Series 16: Squeak and Isabel.

(Note: From hear on out, I'm going to change the Sculpt category to Face and hair. 'makes more sense this way.)



It seems like just a few weeks ago everyone was talking about series 15 and how great it was. Sure, it gave us a much overdue character (Death), and had the lovely Gypsy and underappreciated Flamingo, but as a whole, that set didn't do much for me. One reason being that none of them aside from Death really looked dead. Looking at some of the series before 15, the only one I can say that really did much for me was 11. On top of that, LDDs had been getting screwed with some problems that have yet to be fixed. Things like long leg syndrome, cheap dye for clothing which ends up staining the doll bodies, and my major gripe- a lack of accessories. Give me one good reason why Gypsy didn't come with an accessory. That lame "talking board" doesn't count.

But with series 16? Things are definitely looking up. The creators went with a theme for all the dolls- Halloween. Why it took them this long to do a Halloween theme, is beyond me, but hey they finally did it. Each doll has their own unique costume, and they look great, especially when displayed together. While I don't know if I'll shell out the money for the other 3, today I'm reviewing the two that stood out the most to me: Squeak and Isabel. Squeak is a cute little pig girl and Isabel is an eyeless broad. Isabel is also pretty much the "it" doll of this series (like how Rain was THE doll to get from series 11, Frozen Charlotte from 12, etc.), and I'm seeing her going for $15+ more than the others on some sites already. So you might want to snag her right away if you're a completist of just plain love her.

Packaging: ***/*****



Nothing special here- the dolls come packaged in the standard coffin boxes with the transparent lid so you can see what you're getting before buing. Though in another LDD first, the dolls from this series feature orange tissue paper instead of the usual red, pink or green. Their chipboard poems have their prototype images on them as well. All the accessories are on the back of the cardboard with the tissue paper on it, so if you get a doll and see it doesn't have the mask on, don't worry.

Face and hair: Squeak *****/***** Isabel ***/*****

Let's get my favorite of this series, Squeak, out of the way first. Squeak died via poisoned candy, and she sure looks like it. One look at her face anad you can see that this poor girl's a goner. She's a combination of Lulu and Hush more or less, and the look turned out fantastic. Veins about ready to burst from right under the skin, a little bit of blood coming out of her ears, and her eyes are just plain crazy. My Squeak's paint was VERY clean with no sloppy work anywhere that I can see, which is rare. Her hair is also put in well, and gives her a nice youthful look.





Isabel though...man, it hurts me to say it, but she just doesn't wow me as much as I expected. If you go here:

http://www.sideshowtoy.com/?page_id=4489&sku=6927

You'll see the prototype picture. Notice anything big between that shot and mine at the beginning of this review? Yeah- she's flesh colored and not white like in the prototype. That REALLY bugs me that they changed it at the last minute, as her being white really helped hold her look together, making her look more dead. Now she just looks like a regular person who happened to lose their eyes. Ok ok, this is more of an overall paint issue instead of just the face, but I had to get it out somewhere. Aside from this stupid issue, the paint on her head is average. There were actually some black scuffs on her nose when I got her, but some acetone took care of that in no time. The blood around her eyes is neatly painted on too and looks good. But the hair? Oh lordy, that's another mess. Again, look at the prototype picture. So straight and clean! Here? It's like they figured "oh damn, that actually took a lot of work to make it look that way. Let's just put in 1/3 the effort". It's not terrible, but it could've been a hell of a lot better, that's for sure. They also used glue to hold the strands that fall down at the sites together. It works ok, but I can see it breaking apart fast if you play with the hair even a little bit.



BUT...there's a great bit of detail regarding her face that saves her from a low score, and that's the eye sockets. Normally, they just paint over an empty eye socket with black paint. Here they went the extra mile and actually hollowed them out! Check out this picture and look at Isabel's left eye:



I though this was an amazing feat, as it caught me off guard since I'm used to painted over eyes. Well done Mezco. Now just be sure to use this trick for future dolls that are missing an eye or two!

