Jason Voorhees is no stranger to being immortalized in plastic. Throughout the years there have been a slew of Jason figures of varying degrees of quality readily available to fans and collectors alike. I myself can trace back the beginnings of my current collecting habits to one fateful day in 1998 at a Spencer's Gifts store in the mall, where I first laid eyes upon a Jason figure from the very first Movie Maniacs series from McFarlane toys. I was majorly impressed with the sculpting detail put into the piece. It was something I had never seen before in an action figure. At the time I wasn't really a collector per say, but I figured, well this would be cool to have on a shelf somewhere since my name is Jason, and I was a fan of the character and horror films in general. Fast forward to 2015 (yikes, that was 17 years ago) and horror collectors (myself included) have a new go to company for their fix, NECA. 

NECA (National Entertainment Collectibles Association) burst onto the action figure scene in 2002 (or so my quick Google search would leave me to believe). One of the first figures they released which quickly helped make a name for themselves was an 18 inch Jason figure from Friday the 13th part 7. This was something fans of McFarlane's movie maniacs line were clamoring for for years to go along with their Freddy, Michael Myers and Leatherface figures. NECA delivered (along with a long thought to be impossible 18 inch Pinhead figure as well) and from there on never looked back, producing various versions of Jason throughout the years. From the Freddy vs Jason version to the now extremely popular NES Friday the 13th Game inspired 8-Bit Jason. Now they have released the newest and possibly best Jason figure for your collection, Ultimate Jason Voorhees. 

Based on his appearance in the 6th Friday the 13th film "Jason Lives" this version is part of the current Ultimate line from NECA that features definitive versions of iconic characters. They have already released Freddy Krueger, Leatherface and Terminator's T-800. I can safely say Jason is another welcome addition to the series. 

Part of the appeal of the Ultimate line is undoubtedly the packaging. NECA has done a really nice job of designing these thus far, utilizing the always preferred original one sheet poster imagery for the front flap of the box, which opens up to display the figure and all it's accessories. 

As you can see above, the figure comes fully articulated along with a nice stash of accessories. The only thing I would have liked to be included here that isn't is an interchangeable open left hand, but that is a minor quibble. I have read some people state the mask is a bit too narrow and based on some stills from the film, I am inclined to agree, however overall it still looks good and certainly does the job. I especially love the inclusion of the tombstone and fence post. Things like that are what make the Ultimate line extra fun for die hard fans. 

I was really happy they decided to go with this particular version of Jason, as Jason Lives is definitely one of the high points in the series and the look hasn't gotten enough attention when it comes to the merchandise front. It's is an interesting design as it's the first appearance of "zombie Jason" but not the full on rotted look from the following film. One thing to note is that the mask does not have actual eye holes. It is simply painted black where the eye holes would be, whether or not this was done to replicate the fact that in the film the eyes were covered with a black mesh to hide the actors eyes or not is up for debate and something I may ask NECA about. If the covered holes bother you, they can easily be drilled out to make way for the man behind the mask. I initially thought that it would bother me, but upon receiving him, I didn't give it a second thought. The overall paint apps on the figure are very well done and neat. No smudging or bleeding and all the colors are vibrant with the right amount of wash applied to bring out the details of the sculpt. This also helps replicate the appropriate dirt and grit on this clothing, particularly on his gloves. This guy stands out nicely when placed next to other Jason figures, (something I would have illustrated here if I wasn't too lazy to dig out the others I own) and he also looks fresh when surrounded by his other boogeymen brethren. 

Overall this figure is one of NECA's coolest to date and certainly one of the best Jason figures ever made. A few minor nitpicks shouldn't be enough to deter anyone from picking this one up. It is an ideal Jason figure for collectors and casual fans alike. The avid collectors should be happy to add this latest Jason figure to their collection, while a casual consumer, at the price point of only about 22 bucks can add a highly detailed version of this iconic character to their shelf or desk or even under the Christmas tree. NECA has done it again here and shown that the Ultimate line once again lives up to it's name. 

