Category Archives: Music

July 9, 2025

Back to the Beginning

By Joe

Since I was a young lad, I’ve always been drawn to “heavy” music. My dad was an oldies guy, which during my childhood was primarily music from the 50s and 60s. My mom was into modern rock and while her sensibilities weren’t exactly heavy, they definitely were compared to what my dad listened to (which back then was primarily Neil Diamond). As a result, I often tended to prefer the music my mom would put on compared with what my dad would select not truly realizing what it was I liked most about music. The first band I really gravitated towards was Aerosmith and my very first cassette tape was the album Pump. My first CD purchase would end up being Big Ones which I didn’t realize was just a compilation of songs I had been listening to for awhile, but at least they were all songs I enjoyed (even if my mom owned all of those CDs already). From there, I’d get my own “boom box” for my bedroom and my preferred radio station would become Worcester’s WAAF which skewed much heavier than my mom’s preferred Rock 101. By the time I was heading into middle school I found myself getting into bands I was hearing on the radio like Tool, Korn, and Worcester’s own beloved Godsmack. As I entered into high school my tastes went heavier thanks to friends and easily accessible mp3s traded in AOL chat rooms. Bands like Metallica would eventually come out and shit on mp3 files that were so accessible, but without those I may have never discovered bands like Children of Bodom, In Flames, and Opeth.

And without Black Sabbath, most of those bands wouldn’t exist. I don’t know if I truly appreciated that as a kid, but it certainly became apparent as I went on my heavy metal journey. Danzig would become my favorite band in high school and it’s hard to imagine that band existing without Sabbath (Glenn Danzig, as well as many other artists, was not shy about borrowing Sabbath riffs). As a kid, I was definitely aware of Black Sabbath, and as a child of the 80s I was very aware of Ozzy Osbourne. He had a reputation as a mad man and his songs were frequently featured on radio and MTV. Probably more so than Sabbath at that point, but it’s not as if one had to listen to the radio for very long to hear something like “Paranoid” or “War Pigs.”

My first Black Sabbath album would be the classic Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. There’s nothing I could say about that album that hasn’t been said before: it’s perfect. I’d also be lying if I said Black Sabbath was one of my favorite bands. It’s not as I tend to favor more up-tempo stuff, but I always liked the group and enjoy listening to it. I also think Black Sabbath is perhaps the most influential band ever. That’s not to say other acts haven’t been incredibly influential, but just in my little circle of music I indulge the most in, it’s Sabbath by a mile.

Few bands today could pull-off what Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne just did with the Back to the Beginning concert. Taking place at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK, Back to the Beginning is a giant celebration of Black Sabbath and its frontman Ozzy Osbourne who has been suffering with Parkinson’s disease which is forcing his retirement from the stage. This made the show both a celebration and a farewell and for a lot of artists and fans it might be the last time they get to express to the boys of Sabbath how much their music influenced them. Osbourne is of course not the only member of the band and joining him on stage for the finale was guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and for the first time in 20 years drummer Bill Ward. These four men came to define heavy metal and started something they likely could never have imagined back when they started, and though the band has not been without drama and controversy over its 50 years of existence, the guys of Black Sabbath have remained well-respected and much loved by their peers.

A lot of artists were on-hand to celebrate Ozzy and Black Sabbath.

Back to the Beginning was a non-profit all day concert played before 45,000 fans and an untold number of others watching at home. It featured performances by the bands Mastodon, Rival Sons, Anthrax, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Pantera, Tool, Slayer, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and concluding with a short set of solo Ozzy material and a set by Black Sabbath. Mixed into the bill were performances by super groups. Organized by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, the super groups featured the talents of Jake E. Lee, Billy Corgan, K.K. Downing, Vernon Reid, Travis Barker, Ronnie Wood, Sammy Hagar, and many more. Artists appeared for free with the event offering travel reimbursements. I have no idea how many took advantage of that, but I hope a lot of the bigger acts flew on their own dime.

Because of the massive bill, set lists were kept pretty short. Most acts only had 15 minutes and change-overs were done quickly via a revolving stage. While one act performed, the crew could set up for the next one out of sight. In between acts, video messages were played alongside public service announcements for the charities the show was benefitting including Acorns Children’s Hospice, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Cure Parkinson’s. Despite the sadness of seeing Ozzy and the boys one final time, the mood was definitely celebratory. Other musicians could often be seen offstage watching and enjoying seeing their peers perform. The crowd certainly had favorites, but was responsive for pretty much all of the acts and especially so when they went into covers of classic Sabbath and Ozzy material.

Maynard James Keenan performing with Tool.

Being a dweller of the United States, attending this show was out of my budget, but I was able to watch the livestream. The show was almost always electric and Mastodon kicked things off in strong fashion. The format for most of the acts was to play about 3 songs (Slayer, who specializes in short, fast, songs managed to squeeze in 6 into 26 minutes) which took the form of two originals and one cover. Some of the choices for covers were great fits and some surprising too. Anthrax unleashed an excellent version of “Into the Void” during their set while Slayer kind of surprised with “Wicked World” which they wove their own song “South of Heaven” into. Alice in Chains did an excellent version of “Fairies Wear Boots” while my favorite on the day belonged to Tool and their cover of “Hand of Doom.” It just worked so well as a marriage of Tool and Sabbath and really drove home where the influence originated.

The super group performances also proved to be a ton of fun. The first such set included a really kick ass performance of Osbourne’s “The Ultimate Sin” with Lizzy Hale on vocals. That first super group performance concluded with perhaps the biggest surprise of the night with Yungblood on vocals for “Changes” proving that the Sabbath influence can run deeper than most would expect. The second super group performance included some of the biggest fireworks on the day. Just check out the lineup for the first song, the Judas Priest classic “Breaking the Law”: Billy Corgan, K.K. Downing, Tom Morello, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, Rudy Sarzo. Corgan is not exactly anyone’s idea of a Rob Halford stand-in (Priest couldn’t appear due to a prior commitment opening for The Scorpions that same day, but sent a pre-recorded message), but he did quite well. And that was just the start. Sammy Hagar took over for a couple of songs and his voice still sounded strong before giving way to Papa V Perpetua for a performance of “Bark at the Moon.” That’s not the song I would have chosen for Papa, but he brought fantastic energy and delivered a great performance that had the crowd popping. The biggest surprise appearance of the show followed when Steven Tyler took the stage for “Train Kept A-Rollin,” “Walk this Way,” and “Whole Lotta Love.” It was nice to see Led Zeppelin get featured as they’re certainly up there as influential acts in the world of rock and metal. Tyler, at 77 years young, sounded fantastic and moved well on stage. I was left thinking if any other band is going to attempt their own version of Back to the Beginning in the near future it’s Aerosmith who had to call off their own farewell tour due to a vocal injury to Tyler.

Papa V Perpetua performing “Bark at the Moon” in front of 45,000 screaming metal heads.

Following the second of two super group performances it was time for the more noteworthy acts to take the stage. Among them were Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. It’s hard to overstate the influence both acts have had on the world of heavy metal, but their performances left me more in awe of the elder statesmen performing on the day by comparison. It surprised me that Hagar and Tyler both sound better today than Axl Rose and James Hetfield, but I guess that’s just life and in fairness to Hetfield I don’t know if anyone has toured as much as Metallica has.

Parkinson’s disease may have forced Ozzy into a chair, but it’s a throne befitting The Prince of Darkness.

Perhaps it’s a good thing I found those two acts a bit underwhelming because it helped lower expectations for the Ozz-man himself. Ozzy, being left unable to walk thanks to Parkinson’s, was raised from below in the stage in a thrown befitting a heavy metal king. At age 76 and following a pretty hard life, I’m not going to lie to you and say Ozzy looked like a man younger than that, but he definitely sounded like something close to his old self. I think he sounded better than the last time I saw him back in 2005 and perhaps not running around like a mad man on stage contributed to that. Joining him on stage for a set of his solo material was Tommy Clufetos, Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, and Adam Wakeman. They kicked things off with “I Don’t Know” and followed with “Mr. Crowley,” “Suicide Solution,” “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” and ending with “Crazy Train.” All through-out the performance Ozzy frequently thanked the crowd and extended blessings like a man truly grateful to be there. He would also drink water and hit his throat with a spray. There was also an old English tea cup beside his chair, though I never saw him drink from it.

After the set of Ozzy material came Black Sabbath. Perhaps knowing that Osbourne could only handle so much, their set was brief consisting of “War Pigs,” N.I.B,” “Iron Man,” and concluding with “Paranoid.” Before going into “Paranoid,” Ozzy noted it would be their last song ever and took time once again to thank the crowd. It was hard not to get choked up by that admission and perhaps the emotion of the moment also affected Ozzy’s vocals as it was the only time he faltered. Or maybe he was just at the end of what he could handle at his age. When the song was over there was a long, loud, ovation followed by fireworks. The broadcast focused on the fireworks, but onstage the band presented Ozzy with a cake and amateur footage captured this. It did appear more celebratory than mournful and everyone just looks really happy and content.

Black Sabbath performing for what is likely the final time.

And that was really the whole vibe of the show. This was a bunch of artists putting on a big show over their shared love and appreciation of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. The only similar thing I can recall seeing was the concert for Freddie Mercury. That one occurred after the singer’s death and while it wanted to celebrate the life of Mercury, it did wind up feeling a bit sad in the end. It was nice that this show didn’t wait until then. The guys are still around and even able to perform. Ozzy can’t run around on stage like he used to, but who cares? He was there, he sounded great, and most of all he got to feel the love and appreciation from the crowd and his peers. Before his performance, a video was shared of all of the artists showing up earlier in the day many of whom were eager to see Ozzy and tell him what he meant to them. There were a lot of shots of Ozzy and others posing for a big group photo and I bet a lot of the people in that photo will display it prominently in their own home. They’ll probably hunt down autographs for years of everyone in the picture whenever their paths cross. It was a great show, and while it wasn’t without the occasional hiccup (Tyler kind of blew the surprise thinking his mic wasn’t on before taking the stage) there wasn’t any moment where a performance felt ruined or anything. If you’re a metal head and didn’t see this one then I urge you to check out the rebroadcast. At over 8 hours, it’s definitely worth the money and I think you’ll have a good time.

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May 14, 2025

Super7 Vintage Collection Glenn Danzig – Samhain and Danzig era

By Joe
I’ve got a couple Danzigs coming at you today.

