Mego Leatherface Revealed

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A figure that escaped yesterday’s update was Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Well, Mego Corp has generously provided that image for us as well, below is an updated look at the Leatherface figure, it features a slightly different look from ToyFair 2020 with a new chainsaw.  Join Mego Ambassadors today! You can pre-order any…

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[lordhumongous]

He looks way to thin. Would benefit from some cotton stuffing or a CTVT fat body.

[LonnieFisher]

He looks way to thin. Would benefit from some cotton stuffing or a CTVT fat body.

Or a Mego fat body...

[Meule]

The sculpt is spot on, the bloody apron and the chainsaw are cool too, but why does he have black arms?

[Palifan]

I've been looking at this picture since it first appeared and for me the head crosses over into that more realistic area that isn't quite for me. I do like it (although agree that the body maybe a little on the slim side), but I think for my general horror focus I tend to like characters a little more stylised and less gruesome looking if that makes sense. I'll wait to see how Hannibal Lecter comes out but I'm sure there will be a lot of fans out there for this figure and as Brian always says 'Buy what you like'.

Ian

[hedrap]

This...this is not good.

[Timothy2251]

I'll wait and see what the final figure is going to look like, as this is just the prototype, and looks a bit Photoshopped (the head doesn't quite sync with the figure for some reason). The head sculpt looks great; I like that Mego Corp. is edging into NECA's territory with the more realistic sculpts (i was looking over my NECA retro Leatherfaces and while I can't place the film the Mego Corp. sculpt derives from, it would serve nicely as a "generic" Leatherface for collectors who just want ONE Leatherface for their collections without stressing too much which film/version to choose from. Sort of like "I just want a Dracula - don't care if it's a Lugosi, Lee, etc.").

I would recommend, though, that Mego put Leatherface on a fat body, as Leatherface has a gut (all that red meat - for shame!), maybe lose the shredded sleeves, too. Also, I'd tone down on the blood on the apron - splotches here and there, yes, but with that much blood on the apron as shown, the rest of him should be drenched as well.

[CrimsonGhost]

The head sculpt looks great; I like that Mego Corp. is edging into NECA's territory with the more realistic sculpts (i was looking over my NECA retro Leatherfaces and while I can't place the film the Mego Corp. sculpt derives from, it would serve nicely as a "generic" Leatherface for collectors who just want ONE Leatherface for their collections without stressing too much which film/version to choose from. Sort of like "I just want a Dracula - don't care if it's a Lugosi, Lee, etc.").

The figure and sculpt is from the 2003 reboot.

[ODBJBG]

This is a major swing and a miss. Not sure who this is for? It's not very "Classic Mego" in look or execution. It's closer to NECA in the head sculpt, but if it's appealing to the NECA crowd, NECA has already done this and better? And they did it for the original movie, the one people liked, not the remake. Likewise, outside of the head, everything is awful. So even if you wanted a more "Mego" Leatherface, this isn't it. It's just a really baffling design all around. I'm sure it'll look better when finalized, I'd hope.

[thunderbolt]

This is a major swing and a miss. Not sure who this is for? It's not very "Classic Mego" in look or execution. It's closer to NECA in the head sculpt, but if it's appealing to the NECA crowd, NECA has already done this and better? And they did it for the original movie, the one people liked, not the remake. Likewise, outside of the head, everything is awful. So even if you wanted a more "Mego" Leatherface, this isn't it. It's just a really baffling design all around. I'm sure it'll look better when finalized, I'd hope.

Maybe the remakes were cheaper to get ahold of than the originals?

[CrimsonGhost]

Maybe the remakes were cheaper to get ahold of than the originals?

Someday, maybe after all of this has run it’s course, we’ll all be able to talk about why things happened the way they did.

[sprytel]

This is a major swing and a miss. Not sure who this is for? It's not very "Classic Mego" in look or execution.

You could say the same about Freddie et al. but I'm assuming they are continuing to make these modern horror figures because the previous ones have been successful.

(We also need to remind ourselves that 2003 was still 17 years ago. Sadly, that would have been like a movie that came out in 1960 for Mego 1.0...)

[ODBJBG]

Maybe the remakes were cheaper to get ahold of than the originals?

Oh I'm certain. And with TCM it's a wise move because you could argue that Leatherface is Leatherface, especially in a Mego-esque style, but the very realistic sculpt seems to work against it in this regard.

You could say the same about Freddie et al. but I'm assuming they are continuing to make these modern horror figures because the previous ones have been successful.

(We also need to remind ourselves that 2003 was still 17 years ago. Sadly, that would have been like a movie that came out in 1960 for Mego 1.0...)

Almost certainly the case, but again it just feels like a misstep here. NECA has made 3 or 4 TCM figures at this point, so maybe Mego thinks they can siphon some of those sales but this just doesn't seem to hit either target IMO. Too realistic to be Mego, too Mego to be NECA. I dunno, just my thoughts but of all the new Mego figures this one seems to thread the needle in perfectly missing it's two potential audiences.

[Confessional]

^^ I think this idea that there's still a strong classic-Mego-style vs. everything is really dead; the format (with new ideas inspired-by, and figures made in homage to) is what persists.

While there still are centric collectors that protect their compelling house of cards, there's clearly a much larger, international generation or two that have driven sales for every company other than, and hopefully now including Mego. The 70s are culturally swirled into every decade since. There's nothing to protect or protest here, just more choices. The cultural repetition and economy of the toy/collectibles market has proven this over and over again. Yes, sometimes in surprising fashion, but undeniably so.

[Palifan]

^^ I think this idea that there's still a strong classic-Mego-style vs. everything is really dead; the format (with new ideas inspired-by, and figures made in homage to) is what persists.

While there still are centric collectors that protect their compelling house of cards, there's clearly a much larger, international generation or two that have driven sales for every company other than, and hopefully now including Mego. The 70s are culturally swirled into every decade since. There's nothing to protect or protest here, just more choices. The cultural repetition and economy of the toy/collectibles market has proven this over and over again. Yes, sometimes in surprising fashion, but undeniably so.

I do agree with you and even though the old Mego fans I'm sure were a big part of bringing this toy line back, they still have to look to the future and try different things in different styles. For me this figure does certainly stray to close to Neca for what I like my Mego's to look like (even though I do have some of the retro cloth type Neca figures that I enjoy), but I'm fine with that as I don't need to own any version of this character but there are probably plenty out there who do. I'm sure some of the people who like this figure are not going to be into The Fly or the Universal Monsters that have already been released and I think it's a good thing to branch out.

As long as the figures sell and Mego can carry on making something for all of us then I'm all happy with that and I'll support the ones that I enjoy.

Ian