12 inch Kiss figures pic and mini review

[Werewolf]

Let me start out by saying, these are really nice. The quality is very high. I think they are both close enough and still different enough to the originals to just about make everyone happy. Some of the more noticeable differences, as has been mentioned before, the Starchild no longer has the Captain's molded hair and the Catman doesn't have Lex's molded eyebows.

For comparison pics of vintage vs new be sure to check out Rche's great thread:

12 KISS comparison Mego vs CTVT pic heavy!! - Mego Talk

There are a few tiny things I would have liked closer to vintage. Like, the Demon's chains don't hang the same and the openings on the side of his tights on his legs are too small and Pauls belt fits too loose. But other than that, I really don't have any complaints on the outfits.

The new bodies are great and don't have any of the twisting issues the 8 inch ones have. If you are only going to get one set, I'd recommend getting the 12 inch figures.

It's kind of hard to describe my feelings on seeing these in person. To me, they are the most Mego of all the re-Megos to date. They seem the most Mego. If that makes any sense at all. It's almost like, back in the day, Mego had made another run of them a couple of years after the originals. They are the same but then not quite. Kind of like how Mego slightly changed and updated the WGSH figures over the years or all the bazillion variations on the materials used on the Dukes. Am I making any sense? Eh, probably not.

Anyhoo...here's the pic.

[Werewolf]

And here's the lovely and talented Pizzazz modeling one of the concert T-Shirts.

[MIB41]

I think they did a good job on the twelve inch figures. I went ahead and put down the money for the 8 inch set Friday (Found a great deal from the KISS museum). I'm going to hold off on the twelve inch line until they put out the next series from the first album. I have the original Megos boxed so these are too close to those to justify spending the money they are asking. If the paints and outfits are era accurate on the next series, I might consider it. This will be tricky territory for CTVT since KISS had different makeups for that album and each one after. I'll be curious to see how faithful they try to get with the line or if they try to sell the same heads on different costumes. The latter would be a big mistake. Fans who would invest the money want the different makeup to go with those outfits. In an ideal world, the head sculpt should be different for Gene at least, but I doubt that will happen.

[warlock664]

Looking at the pics, I'm struck by how much better the vintage Mego figures look in comparison. Sharper paints by far, and better-executed costumes (the chain on the new Gene hangs too low for example). While I consider myself a huge KISS fan, I'll probably pass on these, as I already own a boxed vintage set.

I find myself getting less and less enthusiastic about these "retro" figures. The recent Captain Action releases didn't thrill me like I thought they would. While they definitely captured the kitschy appeal of vintage toys, they don't look nearly as appealing to me on a shelf as, say, the DC Direct 13" figures from the past several years. While vintage Megos will always hold a nostalgic charm for me, I guess I expect more from figures manufactured today.

The Medicom KISS figures from a couple of years back were nice, but sadly they only produced Gene and Paul. At the time I paid around $150 apiece for them, and I find I'd rather pay more for an accurate, better executed figure. Its the same reason I'm a fan of Hot Toys; sure, you pay dearly for them ($200 and up), but in the end the quality is there, and that's more important to me as an adult collector. Anyone who has held a Hot Toys Chris Reeve Superman or Nicholson Joker can attest to the "WOW" factor those figures carry. If given the choice of either a set of four retro KISS 12" figures or one Hot Toys DX Joker, I'll take the latter (and I would love to see a set of Hot Toys KISS figures!).