NECA 8 Inch Evil Dead 2 Hero Ash

Well, this just showed up at my local shop the other day and well, being the huge Evil Dead fan I am I just HAD t get one.

It's not BAD, but there are issues with this figure. I think it pulls clothing off a bit better than their first Freddy did but the thing that brings this figure down is the body underneath the clothing. First is the legs. The thigh sculpt BULGES way too much and the separation between the legs makes him look almost bow legged. You can't see it here because well, I have him at an angle so you can't see it. Then there's the upper torso. It's a bit thick. One thing about figures that have cloth clothing is that you kinda need them to be a bit thin. It's necessary because the fabric at 8 inches is almost the same thickness at full size human clothing and you need to be able to hide that bulk much like how Sideshow Toys' made the 12 inch figures thinner under their clothing so the shirts and pants would look more natural...not that clothing in even a 12 inch scale will look entirely natural mind you. Now NECA figured that out because the fabric is thin, but with the bulky thighs and torso it looks like he's wearing undersized clothing here and there.

Next issue is the articulation...it's not great. I had hoped NECA would use articulation on their 7 inch scaled figures, that being there's a bicep rotation joint or the double jointed hinge and pivot elbows that do the same thing but no, there's NONE here. Same goes for thigh swivels or ankle swivels, which means there's a real lack of poses you can put this into.

Additionally I basically had to take this figure apart. I literally had to take the torso straps off and remove the shirt because the figure was assembled poorly. The right elbow pin needed to be pushed through all the way because it was only partly in and the arm was flopping like it was broken, the glue holding the holster on the straps was coming undone and I needed to re-glue that, and the shirt was folded over itself across his back and was bunching meaning the arms were unable to sit properly. I literally needed...to iron this figures  shirt...yeah.  Can't say my feelings of not being interested in this new line of retro Mego styled figures isn't somewhat justified.

I don't know how much I can recommend any of these figures. With the limited arm and leg joints and issues with the construction, I think you'd be better off buying actual action figures than Mego styled dolls, however, if you're a big fan of Evil Dead (or whatever film the figure is from) you may want this anyway. I try to collect everything I can from the Evil Dead films that's at least affordable and this falls quite well into that category for me...just don't expect anything remarkable out of it.