Outfit: Squeak ****/***** Isabel *****/*****

Squeak's outfit may be simple, but because of this, there's not much to screw up on. It's a simple pink pajama body suit (even her feet!), and it works perfectly. There's some weathering to make her look like she just rose from the ground. Her mittens come off so she can hold the pumpkin pail in her right hand, and...well, there's not much she can do with the open left hand, but it does have a hole in the palm to hold previous accessories that had pegs. There are also six buttons going down the front of the pajamas, though they don't work of course- it's velcro underneath just like most outfits.





One of my favorite things about Squeak overall though, is that they included her pig tail. I expected them to leave it out, but there it was in all its resin (or polystone?) glory. Well, ok, I don't know for a fact if it's resin or polystone, but it sure feels like it. It's heavy and doesn't feel like the regular LDD plastic we've had in the past.



Finally, Squeak has regular black shoes. Nothing fancy, and they end up looking like hooves for her outfit. But I might end up displaying her without them on because I just love her pajamas so damn much.

Isabel's outfit though, is just plain perfect. This is the most beautiful dress I've ever seen on a Living Dead Doll, and it's made of a silky smooth material- something I haven't seen on any other LDD I own. Please note that I tried super hard to get good detailed pictures of the dress, but it's so shiny that it reflects light easily, and these were the best I could get!





I was expecting it to be single layered, but again, they went the extra mile and went all out with this sucker. I'm impressed, and the dress itself earns the 5 stars easily. But what REALLY got me were the buttons:



Fucking hell those are rad! The only other thing to talk about here are the boots. Simple in design, these give her a height boost over all my other LDDs, rivaling LeatherFace for the tallest doll spot. We don't get this type very often, so I more or less forgot about the design.



While I appreciate the effort there to add matching boots for her outfit, I wish they had just made some fancier shoes since I personally feel Isabel should be more dainty in apperance. But that's just me. These don't take away from her outfit or the score I'm giving it. She's got this category nailed!

Articulation: Squeak ***/***** Isabel ****/*****

Squeak uses the standard LDD body: articulation at the head, arms and legs, so she gets an average score. Isabel is just slightly above average, but I rounded her score up since I don't do half stars here. Her head and legs get standard articulation, as does her left arm. But her right arm is the same style as LeatherFace's so she can [almost] properly hold her mask. I'm glad they did this with another doll, but there's gotta be another way around this articulation issue. Though at the same time, that'd be cheating previous classic dolls of the same thing. Hey, they could always re-release those ones. Anyways...if you don't have LeatherFace, Isabel's arm bends at the shoulder and right at the elbow/forearm so she can rotate that section of her arm seperately from the shoulder/bicep.

Accessories: Squeak ***/***** Isabel ***/*****

I was originally going to give both these ladies 4 stars here, but that was due to the over-excitement of getting dolls with accessories for a change. I consider accessories for LDDs to be whatever comes in the baggie behind the cardboard with tissue paper. So the masks here are accessories rather than parts of the outfits, despite being intended as that. Squeak obviously comes with her pig mask. It's insanely creepy to look at on its own, but when she wears it, it's downright uncomfortable to see in-person. The mask is made of a very thin plastic (like a regular, real Halloween costume's), so be careful when handling this, as it could be crushed very easily. The elastic band is thick and sturdy, and after seeing it, I wasn't worried one bit that it might snap (like a certain Sybil's did). Like the rest of Squeak's costume, this has some weathering too. 'cool of them to do that instead of leaving it clean.



Isabel comes with her eye mask on a stick. The stick looks a little odd since it starts out thick and gets lopsided towards the top, but whatever. The eyes painted on it look good, and have some make up around them to look like the real thing (well, in the LDD world I mean).



Again, I didn't expect them to do much with this, and as a result, I got surprised. The back of the mask has bloody spikes that actually go into Isabel's eye sockets, and she can wear the mask and have both hands free!



Now for the thing that helped earn both dolls an average score. See, before they were released, all the pre-order pages for the dolls mentioned something. Here's the exact quote:

"BONUS: Each figure includes a pumpkin trick-or-treat bag! Each doll is packed carefully, exhumed in its own coffin with a unique death certificate. Don't miss series 16 -- They've passed away, now it is time to play."