For a guy as tied into comic books and the properties associated with them, Glenn Danzig has had a lot of disinterest when it comes to toys based on his own likeness. It was about 20 years ago that musician and publisher of his own books partnered with Medicom to produce a trio of vinyl figures of his own likeness from his time with The Misfits, Samhain, and the band that bares his namesake. Those figures were very stylized and not exactly what one would call an action figure. It was mostly in-line with the snippets of Glenn’s own collection of toys that are floating around on the internet which seems to focus on Japanese properties and soft vinyl. This approach is in contrast with what his former and now current bandmate Jerry Only has done who had a doll of himself (and then Misfits guitarist Doyle) sold in the early 2000s and has partnered with Super7 to produce a ReAction figure of himself. He also went the Medicom route as well with a figure stylistically the same as what the company did with Glenn.

Previously, the only Danzig toy of any kind I’ve had is this big fella on the left from Medicom. There was a Samhain and a Misfits version of that guy as well.

I don’t know if Glenn Danzig has ever said specifically why there aren’t more toys of him out there. I’m sure he doesn’t mind the income that comes with such deals, but I know he did throw some shade at Jerry for those dolls that wound up in Hot Topic’s clearance section eventually. It was awhile ago, but NECA’s Randy Falk, in response to a question from another user on social media, mentioned he had been trying to get Glenn onboard with the company to do a figure of him, but the singer always brushed him off. NECA tends to do realistic portrayals of music personalities which leads me to think that Glenn just isn’t interested in such a thing. We saw similar sentiment out of actor Elias Koteas when NECA was trying to secure his likeness to do a Casey Jones figure and, for him, he indicated it just seemed weird that people would want a tiny version of himself to mess around with. Maybe Glenn feels similarly about the whole thing, or maybe he knows the internet or a show like Robot Chicken would have too much fun at his expense if such a thing existed?

The style of these Danzig figures is clearly based off of the old Masters of the Universe line. Since I don’t have any of those, here’s an Origins He-Man for comparison.

That hypothesis seems to track with what Super7 has recently released. Brian Flynn of Super7 teased a deal with Danzig years ago in a conversation with The Fwoosh. I didn’t try and look it up again, but I want to say it was in either 2020 or 2021 and may have been part of the San Diego Comic Con at home thing. That deal was apparently not an easy one and Super7 never elaborated on what they were doing, but it turns out they had Danzig in mind for a new line they wanted to launch. It’s possible Glenn said “No,” to ReAction and Ultimates and this came about as a compromise – who knows? Super7 calls the line it’s Vintage line and it’s heavily inspired by the original Masters of the Universe toyline from Mattel. And by inspired by, I mean it’s basically the same thing. They’re 5.5″ figures with super basic articulation in a preposed stance. Glenn was obviously onboard with this depiction of him in plastic, though it still came with more controversy. It was sometime last year that retailers abruptly cancelled the line indicating that word came down from Super7 that they weren’t happening. Super7 blamed it on retailers auto-cancelling items that have been outstanding for too long, which makes no sense since I’ve had stuff on preorder from the same retailers for Super7 product that literally took years to deliver. Danzig, for his part, seemed to be confused by the whole thing so he wasn’t expecting it. The Jerry and Misfits Fiend figures in the same style were not cancelled, so it was definitely an issue with Glenn and Super7. Was the company having an issue with approvals and playing hardball or something? I don’t know, but something fishy was going on. Either way, the figures went back up for preorder eventually and started rolling out at the end of 2024.

Gimme that sword!
Danzig triumphant!

The first two figures in this line to arrive are figures of Glenn based on his appearance with Samhain and one based on his early 90s Danzig look. They’re packaged on a cardback the exact same dimensions as a MOTU figure. There’s even a castle, but instead of it being Castle Grayskull it’s a castle sporting the Samhain/Danzig/Golden demon skull. The Samhain figure, based on the album cover for Initium, has a blister bubble with the shape of a skull blown in while the Danzig one has an inverted cross. The castle on the Initium card is also bloodied. It’s a thin card so it’s not the most sturdy, but I suspect the packaging is nice enough that many will just leave this on card.

On second thought, maybe don’t fuck with He-Man?

And that’s because the figures themselves are not the most interesting to handle. These are faithful interpretations of the MOTU style which is a mold that is over 40 years old at this point. Those figures were designed during a time when action figures were almost exclusively the domain of children. They were engineered to be durable and functional first and foremost. The form was also still really new so there hadn’t been much in the way of innovation beyond some swivel joints. They were also designed for maximum profit so the molds were just used over and over recolored and joined with new accessories and new heads to flesh out the cast of characters.

The form factor you know and love?
The blood continues on the back so that’s cool.

And that brings me to the subject of vintage inspired releases. Super7 very clearly wants to be as faithful as it can to the old toys in this style at the expense of perhaps even saving a few bucks. There is really nothing modern about these Danzig figures, but the molds are not exactly the same. The torso is the only intended shared part between these two. Samhain Danzig has fingerless gloves on while Danzig era Glenn has just wristbands. Since the arms are one piece, that’s an entire new mold. Samhain Glenn also has boots with buckles on them while Danzig era Glenn has long pants that go over his boots. Or he’s supposed to, but my figure has the correct right leg, but the wrong left leg which is the Initium figure’s leg.

Hey, Glenn! You ain’t got no eyes!
“You call those sideburns.”

I find Super7’s approach here kind of interesting, and a bit frustrating. The company could have saved itself some money if its molds for the legs and arms ended at the boot and wrist. This would have also given us another point of articulation if the hands and feet were separate pieces, but then that would break with the original line’s articulation which is just a swivel at the head, shoulders, and waist and a ball-hinge at the hips. How much does the consumer value this slavish adherence to a format from the early 80s? I don’t think many care and would happily trade the inaccuracy for a couple of swivel points. You may be thinking that a wrist swivel or a boot swivel won’t do much, but these guys are packaged with microphones that they can only hold in their right hand and not turn towards their face. It’s kind of dumb looking.

A comparison of tats.
“You need a shower.”

Those are my thoughts on the approach here, as for the figures themselves they look about as good as you could get out of this form factor. These are exaggerated, hulked-up, takes on Glenn Danzig from two different points in his life. The Initium head has the old devilock hairstyle which obscures the face while the Danzig era figure has the side part long hair and sideburns. The face on the Danzig era figure does look like Glenn, albeit it looks more like an older Glen to me than an early 90s one. He’s got some of that modern grump to him. The Samhain Glenn has no facial features to really take in. Even his eyes are unpainted. His selling point is the blood paint job which does look pretty damn cool. Both also feature Glenn’s tattoo on his left bicep. I’m honestly not sure if it was finished when the Initium album cover was shot, but I don’t really care. The batwings on the Fiend in the middle is a little smooshed looking, but it’s fine considering the size we’re dealing with. I think he also had some other skulls added to it for Unholy Passion and November Coming Fire. I don’t know when they were added, but they’re featured on the Medicom figure.

“Did he just say he wants to kill a baby?!”
“Sorry, bud, it’s not adjustable.” “This is bullshit!”
“I’m calling my lawyer!”

The only accessory each figure comes with is a microphone that has a bit of wire trailing off of it. The Danzig era figure does have the skull-cross pendant which is affixed via a plastic wire. It’s not a bendy wire and has a tendency to want to float. I’m curious if I heat it up if I can get it to lay flat on his chest, but I think it’s just not heavy enough. That figure also has the skull belt buckle which is painted silver and looks decent enough. The presentation across both figures is pretty clean and the paint kept to a minimum. I wish the Samhain figure had a little paint on the buckles of his boots or something, but I’m definitely not surprised by the omission.

“Hey man, what’s up with the bear?” “I vibe with this bear.”

Are these stylized takes on Glenn Danzig worth adding to your collection? I guess it all depends on what your initial reaction to them is. If your first thought is “These look pretty cool,” then you’ll probably like them. If you’re buying them to keep on card then you’ll be even more pleased since they don’t really do much out of the box. I personally wish they were engineered like a MOTU Origins figure, but that’s just me. These will set you back about $30 so they’re not exactly cheap. A MOTU Origins figure is about half that and a much better figure, but none of them are Glenn Danzig. For the price, I do wish they had more stuff. Maybe a dagger for Danzig era Glenn and that weird mask he sometimes wore for Samhain performances? The mic makes sense, but is kind of lame. That said, I have a rather extensive Danzig collection so I had to add these and I’ll be adding the Misfits ones soon as well. If I have anything to say about them you know I’ll say it here, but I could have saved myself a lot of words by just saying what you see is what you get. If you like it then cool, and if you don’t you probably won’t regret passing on them.

Here’s a look at some related figures you may find interesting:

NECA Misfits Ultimate Fiend Action Figure

When Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only reached a settlement over who owned the rights to The Misfits in the mid 90s (resolution: they both did), it set off a wave of new merchandise plus a new version of the band. What had once been a logo found mostly at punk and metal shows, the visage…

by Joe

Super7 Ultimates! Ghost Papa Emeritus IV

If you’re reading this the day it went up then you should know April 25, 2025 as Skeleta day! This is the day that Ghost unleashed its latest album upon the masses and there’s a lot of hype surrounding this one. It’s arguably the band’s first release since it saw its popularity explode in recent…

by Joe

MOTU – Turtles of Grayskull Skeletor

When it’s come to the Turtles of Grayskull line by Mattel, I have mostly stayed in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles side of the pool. I have all four turtle boys plus Sla’ker, who is more Slash than Faker if you ask me. The one exception has been Mouse-Jaw, but the classic Masters of the…

by Joe

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April 25, 2025

Super7 Ultimates! Ghost Papa Emeritus IV

By Joe
Papa IV has arrived!

If you’re reading this the day it went up then you should know April 25, 2025 as Skeleta day! This is the day that Ghost unleashed its latest album upon the masses and there’s a lot of hype surrounding this one. It’s arguably the band’s first release since it saw its popularity explode in recent years. Ghost is a hard band to wrap one’s head around. It’s this satanic, doomy, metal act that has also successfully blended pop elements with its music to create something that’s certainly catchy and unique, but also not typically what one would consider mainstream. For me personally, I’ve gone from seeing Ghost as the oddball band filling the opening slot on a show, to an Iron Maiden support act, to headlining its own tour in small arenas, to selling out large arenas and now playing in some of the largest venues we have. And fronting the band for much of this era has been Papa Emeritus IV.

A gathering of Papas (left to right): Papa I, Papa IV, Papa III

Papa IV took over for Papa III and is the son of Papa Nihil who fronted the band back in the 70s when only three songs were produced: Kiss the Go-Goat, Mary on a Cross, and The Future is a Foreign Land. Like his predecessors, Papa IV tends to take the stage in a somewhat flamboyant suit his face a mask of black and white, but when the situation calls for it he’s known for dawning wings or his full vestments as the leader of the clergy. Super7 has produced figures of the three Papas to come before him (they have not done Papa Nihil) so it was hardly a surprise when this figure went up for preorder last year. I have all of the predecessors, but I only reviewed the first one as they’re fairly similar. This one is perhaps the most different one yet though so I figured, why not? Plus it’s certainly topical.

