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Hellboy and Kroenen | ||||||||||
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he year is 1944, and the Nazis have recruited the help of the devilish Grigori Rasputin to unleash hell upon earth. A portal is opened, then closed almost immediately as a platoon of Allied soldiers, along with Professor Bruttenholm, an expert in the occult, storm the grounds, destroy the equipment and scatter the Nazi forces. But during the brief opening, something returned from hell. Tracking it to a cavern, Bruttenholm discovers a baby demon and adopts it, raising it as his own. Together, the two form a team of paranormal investigators called BPRD, or Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense.
Hellboy, as the child becomes known, grows up to become the central force in the BPRD, taking on demons and villains of all kinds with his paranormal team, which includes a woman adept at psychically starting fires and an aquatic creature with telepathic powers. And despite being born a demon, Hellboy, raised by the benevolent professor as a regular human boy, is a force for good instead of evil. He recalls nothing of his hellish past, and even files off his demon horns in an attempt to fit in with normal people.
Beginning as a comic book by Mike Mignola, Hellboy was recently released as a major motion picture starring Ron Perlman as the red-skinned demon.
Sideshow Toy is one company that had a piece of the lucrative Hellboy merchandise license, which features action figures of various sizes, from a few inches to nearly a couple of feet. Their 1:6-scale Hellboy action figure line includes Hellboy, fishman Abe Sapien and the cyborg villain Kroenen, who was present at the 1944 Nazi experiment and has suddenly turned up again in the film's present.
Sideshow's Hellboy figure stands close to 13 inches tall and includes his rocklike "right hand of doom" and flexible tail. He comes dressed as he does in the film, in leather pants, black T-shirt and large leather trenchcoat, and is kitted out with belt, pistol and other gear.
Kroenen, the spectral Nazi assassin, comes dressed in a black lycra body suit, with two masks to cover his mangled face, and is kitted out with corsetlike leather chest armor (which is actually a clockwork life-support system) and several bladed weapons.
Each comes in an attractive, glossy box lined with photos of the figure, as well as images from the film and very stylish covers. Each has a display stand featuring the Hellboy logo.
Kroenen is produced in a limited edition of 4,000 pieces. Hellboy is one of 7,500 available.
A hell of a set of action figures
The Kroenen figure has a standard Sideshow body, which means it shows an amazing range of articulation and movement. Each joint has multiple ranges of rotation, allowing the figure to be posed in almost any conceivable position.
He wears a lycra body suit with a simulated zipper up the front. Over this he wears a brown "leather" belt with two sheaths strapped to his thighs. In these sheaths are two double-bladed sword-batons, which resemble Japanese Tonfa clubs with the stick-like club replaced with a long blade. Be careful, however. These are very thin and easily bent.
His shoulders each hold a scabbard with a double-bladed throwing knife. The leather harness, which is actually laced up with string, keeps in place the clockwork chestplate and backplates—the primitive machinery that keeps him alive. The clockwork plates are very detailed, intricately molded to resemble early-20th-century gearwork.
Over a hideously mangled face (the result of an addiction to surgery) Kroenen has two masks, one a smooth over-shell with breathing grilles and gogglelike eyepieces. Under this is a more robotic-looking black mask with some molded facial features and more detail to the breathing machinery. This somewhat resembles Darth Vader's mask once the helmet is removed. Underneath this, Sideshow has sculpted a very realistic and grisly face that indeed looks as if it has had a few too many surgeries and skin grafts. The skin has a sallow, dull tone, and the bulging, lidless eyes stand out as glossy and lifelike. An excellent job of sculpture by Matt Falls.
With the help of a somewhat altered Sideshow body (with larger, barrel chest and longer limbs), as well as thickly soled boots, Hellboy stands taller than most Sideshow 1:6 scale action figures. The body is molded in red, and the face (also by Matt Falls) is an excellent likeness of Ron Perlman starring as Hellboy. With his signature sneer, filed-down horns and Samurai-like topknot, this figure more than does the character justice.
His tail must be manually snapped to his posterior using two plugs, which can be quite a chore. It takes a great deal of force to fit it in adequately. The tail is bendable with a central wire to allow for posing.
Hellboy's "right hand of doom" is well crafted and rotates along the arm's axis. The wrist is articulated to allow the hand some range of movement for the hand. The fist is closed but has an opening large enough to accommodate a small item.
But the real treat here is the clothing and equipment. His leather pants and black T-shirt are well made. A very intricate belt has several pouches attached and includes a very intricate belt buckle with BPRD logo. It also holds a rosary with crucifix and a nicely detailed holster to hold the oversized revolver known as The Samaritan. This revolver has a tiny lever that actually releases the barrel so it can break down to reveal the revolving cylinder. The cylinder holds four individual bullets, each of which can be removed, along with the cylinder. The handle has a length of leather thong attached to it. The detail in this pistol has to be seen to be believed.
Hellboy also comes with a horseshoe, which can be gripped in the fist of doom or looped over his belt.
And yet the star of this piece has to be the overcoat. Unlike images seen on Sideshow's web site (of the prototype), this jacket is better-looking than promised. It is made of a thin vinyl that allows for creases and folds to resemble the scale more appropriately. The mustard-beige coat has darker brown highlights, including a collar that features individual buckles. To accommodate the massive fist, the right arm of the coat has been slit up the sleeve and then reclosed with straps and buckles, each of which is a functional buckle and can be fully opened. The detail is beyond the call of duty for an action figure.
Hellboy is one of the finest action figures I've ever seen.
Sideshow has repeatedly raised the bar for 12-inch action figures, and it has done so again. I can only speculate that the Hellboy series was a labor of love for Sideshow; there's no other way to explain the excellent quality of the Hellboy figure. On its own, I'd give Kroenen a solid A rating, but I'd give Hellboy an A++. Since I can't, I'll take the average. A+. Abe Sapien was not yet available for review. — Sean
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