Mezco’s One:12 Collective line has generated an impressive mix of curiosity and excitement since its launch, with a rock-solid offering of characters spread across a number of properties. Personally speaking, the release that excited me the most was the Universal Studios Frankenstein figure, which we’re looking at here today. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some superheroes, but the stable of characters that I will always rank above all others is the original Universal Monsters, and I can’t imagine a better character than Boris Karloff’s iconic Frankenstein’s Monster for Mezco to kick off their collection of One:12 Collective Universal Monsters. So how does the figure actually fare? Let’s take a look!
The packaging is the standard bulletproof Mezco One:12 Collective box. Everything is packed super securely with a lot of care. There is the usual slipcover, but the graphics are exactly the same as on the box itself, so the slipcover offers an extra layer of security, but nothing unique in the graphics department. And while the graphics are certainly sparse, it captures the spirit of the character and showcases the figure nicely. And since there’s no mention on the box of “Frankenstein’s Monster” and instead just “Frankenstein,” it would seem we can refer to the figure as simply “Frankenstein” without risk of confusion.
The inner tray displays everything you get: the figure, and extra head, swappable hands/forearms, shackles, and a stand. One of the key criticisms of this figure has been how little is offered for the cost, and I was an early critic as well, which is why I waited so long to finally order one. Finally having it in-hand, what I can say about that right now is while there may not be much here, what is here is unexpectedly satisfying.
The figure itself is an incredible rendering of what we saw on screen in the 1931 classic Frankenstein. This is the standard release (there is also a “colorized” PX exclusive available), and his deco is basically a grayscale to replicate the black and white tones of the movie, though the figure’s appearance offers much more depth than that limited palette would suggest. I mean, really — I cannot imagine there ever being a better-realized 1:12 Frankenstein figure. And he is a ton of fun to photograph.
I expected to like this figure, but I absolutely love it. The way the shadows play off his features makes for some great eerie and creepy pics.
There are two head sculpts included. One is the familiar, sad, classic Frankenstein expression. The second is a much more agitated and aggressive expression that nicely captures the rage he experiences during the movie.
The paint work, while seemingly simple in palette, brings out all the anguish and sadness of the phenomenal sculpt underneath. And the slight gloss to the whites of his eyes is so subtle, but it adds such a level of realism to the figure. It’s just incredible how much emotion Mezco was able to capture with this sculpt and a few paint apps.
And light and shadows positively dance around the sculpt.
In addition to two swappable heads, Frankenstein comes with two sets of swappable hands/forearms. In order to keep the sculpt unbroken, they pop off right below the elbow, which is then concealed by the coat sleeve. This makes for a great-looking figure, but it comes at the price of lost articulation points.
Like his facial expressions, the two sets of hands are passive and sad, and then tense and aggressive, respectively. Like his head sculpt, the hands are beautifully painted to bring out the “life” of the sculpt (no pun intended, considering the subject and all).
Frankenstein’s only “real” accessory is a pair of shackles joined by a short chain. The shackles open to fit easily on his wrists, and when applied, they add another layer of depth and purpose to the more aggressive set of head and hands.
As far as his clothing goes, Mezco did a solid job in making his clothing look realistic and convincing. It’s only in strong light where the fabric betrays the scale, but otherwise the jacket, pants, and shirt all look great. And even his boots look convincing (and I had no idea they almost reach his knee).
Now, when it comes to his articulation, I have mixed feelings. One one hand, his range of motion allows him to do everything he needs to do as “Frankenstein,” so that tempts me to justify/rationalize his rather limited range of motion. On the other hand, even though he doesn’t “need” to, I still like it when all my figures can be posed in incredibly dynamic action shots — it helps me to feel as though I’m getting my money’s worth, but Frankenstein’s range of motion is pretty bad. I’ll be posing him in the classic “monster” vanilla pose on my shelf, which I love so I can live with it, but I do wish he were capable of doing more. He has zero hand/wrist articulation, and his knees and elbows are all single joints. His head is on a ball, and his shoulders and hips have a decent range, so he *can* be posed, but then his feet/ankles only have a swivel joint, so that only serves to severely limit posing options.
TL;DR: Just know that in addition to having sparse accessories, his articulation is very limited.
He comes with the standard Mezco One:12 stand (there is the usual attachment included as well, but I didn’t bother with pics), and I have to say I love the graphics on this one. It depicts the life-giving electricity that brought him to life in the movie. It looks great.
He is a tall figure. His boots definitely give him some extra height, making him taller than the average 6-inch figure. He feels satisfyingly large both in hand and when posed with other 1:12 figures.
Whether or not you deem him worthy of what he costs (about $70 before shipping) will ultimately depend on your fondness for the character and property — that is going to make a huge difference. I absolutely love the Universal Monsters Frankenstein, so I was always going to get this guy one day, and now that I have it, I simply cannot imagine a better Frankenstein figure. I really am blown away by this. And now I’m considering picking up the doorway diorama Mezco has available for him. At first I wasn’t interested, but now I really think I want it to round out the “set.”
Given how well this Frankenstein turned out, I’m really fiending for more Universal Monsters One:12 figures. I would love more from the Frankenstein property, like the Doctor and the Bride, and, of course, I would love to see the rest of the Monsters released in the line. Hopefully Mezco has more to announce at SDCC this summer. I know they’ve mentioned that the rights to these characters are difficult to get, so let’s hope they can make something happen.
Mezco’s One:12 Frankenstein is available now:
