When I was a kid I thought once of the coolest people alive had to be Vincent Price. He showed up in the coolest places, like The Muppet Show and on an Alice Cooper record. He knew art! He cooked fish in dishwasher! He was in a Tim Burton movie! And as I got older I got to see movies like The Last Man on Earth and The Abominable Dr. Phibes and of course The Tingler, and you know what? Coolest dude ever. Of course I had to have a Kennery figure! Super7 delivered the goods with a little raven - he was also in a movie called The Raven - on an absolutely gorgeous painted cardback. I bring it up because I would argue people will probably be happier with this figure as an art piece hanging on a wall than as an action figure. It's by no means bad, but the lavish Ed Repka painting eclipses the perfectly serviceable action figure body. (Which, I should add, has a really good head on his shoulders.)
A few weeks before this figure showed up, I was on the phone with a pal/peer/colleague/who knows, adult friendships are strange - and he was going on a tear about digital sculpts versus physical sculpts, and how a lot of up-and-coming people who only use digital make a lot of shortcuts. Old Kenner figures like the Cantina aliens had weird arms, strange hunched-over poses, and weird hands - and they were memorable for it. Super7's monsters frequently looked cool for the same reasons, and their Planet of the Apes Cornelius is a magnificent little figure in that grand tradition. Vincent Price looks like was done pretty quickly, or at least, without a keen eye for detail for his body. The head is very good, and that may be enough for a lot of you.
They used a middle-aged portrait of the man on the package, but the head sculpt seems to be a much younger version of the actor. The face is incredibly detailed - that hair is really something! - with piercing eyes, a thin mustache, and fantastic lips. His brow was usually a little furrowed, but this younger, botox'd version of him isn't quite what you want in an idealized recreation of the man. I guess you could argue older Kenner-era figures tended to be baby-faced, but we're probably a little beyond that now. I'm also willing to cut retro sculpts a lot of slack when it comes to accuracy, if it's evocative of the source material I consider it to be successful. And he is! But he typically had the ascot when he was a bit older, so it's a mishmash.
I don't like the body. It's fine - it's rough, really - you can see things like the hands and pant legs look almost like the sculptor did them once, used the copy paste flip tools, and called it a day. The figure's fly on his pants and pockets on his coat are just cut-out raised elements, whereas most retro action figures smooth these in spots to imply they're connected to the rest of the outfit, rather than lay on top like a pepperoni on your pizza. The pose is incredibly stiff, with very straight legs and arms that could really have benefitted from just a bit more bending. It's not bad, but given Super7's usually astute eye for detail it felt like a body that could be in the oven longer.
One thing that really bugged me on Funko-era ReAction Figures returned here - check out his butt. His butt is kind of squared-off when he sits, which isn't exactly a huge deal but the toy sculptors of old tended to do a pretty good job using the torso to hide the rotating elements of the leg on the back of the figure. This is why your Dengar figure has a nice round butt, and why Vincent Price has corners on his legs. I'd also argue the legs are too close together, which prevents him from sitting in some old vehicles and is antithetical to a lot of old Kenner poses. It's also worth noting his shoes are unpainted - this is neither a pro nor a con, as many figures of the 1970s and 1980s skipped paint applications to save money. They did paint the white cuffs on his sleeves, though.
At first glance this is a spectacular figure, and on paper it looked great. The renders were good, the face is good, the suit was... a suit... but it doesn't hold together as well as some of the other gorgeous efforts from Super7. I'm not going to say you should skip it - I'm not hopeful you'll get another new mold - and the little raven buddy is a nice bonus. He can sort of hold it, but if they left it out, I'd still say it's a perfectly fine figure for collectors at around $20. If Super7 wants my notes, I'd say keep the head sculptor on board but maybe let someone else work on the body of your next horror icon in a suit.
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