Did you read that carefully? "pumpkin trick-or-treat bag!". Bag. BAG! Wouldn't you assume that it means that each one will come with like a plastic bag to put candy in while you go trick-or-treating or visit Halloween parties? Yeah, me too! But nope. Imagine my surprise when I opened Squeak first and didn't see any cool LDD plastic bag in the back of her coffin, but instead found this:



'looks more like a pail or bucket than a bag to me. Isabel has one too, so it's a safe bet that all the dolls have the same one. It's nice that they gave them both these accessories, but I'd have been happier with a cool LDD bag that Kairi could use when she goes trick-or-treating this year. Oh well. That, again, doesn't hurt the score here.

Value: ***/*****

Each doll cost me $26.99. That's either the same, or a dollar more than what those from series 15 cost me back in March. Blame oil prices, blame the economy, blame kids that listen to Nickelback, it doesn't matter. These are average prices. But with these two, I felt like I got my money's worth (even with Isabel's flesh-ness and shoddy hair). Had the detail on he faces not been there, or had Isabel's dress not been what it is, the score would've dropped a little.

Closing:

What else can I say? I've already wildly masturbated over how much I love Squeak, and how beautiful Isabel's dress is. These are two great dolls worthy of anyone's LDD collection. They've just started shipping on the west coast this week, so like I already said, get Isabel fast if you like her even the slightest bit! She'll definitely be the one everyone's going to go for immediately. And eventhough I didn't review the other 3, from what I saw, they don't look like they'll be as hot of sellers as her. Regardless, this is a great series of dolls that'll look awesome displayed together, and especially if you have Hemlock and Honey. Don't wait to pick them up though- with Halloween just a little over 2 months away, I can see LDD collectors and non-collectors buying these for sheer Halloween decoration purposes.

LeatherFace.

Last December, my wife bought me the Mezco Cinema of Fear Stylized LeatherFace. She forgot that I told her he completely sucked when I saw him in-person, and I went to take his sorry-ass back to Spencer's, hoping for a refund. Thanks to their great policy, they would only allow an in-store exchange, or give me a gift card. Going with the gift card at first, I ended up settling on the Living Dead Doll version of LeatherFace, since my daughter, Kairi, could always use a cool looking baby doll. Of course, she loved it, and hugged him upon opening the box.

Now, before that, I thought Living Dead Dolls were pretty lame. When I was in school, all the mall goth-type kids talked about them. And those that I had seen prior to LeatherFace, were all mall goth-type dolls. None of them appealed to me, and I usually ignored them when visiting a comic store. But after getting LeatherFace and checking out the Archive at livingdeaddolls.com, I saw that there were a few pretty cool ones that I wanted to get. So in turn, LeatherFace started a new hobby/interest. Luckily, it's been one that both my daughter and I share, which has made it better than any previous ones I've had. You can sure as hell bet that her first Show And Tell time at school will be an interesting one!

So, starting this review site, I'm going to start it off with the first LDD that we bought: LeatherFace. If you're unfamiliar with toy reviews, they usually break things down into a few categories like packaging, sculpt, design, accessories, articulation and value. I'll be doing that and using the 5 star system where 1 = horrible and 5 = excellent.

Packaging: ***/*****



Most LDDs come packed in a coffin box with a clear lid so you can see the doll. LeatherFace comes in a unique, regular window box with a flap that features some pretty cool art. It's just a shot of him, but it's menacing enough to make you want to lift the flap and check out what's behind it. He's in a great pose with his chainsaw, probably ready to take out Franklin (that putz...).



Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing about this box. The inside cover is blank, there's just a take on the intro to TCM on the back, fixed to work with the toy, and there's not much else. While it's nice that he got his own special box, it's that of any regular toy's, and not very LDD-ish. Then again, LeatherFace isn't dead, so I can see why they'd avoid the coffin altogether. But aside from the front graphic, it's just too boring for me. For what it's worth, the artwork right behind the doll tries to recreate LeatherFace's kitchen with all the skulls and pelts on the wall, but it's too blown up to look good. Also, the flap closes via a spot of velcro.



