Frozen Fright, Johnny Hammer-stix, Buck Wilde Christmas Series S.L.U.G. Zombies Minifigures 3-Packs Item No.: Asst. 42002 No. 58026 Manufacturer: Jakks Pacific Includes: 3 figures, poster Action Feature: n/a Retail: $3.99 Availability: November 2012 Other: Not bad for the price
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It's the season for Christmas S.L.U.G. Zombies! I've been sitting on these fully-photographed M.U.S.C.L.E.-inspired figures since, the metadata says, 2012. Ten years! They're still pretty cool, but as you can see, they're long gone. You can get Frozen Fright, Johnny Hammer-stix, Buck Wilde on eBay at prices that are, I must say, not actually bad considering their relative obscurity.

The repack Buck Wilde, is your pink human who has to fight the green zombies. He's generic enough to be hard to sue for copyright infringement, but you can probably squint and go "hey... you look familiar." The slightly tattered duster has a sheriff's badge on it, and he has nice boots to go with his hat. He also has a nice grimace, giving you the action hero you need to fend off the festive, undead hordes.

The Frozen Fright figure is utterly ridiculous. I guess it's a guy in a snowman suit, because you can see exposed bones under the melted snow and buttons. And he's got boots. You can see a cruel mouth, decaying eyes, a carrot nose, and some sort of claws. As an art project it's fanciful and weird, and gross, but certainly creative. Since these figures debuted in 2012 we've seen a heck of a lot more weird skeleton decorations for Halloween - dogs with ear bones, things like that - and this seemed to be at the tip of the spear. It evokes a feeling, and if you can turn off any sort of sense when it comes to bones in a snowman it's a fun little figure.

Your all-purpose Christmas drummer is Johnny Hammer-stix, and he's got bones for drumsticks. Because of course he does. The detail on this figure is really great - the uniform is torn, the eyes are bulging and creepy, and the grotesque smile with protruding teeth shows a lot of time and care went in to making this face really stand out. Even 10 years later I look at this and impressed by the subtle wrinkles and intentional depth to bring him to life - the holes in the eyes add shading in a world without paint, and the shoes once again look pretty good. The hands are huge, but at this scale, they tend to need to be. It's particularly interesting (and vexing) to see "retro" action figures come out in the last year or two with much softer sculpted detailing when old Keshi figures like this are just fine and so were the 1980s Kenner originals, but I digress. Johnny turned out really well, and while I don't find him as delightfully weird as the other figures in the holiday collection, he's great.

Looking back on doing Figure of the Day, it's amazing to see trends that popped up - and died. For a year it seemed like cheap, unpainted figures could be the wave of the future. We're still getting some here and there, but Super7's M.U.S.C.L.E. came and went. Hasbro abandoned its lower-end toys almost entirely. October Toys went away and took O.M.F.G. with it - and the indie sibling lines also came and went. The good news is that there are a lot of mini figures like this to collect if you want them, and they're generally pretty affordable. Sadly Hasbro and Mattel lost all interest in little mono-color minis, but eBay and flea markets may yield some fun finds if you're willing to hunt. I like these figures a bunch - but I also haven't done much with them in the decade they've been in my home. I'm glad they exist.

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See more S.L.U.G. Zombies figures in Figure of the Day:
Day 471: Jakks Pacific S.L.U.G. Zombies Macho Mangler, Flesh-Eatin' Phil, Buck Wilde Minifigures 3-Pack
Day 503: Jakks Pacific S.L.U.G. Zombies Extra Crispy, Zero Hero, Riled-Up Riley Minifigures
Day 545: Jakks Pacific S.L.U.G. Zombies Hungry Humbug, Nutty Nate, Captain Payback Minifigures
Day 818: Jakks Pacific S.L.U.G. Zombies Ralph Reindead, Surprise Demise, Blazin' Basel Minifigures 3-Pack
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