Papa III: “He keeps asking to be let out of the box? Says he’s sick of smelling his own flatulence.” Papa IV: “Why would I want to smell that? Leave him in the box.”

Papa IV comes in the standard Ultimates! box, though now without a slipcover (because those surely add considerable cost…). He’s clad in his black suit and shiny blue coat. The figure is, as expected, a mixture of old and new parts. This costume required a bit more new this time around due to the cuffs on the sleeves a different style shirt, and the pattern on the pants. I’m guessing that Super7 got to reuse the lower torso, upper arms, calves, hands, and feet. If you’re worried about Super7’s bottom line then maybe it will comfort you to know they saved a little with some repeat accessories.

Papa IV is probably the most flamboyant frontman for Ghost yet.

The most obvious new piece of sculpt work is the head. This Papa has slicked back gray hair and his own distinct pattern of black and white on his face. Super7’s attempt to capture the likeness is satisfactory. I don’t think they nailed it as well as they did with Papa III, but it looks okay. I think it’s just a little narrow in the face and the hair isn’t particularly convincing. The forehead on mine is also a little scratched and I don’t know if that’s intentional or not. I don’t know why it would be. I should also mention he stands at roughly 6.75″ putting him in-line with the other Papa figures.

“Ugh, we cool? Hang loose?”

If you want this figure to looks its best, you will want to take advantage of the optional vestments. For this iteration, Super7 did it in two layers. There’s basically a poncho that goes over the head (or neck, since you’ll have to take the head off) and then a cape that goes around that and it’s fixed with a Velcro clasp. It’s very colorful, and the portrait that goes with this look is a little cleaner looking and seems to work better for me with the pope hat. Unfortunately, this two garment approach makes the look more cumbersome. The material bunches up around the neck making Papa look like he’s wearing a scarf. It’s also quite restricting when it comes to the arms. Both garments are wired so you can do some posing, even if they just typically hang there when he wears this outfit. Also, take care when swapping heads. On mine, the neck piece has a tendency to want to pop off with the head which can be quite annoying.

What we were sold…
…and what we got.

Papa IV comes with a bunch of hands. He has five sets total plus an extra right hand in a “Hang Loose” gesture. The other sets are basically for his different costumes. For the standard look, we have black hands which come with sets of gripping, open, and fists. The other hands are black with bronze bones painted over the digits. For those, we get a set of gripping hands and relaxed hands plus the lone hang loose hand. The only other accessories are the microphone and stand which has come with all of the Papa Ultimates! releases.

There’s just too much material here.

Articulation for this figure is the same as the rest as well. Double-ball at the head, single ball at the neck, single hinged elbows and knees, standard shoulders and wrists with an ab crunch. The ankles hinge and rock. It’s all decent, but unspectacular. He can hit basic poses, and with all of the vestments on he can basically do nothing but stand there, but the more nuanced mannerisms you may be accustomed to seeing from the stage are a bit out of reach.

Papa: “What’s this?! I want ghouls, not reptiles!” Don: “Hey man, you can get the shell out!”
Gasp!
Papa: “Now, where are my ghouls?”

And that’s Papa IV. A figure I want to like a lot, but it just has too many problems holding it back. The soft goods not fitting very well is a real bummer because, off of the figure, they look really nice. I was pleased to see the two piece approach. If you compare it to the render Super7 used to sell the figure it’s almost laughable, if not down right deceitful. The base figure underneath is at least decent. Not great, but it’s unmistakably Papa Emeritus IV. It would have been interesting if they could have done the cuffs on the sleeves with soft goods, though I doubt they could have gotten them to hang realistically. That’s the issue with soft goods at this scale” they lack the weight needed to look like the real deal.

This is likely how you’ll want to display this Papa.

Nonetheless, I’m guessing this isn’t last we’ll see of this mold. Papa Emeritus IV wore these vestments mostly just in music videos. On tour, he wore something different. There’s also his previous look as Cardinal Copia which Super7 passed over. This could be easily repurposed into a figure of the cardinal, either as an Ultimate or maybe a Deluxe release (which Papa II has been re-released as and is the version I have). If that does happen I can’t say I’d be interested in buying this one again. Now, if they do a Papa V Perpetua (spoiler: he went up for preorder today) then that will get my attention as I like the new look. Hopefully Super7 can do it justice because this one is pretty lacking.

I may have only reviewed one figure from the band Ghost, but I do have other ghostly reviews you can check out:

Super7 Ultimates! Ghost – Papa Emeritus I

I feel like I have a pretty interesting relationship with the band Ghost. They came to my attention in 2010 with their album Opus Eponymous and came at the recommendation of one of my friends. It wasn’t so much a recommendation based on quality, but more of a “You have to hear this,” because it…

by Joe

Figura Obscura – The Ghost of Christmas Past

For past few years Four Horsemen have been bringing us surprise Christmas figures each holiday season. The first was Krampus and the second Father Christmas. Last year, Four Horsemen surprised us with the Ghost of Jacob Marley. A ghost character, especially one in 19th century clothing, can make for a fun design and figure, but…

by Joe

DC Collectibles BTAS #42 – Gray Ghost

I have long maintained that the best episode of the now classic Batman: The Animated Series is the Mr. Freeze story, “Heart of Ice.” It is not, however, my favorite episode of the show as that honor belongs to “Beware the Gray Ghost.” That episode introduced the character Gray Ghost, a superhero from television who…

by Joe

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September 12, 2023

Danzig – MGM Music Hall at Fenway Boston, MA 9/11/2023

By Joe
The dark one embarks on his final tour?

It’s 2023 and I’ve lost track of how many last Danzig shows I’ve seen. I want to say it was around 2005 following the release of Circle of Snakes where Glenn Danzig first started talking about hanging it up when it came to touring. It wasn’t hard to see why someone who had been in the music business for over 30 years would grow weary of life on the road in a tour bus. Especially since back then Danzig was relegated to playing small venues and had been doing so the last three albums and tours. It’s not that he and the band would hate playing in such venues, it’s just the reality of a tour that when your band is in smaller places you’re probably not dropping a bunch of money on nice hotels. Sleeping on a bus sucks, every day feels the same, and after decades of doing so it’s long since become charming.

Obviously, such notions didn’t stick. While Danzig has gone long stretches without proper tours, there’s been plenty of opportunities to see the act. I know I saw the band on the 20th anniversary tour for the first album, Danzig, as well as in support of albums to follow. When I saw the special Danzig Legacy show in New York, I thought that might be it. And if it was, I was content to let that be my last Danzig experience. It wasn’t, because a few years later more litigation between the two co-founders of The Misfits, Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only, lead to the long awaited (and logical) resolution to just reunite, play a few shows, and cash some checks. The Original Misfits started as a gig at Riotfest in Chicago, and soon expanded from there. While never embarking on a true tour, the reunion group has played several shows at this point and I kind of assumed all parties were content to just do that. By playing shows here and there, the demand remains strong and it probably ends up being a nice pay day for all involved. Danzig did do some one-off Danzig Sings Elvis shows out west which definitely felt like they were being done for Glenn as something he just wanted to do. Another Danzig tour? Aside from the occasional festival gig, I had completely written off the idea, but old Glenn surprised me once again.

“Old School” could describe much of this tour as a lot of old designs came back, including the infamous “God Don’t Like It” shirt.

I don’t know why it came about, but apparently Danzig got the itch to hit the road one more time. And it being 2023, the easy and logical selling point was to make it a 35th anniversary of Danzig tour and play the entire first album as part of the set. It started as a pair of festival gigs back in June in Finland and Poland, and then turned into a full US tour. The US leg started on September 1st, and on the eleventh it rolled into Boston, Massachusetts. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would even attend. The show was at a venue I had never been to, MGM Music Hall at Fenway, and as the name suggests it’s located in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. The problem with the show arriving on the eleventh was that right across the street at Fenway Park the Boston Red Sox were set to host the New York Yankees. Neither baseball team is really any good in 2023, but the century old rivalry still puts butts in seats so the scene was likely to be a zoo. Did I feel like fighting the Boston traffic, hunting for parking, and likely dealing with public transportation just to see Danzig one more time? After some hemming and hawing on my part, it turns out that I was willing to do that. There are songs on the setlist I’ve always wanted to see the band perform and this is likely the last time I’ll get to do so. I’d hate to have to regret missing out so I grabbed a general admission ticket and made my way into Boston.

Midnight had the honor of going first this night.

Touring in support of Danzig is the trio of Behemoth, Twin Temple, and Midnight. Going into the evening, I was familiar with both Behemoth and Midnight. I think I’ve even seen Behemoth as an opener before, but I’m not a fan of the band or of Midnight. I’ve never actively disliked either act, I’ve just never been compelled to go deeper with them following my limited exposure. Midnight hit the stage at 6:30, or shortly after. I actually missed a sizable chunk of their set getting there and then hitting the merch table (which is loaded with classic t-shirt designs for those who missed out or need to replace a vintage one), but was able to catch the last two songs. Midnight has a bit of an old school slant to them and sounded great live. The venue was nice, spacious, and best of all, comfortable. I’ve seen Danzig (and numerous other metal acts) many times at the Worcester Palladium and that place always has muddy acoustics and atrocious ventilation so this is a major step up. Drink prices were outrageous and there wasn’t any real food to partake, but that stuff is both expected and secondary for me when attending a show as I’d rather just take it all in and not have to visit the restroom between acts.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say Twin Temple stole the show, but they certainly made an impression.

Twin Temple was the second to take the stage and that is one memorable act. I had checked the band out before heading to the show so I knew what was coming, but it was still pretty damn wild to see. Twin Temple is like if Sun Records had a Satanic act on their label as the music is 50’s inspired and the lead singer is a woman with a giant beehive hairdo. She looks like a sinister Marge Simpson. I can see Twin Temple not being everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you were there for the much heavier Behemoth and Midnight, but I was very much entertained by their schtick. The band sounded good, which included keys and a saxophone, and the theatrics certainly added to the night. I was not at all surprised to see they had opened for the band Ghost in the past.

When the fog rolls in it can only mean one thing…

Behemoth took the stage as the penultimate act. They possess plenty of theatrics as well, but it’s more traditional black metal stuff. They played fast, loud, and heavy for their 40 minutes or so that was allotted to them. There were few pauses for banter with the crowd as the band was clearly more interested in letting the music speak for itself. I ended their set liking the band more than I did going in, though I concede they’re sound is one I would have been far likely to embrace 20 years than ago than I am now. I’m getting softer in my old age.

