Hail to the King (of Megos) Baby: Retro Ash is Here

Retro or otherwise, NECA’s new Evil Dead 2 figure is the best Ash ever.

Right now, I feel we’re at the peak when it comes to retro styled toys.  But as commonplace as they’ve become, there are always those few figure that rise above the pack and become something truly memorable.  I guess the exact same description can be applied to horror movies, and much like his big screen counterpart, the latest Ash action figure from NECA is definitely worth remembering.

This 8″ version of Ash sees our hapless hero in Mego-like style, complete with a cloth outfit and the same base body NECA developed and first used for the Django Unchained series.  It’s a good body, with decent articulation that is reminiscent of what we would have seen in the late 70s, while feeling much more solid and study than the hollow-bodied actual Mego dolls.

While the concept with these Mego-like figures typically revolves around new clothing on the same body, Ash gets quite a bit of new tooling– his chainsaw hand, a new left hand which grips his sawed-off shotgun, and the holster for the gun complete with chest straps.  And, of course, an all new head sculpt, featuring NECA’s best take on Bruce Campbell yet.  This portrait is packed with personality, to the point where looking at it from different angles brings out a variety of expressions, ranging from cool and action ready, to terrified, to utterly clueless.  All three expressions fit Ash perfectly, so what we get here is perfect.

NECA did a great job with the clothing on this figure, as well.  One of the big dangers of cloth outfits in this scale is lack of fitting– it’s easy for the clothes to be made too big, and have the figure inappropriately bulky while wearing them.  Ash’s outfit fits the figure quite naturally, and the torn section on the chest, sleeve and pant leg add both screen accuracy and flair to the toy.

Between paint and dye, Ash is also one of the most detailed retro figure I’ve ever seen.  His shirt gets a very good dye job, intended to replicate the bloody, wet, overall nasty end result of the garment in Evil Dead 2.  It looks very realistic, and meshes wonderfully with the nicks and scars on Ash’s face and the mud and dirt finish on his arm and chest, adding a subtle sense of realism to the stylized action figure.

I’m very happy with this figure.  He looks great, and manages to bridge the gap while fitting into both the retro aesthetic and serving as a cool, modern toy at the same time.  NECA went all out to deliver their best Ash figure yet, and the effort and attention to detail was completely worth it– this guy is well designed, incredibly fun to play with, and just plain cool!