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December 6, 2023

Figura Obscura – The Ghost of Jacob Marley

By Joe
“Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits…”

Four Horsemen Studios is back with another holiday release in its Figura Obscura line of action figures. This sister line of their more famous Mythic Legions property launched two years ago with Krampus and continued with last year’s Father Christmas. Many fans, myself included, expected another holiday figure this year, though if you had asked me a week ago what that figure would be I would have been pretty stumped. The line seemed to target characters of folklore, and while there are certainly some more out there for Christmas, none seemed as obvious as Krampus or a version of Santa Claus. I probably would have guessed some kind of yeti, or maybe Jack Frost, but Four Horsemen Studios surprised me with an action figure of the ghostly Jacob Marley.

He comes sans chains, but he’s not likely to stay that way for long.
I love how the feet just disappear.

Marley comes from the pages of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. If you have never read the original source you have almost certainly encountered the story as told by someone else be it Mickey Mouse or Gonzo. Marley doesn’t immediately strike me as a folklore type of character, but then again, we’re talking about a story that’s been ingrained in Christmas since 1843 so perhaps I may need to rethink my personal definition of folklore. Regardless, a spectral figure draped in chains with its jaw held in place by a knot sure sounds like something that would lend itself well to what Four Horsemen does. The character was teased with an image of chains and locks, a dead give-away, and then finally unveiled and put up for order on December 2nd. I thought it looked cool enough to warrant a purchase, and it was in my hands a mere three days later so now I’m going to interrupt the Christmas special posts to tell you what I think.

The detail on this figure is incredible, though I wish this harness had a better way to fasten.

Marley arrives in the standard window box for the line with a wrap-around backdrop held in place by magnets. It’s a terrific way to include a backdrop as the cardstock is nice and heavy. On the front is an image of Marley as a doorknocker from the novella and on the reverse is an interior painting of Scrooge’s bed chambers (the artwork is credited to Nate Baerstch) complete with a terrified Scrooge by the fire. Scrooge being present in the image makes me wonder if that means he’s not a candidate for a figure of his own down the line, but I guess we’ll see in the years to come. There’s a description of Marley on the back as well and Four Horsemen even included a small (4.125″ x 5.25″) copy of Stave 1 of the story with more illustrations inside. The actual box depicts various specters from the story from when Scrooge looks out his window initially. I’m assuming some are based on the descriptions Dickens provides, though I haven’t read the original text in probably 25 years to recall specifics. I do plan on reading this first stave before the season departs.

There’s a lot going on here.

Marley himself stands 7″ tall and out of the box he does not have his chains affixed to him. This design is credited to Eric Treadaway, one of the three founders of Four Horsemen Studios (I’m guessing there is a reason why there are three, but the name implies four), and Marley certainly looks the part of a dead 1840s rich guy. He has an aged and weathered face with long hair and thick sideburns. He’s sporting a long coat and a rather fancy looking vest beneath that with a kerchief around his neck. The figure is basically all done in tones of blue and gray. His skin is painted in a shade similar to periwinkle and shaded with cyan blue. The hair and interior of the coat are more of a gray blue and the buttons on his coat are a faint silver. I have always considered the strength of Mythic Legions to be the sculpt and paint combo and Marley does not do anything to dissuade me from that manner of thinking. There’s some great texture on the coat, he’s got a missing chunk of flesh on his rather large forehead, and all of the buttons and pockets look real. The coat is a pliable plastic as opposed to soft goods and I think that was the correct route to go. It hangs well, has a good form to it, and could fool someone from the shelf.

To fly, or not to fly?

Marley looks, in a word, awesome. This figure is phenomenal when it comes to the presentation, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. The coat appears to be a clear plastic that’s been painted. It must be, since the hem of the coat is where the paint starts to fade out so we can get a translucent effect. I’m amazed at how well the paint looks on this thing given the amount needed to pull this off. The boots below the cuffs are also done in transparent plastic and the paint fades out on them as well as it moves down leaving the actual foot portion completely transparent. I don’t think it takes much imagination to come up with such a paint scheme, but it takes talent and skill to pull it off and man does this figure ever pull it off. He looks great standing, but I’m really tempted to put him on a flight stand to draw attention to the transparent parts.

You’re in some serious shit, Scrooge.