Glenn Danzig flanked by an assortment of skulls. Surprisingly, Danzig was easily the least satanic act of the night.

With the opening acts concluded, it was time for Danzig to take the stage. The band did so around 10 PM and it seems like things had fallen behind schedule at some point during the night. It was a long wait for the main event, but the crowd was ready when “Overture of the Rebel Angels” ended and Glenn and the boys ripped into “Twist of Cain.” The band was here to celebrate the release of the first album 35 years ago and the intent was to play the entire album in order, with one notable alteration. The script was flipped a bit when for the third song Glenn called for “Am I Demon” instead of “She Rides.” There appeared to be some confusion among the bandmates, and a couple of songs later a stagehand could be seen running out with setlists to tape down on the stage. I don’t know for sure, but I think they forgot to put them out to start and Glenn forgot the proper song order. No matter, it meant those of us in attendance got to experience a re-arranged version of the first album and I think it actually suited the live vibe quite well to not go into the slower “She Rides” quite so early in the set.

Joining Glenn on stage for this tour are the two mainstays of the band since 2010 – Tommy Victor on guitar and Steve Zing on bass. Karl Rosqvist is the drummer for this tour and he performed great. He easily had the tiniest kit of the four bands this evening, but you wouldn’t know it by how he sounded. He also got to play atop the classic skull-riser which will likely return to retirement following this tour. Victor is plenty capable of handling the axe and his tones were more matched for the first album than the more recent ones this time around. Zing continues to be up to the task of bass duties and always brings great energy to the stage. I remain happy that Glenn brought the ex-Samhain drummer back into the fold. A humorous moment occurred later in the set when Glenn started announcing the other members of the band. He introduced Karl, and then went on to introduce the next song and Tommy chimed in to remind him he forgot to introduce him and Zing which Glenn could only laugh at himself over. He and the band were in great spirits all night and appeared to be having fun on stage.

Glenn was not afraid to cut loose tonight.

The set for the first album concluded with “Mother” as it made sense to bump the band’s most popular song to the end. They weren’t done though as Glenn reminded us early they missed Boston when they were touring in support of Lucifuge a couple of years ago so they planned to hit on that album tonight. I was kind of hoping they’d dust off a song or two they hadn’t been playing from that album this tour, but I’m guessing having a relatively new drummer in the fold may have limited what they could do. They did do “Tired of Being Alive” and followed it up with “Her Black Wings,” but after that Glenn gave the audience a choice between Danzig II or III and, a bit to my surprise, the crowd enthusiastically chose III which took us into “Dirty Black Summer.” At this point, the band was running up against the venue’s 11:30 curfew so there was only time left for “How the Gods Kill” and “Long Way Back from Hell” before a quick break lead to an encore of “Do You Wear the Mark?” A quick glance at other shows on the tour suggest we may have missed out on “Snakes of Christ” or “Bringer of Death” or both, but it was hard to feel cheated after this one.

The bands all sounded great, and it was especially true for Danzig. This may have been the best I’ve ever heard Glenn sound and I’ve been seeing him in action for over 20 years. His voice was strong and he didn’t hold back at all. The band sounded great too with the only hiccup being “Possession” which sounded a little off. That was another moment where the set list confusion seeped in as everyone was waiting for Karl to count them off while he seemed to think whatever was next was one for Tommy or Steve to begin. Seeing this show reenforced my belief that the recording for the first Danzig album was a bit restrained and I’ve always attributed that to Rick Rubin’s influence. Live, these songs take on a new dimension and serve the atmosphere so well. A song like “Not of This World” always felt like filler to me on the album, but live it’s a true banger and the type of song I never want to see removed from the set list. “End of Time” is a song Glenn acknowledged on stage they basically never play, and like “Not of This World,” it’s so much more engaging live than it is on the record. And the song I was most excited to hear live, “Soul on Fire,” was fantastic. That one had been briefly added to the set some 15 years or so ago, but it was on the tour where Glenn fell off a stage in Maryland (I want to say) and broke his arm forcing them to cancel the Massachusetts show the next night. I still remember getting ready to leave work early for that one, only to get the unfortunate text from the venue that the show was off. Finally, I got to see and experience one of my favorite cuts and it lived up to the hype and then some.

Last song of the evening was played just as fast as the first.

With Glenn Danzig being 68 now, it should go without saying that if you’ve been holding off on catching Danzig live you might want to rethink that. I still see a lot of people asking on social media if more tours will happen and it would be foolish to assume so. Despite his age, Glenn still bounces around that stage like a man possessed with the only difference these days is maybe he takes an extra breather or two between songs. I was getting tired just watching him so there’s no doubt in my mind that he can keep on performing as long as he wants to, and I think he does, he just doesn’t want to deal with all of the other stuff that a tour brings. At the end of the night, I left that venue feeling really happy about what I just saw and if it’s the last time I see Danzig then it was a fitting end. On the other hand, if they want to celebrate 30 years of Danzig IV you can bet your ass I’ll be there!

There’s plenty more Danzig coverage where that came from:

The Misfits Come Home – Newark, NJ 5/19/2018

The Misfits originally existed from 1977 to 1983. Formed by Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only our of Lodi, NJ, the band cycled through guitarists and drummers for much of its existence before finally disbanding. By then, Only’s younger brother Doyle was a fixture on guitar and the two represented the visual core of the band…

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by Joe

Danzig Legacy – The TV Taping

It’s been almost three years since Glenn Danzig, Doyle, Steve Zing, Tommy Victor and London May joined up with director Mark Brooks to shoot a live performance of the Legacy Tour in the same style as the Elvis ’68 TV Special (hence why it was referred to as a TV taping, even though it has…

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by Joe

Danzig Legacy 10/29/2011 NYC

You may be wondering how a self-professed giant fan of Glenn Danzig could sit on writing a review for perhaps the greatest show a Danzig fan could ever hope to attend for a week.  Well, thank mother nature for that one for knocking out my power for 5 days immediately following the show.  Do you…

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by Joe

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Danzig, Music

September 5, 2023

NECA Misfits Ultimate Fiend Action Figure

By Joe
The Fiend is back in Ultimate form.

When Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only reached a settlement over who owned the rights to The Misfits in the mid 90s (resolution: they both did), it set off a wave of new merchandise plus a new version of the band. What had once been a logo found mostly at punk and metal shows, the visage of the Crimson Ghost began showing up at malls all across the country. And not just on t-shirts, but shoelaces, lunchboxes, and even light switch covers. Within the anti-establishment culture of punk rock, this type of merchandizing could be seen as selling out. “Sell out” was the dirty name artists didn’t want to hear coming from its fanbase, but it almost always followed when a small act jumped from an indie label to a major one and started putting its name on everything and anything. Old fans mocked and looked down on the new ones, but usually the money would keep on rolling in so it’s hard to say if any of this licensing actually hurt a band’s reputation.

As a teenager, I would fall into those traps and look down on the “Newfits” fans with their American Psycho t-shirts and Jerry Only dolls. Not that it bothered me to buy a Misfits shirt with Glenn Danzig’s evilive logo in the fine print or a skull-printed wallet. I was applying a double standard at the time, one I can freely admit to now because as one gets older they tend to care less and less about that stuff. A guy’s gotta eat, and if your fanbase wants shoelaces and light switch covers with your band on it then why not give it to them? For a price, of course. And today, The Original Misfits is now a cash a cow for Danzig and Only. They can sell out a few large venues each year, play for a couple of hours, and laugh all the way to the bank until they’re ready to do it again. By not doing full tours, they even get to avoid waring out their welcome. I get the impression that once (if?) the well starts to run dry and these Misfits shows can’t support a large venue anymore then they’ll stop and I don’t begrudge them that at all.

The retro cloth is in a different scale, so while some parts look similar, they at least had to be re-tooled to make them smaller.

Because of my one-time avoidance and outright disdain for anything Misfits-related released by Jerry Only’s Cyclopian Music, I never acquired much in the way of toys and such baring the likeness of the band’s mascot: the Crimson Ghost. Or is it The Fiend? Or, as Danzig referred to it, simply the Misfits Ghost? Only goes with The Fiend, and I guess neither uses the character’s original name of The Crimson Ghost for legal reasons, even though there’s likely little chance of a lawsuit at this point. The character is from an old film serial shot in black and white, hence why it’s often shown as a black-robed skeleton, though in reality the robe was crimson and the face was more of a blue. I’m not sure if it was blue for stylistic reasons, or just to get it to show better on film. Regardless, most fans of the band were introduced to the character via the Horror Business 7″ which featured that smiling, skull, face with arms folded across its chest. From there, its appeared on other records and inserts and has been a major part of the band’s marketing and presentation.

Sometimes he get a little “stabby.”

NECA has done multiple versions of the character as an action figure, but up until now, they’ve been in the company’s retro cloth line. The retro cloth, as the name implies, is basically a throwback brand similar to Mego figures sporting soft goods clothing. Two standard versions of The Fiend (we’re going to go with that name for the rest of this post since that’s what is on the box) were released: one in black and one in red. I passed on both as the retro cloth line isn’t really my thing, but I could not resist the third version which was a Christmas variant with Santa hat and sack. It’s a fun display piece, though the quality of the figure did nothing to sell me on the retro cloth line. After only a year of owning the figure, displaying it Christmas time then putting it back into its box for the rest of the year, the ball joint in the neck basically deteriorated and crumbled like Play-Doh left out in the sun. It was bizarre, and the head just fell off when I put the figure out last Christmas. I glued it back on, but it was a bummer and now I’m afraid to touch it.

Other times he just needs the knife to feel safe when the power goes out.

NECA apparently decided that another retro cloth release would no longer suit the property, so it gave the figure an upgrade. NECA’s Ultimate line of action figures is basically their flagship format. A five-panel window box, upgraded articulation, and lots of accessories and optional parts. That was the format chosen for this new take on The Fiend and I figured I’d give it a whirl. It comes in a simple, but attractive, black box with the skull face dominating the front. The band’s logo plus The Fiend from the Horror Business cover are on both spines with product shots on the back and inner flap. The figure is viewable through the window as well as the accessories included. Did fans of the character need yet another version in plastic? Time to find out.

The head sits real low and it’s due to the jaw being far below the opening for the ball joint.

The Fiend stands a tick over 7″ and sports a soft goods hood and robe. The robe is sleeveless as the arms of the figure feature sculpted sleeves. The legs are sculpted to feature work pants and shoes while the torso is completely blank since its always hidden by the robe. The hood clasps under the figure’s chin and it’s a bit of a pain to undo, so I wouldn’t bother. By keeping the hood separate from the robe, it’s easy enough to pop the head off and remove it from the hood if desired. The hood and the material extended off of it that drapes over the shoulders is wired and poseable as is the hem of the robe. It feels like good quality soft goods, but is a bit frumpy. I don’t think anything is reused from the retro cloth figure, so it’s not an issue of NECA shoe-horning old soft goods to suit this figure, but the robes are so frumpy that the figure basically loses its neck. He looks like a shriveled up old guy, and maybe that’s what NECA was going for since it is a skeleton, but I wish the head appeared to sit higher.

