Marvel Legends - What If...? Zombie Captain America

When it was first revealed that a animated What If...? series was coming to Disney+ I was excited. I thought this type of series would be the perfect fit for an animated series since these type of stories are usually short and self contained. I wondered if they would tackle some of the classic stories from the comics or do something else. Would be somewhat cannon within the MCU? After months of waiting the series hit the streaming service and I thought it didn't disappoint. While I've still yet to finish the series, the first few episodes were fantastic...including today's subject material.

 

Hasbro's What If...? Marvel Legends series is comprised of 7 figures, 6 of which contain a Build-a-Figure part for Uatu the Watcher. Zombie Captain America is the one figure in this wave that doesn't come with this extra part or really any extra accessories...however the figure is worth every penny of the new $22.99 MSRP.

Straight out of the package you can immediately see all the gory detail oozing out of this figure. This thing is so freaking amazing. The detail sculpted into this figure is accentuated by the stellar paint apps. From the torn costume to the exposed ribs, blood splattered arm and exposed bones in the legs...this figure is horrifyingly beautiful.

A figure like this is only as good as it's head sculpt...and well this one is pretty good. I love the pupil-less eyes, the slightly sunken in nose and overall the expression show on the face. The little bit of splattered blood below the lower lip and on the chin is the icing on the cake!

You'll notice that the left side of his chest has some gruesomely exposed ribs. This carries over to the rear of the figure as well. Part of his bandolier that holds his shield on his back is also ripped (or is it bitten?) over the exposed ribs. Look carefully below that and you'll see the lower part of his uniform is tattered and ripped as well.

When I saw the detail sculpted in the legs I immediately thought back to the Zombie Viper from the 30th Anniversary G.I. Joe series. The exposed flesh and bone itself is pretty wicked, but the fact that you can clear see through the leg is next level.

I haven't had this much fun with a Marvel Legends figure in a long time. Hasbro I feel as really stepped up their game lately as I've seen a lot of great figures on the retail pegs. It has been really hard resisting getting back into collecting Marvel Legends, but when I saw this figure solicited I knew it would be a instant purchase if I happened to find it locally. Thanks to a Walmart out of town that I visited while on a work trip, Zombie Cap has become a prized collection and centerpiece of my collection. 

I thought these photos in black & white looked pretty cool and is my little nod to the godfather of the zombie genre, the late George A. Romero

Redwood Massacre

When it comes to horror movies I typically go back to the 80's for my mix. Modern horror just doesn't seem to entertain me as much, or the genre has turn to supernatural horror and that's just not my jam. While every once in awhile I'll run across a modern slasher flick that captures my attention, it's rare so I was a little reluctant going into Redwood Massacre. This is a movie I yet again found on TubiTV and was able to stream for free.

Anytime you see on a horror movie poster or in the movie trailer that it's based on a true story, beware as you might as well drop your expectations at that very moment. As I browsed Tubi for a movie to watch I gotta admit that this movie poster caught my attention. Decent looking protagonist, check. Creepy looking house, check. Massacre in the name, check. I figure with the movie just clocking in under 1 1/2 hours I had nothing to lose.

How many movies have you watched (or at least heard of) where a camping trip in the woods goes awry? That's what Redwood Massacre is. A group of campers are out to party on the 20th anniversary of some gruesome murders at the scene of where it all happened. Or so the legends goes. Slowly but surely the campers start to go missing as they become the prey of a serial killer wearing a scarecrow mask.

I heard someone else refer to this as a Scottish ripoff of Friday the 13th...which I can see. Going into this movie I had no idea it was Scottish, but as soon as you meet the cast you realize it. While I give the movie a thumbs up for being different, the delivery of said actors and actresses falls flat.

In the opening scene of the movie you are introduced to the killer and lots of blood. You have no idea who this is, who he is killing or why he is killing. It's only until 20 (?) minutes into the movie before we get the backstory and this comes after meeting the main cast. The cast included your normal horror movie tropes...the boyfriend, his new girlfriend (who no one else likes), the trashy girl and the "final" girl.