Of course, Marley wouldn’t be Marley without his many shackles and chains. Even Goofy was forced to drag those things around. The chains are all connected to a soft, plastic, harness that is designed to go over Marley’s torso. The harness looks nice, has a big lock on the front, but is a challenge to get on. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to do so and thought I may need to pop the arms off in order to get it in place. Instead, the bottom rear came apart as I examined it and I think it’s supposed to do that? There’s no tab, nor is their any glues residue to imply it came apart by accident, but it did allow me to get the harness on. It, like the belt that came with last year’s Father Christmas, doesn’t fasten well though which makes me wonder if it was supposed to come apart. I wish it had a tab to hold it in place, because it will repeatedly come apart when handling the figure and might even do so when not. I secured it with a tiny amount of gray mounting putty since it was driving me nuts.

Anything that looks like it should open, can. Well, except the books. And the locks…
Keys for days!

That annoyance aside, the harness and chains really bring some added drama to the presentation of this one. He has quite a few chains of varying lengths and design. They’re all a muted copper or a dingy brushed nickel and there’s padlocks and skeleton keys throughout. Three chains end in a lockbox while two in a ledger and they’re all unique designs so not one box is the same as the other. The boxes also all open from the top in case you want to hide anything inside. There’s also a large safe at the end of another chain and that can open as well. Inside you’ll find a bonus, unadvertised, accessory that does fit the mood of this figure, but could also be used with another Mythic Legions release. Since it’s a surprise, I’ve declined to take a picture of it, but know that it is pretty cool and I like it better than the surprise inclusions with Father Christmas.

“If you’re gonna scream, scream with me!”

The chains are not Marley’s only accessories as he does also come with various hands and a second portrait. He has gripping hands out of the box, but also has a set of gripping hands with a vertical hinge, style pose gesture hands, and a set of clawing hands. The second portrait depicts Marley with his headwrap removed which causes his jaw to droop and hang slightly askew. It’s appropriately unpleasant to look at, but the large mouth opening does sometimes come off as a bit cartoony. It’s really well painted and looks amazing, but I don’t know if I’ll ever actually use it. Marley also has a pair of door knockers featuring his visage, one shows him in a stoic fashion while the other has him wailing. There’s a slot on the back if you want to hang them on a nail, though they’re not so heavy that mounting putty wouldn’t work. The knocker portion also moves and the paint job and sculpt are terrific. Lastly, there’s also a small pouch of extra skeleton keys. There are multiple designs, though I have not bothered to count how many actual keys are in there, but know that it’s a lot. You will never have need of more. Four Horsemen also tossed in a greeting card featuring the cover art, as they did for the past two releases which is cool.

Even these door knockers are impressive as they have little, flecks, of green to show age and weathering.

The Ghost of Jacob Marley is an action figure, so it stands to reason that he should articulate rather well. Mythic Legions strikes me as a line that is focused on the aesthetic at the expense of articulation. That doesn’t mean the articulation is bad, but certain styles of joints are basically off the table. For the head, we have a simple ball joint. There’s no hinge or double-ball, but it seems adequate for the figure. Marley’s hair prevents him from looking up anyway, and the scarf has to be worked around to look down, but he gets some range in doing so. There’s a little tilt as well, and it seems suitable enough. The shoulders are hinged ball-pegs, and on my figure they were pretty stuck. The figure was delivered to the northeast in December, so it was quite cold to begin with. I let it warm up for an hour or so, but still needed to apply hot water to get the hinge to work. Once free, the arms raised out to the side to pretty much a full horizontal position. Rotation is fine, but there’s no bicep swivel. Instead, we get single-hinged elbows that can also swivel. We see this a lot with Super7 (and Four Horsemen Studios designed a lot of their early figures), but with this figure the cut is better so the range on the swivel is fine and it also looks pretty good. Hands rotate and hinge and we have gripping hands with both a horizontal and vertical hinge – perfect!

In the torso, there’s no joint except for the waist. There we have a ball joint, and it allows for a reasonable amount of forward and back with plenty of tilt and rotation. Obviously, once you put the harness on the figure it’s a little trickier to work with, but nothing is truly hindered. The hips are hinged ball-pegs and Marley can hit a split reasonably well. He can’t kick forward quite all the way, nor can he kick back very far. There is a thigh twist which is well-hidden, and the knee is a single hinge with twist like the elbows and it’s well cut. There is a boot swivel below the boot cuff, while the ankle also swivels. There’s a hinge which lets the foot go forward and back basically as far as you’d ever want it to go, and there’s also an ankle rocker. The peg that goes into the shin, likely due to the nature of transparent plastic, is a little loose and the foot may pop off on occasion. The figure doesn’t have any issue standing and all of the other joints are suitably tight. Only the shoulders were overtight for me, and swapping hands and heads wasn’t an issue.

