Horrorhound Weekend is happening tomorrow in Cincinnati, which was supposed to be the reveal date for the next figure in the Cryptozoology line currently being developed by sculptor Jean St. Jean. The HorrorHound seems to be the mascot of the weekend event or Horrorhound magazine. Either way, the figure doesn’t disappoint!
Kind of a Frankensteined zombie werewolf from the looks of it. And I’m excited. I don’t really have a lot of beasts in my collection and from the looks of it, I’m going to finally be adding some. Hopefully quite a few.
For reference, here’s the Horrorhound flyer from 2011.
The Bigfoot figure was revealed a few weeks ago but a digitally colored version showing off more of the sculpt popped up.
Jean joined the forums to explain the design choices. In his own words:
Hey guys, thanks for your feedback and enthusiasm for the inaugural line of Creatureplicas cryptpids! Just to clarify a few things up front. This line is something I’ve wanted to do for years. Only recently the opportunity was presented to me to execute it in the way I’ve always seen it. Based on witness reports, native american folklore and of course my own particular subjective spin and sculptural style. I’ve always disliked the murderous monster depiction of sasquatch. We chose this scale as a compliment to 6 and 7″ action figure lines. What that means is that if a 6 ‘ human figure is 7″ , then a 8-9’ sasquatch is 8″. The majority of reports and *alleged* witness sightings have been of a shy retiring creature, so the sculpt reflects that, particularly in the face. The body type and fur color( and there will most likely be a few paint version of this, again based on common sighting data) is kind of a amalgam of the Patterson Gimlin creature proportions( whether you believe the film’s real or not, I’m on the fence myself)combined with the vast majority of again visual descriptions as well as my own personal opinion, that this creature is more of a North American great ape of the pongoid line( asian extraction such as the orangutan, or perhaps Gigantopithecus). Hence the reddish coloring, blackish skin and shorter legs proportionately than a human. The colors in the pic are a bit exaggerated from me screwing with contrast preparing the photos, but he is reddish brown. So everything is deliberate but with specific purpose. I’m not a fan of anything I’ve seen in this vein, but I obviously have a very biased view of the topic as I’ve spent a long time studying crypto stuff in general, particularly sasquatch or relic hominid/ extant great apes around the world.
The upshot of that longwinded explanation is that Creatureplica is allowing me to approach this line with a level of attention and authenticity that hasn’t been given to the topic before. The people I’m working with are also doing it for the same reasons. With that said you’re going to be seeing things that aren’t going to look like the typical versions of cryptids that are generally thrown out there, and crypto toy lines are as rare as the creatures themselves. I also am not going to start out with the same four creatures that everyone starts( and usually ends) with. Also, as I noticed in this thread( yes I’ve been lurking!) there’s question of scope. Consider that werewolves and vampires have a long history in other countries, particularly in european folklore. i.e.:Beast of Bray Road, The Michigan Dogman,the Beast of Gevaudan. You’re not necessarily going to always agree with our choices or my interpretation, but you can rest assured that the quality of the work will carry the ideas. You’ll get to see a few things from HorrorHound weekend next week and then perhaps a teaser for wave 2 when we display wave 1 at SDCC in the Diamond Comic Distributors booth in July. At any rate thanks for reading my ramble and keep an eye out for updates. -Jean
Yup, I’m down. I can’t wait to see the Yeti and find out what the last figure of series 1 will be!
