How are the Classic Sideshow Monsters?

I'm pretty new to collecting Sideshow and 12" stuff, but I'm really getting sucked in quick. I'm wanting to expand my horror collection with some of the earlier universal classics releases from Sideshow as well as the modern horror stuff. I know the modern horror stuff seems to be great, but what about the Universal Monsters, how's the quality on them? These were made fairly early in Sideshow's making 12" figures right? I'd like to know whatever you guys can tell me about 'em, articulation, quality of clothing, sculpting, paint, and whatever else I need to know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I own the Silver Screen Edition of The Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Invisible Man. Gotta say I like them all. I really wanna get Boris Karloff as the Mummy but have had a hard time finding one.

It depends on which ones you are intewrested in. Like SW, some are great, some need work. For perfect out of the box, see Creature from the Black Lagoon ($$$), Phantom as the Red Death, Phantom, Son of Frankenstein, Bride of Frank, Larry Talbot, and Renfield.

Dracula ($$) is pretty good, but needs adjustment and a repaint.

Like so:



You can also look into the Silver Scren figures, like Drac, Vampyre, Phantom, and London After Midnight, all quality.

Freddie_Freeloader said:

I own the Silver Screen Edition of The Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Invisible Man. Gotta say I like them all. I really wanna get Boris Karloff as the Mummy but have had a hard time finding one.

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Oh, I forgot about the Invisible Man! I don;t own one, but it looks like a great figure, along with Werewolf of London.

Mikey, you should really have a before-and-after of Dracula. Anybody who sees your repaint (or Les's, in my sig below) who looks for a Drac will think when they find it that it's the wrong figure. The hands-down worst factory paint Sideshow ever released.

To Mikey's list of good-to-go right out the box winners, I'd add the color London After Midnight, which is a terrific and underrated figure with its real hair and beaver hat (it turns up on eBay fairly often), the Mr. Hyde figure, and Fritz from Frankenstein.

All the early figures had looser joints than today's releases and only a clip-on foot brace instead of a stand. They fall down a lot if you don't add your own stands.

Thanks for all the help guys.

What about the Wolf Man Lon Cheaney, White Zombie Bela Lugosi, Nosferatu the Vampyre, and which Frankenstein is better Bride of, House of, or original Frankenstein?

Rockabilly said:

Thanks for all the help guys.

What about the Wolf Man Lon Cheaney, White Zombie Bela Lugosi, Nosferatu the Vampyre, and which Frankenstein is better Bride of, House of, or original Frankenstein?

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You can't go wrong with the original Frank.

The pics aren't very good, but here is my small Sideshow Universal Monsters collection:

Ardeth Bey, Red Death Phantom, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Son of Frankenstein are my favorite. They rule.

Some of the greatest figures Sideshow has done are in the UM line...They gainned there reputation on those figures...Poor paint jobs a la Star wars didnt exist back then...One of my all time favorite Sideshow figure still today, is that Vampyre Max Shrek 12''...

The original Frank differs from all that followed in that it has a neck joint under the jaw, rather than at the base of the neck. It works well for that particular figure. I've always liked that one.

Ardeth Bey and Hyde are really great - but the best is probably Invisible Man, just too cool.

All the Franks are good, the Bride is excellent, London After Midnight - heck, aside from Drac, they're all pretty great.

Darklord Dave said:

Ardeth Bey and Hyde are really great - but the best is probably Invisible Man, just too cool.

All the Franks are good, the Bride is excellent, London After Midnight - heck, aside from Drac, they're all pretty great.

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whats the difference between the exclusive and standard invisible man and is it worth 30 dollars more

I find it funny that the color Dracula goes for a decent amount on ebay, yet has as bad a paintjob as everyone says. Ebay just makes no sense sometimes. I personally love all the monsters. My favorites being the Frankensteins and the Vampyre. I still need to pick up a Red Death, Invisible Man, Hyde, and Ardeth Bey. Once I get those I think I will have all the ones I want.

Freddie_Freeloader said:

whats the difference between the exclusive and standard invisible man and is it worth 30 dollars more

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I think the exclusive offers you the option of displaying him with an invisible head.

They really are terrific, I've got about 5 of the SSE ones, I just can't bring myself to actually open them up, I've got them stored in a tote in the closet. My wife got them for me 3 christmas ago.

Evan

Bannister said:

I find it funny that the color Dracula goes for a decent amount on ebay, yet has as bad a paintjob as everyone says. Ebay just makes no sense sometimes. I personally love all the monsters. My favorites being the Frankensteins and the Vampyre. I still need to pick up a Red Death, Invisible Man, Hyde, and Ardeth Bey. Once I get those I think I will have all the ones I want.

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You have to realize that most SS collectors dont even know about this place or are not nearly as pickey as most of you guys, most dont know or care that it has a "bad paintjob".

You can't go wrong collecting these. The 8" universal Monsters are the first SSC figures I ever bought. I then went on to collect most of the 12" line, including a few of the SSE versions.

My favorites are Dracula, the Phantom, the Mummy, the Vampyre, Red Death and almost all of the Frankensteins. My signed Creature from the Black Lagoon is the prize of my collection.

The classic monsters line is great. Not sure why theirs no love for Drac though... I still think its a great figure. And I think the pasty complexion works. But the Vampyre figure is just awesome.

I have the ex Invisible man, and I have to say the extra role of gauze, while interesting is not worth the extra $ IMO. And one other great figure is the Metaluna Mutant. Not very poseable, but awesome looking!

I have the Silver Screen Editions of Frank, Vampyre and Phantom,and I'm looking for a SSE Dracs, I love these. I don't care for the color ones, since I never seen these movies in color. I mean, they were black and white and I like them being true to film. All very nice though.