I am going to go right out and say it: NECA’s Gremlins line is certainly one of its best, and probably one of its most overlooked.
I LOVE the Gremlins. I love everything about the property from the stories (yes, that includes the satirical second installment) to the creature designs, and when it comes to the latter, Joe Dante and Rick Baker knocked it out of the park with every single character. NECA has been working on the property for a lot of years now, and in that time, we have assembled quite diverse collection of both Gremlins and Mogwai. The former are most certainly my favorite (cheers to the Bat Gremlins finally coming later this year), but NECA has done a great job with the cuter counterparts as well.
That brings us to this new-ish series of Mogwai, and I say “ish” because I am way behind on featuring these guys, even though I have been meaning to talk about them for a couple of months now. Anyhow, this latest assortment of Mogwai follows the last one in that these are cute little characters based on concepts that never made it into either of the Gremlins films. However, the good guys at NECA knew that Gary, Patches, and Zoe were just too good to pass up, and thanks to their forethought, we now have some great new figures.
Like I said, and as you can see, our Mogwai lineup has grown beyond anything I (at least) would have thought possible. When thinking of the breadth of scope for this property, your mind goes right to the Gremlins, especially those from the second movie, and NECA has provided a lot of that, but the little fur balls are definitely holding their own. This “new batch” (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) brings a lot of different colors and patterns, and it does so with very minimal new tooling.
To that point, these three share much of the standard Mogwai body, and the heads are designed so that new “face plates” can be attached, and different ears can be added to help bring some uniqueness to each character. Some of the ears have been used before, and that is most apparent with Zoe who borrows the very distinct folded ears from the previously released Brownie figure.
Speaking of Zoe, her (I am assuming it is a her) pelt is made up of a lighter brown than most of the other Mogwai, but with some of the variety we have been as of late, she fits in well with the wide spectrum of colors. Patches, while aptly named, is probably most like the Mogwai that have come before, and honestly, he fits in best with the main Mogwai cast from the second movie. I can see him running amok with Lenny, George, and Daffy within the Clamp compound quite easily.
It is Gary, though, the one with the regular-Joe name, that is most certainly the most visually striking. This is the first time that we have seen in this line, or otherwise, a Mogwai that is a solid color. Not just any solid color either — Gary is bright white, and I don’t know if that is a taboo or a sign of strangeness amongst Mogwai, but Gary has quite the scowl, so I will just assume that it is. I really like this, though, and while it makes him very unique, he stands out but blends right in all at the same time. I am not sure if that makes any sense, but his uniqueness stands and keeps with the diversity of his brethren.
Finally, these guys make use of the standard roller-ball eyes that we have seen in all of these since NECA picked the line back up again. It works as well as it has in the past, and that is to say that it is an okay feature, but I am not really a huge fan of it. The concept is cool, but the production execution is so-so, and it is hard to get both eyes to line up just so. Even then, they won’t stay unless you reinsert the included plastic clip, and I suggest that you do. I don’t see this feature changing any time soon, but I would have been perfectly fine with just regular old painted eyes.
More Mogwai! More Gremlins! I hope there are still some concepts left in that treasure trove that NECA has been tapping because I would very much like to see these little guys continue. Like I said, I love this property so much, so as long as NECA keeps making them, I will keep buying them. I am very excited that the Bat Gremlin is coming this year, and a new Mohawk next year, and hopefully Greta and the Veggie Gremlin will join him. That would take care of those that are 100 percent essential, but even more so than the fur balls, I will buy ANY Gremlin NECA offers up from now until we are eventually overtaken by the real ones.
Additional Links
