then I may not have minded. A buddy of mine had this figure and I think I remember wishing I'd gotten it. Now I have it and I'm glad but on my scale of how good the figure is... well it's kind of lower. I have yet to take it out of the box, but lets talk about what is included - a movie poster stand which was typical of these figures back then and a mini-krueger which might indicate which movie they went with for the sculpt, but it doesn't mention anything specific on the box. The textures added into the figure and even the sculpt itself is not good at all. The head on Freddy looks way to small and his features, while really messed up, are very simple. The eyes are even just white (on mine) and the face details make him look dirty. There is absolutely no sign of Robert Englund in this figure. It's still easily available:




Movie Maniacs 1: Freddy Krueger A Nightmare On Elm Street Action Figure


Now, the newly released NECA Freddy from Nightmare 2 is (in my opinion) exceptional! The figure doesn't come with much more than the others had, a second head with the mouth open and brains exposed on the right side & a second hand that has no glove but blades coming from the fingers. Typical of the other figures, the hat comes off. The thing that really got me with this figure is that it very much resembles Robert Englund's Freddy face!

The down sides are that 1. it comes with no base and 2. it has a hard time standing on its own on some surfaces. I'm not sure what happened to these companies and the bases that should be coming with these figures, but it bugs me. Some of my figures have some great bases that come with them that look like they are from a part of the movie, others have a simple base that's just there to help them stand. Sure you can buy bases separately, but come on, why should the collector have to go out of their way to buy a whole pack of bases just to get the figures to stand up. They should stand up on their own first of all, and secondly, bases should be standard accessories with these things.

These are both still widely available:

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 1 Figure
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 Figure




There's also a series 4 McFarlane Freddy and a newly released Nightmare 1 Freddy from NECA that has the super long outstretched arms... I don't own either of them, but I'll say the series 4 Movie Maniacs one looks a bit better than the series 1, though still not quite what I'd say good. The new NECA w/ the long arms also looks really weird in the face, kind of like it's been stylized or something rather than a sculpt directly from the movie. This is why I haven't bothered getting them. Still, it might be cool, if I can find them reasonably priced, to have them just for the sake of adding to the collection.


It seems to me that it must be pretty difficult to get this guy's face right. Out of all the figures and toys out there they've only been able to get his face right once? Some of the more recent releases over the past two years even include admittedly made up looks for the guy using the "stylized" tag to excuse why it's not looking like Robert behind the Freddy face. I can say with great confidence that NECA knocked it out of the park with their 2011 Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2 Freddy Krueger figure.


- Mr. Frights
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