Sculpt: ***/*****

In all honesty, LeatherFace doesn't translate that well to LDD form. In most of the movies, he's a big, husky guy. Out of all of the LDDS, there's only been ONE fat doll. Rather than fixing up that one, they more or less gave him the standard body, but did a completely different head sculpt for him, and it looks great. Looking over the head, it's really cool to see the cuts and bumps in the face mask. They even used leather straps at the ends to give it a handmade look!





But...just as with the packaging, it's the front that gets all the detail, as the back of his head is almost completely fresh. There are no cuts, bumps, or anything to match the great detail of the face. They didn't even give it a darker tone. Also, while it's not really a sculpting issue, the hair is a major mess. It's too thin and whimpy, and it's pretty much impossible to get it to look like the prototype images and box art's. I've tried getting it wet, using gel and several other things, and it always seems to revert back to whimpy. Maybe if they added more strands of hair, it would've fixed the problem, but they didn't, so it's holding the score back a bit.



Outfit: ***/*****



The rest of LeatherFace is pretty bland. He has a white blood-stained apron, rather than his traditional yellow one. That actually was the first thing I noticed being wrong with his look, and it's an eyesore since I'm a huge LeatherFace fan. He has his trademark tie, which is fairly accurate, as well as the short sleeved work shirt (with stripes??) and work pants. Probably the best feature of his outfit is the boots, which are completely new, and weren't recycled from any previous LDD.



These suckers are long, as you can see in the picture, and have a nice little design on them. Also, they aren't platforms like some other LDDs have to make them look taller. LeatherFace himself is actually a bit taller than the other dolls, so it's not the boots here, which was a nice change. They also have some blood on them, a nice touch.

I don't know what it is, but even if the apron were yellow, there's still something that looks off to me with the outfit. Maybe it's just because he's not bulky enough. Maybe it's the white shirt. I can't put my finger on it, even 8 months after buying the doll.

Articulation: ****/*****

LeatherFace has more articulation than any other LDD I've owned. In addition to the head/neck, shoulders and legs, he also has articulation at the forearms/wrists, which he kinda needs in order to hold the chainsaw. It was a great design choice and I wish they would've made this the standard instead of stopping with him. Since his release, there have been 2 other series released, and none of them featured this articulation. What gives?

Accessories: ***/*****

Good ol' LeatherFace comes with just one accessory- his trusty chainsaw. Even after converting it to LDD scale, it looks screen-accurate and fantastic. It's splattered with blood on both sides too- something that toy companies in the past have overlooked.





While an excellent accessory in its own right, there should've been more. I've noticed that through the line of LDDs, less and less accessories have shown up. The first couple of series had a whole bunch, and more recent releases have been lucky to get anything at all. And being one of the more unique killers in horror movies, LeatherFace sure as hell could've had more. A bucket, a hammer, some sausages, anything!

And I can't dock the score for this, but as mentioned earlier, since he's not dead, he doesn't come with a death certificate.

Value: ***/***** original price, ****/***** current price

When he came out late last year, LeatherFace retailed for $30. That's about $4 more than the average LDD. Now, if you can still find him in stores, he should be on clearance. I recently saw one Spencer's carry him for $13, and a number of online retailers have him for about the same price. If you were interested before but didn't want to spend $30 on him, now would be a good time to do so. But then again, I don't expect him to jump in value for a long time, if ever.

Closing:

With a great head sculpt, above average articulation and a single cool accessory, LeatherFace is still pretty average because of his outfit, horrible hair and the lack of more accessories. Even with being an exclusive (though not much of one since he's exclusive to TWO stores instead of one), he seems like a bit of a rushed doll, so it gives me higher expectations for the second LeatherFace coming out this year- the dinner party version! I say he's a cute doll, but nothing too special. If there's money burning a hole in your pocket, go for him. Otherwise, save your money for one you've wanted for a while, or one of the newer ones that's sure to sell out quickly.