First up, packaging. Why would I rate something so trivial? Don't ever say that around someone that spent four years of their life and the last of their parents' retirement fund on a degree in Packaging. I have, and trust me, they don't take it well. (There's another obscure group I can mark off my list of "obscure groups to piss off in my lifetime.")

I judge packaging on a couple issues. First, there's its main purpose - to get you to buy the product on an impulse. To do that, it has to be attractive, with bright colors, interesting text and other features that somehow convince the casual shopper that, my God, I just have to own this Bluntman figure even if it is just Kevin Smith in a Batman baseball cap. (Makes another mark on that list).

The second is more interesting to what I call Moc'ers and MIB'ers - mint-on-card and mint-in-box collectors. These folks like to keep their figures under control, lest they get ideas and kill them in their sleep. Obviously, that whole attractive thing works here as well, but there's a second factor of "collector-friendly," an idea I believe was pioneered by Flatt World Figures.

Collector-friendly means that you can open up the package, whatever style, and free the figure for display or play, but still put him back in all nice and tidy at a later date without having to damage the packaging. Not only is this attractive to MIB'ers and MOC'ers, but to people who like to use the packages as a handy storage device if they have to pack them up at some time. You know, for a move or for when you have a woman stop by your house after a date. By the way, if the former is happening more often than the latter, you might want to work on your social skills.

Another thing you'll see mentioned in this review is the term "sixth scale." This term is used to describe any 12" action figure. It's in 1/6th scale, based on a person six feet tall. One foot = 1/6 of six feet, therefore it's 1/6th scale. Calling it "sixth scale" is a common way to describe any 12" figure in the collecting community.

If you have any questions, comments or figures you'd like to suggest for reviews, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"Evil Ash"

Last year, McFarlane Toys produced a Movie Maniacs figure of Evil Ash from the hit movie, ARMY OF DARKNESS. This year, Sideshow Toy gives us their interpretation of both Ash and Evil Ash from the film.

I'm only reviewing Evil Ash here, but I do have a review of Ash up at my own site.

ARMY OF DARKNESS was the third film in the terrific EVIL DEAD series, which started the career of SPIDER-MAN director Sam Raimi. All three films were rather unique horror tales, all starring then-unknown Bruce Campbell, and Raimi actually invented the "camera scooting along the forest floor" perspective for monsters in the first EVIL DEAD film. I'm not going to try to explain the whole plot of the film here, but if you haven't watched the films, I highly recommend them.

Packaging - ***1/2
Sideshow continues to produce the nicest packaging in the business. When you produce a package with this kind of art and text, you don't just provide a vehicle for the figure to get to the customer - you add value. Sideshow has taken packaging to a new level though, and they have both the sales aspect and the collector aspect clearly in mind when designing them.

The packaging is collector-friendly, as usual, and there's some terrific graphics both outside and on the inside flap (fifth panel). After the great story synopsis and background provided on the OUTER LIMITS boxes though, I'm a bit spoiled, and I would have liked to see a little more text here.

Sculpting - ***1/2
The usual beautiful work by Sideshow. It looks just like the source material, and it's gory enough for the most hardcore fan. The issue that some folks may have with it is the size. It seems a bit oversized to me, although not as bad as the regular Ash figure. I pulled a half star for the scale, but the sculpting itself is absolutely excellent.

With sixth-scale figures, you shouldn't forget about the hand sculpts. Here, Sideshow has given us new hands designed to match the character, and they look terrific.

Paint - ****
Here's another area where the regular Ash and the Evil Ash differ. I was a bit disappointed in the skin tone on the regular Ash, but here the blood, gore and exposed bone are painted extremely well and with great care. This is not a guy you want to bump into late at night. Hell, not even at high noon while having lunch at the local California Pizza Kitchen with Sylvester Stallone and carrying an Uzi.

Accessories - ***1/2
Another of Sideshow's strengths, the accessories here are good, although slightly in short supply. There are three - his sword, scabbard and stand.

The sword is made of a nice solid plastic, with plenty of detail and blood. It fits well into the scabbard, which attaches around his waist. The buckle could be improved, but overall the quality and style are great.

He comes with the new, standard Sideshow stand. It's emblazoned with the ARMY OF DARKNESS logo and the Evil Ash name. While he stands fine on his own, the stand works well and will keep him from shelf-diving over the long haul.

Outfit - ****
While his accessories were a bit light, his outfit is not. He has chest, back, shoulder, upper arm, lower arm, elbow and thigh armor, all done with excellent detail and quality.

The cloth aspects of his outfit include the pants, tunic and cape. The cape is torn and damaged just like the film, and the shirt and pants have stitch-like patterns along with blood stains to match the source material. I wish every sixth-scale licensed product had this much attention to detail.

I wanted to make a special mention on the boots, since it's a new sculpt. It's nicely done, and could easily be used on a wide variety of custom figures.

Articulation - ***
The Sideshow body is one of the most articulated on the market, right up there with bbi and Dragon. This figure loses a point because it doesn't have the better jointed neck that Sideshow sometimes employs, and because the legs were a bit loose in the knees and ankles. That may have been just a hit or miss quality issue, but it's something that Sideshow needs to keep an eye on.

Value - **1/2
Since this is probably a fairly expensive license, I'm not surprised that the cost of these is slightly higher than the average Sideshow figure. They're also limited at 10,000, but that's not as low of a number as you might think.

Still, at $40 he's pushing it. He's a better value than the regular Ash, but $30-$35 would have made me - and my wallet - feel a lot better. You may do better online, and I'm betting that most Media Play stores will be charging around $30.

Overall - ***1/2
With great paint ops, a fantastic outfit and an excellent sculpt, Evil Ash stands out as the superior figure over regular Ash. Still, he's not quite four stars, with a pretty hefty price tag, a slightly big noggin, and somewhat looser joints than usual.

Where to Buy -
The only bricks and mortar stores I'm sure will have these are the Sam Goody family - Sam Goody, Media Play, Suncoast and On-Cue. But there are plenty of online options:

- Sideshow themselves of course. Retail is $40 plus shipping. The big advantage here is that you'll get them right away, since they are shipping them.

I'm always looking for leads on new retailers online, so if you have suggestions, please let me know!