The shaded portrait is basically the same as the retro cloth one, only smaller.

As for the face, NECA opted to exercise some of its creative license. They basically did it a full skull and retained the eyes recessed deep in the sockets. It’s scratched up and dingy looking and sculpted in a bone white covered in gray paint with a black wash. It’s certainly not bad looking, and the teeth and “smile” basically match the source material, but this is very much a “what would this character look like if it was real?” It juxtaposes with the hands, which still look like black gloves with bones painted on them, and I don’t know that this is the approach I wanted. As an alternate head – sure, but for a standard head I’d have preferred the retro cloth approach which is a black head with the face painted on in white. And if they were going for this more realistic approach, why not include boney hands? And it may only be me, but for some reason, when I look at this face I see Rudy Giuliani. I think it’s the eyes, I don’t know, but if you see it now then I apologize because what has been seen cannot be unseen.

There are additional heads and accessories to play off of them. The second head, is basically the same as the first, but with the eyes shifted to the right. It’s fine, but I’ll never use it. The third head is closer to what I wanted, but has some weird shading on it that ruins it for me. It’s very similar to the retro cloth head that came with the Christmas figure I have, just smaller to suit the scale of this release. It’s all black and the face is painted on with white, but it has gray and crimson shading over the left eye and in the teeth. I’d use it if it wasn’t for the shading which does nothing for me. The whole appeal of the character, for me, is how the white face appears to be floating in darkness in the hood and obscuring the face with shading destroys it. If you like it though, then it’s here.

“You’re getting a little too close to my likeness with that face paint, Papa!”

For hands, we get two sets: relaxed and gripping. The gripping hands have the superior vertical hinge which comes in handy for the two daggers included. The daggers are identical, except that one has some blood painted onto the tip. The blood is basically just there, it doesn’t stand out on a shelf, and I’m left wishing they had included a dripping effect piece instead. There’s also a lit candlelabra which looks fine, but it strikes me as a nod to American Psycho and I could not care less. Mine is also slightly warped, though I bet I could straighten it out with some hot water. The flames are painted on and I think it would have looked better if done with translucent plastic. We also get a tombstone with the Fiend’s face on it and the band’s logo plus their born year and Lodi, NJ. No death year yet. It’s fine, though it looks and feels like a 3D print so it feels a bit cheap in hand.

Who could have anticipated some cardboard inclusions would steal the show?

By far, the best accessories included with this figure are the LPs. NECA included three, cardstock, LPs that I guess The Fiend can just hold and admire. They are based on actual releases by the band and include Horror Business, Earth A.D./Wolfsblood, and Die Die My Darling. As a longtime fan of the band, I do feel it is my duty to point out that the Horror Business here is inaccurate. That was never released in a 12″ format, but I’m going to give NECA a pass because doing an in-scale 7″ jacket would be a lot harder. And what they did here turned out way better than I could have expected. The track-listing is even readable on the rear of the release and the little details pass the eye test. The only thing missing are the actual records which would have really put them over the top. Even without that, I still dig these and they render the other accessories irrelevant for me because there is no way my figure isn’t going to be holding one, or all, of these in my display.

By moving The Fiend to the Ultimate format, we should see a benefit to the articulation and that’s mostly true here. The head is on a double ball peg, and even with the hood, there’s little in the way of restrictions there. You won’t get a ton of range up and down, but there’s probably enough. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs and since the robe lacks sleeves they’re not hindered by the soft goods. The elbows are NECA’s special, unusual, double hinged peg that swivels above and below the elbow. They bend past 90, but the figure does lack the range in the arms to do a proper arms-crossed pose. I feel like that pose is so iconic and important to the character that NECA should have found a way to make that happen, maybe with a separate arms piece like the cross-arms pose we get from Bandai all of the time.

This is the shot you came here for.

The torso of the figure features a diaphragm joint that basically just allows for some rotation. Strangely, there’s no waist joint of any kind. The hips are ball and socket joints and since there is no need for a diaper piece the range is terrific and your Fiend can kick forward, back, and do splits. There’s a thigh twist as well and at the knees we get a single hinged joint that can swivel a bit. I have no idea why they decided not to use a double-joint. Is it something we’ll need? Probably not, but why not have it anyway? The ankles hinge and there is a rocker so standing this guy is easy enough. And we do have the aforementioned wired robe which does work well.

I don’t know if this figure is worthy of the term “ultimate,” but it sure isn’t bad.

Is NECA’s Ultimate take on The Fiend a much needed upgrade over the retro cloth release? Yes and no. I prefer this action figure to the Christmas one I have in almost every way, but I have to concede, if you just want a Fiend that looks like the character depicted on the box art then you may be better off with the retro cloth version. That’s entirely due to the approach taken with the figure’s head. It’s a shame NECA didn’t account for this. We get three heads, but not one of them is just a simple black and white? That aspect of the figure annoys me, but doesn’t entirely ruin it. It’s possible this is just capitalism at work and NECA plans on including such a visage with the next version of the figure that is almost guaranteed to come. It will probably have a red robe and maybe it will come with different record jackets. I don’t really want a red-robed version, but would I get one if it came with the accessory I want? That remains to be seen. For now, we have this one and it’s okay. To my surprise, I find myself liking the Super7 Ultimates! release of Papa Emeritus a little more so now I’m wondering if Super7 will give The Fiend the same treatment. At least this one is cheaper at around $36-$38 so even if Super7 does give it a shot, I don’t feel confident they’ll get $55 out of me.

Interested in more NECA or rock n’ roll stuff?

Misfits Holiday Fiend Figure from NECA

2020 will be remembered for a lot of things, many of them not good. One non-negative aspect of 2020 that will be memorable for me was that it was the year I really got back into toy collecting. Most of that was courtesy of NECA toys and their various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines. Those…

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by Joe

Super7 Ultimates! Ghost – Papa Emeritus I

I feel like I have a pretty interesting relationship with the band Ghost. They came to my attention in 2010 with their album Opus Eponymous and came at the recommendation of one of my friends. It wasn’t so much a recommendation based on quality, but more of a “You have to hear this,” because it…

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by Joe

The Misfits – Ultimate Song Ranking

Happy Halloween! I don’t know about you, but for me Halloween is synonymous with The Misfits – the horror punk band out of New Jersey fronted by Glenn Danzig from approximately 1977-1983. It has been that way ever since I discovered the band when I was in middle school thanks to a revival in the…

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by Joe

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Music, toys

October 21, 2022

Super7 Ultimates! Ghost – Papa Emeritus I

By Joe
Lucifer! We are here!

I feel like I have a pretty interesting relationship with the band Ghost. They came to my attention in 2010 with their album Opus Eponymous and came at the recommendation of one of my friends. It wasn’t so much a recommendation based on quality, but more of a “You have to hear this,” because it was so out there. I grew up with heavy metal and it’s been my genre of choice since I was a pre-teen so Satanic metal was nothing new (have you seen the amount of Danzig shit I’ve posted?!), but it had been awhile since I heard something quite like Ghost. Ignoring the content of the material, Ghost sounded like a throwback to the 70s. The somewhat high-voiced vocals of Papa Emeritus I mingled with sludgy riffs and driving percussion. It wasn’t the blast beasts, grunts, screams, and such of black metal or death metal, the subgenre most associated with Satanism these days, and instead was more in-line with originators like Black Sabbath. Only there was little subtlety to what Ghost was singing about which added a different kind of entertainment value. Shock value? I suppose, but at the end of the day it’s all entertainment.

Super7 can be criticized for a lot of things, but presentation is rarely one of them.

Ghost was next on my radar due to the band’s placement on the Hunter/Heritage tour, a co-headlining affair between the then more established Mastodon and Opeth. That was a show I had to see, and if Ghost was on the undercard then yeah, I wanted to see them too. Only I ended up missing their performance that night. It would be years later when the band opened for Iron Maiden that I found myself with tickets once again to see Ghost. That time, I really wanted to make sure I saw them and so did my cousin who I was attending the show with, but the evening traffic of Massachusetts had other plans in mind. We got to the show just after Iron Maiden took the stage, so naturally, we missed Ghost. Again.

An action figure that comes with not one, but two, thuribles is something I never thought I’d see.

This year, I came out of my COVID cocoon to attend a live event in the form of Nightwish. It was after that show that my cousin told me Ghost was coming around later in the year and he really wanted to see them this time. I had kind of lost touch with the band, but my cousin swore by the new album so I followed his advice and grabbed Impera. I loved it. It’s more poppy than the first two albums, which were the only ones I owned before 2022, but the hooks were great and the band had definitely evolved more of an arena sound which has apparently suited it very well considering the venues they now headline. I grabbed the other albums I had overlooked and also enjoyed them. What I couldn’t have predicted was how much my kids would like the band. My daughter, especially, loves Ghost now. She has a Frozen karaoke machine she’d rather sing Ghost songs through. And my son’s favorite song is “Year Zero.” It amuses me to no end.

For those wondering what’s under the robe.

Given that, of course I had to go grab the Super7 figure of Papa Emeritus I! Papa Emeritus I is the frontman for Ghost’s first album before being replaced by the logically named Papa Emeritus II. He’s essentially a Satanic version of the pope as he’s clad in the long robes and features the tall, funny, hat (I’m told it’s called a mitre), but his clothing is adorned with inverted crosses and his face painted sort of like a skull. It’s a look, for sure, and it’s not a surprise to see it converted to plastic and soft goods. Super7 has a track record for working with punk and classic metal acts and some contemporary musicians. Ghost seems to almost check all of those boxes to some degree, the music may not be “punk,” but there’s a punk attitude in place. Super7 also employs Kyle Wlodyga to spearhead some of their brands and he LOVES Ghost so the company has partnered with the band to produce not just Ultimates!, but ReAction sets as well.

The second head is the same sculpt, but with a different deco. Mine has a little color bleed on the black which is unfortunate.

The Ultimates! Papa Emeritus I comes in the standard Super7 Ultimates! style packaging. It’s a slipcover over a window box and it’s tailored to the band’s aesthetic. We have a white slipcover with the band’s logo on the front embossed in a metallic material, a G mixed with an inverted cross, with the rear featuring the band’s name in their stylized font. The logos are both really cool as the metallic portion plays with light. Sometimes it looks like a traditional steel color and other times it looks almost gold. The inner window box presents the figure with arms outstretched in a “T” shape with the cardboard over the window evoking the image of a stained glass pattern, though absent any color. On the back is a bio for the first Papa Emeritus and speaks of him in the past tense, which makes sense given this came out last year.

