“Blaaaaarrrgghhhhh. Yaaarrrrrrrrrrghghhhhhhh.” –Riot Gear Zombie
What would The Walking Dead be without zombies? You know, the key driving force behind the story. Ironically, the zombies tend to be the least interesting aspect of the show. It’s tough to compete with the appeal of Michonne, Daryl, Merle, and the whole Rick vs. the Governor plot line, and while we can easily get all too wrapped up in all the drama surrounding those characters, sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that there are zombies around. What’s also ironic is that, at least in my area, these two zombies here have been the most difficult figures to track down from the wave. It’s still too early to be able to determine exactly why that is, but it’s probably safe to assume that they’re either very popular, or they’re shortpacked. I like to believe that they’re simply disappearing from the pegs fast because they’re pretty great as far as zombie action figures go.
They’re very similar looking, but fortunately it’s actually pretty difficult to mistake one for the other due to the packaging design. I had to dig through a fairly substantial amount of Ricks, Carls, and Governors to find these two on the shelf at my local Walgreens, but I was stoked when I did find them because I really think they’re my favorites from the wave.
When I first saw them, I thought they were the same figures with different heads, but there are actually quite a few differences. McFarlane seems to have gone through a good deal of effort to ensure these two don’t look exactly alike despite their sharing several key parts.
Differences include paint details, body armor (shoulders and back), shoulders, forearms, and heads. That’s about it, but the paint details somehow make them look more different than they actually are.
They’re not the most articulated figures we’ve ever seen, but they’re about average for a modern McFarlane figure. There’s a decent range of motion in their arms, and they have what feels like a ball-jointed waist that actually moves pretty smoothly. Their legs are very limited at the hips, but not nearly as bad as the Governor’s or Rick’s. They also have knee and ankle joints, but they’re not all that useful since their upper legs don’t move all that much. They can’t get in any crouching poses, but as zombies, do they need to do all that much? So long as they stand there looking disgusting and scary, then my needs are met.
Where these zombies really shine is their head sculpts and the special features included with each head sculpt. The sculpts are just fantastic and the paint work really adds a lot in establishing just how gross these two look. This particular zombie comes sporting a removable gas mask. The kicker here is that when the mask is removed, the zombies entire face comes along with it. So awesome and gross.
It really looks as though someone — maybe Merle? — carved the skin around the zombie’s face to ensure that it would peel right off to reveal the gruesome treat concealed underneath.
The sculpt is so awesome and disgusting, and the blood looks like that perfect midpoint between blood and barbeque sauce. McFarlane is the company that really put horror figures on the map back in the ’90s, and it’s great to see they haven’t lost their touch here.
As fun as the Gas Mask Riot Gear Zombie is, this standard Riot Gear Zombie is definitely my favorite of the two. That face looks so creepy and scary just staring out from beneath the mask. The blood splatter on the mask looks so realistic, and McFarlane seems to have kicked up the realism on this guy in general to an awesome degree.
The mask raises and we get a better look at the chewed-up face. The blood has a slight gloss to it that makes it look moist and fresh. So gross. So awesome. I haven’t been all that enamored by the Walking Dead zombie figures so far, not even Michonne’s pets, but these two were must-haves for me. I may be army-building them. They’re easily my favorite zombie figures since ThreeA’s Action Portable Zombs.
And this is feature is just fantastic. That knife sticking out of the zombie’s neck is removable. It slides out to reveal just a little more gore by way of a blood-stained knife. I didn’t even realize the knife was removable and just assumed it was a permanent fixture on his neck, but I decided to tug on it just for the heck of it when, to my astonishment, it just slid right out. Now, McFarlane certainly deserves a lot of the criticism tossed their way, but they really know how to do horror figures right. This really is a super cool feature that makes a good figure seem even better.
Like all the other figures from this wave, these two can be had at Walgreens stores as we speak (if you can find them, that is). Their availability will be much more widespread in a couple weeks, though. I’m pretty happy with this entire wave for the most part, but these zombies are the stars of the wave as far as I’m concerned. And since it’s almost October — and Halloween — what could be better than two gruesome zombie action figures to get the place in the spirit of the season?