Check out a few more photos we snapped of this badass figure below that should help you decide if it is worth your hard earned moolah.

Blood, Babes, & Boogeymen was one of our main projects for during this past October. The concept was to take a minimalist approach and have our models portray feminine versions of some of horror's most iconic characters. We received a great response to all the individual shoots when we revealed them one by one throughout October. Now that we have had a chance to catch our breath here after the hectic Halloween season, we wanted to revisit this project and shine some new light on it, as some may have gotten overlooked during everything that was going on last month. So here we are revealing a previously unseen photo from each set followed by a link to it's previous post so you can check out any you may have missed. So without further ado...

MARILYN SAYS "YOU'RE NEXT"

The first set we unveiled features Marilyn donning an outfit inspired by the Fox masked killer from director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett's film "You're Next". These were a big hit and even prompted Simon Barrett himself to post the photos and a link to our site on his Facebook page, which for us was the highest compliment. 

To see the rest from this set click here.

DEB REVS UP HER TEXAS CHAINSAW

Next up we have our homage to everyone's favorite skin mask wearing slasher, Leatherface. Deb was great to shoot with and excited to represent Bubba Sawyer in our series. It takes alot to make Leatherface sexy and Deb did it with ease. We love how they turned out and hope you will as well. 

To see the rest from this set click here.

8-BIT ERIKA

Moving on to Crystal Lake we have Erika portraying the ultra popular NES 8-BIT version of Jason Voorhees. Wanting to keep these sets colorful when possible, it was an obvious choice to go with and proved to be very popular. Erika being an avid gamer and already having that amazing hair color also made her the perfect choice to shoot this one with. 

To see the rest of this set click here.

KRYSTAL WILL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER SLEEP AGAIN

Of course, you can't do a Jason photoset without a Freddy Krueger one to compliment it. This whole project concept started from hanging out with Krystal one day and shooting something very similar to these, just for fun and to keep productive, so when it came down to doing them all for real, it was only right to redo the ones we originally took to include in this series. She is always great to work with and this time was no different.

To see the rest of this set click here.

SHEYLA IS READY FOR HALLOWEEN

We couldn't do a series of photos entitled Blood, Babes, and Boogeymen without honoring THE boogeyman. So it was really important to get the perfect model to portray Michael Myers and one look at these photos and we think you will agree, Sheyla was just that. 

To see the rest of this set click here.

As an added bonus here are the full bold colored versions of the images used in the header image for this feature.

For our third installment in our ongoing Blood, Babes, & Boogeymen series, we are taking it back to the year 1989. This was the year that video game publisher LJN released the Friday the 13th Video Game onto the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It was a pitiful game at the time that no one really seemed to really enjoy other than the fact that we were being chased by an oddly colored Jason 8-bit sprite version of everyones favorite Crystal Lake dweller, Jason Voorhees. The game came and went and that was that, outside of a few collectors here and there, no one really care or often times, remembered this game existed.

It wasn't until as recently as 2013 when a poster going by the handle Dogmatic on a message board named Movie Maniacs, decided to repaint his Jason Voorhees figure to match the odd color scheme found in this old game. Well soon after that he showed it to toy company NECA who quickly capitalized on the great idea (giving him credit as well) and proceeded to create an official action figure of this purple and sea blue Jason. Next thing you know, everyone is getting in on the craze and it has now become one of his iconic looks. Thats the short version of that story, Now we get to our shoot.

Erika and I had been wanting to work together on something for a while but never got timing or concept right. When I decided to expand on the Blood, Babes and Boogeymen concept that the perfect opportunity arose. Erika had recently dyed her hair a vibrant shade of blue, it instantly reminded me of the popular NES Jasons mask and I also knew that Erika was an avid gamer and horror fan. So when I asked her about doing the Jason character she was really into it. We figured this would be a much more eye catching version of Jason to interpret and we feel after finishing them up that you would definitely agree. We are definitely excited with the results and are pleased to welcome Erika into the TrueHorror.net family with such a fun shoot. There will be more from this shoot updated to the post soon as well. So be sure to check back soon!