He looks positively resplendent in white and gold!

Presentation is nice and all, but I want the figure! Papa Emeritus comes wearing his signature black pallium with crimson trim. There’s inverted crosses up and down both sides and the face is painted up to resemble the actual character. The mitre is non-removable, but true to the band’s presentation as it’s largely silver and black (is he a Raiders fan?) with the logo on the front. Twin tassels (I’m sure they have a proper name, but I don’t know it) come off the back of the mitre and are sculpted in a soft plastic and possess some flex. The actual pallium is all soft goods with black on the outside and red on the inside. It possesses Velcro on the inside so that it holds together and the only actual hole in the robe is one for the head. There are two sleeves inside to help keep it in place as well. The outer edge is wired so it can be posed to your liking. The hands are really the only parts of the figure visible aside from the head and they’re sculpted in black. It’s a striking look and I’m very impressed with the quality of the soft goods. The head looks pretty good, but does have some paint imperfections, though probably not so bad that they’re noticeable from a shelf.

“Ugh, dude, we mostly just sing about pizza.”

Under the robe, we have the figure itself which is cast entirely in black plastic. Papa is wearing a black, three-piece, suit underneath this thing. It’s mostly stiff plastic, save for the coat. I have no idea if this is accurate to the actual performer, but it makes sense for future releases in the line as far as reuse goes and it looks better than just a blank body, which is what I initially expected. I’m guessing no one will actually display the figure without a robe, but it’s nice to know the option exists. And the suit looks good, it’s just on the bland side since it’s entirely black. It is more matte than I would have expected with the only real shiny spot being the shoes, which are likely supposed to have a hit of gloss. I’m interested in seeing what Super7 does with the body down the road as I think it would look pretty good with some paint.

Oh shit, he’s made his way into the Dream House!

Papa Emeritus, when in his robes, probably doesn’t need to do a whole lot, but he does have some articulation we can talk about. The head is on a ball-peg and it rotates as far as the tassels on the rear of the head will let him. He looks down all right, but not much up because of those tassels. The shoulders are ball-hinged and raise out to the side just fine and rotate all around. The single-hinged elbows go a little past 90 degrees, which is good, and they swivel. The wrists rotate and hinge horizontally. Vertical hinges probably would have been better for the gripping hands, but oh well. The torso has an ab crunch and it works okay, plus it doesn’t look bad. The hips are on ball-pegs and Papa can do full splits and kick forward pretty far. The knees bend at 90 degrees with a swivel and the ankles hinge and rock side-to-side. It’s all pretty good, though some of it is hard to take advantage of with the robe on, but an unrobed Papa can certainly perform like a dynamic frontman should.

The corruption is even affecting princesses!

Papa Emeritus also has some accessories to speak of. He comes with open hands in the box, but also has two sets of gripping hands with one looser than the other and a set of fists in case he needs to punch someone. He also has a silver thurible, the incense holder priests swing around at funerals, that slips onto his open hands. It’s made of real chains with plastic pieces and is a really cool accessory. He also has a black microphone and a microphone stand, since he is a vocalist, after all. And if that’s not good enough, he has a complete second outfit. This one features a head with a white and gold mitre and a robe to match. He even has a second, gold, thurible to complete the look. I’m torn on which one I prefer. The second head has a slightly cleaner paintjob, but also has some color bleed under the nose and left eye. The pattern of the black is also slightly different with a smoother approach to the lips. Neither one actually matches the promotional shots of the figure and it looks like they opted for a less ambitious pattern. Right now, I’m displaying the original look, but maybe I’ll swap to the white in the near future. Maybe for Christmas?

I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get him out of there at this point.

This is a pretty specialized figure, even more so than the usual Super7 products. If you like Ghost and you like action figures, then this is for you! It’s not cheap as it will set you back $55, but I feel better about this figure than some of the other Super7 products I’ve purchased. And obviously, I’m having quite a bit of fun with it if you’ve been paying attention to these pictures. And I feel good about this one mostly because I have no issues with the sculpt and articulation, it all functions well and looks good. The accessories accommodate it very well and are well done. The only thing I’m less impressed with is the paint job on the face. It’s not horrible, but it could be better and considering the head is basically the only part of the figure that’s painted I think it should be a lot better. Is it bad enough for me to consider passing on this figure’s eventual successor? No, probably not, though I have yet to order it because I don’t know that it’s different enough to warrant a purchase. There are other looks for the Ghost frontman that interest me more that I’ll definitely be interested in when and if Super7 gets there. For now, we only know that Papa Emeritus II is on the water for delivery to Super7’s warehouse and a Papa Emeritus III has yet to be shown. I suppose if I want more, I should get on that, but maybe I’ll leave the second one dangling out there in case my kids want to get me something evil for Christmas.

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June 7, 2022

Psycho Unlimited Danzig Gamblers Box

By Joe
For once, my liquor backdrop kind of makes sense.

These days not a lot of merchandise comes out from Danzig. It sure seems like we’ve reached or are nearing the end when it comes to music releases as the man, Glenn Danzig, has turned his attention towards movie-making. And that’s his right, since Glenn Danzig has been making and releasing music for over 40 years at this point and if he wants to do something else then more power to him. It just means for someone like me who has collected Danzig stuff for years that I really don’t have much to seek out anymore. Unless I want to buy every reissue of a past Danzig album on vinyl (you can now easily get a copy of Danzig 6:66 Satan’s Child for the first time in over 20 years), and I don’t, I get to keep my money and throw it at other things so when something as innocuous as a “Gamblers Box” came around I basically said “Why not?” since I hadn’t bought anything “Danzig” in awhile.

Each set comes hand-numbered on the back.

Psycho Unlimited is a company that handles lots of merch for various music acts, most (if not all) of which fall under the heavy metal umbrella. Psycho also has its own annual festival, Psycho Las Vegas, which it promotes and last year one of the headliners was Danzig so it’s no surprise to see that Psycho partnered with Danzig to do a unique item. And that item is the Gamblers Box. I don’t know why the word “Gambler” is pluralized and not a possessive, but that’s how it’s listed so we’re going with it. It was solicited last fall and it’s mostly what it sounds like. When it was put up for preorder, it was priced at $99 and for some reason it seemed like a thing to throw my money at. It’s limited to 666 copies, naturally, and there are still some available at the time of this writing only Psycho has upped the price to $139. Marking it up to $139 instead of $138 seems like a real missed opportunity.

How much is too much for what is essentially a cool box?

The Danzig Gamblers Box appealed to me most because it comes in a rather neat package. It was over 20 years ago when Glenn Danzig first started floating the idea of a box set of unreleased material which he envisioned being packaged in a box in the shape of an inverted cross. To my teenage mind, that sounded way too damn cool and I wanted it instantly. It would be several years later that collection of unreleased material would finally be released as The Lost Tracks of Danzig, and while the packaging was pretty awesome, it was no inverted cross box. The Gamblers Box has taken its place, and while the contents are far less interesting than a collection of unreleased music, the box itself is bad ass. The box measures 11″x8.5″x2.25″. It’s a matte black and quite thick and sturdy. The classic Michael Golden Danzig skull is in the center set on a crimson depiction of the Danzig skull/cross logo from the Lucifuge era with the only addition being the Danzig logo appearing at the top of the cross.

There’s not a whole lot in this thing.

Unfortunately, the box is far and away the most interesting part of this release. Not that it’s anyone’s fault, but the contents are what they are. This is a novelty Texas Hold’em set, basically, except it doesn’t come with chips. For some reason I thought it did, but it actually never advertised poker chips, I just lost track of what was advertised over the months between order and release. The interior of the box is as nice as the outside. It’s done in a red felt material, but it’s nice and thick. It’s basically a foam material that’s quite firm and it’s thick enough that an imprint of the “Psycho” logo appears at the top. It’s not that cheap “felt over plastic” tray that the Misfits Box Set featured which usually cracks over time. Aside from the insert, the contents of the box boils down to the following: a deck of cards, a dealer coin, and 3 dice.

I’m a little surprised Danzig has never authorized novelty D&D dice before.

The dice set is done in a slate gray color with each number carved into a side and painted black. When you open the box, each die will be set to display the number 6 so that you get a 666 staring back at you as they surround the cards. In place of the number 1, each die has the Danzig skull partially printed on it. Rather than try to squeeze the whole image onto a panel, it’s cut-off similar to the cover of the first Danzig record. I’m not much of a gambler, and when I do I usually don’t bother with dice games, but these feel a little on the light side to me. They’re fine though and they’re probably the most usable part of the set as they’re not likely to get worn much when actually played with.

The reverse side of the coin is pretty damn cool.

The coin is placed at the top of the cross and is quite heavy. The side facing out features a raised Danzig skull with the number 777 above it. The base color of the metal is basically a brushed nickel gray and the area around the skull is painted black, as are some of the details on the skull itself. I suspect it wouldn’t be hard to scratch this thing up so do be a little cautious. The skull itself is slightly off-center on my set and I’m not sure if that’s true of all. I’ve already seen some sets where the numbers on the dice weren’t facing the same direction so there could be some production variances to be mindful of. The rear of the coin features the Angel and Demon Yin Yang featured in the Danzig IV booklet. The art was done by artist Michael Kaluta and has long been one of my favorite pieces of art associated with Danzig. The demon half is painted black while the angel side is natural steel, but it’s been polished so it’s a little different from the color of the rest of the coin. It’s a neat little novelty item and I suppose you could utilize it as a dealer token in a game of cards if you wanted to, but I’d hate to see this thing sliding across a table unless you were playing on a felt-top table.

Cards are obviously needed to complete the set, even if they’ll never be played with.

The deck of cards is the last item we need to talk about. I suppose it’s the item most could find a use for, but cards ware out fast and I personally haven’t played a game with a novelty set of cards since I got X-Men ones as a kid. The box is a dark gray with black detailing. There’s a cross-hatching texture and what appears to be thorns. On the front and rear we have the same logo printed that appears on the box itself only now the red is done with a shiny, foil, finish rather than the muted shade on the box. On the long side is the words Psycho Unlimited printed in the same red and on the top and bottom we have, in gray, the phrase “Devil’s plaything in my hands” printed in the Danzig font. A reference to my personal favorite song from the band.

I applaud the choice of artwork for the high cards, very old school.