Sitting around a campfire the new girlfriend expands on the legend of the Redwood murders to her fellow campers. This story is also told with cut away flashback scenes. The story goes a farmer started hearing voices and goes mad, killing his wife, daughter and son (who is never shown), but when the authorities arrive the son's grave is empty.

There were a few redeeming qualities I found in this movie.

1) The set was pretty creepy. The house that was used had a cool exterior architecture, was old and run down and the grounds were large and overgrown.
2) I thought the scarecrow mask was done well. The sewing across the eye holes and mouth made the mask look more scary than cheesy.
3) The actor that plays the killer is huge and intimidating looking. His mannerisms, the way he moved were great. At times he really did remind me of Jason Vorhees of Friday the 13th fame. His brooding size, his head quickly turning to look at the camera and his jerky movements were all spot on.

However that is about the only positive things I have to say as the negatives far out weight the positives. For starters, let's address the blood. Notice I didn't say gore because I didn't think this movie was all that gory. Well maybe one scene in the flashback story. The amount of blood used in this movie is up there, but I didn't find that to be a good thing. Now granted I've never taken an axe to a fellow human being, but the amount of blood you see flying through the air during a kill is crazy. So. much. blood. While it looked pretty authentic, it just seemed over the top. This is especially noticeable when the killer punches a few of his victims and you see buckets of blood flowing. Seriously?

The other issue that got on my last nerve was the sound made whenever the killer would pick up a bladed weapon. Whomever was in charge of the sound was having too much fun running blades against each other to create that metallic sound. It didn't matter if the killer was drawing his blade, swinging his weapon or inserting it into a victim, the same sound was used. Argh, I can't tell you how much that bugged me! I just couldn't get past it.

Of all of the movies I've streamed thus far in celebration of Halloween, this was by far the worst. What I thought was going to at least be a decent movie was just ruined by the lack of scares, flat acting, the amount of blood used and of course the over the top metallic sound used. I did see that a sequel is being made and is set to be released sometime in 2020. Why? I have no idea.

Motel Hell

Thanks once again to TubiTV, I was able to watch another 80's cult classic to celebrate the upcoming Halloween season. Motel Hell is yet another (VHS) movie I remember seeing on the shelves of my local video rental store back in my youth. Unable to watch it as a youth, I had to wait nearly 30 years before I was able to view this classic. Come on, with a tag line like "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent Fritters", how could you not watch this? 

There are several different movie posters for this movie, but some of them don't portray the movie in the best way. The poster shown above however does paint a better picture.

Motel Hell stars Rory Calhoun as farmer Vincent Smith, local proprietaire of Motel Hello. He runs the hotel with his sister, Ida (Nancy Parsons) along with their side business of selling smoked meats. People come from miles away to sample his various meats, which we see at the beginning of the movie. He's somewhat of a local celebrity, but do the people of Grainville, CA know that he is peddling cannibalism?  

I've seen a lot of horror movies and the 80's served up some of the best in my opinion. This movie however marched to the beat of it's own drum. It was odd, yet satisfyingly fun. I can't say this is a scary movie because of the main story. I'm not sure if it was meant to be tongue in cheek, but the campy story is hard to take serious. The movie isn't bloody or gory either, despite what you may think from alternate movie posters that are out there.

What I couldn't figure out initially while watching the movie was the purpose of the "secret garden". You see Vincent unlocking the vine covered gate located away from the hotel itself, looking around to make sure no one else was near by. However it's later in the film before you get to see what is in the actual garden. After Vincent would find people for his recipe, he would bury them in the ground in the garden. This didn't make sense to me, then during a later picnic scene he references his mother not having an ice chest. I'm going to assume he dug holes to put the bodies in to keep them cold/fresh while he waited for the bodies to be ready to be "prepared".

