When it comes to Horror, I'm more of a Universal Monsters guy than a Slasher flick guy. But something changed this year with the release of Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th: The Game. I know what you're thinking but no, I haven't actually played these games myself. Instead, I've been watching a bunch of Let's Plays and Live Streams and have enjoyed every minute of them. They both function basically the same; a small group of people try to avoid and escape an area from a classic slasher icon.
While Dead by Daylight added licensed characters like Michael Myers and Leatherface to its roster of original characters, Jason got his very own game. At the same time NECA has been teasing a whole host of Friday the 13th merchandise and with the announcement of the Crystal Lake Accessory set they finally pushed me over the edge and I picked up my very first Jason figure. Why The Final Chapter you might ask. Well because I was at a Toy Con and it was the only one available, and I thought October was the perfect month for some Horror themed reviews. Now, I am new to this whole thing, so please forgive my ignorance when it comes to the films and lore.
It's starting to become hard to differentiate between Standard NECA releases and their Ultimate figures, however I think this falls into the Ultimate territory based on the box. Jason comes PACKAGED beautifully in a five panel window box with a ton of accessories and an alternate head sculpt. The front panel of the box displays the simple but extremely effective poster for The Final Chapter (which I recently learned was actually just Part IV). That front panel flips open to reveal some great figure photography along with a nice big window revealing the figure within.
The box is very collector friendly, with only a piece of tape and a single twist tie standing between you and Jason. My only complaint about the packaging is that the accessories are all held in place with a single layer of tape, meaning most of my murder devices had a sticky residue to them. Also, if you plan to store the figure and accessories inside the plastic tray once you remove the tape there's nothing to hold the smaller accessories in place and they easily slide out a fall all over the place. I would have liked to maybe see deeper slots for the knives and such, or and extra molded plastic piece to keep the tools in place. Other than that the rest of the packaging looks great, and has some beauty shots along with a little blurb on the back of the box. The bottom of the box also has a little credits section (and rightfully so), showing off the team that brought this figure to life.
When it comes to PAINT and SCULPT, NECA absolutely knocked it out of the park. Both head sculpts are beautifully grotesque and intricately detailed. Jason's body is also nice and bulky with plenty of detail work in the clothing. I love the look of the big splayed open collar, and there's really great little details like his shirt cuffs being unbuttoned. I also think this is one of those rare cases where a little bit of slop might go unnoticed, but fortunately there's virtually none to be found. The whole figure is covered in a nice subtle wash of blood and dirt that really makes all the details pop.
At first glance I thought the alternate head might just be one piece with a mask molded to the head while the other sculpt had a removable mask. I was totally wrong and each head has a removable mask, neither of which feel bulky or over sized. NECA did a great job making them fit nice and snug, while also making them easily removable. Each mask is also a slightly different sculpt with one being more rounded with slightly smaller eye holes, and the other being a little more tapered with larger eye holes. The two masks also have slightly different paint applications, most noticeably when it comes to the chevrons.
With two different mask sculpts, Jason also has two slightly different face sculpts. The one is pretty standard while the second has a really neat slot sculpted into the left side of his head. There's a number of accessories that slide neatly in giving Jason the appearance of being chopped in the face with a meat cleaver, or his mighty machete. His mouth also looks like it's opened wider than the so called standard head giving the face some added expression. Each one looks fantastic and I cant get over some of the subtlety in the sculpt and paint work.
ARTICULATION wise, Jason is pretty standard for a modern NECA release. He comes equipped with a ball jointed neck, shoulder, elbows, wrists, hips and knees, with some sort of ball jointed torso and a little something at the ankles. I never could really get the ankles to rock more than a little bit, the sculpted pants and shoes fit together so nicely there's not much room for movement. My only minor nit pick is the elbows. I would have loved to see the great double hinge elbow they used in the Ash vs. Evil Dead line make an appearance here but I'll give them a pass. Jason is more of a lumbering force of nature so I can't see him getting into really deep stances.
Now lets talk about MURDER! Sorry, I mean ACCESSORIES. Jason comes with a plethora of sharp and pointy objects to do away with pesky teens and camp counselors. Jason is armed with a bloody kitchen knife, meat cleaver, bone saw, cork screw, machete, and ax. My only problem with the death inducing armaments is that the ax doesn't have any blood on it while everything else has a nice shiny red splash of it. Maybe he hasn't met the right teenager to introduce it too yet. Surprisingly, with the size of the accessories none of them felt brittle or prone to breakage. I had visions of the cork screw snapping while I tried to put it in his hand but what ever material they're cast in is tough but flexible.
Along with the alternate head sculpt discussed above, Jason also has an alternate right hand. It swaps out easily but also comes off if you play with it too much. Both hands are almost the same closed grip sculpt, but one has a slightly looser grip than the other. So basically one hand works better the objects with a larger handle like the bone saw or meat clever while the other works better with smaller handled objects like the kitchen knife and the machete. They're also on the softer side so it's nice and easy to wrangle objects into them. The final accessory is Mama Voorhees' Head Stone. It has a nice and simple sculpt, with beautifully painted letters on it with a great dirty granite finish.
OVERALL, I highly recommend this figure not just to horror fans but to action figure collectors as a whole. The Final Chapter Jason is beautifully sculpted, expertly painted, and loaded with a whole host of great accessories. NECA once again proves they are masters at their craft and I'm eagerly awaiting the Camp Crystal Lake Accessory set. But in the mean time, where are my Ash vs. Evil Dead series 2 figures at?
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