The box is a bit tricky to get open without ripping the lid. I had to go super careful and I did slightly crease the center of the top flap in doing so, but better than a rip. The numerical cards are pretty standard stuff while the rear of all cards resembles the card box itself only with a purple filter on the background. The face cards and the ace cards are where some opportunities present themself to incorporate some Danzig art. The jack features the classic “Demon strangling Jesus” image from the “God Don’t Like It” t-shirt sold during the band’s early years. The queen features the cover image of Thrall-Demonsweat Live while the king uses an illustration of the cover image from the first Danzig home video of Glenn with a goat mask tied to a cross. The ace reuses the Kaluta Yin Yang. All four have that purple filter applied from the rear of the card and look pretty cool. I do wish there was a different color filter for each suit. All of the suit images on the card faces are in black except for the symbols right under the numeral. Clubs and spades are black across the board while diamonds are purple and hearts red. Some sets also include four 1 cards. These can be brought to Psycho Las Vegas and exchanged for something. What that something is, Psycho hasn’t revealed. And I don’t know if they’ll let you keep the cards. Psycho sent an email indicating these are only in some sets, but so far I have yet to see a fan not find the cards. Each deck comes wrapped in cellophane and arranged by suit so it seems like the type of thing that would be more trouble than it’s worth to filter out, but who knows? If you’re going to Psycho Las Vegas it wouldn’t hurt to bring a set and if you have no interest in this box there’s probably some cards out there that people don’t want.

These will apparently get you something at Psycho Las Vegas if you’re going. I am not.

The Danzig Gamblers Box is a true novelty item. It is what it is and whether you’re into card and dice games or not it’s unlikely something you’ll get much use out of because who wants to ruin a $100 deck of cards? This is really a display piece and something for people to go “What’s that?” when they’re looking at one’s collection of Danzig memorabilia. And as a display piece, I do think it’s pretty cool. You could even display it closed or open since the interior displays well too. It’s just not the type of thing that’s for everyone and I can easily see a lot of fans passing. At $100, it felt a little pricey, but it seems few limited collectibles are rarely under $100 these days. At $139, it’s too much. The development cycle for this item ended up being longer than Psycho predicted so I wonder if they’re trying to recoup some additional costs they previously didn’t budget for. At 666 units, it will probably sell out eventually, but maybe not at that price. If they still have stock after the event in August then I could see it getting discounted so it may be worth it to wait if you’re on the fence. For most though, I think they already bought it if they thought it looked cool. I’m reasonably satisfied. I don’t know that it was worth $100 (plus shipping), but I paid for it over 6 months ago so it’s easy to separate the cost from the item. It’ll look cool on a shelf, and that’s pretty much all I wanted it for.

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September 10, 2021

Blackacidevil is Coming to Vinyl

By Joe

The preferred medium for music has changed quite a bit in my lifetime. When I was born in the 80s, the vinyl LP was still king, but 8-tracks were still tolerated for their portability and cassette tapes were taking hold. It wouldn’t be long until the compact disc, or CD, started to take over. Portable like a cassette, but with crystal clear audio even surpassing vinyl, made the CD very desirable. It was also really cheap to manufacture, though actual players were quite expensive at the onset (as is the case with most new technology). A CD player in your home stereo was a status symbol that quickly became ordinary, while players in the car or as part of a PC tower would remain expensive and uncommon into the 1990s. Other formats would attempt to overthrow the CD, but nothing took hold. What finally knocked the CD off of the mountain is what would eventually crush the DVD and Blu Ray: digital. People realized they liked the convenience of just downloading music. Audio compression techniques were perfected throughout the 90s and into the 2000s to the point where only the snobbiest self-proclaimed audiophiles could claim to tell the difference. Once massive sections of CDs at record stores dwindled and some multi-media stores have abandoned them all together.

With the era of physical media essentially over nostalgia has been allowed to take hold. And one of the main benefactors has been the old school vinyl LP. Listening to a record on vinyl is a different experience from that of a CD or digital one. There’s an imperfection and variance to the audio experience as variations in the player’s needle or something as mundane as a little dust on the record itself can alter the experience. It’s also an active experience as the listener has to physically flip the record over after 20 minutes to a half hour or even change the disc all together if the album is a long one. The package has to be physically bigger to accommodate the medium’s size which affords ample opportunity for oversized artwork, liner notes, and pictures. Cheaper records are released in little more than a slipcase for the record, while most feature a gatefold design that opens to reveal a more dramatic image. The medium is popular enough that most new albums are released on CD and vinyl today. The pressing numbers are far lower than what they were 10 or 20 years ago, but there’s enough demand out there that bands and labels see a benefit to producing them.

Back in 1996, that was a rarity. Vinyl was all but dead and most new releases ignored it. For the band Danzig, it was an era of new beginnings. The band’s founder and namesake, Glenn Danzig, had served out his recording obligations to American Recordings, the first major label he had worked for. The first four Danzig albums, plus one EP, had done well, though not exceptionally so. The band wasn’t that far removed though from it’s first of two top 100 hits, “Mother,” so there was some appetite for the band’s services. Hollywood Records came calling and offered Glenn Danzig what was reported as a 9 figure deal to join the label. Danzig took the money and promptly replaced every member of the band that had played on the most recent record and produced the band’s fifth studio album Blackacidevil.

The record bombed. Danzig ditched the heavy metal crooner persona he had refined at American in favor of an electronic/industrial mix. The vocals were often buried under a thick layer of distortion and traditional instruments were sometimes left out all together. Alice in Chains axeman Jerry Cantrell contributed to a few tracks, and the album did have its moments with the fuzzy blues number “Come to Silver” and the morose album closer “Ashes,” but it’s hardly a controversial statement to refer to Blackacidevil as Danzig’s worst album to date. To complicate matters further, when some parent groups found out that Hollywood Records had signed the “satanic” Danzig to its label there was some public outcry. This was a problem for the label’s parent company, The Walt Disney Company, and the controversy combined with the album’s poor performance caused them to cut bait. Danzig was again a free agent, but a wealthier one, and he even got to retain full distribution rights to the album.

It’s taken 25 years, but Danzig V is coming to vinyl.

Because of the timing of the album’s release and poor commercial performance, Blackacidevil never saw release beyond CD and cassette. The album would be reissued a couple of times as a website exclusive and as an enhanced version through E-Magine music in 2000. The enhanced version featured new artwork by the late Martin Emond as well as three additional tracks, none of which did much to elevate the poor original release. Ever since, the album has been mostly ignored by Danzig. The songs are never played live any longer and the band even ignored it for the chronological 20th anniversary setlist that featured songs from every release except Blackacidevil. There seems to be little enthusiasm for the record from both the band and the music community. The album still has its share of defenders amongst the diehard fanbase, but even those defenses have become more muffled over the years. As the years have gone by, Blackacidevil has never shaken off its status as the black sheep of the Danzig catalog. Driving that point home even further is the fact that the album is the only Danzig release to not be released on vinyl. All of the American Recordings releases received a vinyl release, though some were exclusive to certain regions of the world. Even the post Blackacidevil albums received sporadic vinyl editions. The follow-up album, Satan’s Child, was released in Europe in small numbers and it’s follow-up received a curious one-off release as well that was apparently licensed by the band, but not overseen. After that, vinyl started making its comeback so Circle of Snakes, Deth Red Sabaoth, and even the covers records received vinyl editions. And in the case of the most recent, they received numerous special editions of varying colored vinyl and picture discs.

Even though Blackacidevil is not an album I much care for, it has been a hole in my Danzig vinyl collection for some time. I am, by no means, a completist, but I have at least one vinyl edition of every Danzig release. The only ones I’ve passed on were some of the singles and the Glenn Danzig release Black Aria II, quite possible the worst thing he’s ever put his name on (well, until the movies). I even used to have a dedicated room for my collecting, before I had kids, in which I had my Danzig vinyl collection arranged on the wall in special LP frames. It always bothered me that Blackacidevil was not represented, but now that era is coming to a close.

I am happy to report that the band selected the superior artwork of the reissue for this release.

It was years ago that Glenn Danzig indicated he was looking to re-release some of his work on vinyl. Blackacidevil was mentioned along with his first solo release, Who Killed Marilyn?, but nothing came of it. Then pretty much out of no where, solicitations for a Blackacidevil vinyl release started appearing online. They started at smaller places on the web, but soon even Danzig’s current label Cleopatra Records put the record up for sale. It’s to be released in October and the album will have two pressings: black and silver colored vinyl. The jacket features the updated Martin Emond artwork from the reissue while the track list features just the original ten from the Hollywood release. It looks to be a gatefold release and even though it’s referred to as a “deluxe” reissue I don’t see anything new attached to it. Some places are also selling a CD reissue as well.

If you have read my review of the album then you already know that it isn’t something I recommend. This is a release for the diehard fans that either do actually like the album or are like me and just see this as a missing piece to their collection. With the amount of editions Cleopatra pressed of the more recent Danzig Sings Elvis I guess I shouldn’t be surprised they’d give this album a look. It gives me some hope that maybe more reissues are on the way. I don’t have that much interest in rebuying albums I already have on vinyl, but with Blackacidevil getting a release that just leaves one, last, grail item in the Danzig catalog: Final Descent. Yes, the fourth and final Samhain release is the only one from that band to not see release on vinyl. It was a hastily thrown together effort as it came out after the band had been dissolved and turned into Danzig, so it was only released on CD and tape. The entirety of the Samhain catalog is long overdue for a re-release of some kind and is far more worthy than Blackacidevil. Hopefully that’s something being actively discussed. As for Blackacidevil, I have no intention of doing a review of just the vinyl when I have it in my possession. I ordered a silver copy since I’ll likely never actually listen to it. It’ll come in, I’ll look it over, and file it away in my Danzig record collection where it likely will go untouched for years, but at least the catalog will now feel complete.

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December 13, 2020

Misfits Holiday Fiend Figure from NECA

By Joe

2020 will be remembered for a lot of things, many of them not good. One non-negative aspect of 2020 that will be memorable for me was that it was the year I really got back into toy collecting. Most of that was courtesy of NECA toys and their various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lines. Those started hitting retail in 2019, but that year was largely a catch-up year as NECA rolled out figures to market that had previously been made available as convention exclusives, which I had purchased at the time. The first new to me figure release came in November of 2019 in the form of the cartoon Bebop and Rocksteady two-pack. Waves 3 and 4 hit in 2020 along with new releases in the movie line such as Casey Jones and Super Shredder. Super7 got in on the fun too launching its own line of TMNT products and I didn’t just stop with that brand. I also got figures from Hasbro, Bandai, and more as the lack of entertainment options and stay-at-home orders had me turning to toys to fill time.

