A fascinating mash-up of eras gone by, Frankenstein from Super7 brings back something that now seems like it might be part of our ongoing cultural heritage. Or maybe it's about ten years from never being heard from again. Universal Studios' classic monsters are iconic, sequelized, and rebooted - but the staying power of the originals is intense. They're not necessarily even the original versions of the movie monsters, but technology kept them in circulation. Thanks to television in the 1950s needing programming, and kids loving monster movies, an entire generation of kids (and their kids) got to see these movies over and over much like the VHS generation had their favorites.
You can see a parade of influences in this figure. It's a 1931 movie, showed on TV to kids of the 1950s and beyond, made to mimic the style of late 1970s toys, for adults around 2018. It's been rerun and repainted several times, so what on paper feels like "so who is this for?" turns into a very easy "me, of course." Classic horror wasn't a huge part of my own childhood but awareness was high thanks to other movies, cartoons, and stories referencing Boris Karloff's monster. The influence of these characters - and toys - are so strong, you can probably name at least one piece of culture that thrives thanks to the work of 1930s cinematic craftspeople. Tim Burton's delightful Ed Wood name-checks Karloff in some of the funniest ways imaginable, which I shall not print here. Just watch the movie. You're welcome.
The figure itself is a winner. He's a little wider than I would think, but it makes sense given that classic Kenner-style toy sculpting of the 1970s and 1980s would play up a character's aura as much as the accuracy of his or her build. Vader's a little short, Leia's a little tall, and Frankie's Monster here works within the confines of a specific era. He lacks the eyeblack of the movie costume - not abnormal of Carter-era action figures - but instead blacks out the eyes, and adds a painted scar on the forehead. The neck bolts are painted too, making this figure with about the least amount of color possible to turn out a convincingly retro appearance. Perhaps Kenner would have left the scar or bolts and stitches unpainted, but we'll never know. What we do know is Remco made him a little skinnier, kept some of the eye black, and absolutely painted the scar red. It's not identical to the movie, but it feels "right." As if he were in a line-up, someone would go "That's right officer, he threw the girl in the lake."
The costumes of this and other classic horror monsters seem to get reinterpreted by new style guides and products every few years, and aging fabric makes it hard to know for sure if they got it right or not. I'm looking at a photo of the alleged real costume right now, and it looks like a black jacket. Stills from the movie also look black. Remco's figure looked like a black coat, but Burger King's 1997 figure looks a lot like this one. When Funko made a Frank, he had a gray coat. Which is right? No doubt film historians will continue to debate this, as the intent of a black-and-white movie can be hard to guess as the idea was to have a ghostly white monster, which was done with green make-up. So is he green? Pale? What was the hope of the director? I don't know. But it's a neat figure that looks like other color representations of the character in recent years.
The sculpt is very good, adding buttons and wrinkles and shoe lifts to the costume with a wide build giving a sense of his lumbering gait. The hands are also very Kenner-like, with a right hand that could grip an accessory, and a left hand that couldn't. Posing him with his arms slightly raised really gives a strong sense of the character, even with the limitation of a mere five points of articulation. After 90 years I doubt anyone would declare this or any figure "definitive," but it certainly seems like the best retro interpretation of the figure right now unless you want that black jacket. Super7 also sells a version of Frank in a box with a fire background that may be truer to that interpretation of the figure in color, but I prefer this one's face paint so I got this one.
Most movies pre-Star Wars had one creature (or species) per film, so it makes sense that the one guy who really freaked kids out per movie could resonate with audiences for nearly a century. The very notion of a person brought back to life out of dead body parts works for all kinds of movies or books, but this is the one to beat. Between Herman Munster and Young Frankenstein, people are going to keep riffing on the idea and I have no doubt Universal has dozens of scripts to try to bring him back for a modern audience - but the flat-top, neck-bolt, mumbling monster is probably the one that people are going to picture for decades to come. As plastic anachronisms go this is a good one, you could picture it palling around with Darth Vader or Baron Karza and today, he can do just that.
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