Since he left the heads above ground, he would sever their vocal chords so they wouldn't make noise. He would then place a burlap sack over their heads. At one point in the movie you see him inserting an eight track cassette into a player, assumingly to drown out any noise made by the bodies inside the garden.

Nina Axelrod plays Terry, a young girl that Vincent saves from a motorcycle accident early in the movie. His motivation to save her isn't known at first, but later you realize he had hoped he could "convert" her and bring her into the family business. Vincent's sister, Ida, is skeptical from the beginning and shows aggression towards Terry on multiple occasions. Enter the younger brother, Bruce (Paul Linke) who happens to be the town's sheriff. It's unknown if he really knows what the family business is, but he almost instantly falls head over heels for Terry.

The family dynamic is odd and much of the movie I feel revolves around the relationship between Terry and Vincent as well as Terry and Bruce. After learning of Terry and Vincent's pending wedding, he takes the news by checking up on Terry. He thinks she is being forced into marriage, only to learn this is what she wants. He takes the rejection by looking into his brother as he feels something is up. This is when he learns the secret behind the family business and becomes the knight in shining armor to eventually save our damsel in distress.

The smokehouse scenes featuring the dueling chainsaws and the bloodied pig mask is what most people think of when this movie comes up. However it plays such a small part in the overall story. I read somewhere that this scene took the longest to film and wasn't in the original script, added at the last minute. I guess they thought the inclusion of a chainsaw would help sell tickets as this movie was released a few years after The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Pieces.

Overall this was a more of dark comedy than a horror movie in my book, however it was still a lot of fun and yet another 80's movie that I'm glad to mark off my list.

Transformers War for Cybertron - Kingdom: Soundwave (Core Class)

 

Kingdom is the third and final chapter to Hasbro's War for Cybertron trilogy and this series introduced a new size class, Core Class. Scale wise, these are very similar to the current "Legends" scale made popular by many 3rd party companies like Iron Factory or New Age. My first exposure to these size toys came with Optimus Prime and Vertebreak released at the very beginning of Kingdom. Now that we are close to wrapping up this trilogy, more G1 characters have been released with the latest being none other than Soundwave.

Soundwave comes packaged like all the previous Core Class figures, that on a blister card sporting the same Kingdom design that also features some stellar character artwork. The back of the packaging is rather simple with product shots of both the robot and alternate modes.

I've often heard of some of these Core Class figures referred to as "Mini Masterpieces" and while I understand that term being thrown around, let's hold our horses a bit. The level of detail, articulation and paint applications on Soundwave here is very impressive. In a lot of ways this figure does look like a smaller version of it's Masterpiece version, more so than a smaller version of the G1 toy. 

Thanks to the ball joints in the arms, hips and feet, you have a great deal of range of motion of the limbs. The sculpting is fantastic, from the iconic head sculpt down to the cassette buttons on his waist...this looks like the version of Soundwave that I grew up with.

With a figure this small I wouldn't have been surprised if the cassette door didn't open, but thankfully the designers were able to keep this feature Soundwave is known for a part of the figure. A very small, non-transformable version if Laserbeak is included. The front side of the cassette features silver and red paint while the back is unpainted. Small touches like the cassette really help bring out the charm of the mold.

Soundwave never had a difficult transformation (at least in this form) and this figure is no different. In fact I was surprised at how close the transformation steps were to the original G1 toy. Now of course some liberties had to be taken, such as the feet and the weapon storage, but overall it's a very easy and straightforward transformation process. As you can see from the rear of the cassette recorder, Soundwave's weapons no longer fit inside the battery compartment. They now peg into the sides of the arms...which works in terms of practicality, but aesthetically doesn't look that great.

Overall I found this toy to be a lot of fun. I have always loved the old "basic" scale made popular by Beast Wars and subsequent lines, so it's nice to see this size still kicking. As of this post, the next series, Legacy, will be coming soon and it's already been leaked that the Core Class size will continue on. Now as great as this figure is, finding him at retail can and will be tough. If you ever have the opportunity to pick up Soundwave grab him...I highly doubt you'll be disappointed.