Since 2020 ended up being a big year for toys on this blog, it seems only fitting to interrupt the annual Christmas Spot advent calendar (don’t worry, this doesn’t replace a normal entry) with a holiday themed toy review. In this case, it’s the Holiday Fiend action figure from NECA. The Fiend, also known as The Crimson Ghost or Misfits Ghost, is the mascot of the horror-punk band The Misfits. When it comes to Misfits fandom, there have been two camps for the past 25 years: the Glenn Danzig camp and the Jerry Only camp. Sometimes the fandoms have overlapped, but for the most part fans seem to pick sides. For me, I was always team Glenn. Nothing personal when it comes to Only, but I just never liked his version of The Misfits. The original band broke-up in 83, and it wasn’t until the mid-90s that Only and his brother Doyle tried to resurrect the band. After some litigation with their former frontman, it was decided the two individuals would share merchandising rights to The Misfits and that Only could continue the band without Danzig. Shockingly, The Misfits have now existed as a Jerry Only band far longer than it did with Glenn Danzig as the singer and songwriter of the group.

Santa Fiend has come to town!
He’s got a bag that’s filled with…something.

Since I wasn’t a fan of “The Newfits,” I tended to avoid the merch put out by that band. I did end up with a t-shirt here and there, but I tended to only buy stuff that Danzig put out. The same has been true of the various dolls and toys that have come out over the years, including the original release of this figure I’m about to talk about. The original NECA release of The Fiend is clearly an homage to the album cover of American Psycho, the big come-back record for Jerry’s version of The Misfits. Being that, I never had much interest in it. Throw in a dash of Christmas though and now you have my attention! I’ve managed to resist Christmas themed releases before with The Misfits. Only’s band even covered the holiday classic “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” and released it as a single with artwork basically depicting a mash-up of the classic character with the Misfits Fiend. I was able to resist though, and it was made easier by the fact that the cover was really not very good. I’ve caved this time though and it’s time to find out if that was worth it.

If you want to lessen the Santa look you can remove the hate, though why would you want to do that?

The Fiend comes in a window box package featuring some festive artwork on the front. Inside you get a good look at the contents of the box with some nice product shots on the back. The Fiend stands at about eight inches and is basically just a plain, black, action figure. And that’s because you’re never meant to see what’s under his robe, and I don’t think the source material has ever revealed what’s supposed to be there anyway. All that is visible are the face and hands, which are skeletal in nature, but also have always embodied the look of the serial from which the character originated. That means that rather than just being an actual skeleton, the being is clearly wearing black gloves with printed bones and the head is wearing a mask. The new, festive, robe is meant to be the defining characteristic and it’s a plush, red, piece of fabric that looks rather lovely draped over this handsome boy. The ends of the sleeves and the hem of which have been embroidered with white to give the figure a very Santa Claus look. And he even has the hat to complete the ensemble. The robe isn’t mean to be removed, but I’m sure you could if you wished. The hat is and it sits over the normal hood The Fiend features. A plush, green, sack is also included to create a Santa Fiend look and one is left to ponder what this creature would bring to all of the good little boys and girls of the world? Skulls?

Oh, my!

The base figure underneath is pretty basic. I think, but I don’t know for sure since this is the first horror or music figure I’ve purchased from NECA, that this body is pretty standard for the company’s clothed releases. The head is on a simple ball peg (and it’s really tight) with good rotation and tilt. The shoulders are standard ball-joints and the elbows and knees on this figure are single-jointed hinges. The wrists rotate and have a hinge each and unlike the head are really easy to remove, so much so that I accidentally have popped them out when manipulating the figure. There is no ab or upper body rotation, but there is a waist swivel. The legs are on ball-joints and actually have very good range of motion. There’s a thigh swivel and the ankles are hinged. The Fiend, if you were wondering, appears to be wearing black high-tops. It’s an acceptable amount of articulation for what this figure is, but one thing missing that disappoints me is the lack of peg holes on the bottoms of the feet. This guy can be tricky to stand because of all of the material draped over the figure and I really wish I could utilize the standard NECA stand. Instead, something more like a Barbie stand is needed as I don’t want to spend 10 bucks on an action stand for a figure that literally just needs to stand.

He looks positively resplendent in those robes!

The star of the show is the Christmas soft goods. The robe is really nice to look at and NECA included wires where needed. It shimmers in natural light and really catches the eye and I love that it’s hemmed with white at the cuffs and bottom of the robe. A Velcro strip runs up the front of the robe so if you wish to take a peek underneath you certainly can. The hood is a separate piece that is stitched to the back of the robe. It has a wire running through the hem and you’ll probably have to manipulate it a bunch out of the box. The only odd aspect of the robe I’m not sold on are the sleeves. They’re meant to have large cuffs that hang low, but NECA tailored the white onto a smaller cuff to go around the hand leaving a big hole behind it for the rest of the red cuff to hang down. I think it would look better if they had done the white around the whole thing and inserted another wire for posing as it’s just kind of weird as-is. The hat is a simple, Santa, hat that also contains a wire. It fits snugly on the Fiend’s head and looks pretty terrific. The sack is basically just a piece of green velvet-like material with a string tied around the end. There’s nothing inside it, though it has a wire running around it to allow for some posing. I kind of wish NECA had filled it with cotton or something to fluff it up. I suppose I could do that myself if I was willing to mess with the knot on it. It gets the job done though.

If you prefer a more “classic” look, NECA included a second, all-white, face on a second head.
Christmas Evilive!

NECA opted to include some swap-able parts with this figure, though they’re not particularly exciting. The finish on the face of the included head has some embellishments on it. I think it’s from the original release which is aiming to mimic the American Psycho cover by Basil Gogos (who also did the art for this release) which was going for a grave-emerging or crypt-lurking kind of look. Only now, the colors are a muted red and green to go with the whole Christmas theme, but it almost looks like some sort of weird camo. I’m not really a fan. The alternate head is a bone white version with no added paint which is basically how the character was depicted in art on the classic releases like Horror Business. The hands on the stock version also feature the same red and green paint on the back of the hand and they provide alternate bone white versions to match the face. All four hands are in a relaxed, open, position. He doesn’t have any proper gripping hands, but since the sack is light and empty he can still hold onto it well enough. Swapping the head on this guy was quite a bitch. I had to give it a real, good, tug to get the stock one off and I heated the other one with running water to get it on. I didn’t want to use a heat gun or anything given the presence of soft goods which could catch fire. At least I don’t like the regular head very much so I shouldn’t have to swap it again.

I think this is the look I’ll stick with.

The Christmas version of NECA’s The Fiend action figure is largely as expected. While I think there could have been some better design choices and I wish the stock head better matched the artwork, this figure should largely satisfy any Misfits fan looking to add the ghost to their holiday decorating. I love Christmas decorations and this guy will certainly stand out with what I already have. I could even see some NECA collectors paring this guy with the Santa Stripe released this year from the Gremlins line. And fans of the Jerry Only Misfits who already have the Horror X-Mas release should definitely try and pair that with this for their holiday display. The only reason not to is the price. At an MSRP of $35, this guy is on the pricier end of NECA releases. That could have something to do with the cost of the license, and anyone who saw the merch prices at the more recent Misfits shows know how expensive that stuff can get, and it’s definitely more than what I’m used to with NECA given what’s in the box. If price is an issue, maybe wait until the spring when this guy hits clearance. At least this isn’t an exclusive and you should be able to buy this wherever NECA products are sold, in particular the horror figures.

And if you’re still on the fence, he makes a nice tree topper!

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August 6, 2020

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #5 (1987)

By Joe
The cover and back cover features a fun wrap-around image in full color different from the first pressing of this issue.

This summer has been a very TMNT kind of summer around here. It’s getting to the point where I might have as many posts about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as I do Glenn Danzig music. Well, this is the rare post to feature both.

When Mirage Studios started to gain recognition thanks to the success of the TMNT comic book, founders Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman needed to hire more staff in order to churn out material in a reasonable amount of time. One of those hired was artist Eric Talbot, a former classmate of Eastman’s and apparently a fan of rock, metal, and punk music. One of Talbot’s earliest assignments was composing short stories for supplemental books and reprints of the original run of comics, which is how we ended up with the story “Ghouls Night Out.”

They had no idea how rich they were about to become.

“Ghouls Night Out” was included in the reprint of issue #5 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles printed in November of 1987. This is actually a pretty noteworthy issue of TMNT as it contains a special announcement in the middle of the story which officially blows the lid on the licensing deal Laird and Eastman had made with Mark Freedman. Included in the announcement are details about Playmates toys and its first wave of TMNT action figures due out in 1988 as well as the announcement of the animated mini series which was set to premiere the following month. This was the first time fans of the property were introduced to Bebop and Rocksteady and read the name Krang. There’s even a double page ad that follows with the inaugural lineup of turtle toys. Pretty cool!

“Ghouls Night Out” follows the main story and is eight pages of mostly art. In it, a turtle (most fans seem to assume it’s Donatello because he carries a spear at one point, but it could be any of the four) is patrolling a grave yard at night when monsters soon descend upon him. He’s forced to run for his life from the zombies, Frankenstein’s monster, a wolfman, Nosferatu, and others. Most of the Universal Monsters basically get to make an appearance. The story ends when the turtle wakes up in April’s apartment having fallen asleep watching a monster movie marathon on television.

Might be hard to make out, but some familiar names are on those tombstones across the top.

The story is pretty simple, but what drives it is the artwork. The cloaked turtle, wicked monsters, and ghoulish scenery are what sells Talbot’s story. What attracted me to it though was the obvious connection to The Misfits, one of my all-time favorite bands. The title is a reference to the song of the same name, and the very first page features a message on a tombstone thanking The Misfits with the year of the band’s demise also present. Above the title is a row of tombstones which feature arguably the most popular lineup for the band: Jerry Only, Robo, Doyle, and Danzig.

The following pages contain other references as well. The band Metallica can be found on some headstones on page 2 as well as the entire staff of Mirage Studios. And for good measure, some other artists that likely influenced Talbot, such as Frank Frazetta, are tossed in as well. It’s a story that’s supposed to be spooky, but it’s almost cute due to all of the shout-outs Talbot included. I also really dig his turtle design and if anyone at NECA is reading how about an action figure of this cloaked, spear-wielding, mutant? NECA even has a licensing agreement with The Misfits so might as well work in that tombstone too!

I don’t know where this one came from, but it swaps out The Misfits for just Danzig. The colored reprints of this story kept The Misfits.

This is an interesting little nugget of TMNT history and a fun find for a Misfits/Danzig fan such as myself. I’ve seen other versions of the headstone image online with The Misfits removed and replaced by Glenn Danzig. I don’t know if Talbot redid the art at some point or if a fan did that. It’s pretty cool that this thing exists and it’s another piece of my Misfits/Danzig/TMNT collection.

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