Marley may not pair all that well with what’s come before him, but it sure sounds like he will with what’s to follow.

If you have any of the Figura Obscura figures released up until now, then you’re likely not surprised to find out that this one is fantastic. It’s not going to articulate as well as some other figures out there, but it can do everything it needs to and the articulation choices feel well thought out. The presentation is what sells this guy, and while the harness isn’t the tidiest thing to work with, there’s no denying how terrific it looks in practice. My only real gripe is with how said harness fastens to the figure as I feel like almost anything would have been better, but it’s something I can work around. I’m never going to take it off so I could even glue it if I want to, though I typically refrain from permanently modifying any of my figures. The end of the included Stave 1 booklet includes the message, “You will be haunted again. The ghosts of Christmas shall return,” which sure seems to imply that we’ll be getting more from A Christmas Carol next year and beyond. Will they stick with Past, Present, and Christmas Yet to Come, or maybe some of the other, unnamed, ghosts on the packaging will get figures? And what about Scrooge? He’s on the backdrop, so maybe Four Horsemen Studios thinks that will be enough, but I bet fans would like to see an actual Scrooge as well. Only time will tell, but I bet whatever comes next will look awesome.

If you would like to add The Ghost of Jacob Marley to your collection then I’m afraid I have some bad news. The initial stock has sold out, so right now the figure is only available on the secondhand market. The MSRP was $60, but expect to pay considerably more if buying from a reseller. Both Krampus and Father Christmas had variant releases, so it seems likely that Marley will as well. Maybe with more of a spectral green coloring? Or something closer to fully transparent? Four Horsemen also had the original version of Father Christmas available for purchase this year, so perhaps this version of Marley could even come back next December. If you missed out and absolutely have to have it, then by all means do as you please, but I do think the patient will be rewarded at some point.

Missed out on some other past Christmas releases? Check these out:

Figura Obscura – Krampus

Over the years, I’ve acquired quite a few action figures designed by the good people over at Four Horsemen LLC. They’ve been designing figures for companies for awhile now. My first exposure to the company was via NECA’s inaugural line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on their appearance in the Mirage Studios comics. Lately,…

Keep reading
by Joe

Figura Obscura – Father Christmas

It was just last year that Four Horsemen launched a subline of its popular Mythic Legions brand of action figures called Figura Obscura. Practically speaking, there’s little difference between the two lines as Mythic Legions seeks to serve as a modular line of toys based on myth and legend and that doesn’t feature licensed characters.…

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by Joe

Naughty or Nice Classic Santa and Cyborg Santa

It was looking like we were in for a photo finish this year. Last year, toymaker Fresh Monkey Fiction partnered with online retailer Big Bad Toy Store to launch the Naughty or Nice collection. Structured similar to a Kickstarter campaign, FMF posted several action figures for preorder with a minimum order quantity needed for the…

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by Joe

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December 21, 2021

Figura Obscura – Krampus

By Joe
Oh shit, look who showed up for Christmas!

Over the years, I’ve acquired quite a few action figures designed by the good people over at Four Horsemen LLC. They’ve been designing figures for companies for awhile now. My first exposure to the company was via NECA’s inaugural line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on their appearance in the Mirage Studios comics. Lately, I’ve been enjoying their work with Super7 as they have designed most (all?) of the figures in that company’s Ultimates series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The company has become well known as a result in the action figure community, and while sculpting work for other companies is probably satisfying work, 4H always wanted to do its own thing, so it did. The company launched an in-house line of toys called Mythic Legions. As the name implies, most of these characters are taken from myth and given a new design which is then turned into a rather impressive looking piece of plastic. Just how impressive they are I can’t say because I’ve never gotten into the line.

He even comes with a Christmas card!

My exposure to Four Horsemen changed this month, when the company did a surprise drop in a new, subline, of figures called Figura Obscura. And the chosen character to kick things off is the infamous Krampus, the demon of Christmas! Krampus has long been a character associated with Christmas largely in European countries. In the US, he’s not particularly well known, but he has seen his profile rise somewhat recently. I knew of the character as a kid, though I don’t recall ever seeing him in any pop culture setting until The Venture Brothers included in him in their Christmas special. That was back in 2003 and since then the character has shown up in American Dad! and has had his own movie. In the US, it definitely feels like some companies focus on his appearance and draw from that making him some kind of horror monster when the traditional Krampus is really just someone who punishes bad kids at Christmas. It makes sense that Santa Claus would reward the good and that there would be an entity that punishes the wicked. In many settings, Santa and Krampus are like a team, but over the years that seems to be less the case.

