It was Halloween day, I was hunting for toys, and I found these The Nightmare Before Christmas Select action figures. How could I NOT buy them?
I’ll be honest. I didn’t know these were coming. I know, terrible toy collector. I blame Star Wars. But my whole family are huge fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I’ve missed out on all previous action figure offerings, so I thought, why not?
These things are impressive in the package. The size and weight threw me off guard when I first picked them up off the shelf. Especially Oogie Boogie. Jack and Sally may not be as heavy, but their bases fill up the large package, and that’s a good thing.
Remember seeing Marvel Select Abominations with the card ripping off the cardback? Diamond has taken this into consideration and placed a clip/zip tie to the side of the packaging to keep this from happening to Oogie Boogie, who nearly matches Abomination in weight.
But out of the package is where the sculpt on these figures shine.
Sure, they are a little out of proportion with what we know and love on the screen, but there is no denying who the figures represent.
The sculpted details are just insane. All of Jack’s pinstripes, the details on Sally’s dress, the burlap texture and stitching on Oogie Boogie — just fantastic all around.
The first thing I noticed on Jack was the head sculpt on the figure didn’t match the promo pic on the back of the package.
But it turns out there are two versions. The release with bases run about $25 and are sold at specialty shops (I got mine at Hastings). But there is also a Toys R Us release without bases that cost $13. Yeah, $13. Oogie Boogie, who is the same in both releases, is $13 at TRU too. So if you need to make a choice, so for the cheaper option. But, the TRU release of Jack also sports the alternate head from the cardback.
I like this head better. It’s a little larger and doesn’t seem as misshapen. It just fits Jack better, I think.
But that close-up also reveals something that you don’t know until you open the package. Well, unless it looks like this in the package. All the limbs are easily removed. Not just that, but the joints themselves are easily removed. The pegs are just a straight bar; they don’t have any kind of mushroom head to hold the joints secure. Don’t get me wrong, they stay in, but they will dislodge if you get crazy with it. Easy enough to put back in, though.
Unless you break a joint. These things are tiny. And I did break a joint. I snapped a peg in the hip trying to get the swivel loose. Because of the size, I wasn’t able to rebuild a working peg, so I had to glue the swivel in place. But in the end, it didn’t really hamper my ability to get some interesting poses.
But to be all bright side and such, I picked up the second TRU Jack because of the head, but it also provides me with extra limbs and joints in case of breakage. And that’s not me justifying a broken toy. It worked out because I wanted both anyway, one for the awesome base and the other for the better (imho) Jack head.
The stand is essential. There is no way that Jack will stand without it. No way. The same goes for Sally. And I think that’s to be expected because of the designs. Tiny feet and limbs, awkward center of gravity. But the stands are pretty nice for a mass retail release. Several hinge and swivels with screws to tighten them up if they become loose. They are also modular, so you can shorten or lengthen them by adding or subtracting pieces. If I had a gripe, it would be that the pegs that go into the back of the figures are a little tight to push in there.
On top of all that, the actual bases have peg holes, so you can pull the bars from the round disk and place them into the environment.
The bases are nice. Super nice. Well sculpted and the colors, while muted, work perfectly.
It took me a minute to figure out where the cat on Sally’s base goes. On the package it shows it down on the ground. Nope, it goes in a slot up on the pillar.
Besides the base, Sally comes with another lower body to allow her to sit. A nice feature since the dress doesn’t allow this pose. She doesn’t like to sit upright without using her arm to prop her up or the base for her to lean against, falling over and back, but it’s still a nice addition.
Oogie Boogie comes with . . . nothing. But the figure is big and heavy and doesn’t leave a lot of room for extras. But he does have an action feature. The face is removable to show the worms and maggots and yucky things.
You can see a seam when the face is on but it’s not really noticeable. What surprised me is the colors involved: the blues and yellows and reds — and they are applied nicely for what it is. That’s on top of the drybrush over the burlap and the paint details of the stitching. Love it.
To give an idea of size, here he is with my ever-present Marvel Legends Black Panther.
And now the part I’ve been putting off. Articulation. To see it all in action, you can check out my video review.
I hadn’t found the TRU Jack at the time I shot this, so disregard my whining about that.
In short, while Jack does have quite a bit of articulation, but it’s kind of frustrating to mess with. Sally’s joints are just not very useful at all. None of it gets very much range of movement. And Oogie Boogie does have a little, but it’s mostly for pose tweaking. So basically, these are statues with articulation. They aren’t meant for play. You’re going to pick a pose and then display them. Move them around a bit later, then leave them on the shelf. And I say that like it’s a bad thing, but it’s really not. They do look awesome on the shelf.
Some pros, some cons, but I’m pretty satisfied with these purchases. I’d definitely be interested in more characters in this line, something to fill out a whole Nightmare Before Christmas display. I’m happy, the wife is happy, and the kids are happy. Win-win-win.
