By JAMES BURRELL
With Halloween slowly creeping up on us, Funko has kicked off the season with an assortment of new horror film and TV-themed releases in its massively popular POP! figure line. The company has unveiled a collection of creepy offerings on its website in a yearly ode to all things spooky which it has dubbed “Funkoween.” The lineup includes new and soon-to-be released stylized vinyl figures of the extraterrestrial menace from Alien: Romulus, Terrifier’s Art the Clown, the Red Faced Demon from the Insidious franchise and two new Halloween-themed variants of that pint-sized mass murderer, Chucky.
It’s been 45 years since audiences were introduced to one of the scariest movie monsters ever to grace the silver screen: the fearsome Xenomorph (designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger) of Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece, Alien. Now, Funko has marked the arrival of the latest installment of the franchise – this time helmed by director Fede Álvarez – with four releases from Alien: Romulus. There are main characters Rain and Andy, and two versions of the Xenomorph: standard and “scorched” variations. While Andy and Rain are the typical POP! size of 3.85 to 4 inches tall, respectively, the “Super POP!” Xenomorph figures stand much larger at nearly 6.5 inches tall with the accompanying circular clear plastic base. The impressive looking Xenomorph figures feature fantastic sculpts (of note is the work on the tendons, spikes, barbed tail, clawed hands and feet), with the paint apps bringing out details of the creature’s iconic biomechanical design. A great touch is the inclusion of the opaque plastic dome atop the creature’s elongated skull.
Created by filmmaker Damien Leone and making his debut in Leone’s 2008 short film The 9th Circle, the sadistic, hat-sporting Art the Clown has become a modern horror icon, with his bloody antics in the films Terrifier and Terrifier 2 reportedly prompting some audience members to throw up or pass out. With the newest film in the series, Terrifier 3, hitting cinemas this October, Funko has released four different figures for the character: one brandishing a knife, another riding a tricycle, a bloodied version and a Funko website exclusive of the character sporting his colorful sunflower sunglasses. A “bloody” chase variant of the exclusive figure features blood spatter on his head, hands and black and white clown outfit.
With 2010’s Insidious, director James Wan introduced moviegoers to the Red Faced Demon (aka the Lipstick-Faced Demon) – a malevolent entity with a desire to possess others. Featured throughout the Insidious franchise (which to date consists of five films) the character has finally been rendered into figural form, courtesy of Funko. Like his appearance in the films (only a tad cuter), the Red Faced Demon figure features his trademark red and black-hued face with yellow eyes, and sports clawed hands, a tail, molded black fur and cloven hooves. Another evil character from the series, the Wheezing Demon, is also slated to be released soon.
Everyone’s favorite homicidal doll, Chucky, has received two new special variants in time for Halloween: a Good Guy Chucky (sitting inside a carved jack-o’-lantern) and the more evil-looking standard version with stitched up face and sporting a miniature axe. Both releases feature orange, black, yellow and green color schemes.
SRP is around $12 USD for the standard releases ($15 for the Art the Clown exclusive); and $25 USD for the larger-sized Xenomorph figures.