The 4H version of Krampus defined.

Either way, I personally think Krampus is pretty neat and his design (often fawn-like) lends itself well to toys. Obviously, I’m pretty into Christmas and I’ve always wanted to do more with Christmas action figures and when I saw this Krampus go up for sale on December 5th of this year I pounced. It was a surprise drop that I don’t think anyone was aware was coming outside of the people at Four Horsemen. The figure was offered through 4H’s Mythic Legions website twice that day, once in the morning and once in the evening. It was smart on their part as it kept the figure from selling out quickly before most people knew it even existed. I personally found out about it in between drops so I was able to grab one in the evening timeslot. It didn’t sell out super fast, which was nice, and it was an in-stock sale which is unusual for 4H as they usually follow more of a made-to-order model with their releases. The company must have felt secure that this particular figure would sell out without much issue given the seasonal nature. I also understand there’s a lot of parts reuse at play here which obviously reduces costs. Just how much, I can’t say, since this my first dip into 4H’s catalog.

Pardon my flash.

Krampus arrived about two weeks after I ordered it in resplendent packaging. He comes in a window box made of very thick cardstock that’s wrapped with a magnetic, cardboard, outer sleeve. It’s well constructed and durable, more durable than a normal box as it’s laminated. The front of which has a neat Krampus logo of sorts with a story about him on the rear and the rest is covered in blue and white and it’s a snowy scene. When you take it off, the reverse side features the artwork that also adorns the box. It’s a snowy setting at night in the wilderness where a lone cottage sits rather perilously on a cliffside. You can use this wrap as a backdrop for your figure which is a really neat idea and should serve me well as I accumulate Christmas figures.

To flash or not to flash? I’ll be mixing in photos with and without, to try and present this figure as fairly as possible.

Krampus himself sits in the window box and once removed he has immediate presence on any surface he’s placed. He stands about 7″ tall with skin featuring this deep, satin, black, paint that is really rich and cool to look at. He’s covered in it too and it’s applied cleanly. His head is quite ferocious looking as he has what I consider the traditional Krampus facial expression of an open mouth with a giant tongue flicking out. He’s quite angry looking and has two gnarly horns coming off of the back of his head. There’s a lot of sculpted fur on and around the head basically forming a mane that runs down the middle of his back. The only clothing he wears is a skirt with a leathery texture to it and some greaves and gauntlets. The armor bits have a nice, worn, metallic, texture with sharp ridges sculpted into them. His feet end in hooves and they’re fringed with fur and look terrific. Some assembly is required as he has a tail that needs to peg into his rear. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass (pun intended) to insert it as the hole is really tight (I should have bought him dinner first). I had to heat up both ends with hot water to finally get it in and when I was done I was actually surprised to see the sculpted fur on the tail cut into my thumb. Damn!

Gene Simmons wishes he had a tongue like the one on Krampus.

The look of Krampus is going to be this figure’s main attraction and 4H did a great job. I think of Krampus being covered in fur, but I like the look of the bare chest here, probably owing to the fact that I love that black paint that’s in use. His fingers are clawed, but not dramatically so, and the details on his face are incredible. Each tooth is sculpted individually and the paint is remarkably clean. The only issue I’ve run into with this figure from a presentation aspect is some paint chipping. To my surprise, it looks like the figure is cast in a white plastic and then painted, because there are some spots where the paint chipped off. Most of which is in the inner thigh by the joint so it’s not noticeable when the figure is displayed. There’s also a small one near the armor on the left leg that’s probably only noticeable when handling the figure. I don’t know why the figure wasn’t just cast in black plastic and then painted, but I’m ignorant on the costs of figure production when it comes to color choices. Obviously, white can be used for anything and then easily painted over so it could be as simple as that. Other than that one small flaw, I’m pretty pleased with how he turned out.

I guess he kept those kids in his basket too long.

Krampus needs stuff, and if you’re familiar with the legend, you know he has some specific needs at that. This figure comes with a set of loose gripping hands attached in the box, and tighter gripping hands he can swap to. The loose hands work fine with his weapon of choice, a bundle of sticks or switches, as they just rest in place. They look pretty awesome and are well-painted as they’re wrapped with sculpted tape to hold them together. I don’t know if the tighter hands are for anything specific, or just for down the road if you want to give him a weapon from something else, but they won’t hold the sticks unless you heat them up to make them more pliable. He has a pair of cuffs that can fit around his wrists and are attached via real chain. The plastic is softer so it’s not too difficult to slip them around the wrists, but if you’re concerned about breaking them you can also just pop his hands off first.

