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Manufacturer: Sideshow Toy, Inc. (www.sideshowtoy.com) |
Nazi Kroenen
And here he is, the last figure (so far) in Sideshow's Hellboy line. Nazi Kroenen (identified as "WWII Kroenen" on his one-piece shipping box and simply "Kroenen - Sideshow Exclusive" on his packaging) was available only to attendees of San Diego Comic Con 2004, plus a few lucky randomly-selected people who signed up on a waiting list.
This time around, we actually do get the character's name in a visible spot
on the box front. The image of the Nazi-uniformed Kroenen in action fits
perfectly with the rest of the series, and the back of the box features the
same text we got on the other Kroenens' packaging.
This is Kroenen as he appeared in the 1941 prologue of the film, outfitted in full Nazi regalia. And I do mean full: he's got the boots, gloves, hat, shirt, puffy-hipped director pants, tie, jacket, trenchcoat and a whole mess of badges and insignia. Sideshow didn't pull any punches with this guy.
Most of Nazi Kroenen's wardrobe is made of black pleather, with a khaki
green shirt and fabric tie under his jacket. For all the layered detail
this guy's got, he could well have another set of clothes on underneath
that, but I don't rate my chances of being able to re-dress him highly, so
the question of "how much stuff is this guy wearing?!" may have to
remain a mystery.
It's all here: decorative pockets, metallic buttons, working snaps on the
jacket and what I'd swear is a properly knotted tie, and it's all expertly
tailored. Even the tiniest details are rendered with painstaking precision,
from the pinhead-sized swastika on the Iron Cross to the nearly microscopic
lettering on the badges. And although there's not a lot of paint, what's
there is flawless. I've never seen this much attention to detail on a 12"
figure's outfit before (although that may simply be because I don't collect
military figures), and even though the guy's a psycho undead Ratzi in league
with monsters from beyond time and space, I am most impressed.
The trenchcoat's nice too.
Nazi Kroenen has his usual hideous-but-well-done face, complete with removable hood (I guess there is something else under the shirt), and he includes the standard battle mask from the regular version of the figure. He has an all-new hat that can sit on top of his masked head but doesn't easily stay put. It's painted in matte and shiny black with silver trim, and once again all the appropriate details are there. The skull does look a little smiley, but for all I know the real thing may have grinned like a monkey too. Kroenen also carries a Luger pistol (no moving parts this time), which is superbly sculpted, well painted and fits snugly in the opening molded-plastic holster at his side. It also fits into his right hand.
He also has a pair of arm-blades, wider and more sword-like than the baton
swords used later in the movie. While they're not spring-loaded to "snick"
out of his sleeves as in the movie, they do clip solidly onto his wrists
behind his gloves. There's some flex to the material, but I worry about
breaking the clips when I remove or replace the blades, so now that Kroenen's
posed for the photo gallery, they'll probably be staying in place for the
foreseeable future.
Nazi Kroenen's shiny black goose-stepping boots are the same ones that came with his prior two incarnations, but his gloves are all-new. They're matte black, which means that the arm blades tend to rub off a little silver paint on the cuffs where they press together. The hands are sculpted such that they can hold objects but also look natural empty-handed. The right hand's trigger finger is extended, but the trigger of the pistol is so tiny that I wasn't quite willing to test how well Kroenen could grip it.
This guy's pretty amazingly well-made. For $10 more than the standard version, Nazi Kroenen was a great deal...if and when it was actually possible to get him. If you're looking for one now, your best bet is to keep scouring eBay - with an edition size of 1,000, he's actually the least limited limited-edition Hellboy figure, so he shouldn't be too tough to track down.
And that brings us to the end of the ginormous first-ever ASM Sideshow Hellboy multi-mega-omni-review! If you were able to make it through in one sitting, you're a stronger man, woman or other than I. Thanks for reading -- and drop me a line if you ever spot one of those cigar-variant Hellboys for a reasonable price!
Hellboy | Abe Sapien | Kroenen | Final Battle Kroenen | Nazi Kroenen
You can see all our pictures of Nazi Kroenen in our Gallery!