Unintentionally Freaky Figure: Clown from 3553 Circus Arena

One of the fun things about toy collecting-- or being a packrat-- is seeing old stuff in a new light when sorting through figures. I kept my "vintage" Playmobil-- the pre-1990 stuff from when I was a kid-- separate from the "modern" stuff, or "what I've bought since college." (There was a big gap in there.)

From the Red Circus Arena, the clown (pictured) is surprisingly freaky. The set is fairly standard fare-- a ring, a band, some nifty vac-metal instruments-- but holy crap, look at this thing. In a post-Dark Knight world the various lines and red markings are just a little more creepy, but here's where it gets really good. Those red lines on his face are not merely painted-- they're carved in. Not content to merely paint the face, Playmobil went the extra mile to really engrave the look on his face.

This sort of attention to detail-- molding elements versus painting them-- is something we'll look at a little more in the future. But for now, I gave the closest thing I've seen to a Playmobil slasher star one of my spare knives so he can HAUNT ALL YOUR DREAMS. Enjoy.