This is one demon who is going to keep his trusty basket!

Krampus also has his trusty basket. The character is supposed to wear this on his back and some versions of the character toss bad kids in there. It’s sculpted to resemble a woven basket and it has some muted green and red accents. The top is removable, and 4H loaded it with other stuff. There’s a pair of skulls, one with an articulated jaw and one without, two skeletal hands, and a leather strap. The strap seems to serve no purpose on its own and I was advised by fans of the Mythic Legions line that it’s likely included for customizers. If cut and then glued, it could be used as a belt or a shoulder strap for the basket. By default, 4H included a piece of rope with the consistency of hemp. It can be used to string the basket and then hang it off of Krampus. I ran the rope through the included slot on the basket, around each arm of Krampus, and then back through the slit. This made it tight enough to hang just fine, while also leaving room for adjustment without the need of a knot. Krampus, despite being hooved, stands fine on his own and continues to stand well even with a loaded basket on his back. The last accessory 4H included is a loop of red thread with some miniature bells strung on it. You can drape this over the head of Krampus, put them on the basket, around his waist, or even through his teeth! And they really jingle, plus the red thread adds a dash of color and is a really nice touch.

Oh you silly boy!

With all of that stuff in the box, you may be wondering how Krampus moves around. I was rather curious, myself, as I’ve wondered what 4H’s approach to articulation was. With the figures the company does for Super7, there are certain joints some consider standard that Super7 disagrees on. Namely, double joints at the knees and elbows. 4H might share the same philosophy as Krampus has single hinges at both places with swivels, but he does do something many Super7 figures don’t and that’s include a ball-joint at the waist. This gives the figure the twisting motion many want while also providing for some forward and back and a little tilt. And it’s well-engineered, as those who got the recently released Casey Jones from Super7 were treated to such a joint, but it turned out rather unsightly as the figure doesn’t sit deep enough on the ball-peg. Aside from that, Krampus is fairly typical with a ball joint at the head, ball-hinges at the shoulders, horizontal hinges at the hands, ball-jointed hips, and hinges with rocking action down at the ankles. Lastly, he has a ball-hinge at the tail. The tail is sculpted and rigid, so there’s not a lot it can do, but it has enough range to get it out of the way when posing. The amount of fur around the figure’s neck limits his head movements a bit, but he can look up and down a little and twist. The ankle rockers are also a little limited, likely owing to the fact that he has hooves, but there’s enough to support his weight and give him a wider stance, if desired. The only true shortcoming is the lack of vertically hinged wrists. I would have preferred that to horizontal, if I could only have one, though both would have been preferable. Krampus isn’t as dynamic as some figures in my collection, but I find what’s there is enough and it at least works well.

Some comparisons. First up, we have a RED Soundwave and a Super7 Leonardo, another 4H design.

Krampus is a pretty wicked design that’s going to look good whether you display him with Christmas stuff, monsters, or your Mythic Legions. He poses well enough, and best of all, he can hold his accessories without toppling over. The backdrop is an awesome little bonus too, and the only drawback I have with him is that returning him to his box would be a challenge. I really have no desire to unthread the basket nor do I want to remove that tail to get him back in his bubble. With my seasonal figures, I usually put them away after the holidays, but Krampus will likely find a new home on a shelf somewhere. And that’s not really a bad problem to have as this is a figure I want to look at year round. And if my kids start acting up, maybe I should just convince them Krampus operates like that cursed Elf on a Shelf and start moving him every morning. That will probably give them nightmares though, so maybe it’s best that I don’t.

And here he is with another fantasy character in Drizz’t from Hasbro’s very short-lived D&D line and a fellow hooved character in NECA’s Groundchuck.

If you wish to get a Krampus figure of your very own, well, I’m afraid it’s sold out. Four Horsemen made it sound like this is just the first Krampus they’re doing, so maybe he comes back next year in another form. If this is the Krampus you need then you’re going to have to pony up some extra money on the secondary market or hope someone that got one decides they don’t need it. The figure retailed for $50 which is already pricey for a 7″ action figure. While I like it, I definitely wouldn’t have much of an appetite to pay much more than that. Good luck if you’re in the market. As for the rest of you, hopefully this is the only Krampus that visits your house this Christmas!

Merry Christmas, pal!

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