The Nightmare Before Christmas TNI Preview from Jun Planning

Jun Planning brings TNI a look at their new products for the 15th Anniversary of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Look for these products to hit stores before Christmas for the movie’s 15th Anniversary.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas

Trading Figures Series 1

Figures:
1 Jack Skellington
2 Sally
3 Lock and Barell
4 Shock and Zero
5 Dr. Finklestein
6 Oogie Boogie

Construction
These figures come in pieces that have to be put together. Construction was not easy for many of these figures. The small pegs and thin pieces made it hard to fit some pieces together, like Sally’s arms. In addition, it is difficult to get Shock’s arms to stay in place. Adding a tiny dab of glue to some of these figures is not a bad idea. For the most part though, once put together, these figure stay together. Note though that these figures have no articulation.

Appearance
For their size, these figures are highly detailed. All the figures are painted, and most sport a paint wash. The most impressive paint jobs are on Sally and Oogie Boogie. In Sally’s case, white paint with a blue paint wash effectively captures the skin tone from the movie, and contrasts nicely with the white paint on Jack. Oogie Boogie is painted in a nice sack cloth brown with a dark brown wash for texturing in the folds. In contrast, the paint on Lock, Barell and Shock is a little plain because of the lack of a paint wash. None of them though have a sloppy paint job. Overall it’s obvious the figures were designed to either have texture or detail be the prominent factor in the figures’ appearance, depending on the strengths of the character design. For example, Oogie Boogie, who doesn’t have a lot of features to include, does have a lot of texturing and paint wash to make the figure look good. Similarly Zero was molded in translucent plastic.

On most of these figures none of the joints are overly obvious or ugly. The exception is Oogie Boogie, whose arms and legs leave small gaps with the body that are highly noticeable on the brown body. Together all these figures look great. As an added bonus, the stands of Shock, Lock, and Barell fit together, and Zero can be attached to Jack’s stand. All together they make a nice Nightmare Before Christmas display if you aren’t interested in the larger figures.


Stuffed Toys Series 1

Characters:
Oogie Boogie
Zero
Jack
Mayor
Sally

I got my hands on Zero and Oogie Boogie, who are probably the cutest of the bunch. Oogie is about 5 inches tall, and Zero is about three. These are about the right size to have on a desk or bookshelf, and are arriving at the right time for Haloween and Christmas.

Both characters have been designed to look cute for these plush toys. Zero’s head has been made large (but does not have balance problems). Oogie has essentially been made into a brown star fish with stitches around the edges. Both are soft and squeezable.


Chara-Remo Series 1

Characters:
Zero
Vampire Teddy
Jack’s Snowmobile

I got Zero of series 1. This is a fun little toy, although it does require 4 batteries. Zero is about 4.5” x 2.5” x 3.5”. The face is fairly stylized with the sharp edged in the face, but overall it’s a fairly good representation of the character. If you’re wanting a Zero for display purposes I would recommend waiting for one in the new series of action figures or the plush toys. If you’re looking for a cute little remote controlled toy though, Zero is a good bet.

Action Figures Series 1

Figures:
Behemoth
Dr. Finklestein
Jack
Mayor
Pumpkin King
Sally
Vampire Bros

Review: Dr. Finklestein

Appearance
Finklestein is highly detailed to look like his movie counterpart. There are folds in the clothing and sculpted in buttons. It looks like the white paint was put over a dark base color to help give the white surface a textured look. There is no obvious paint wash on the body to give it its textured look, but it does look like dry brushing was used on the wheelchair. There isn’t a whole lot of detailing on the body, but the head opens up to reveal his brain, in two separate removable halves. The wheel chair has a lot of detailing, including bolts on the wheels, straps, and moveable levers on the arms.

Finklestein sits at about 4.5” tall. Stylistically, I can’t think of any other toy lines he could go well on display with, but there’s a whole series of Nightmare Before Christmas action figures to choose from. He does add some variety to the display shelf though, because I don’t think I have any other figures with the brain showing.

Articulation
The wheels of the chair rotate. Finklestein has a waist swivel cut, shoulder swivels, and pin jointed elbows. The head rotates left and right, and there is a hinge in the head to remove the brain.

Final Judgement
While not the super articulated figures I’ve grown accustomed too, this figure captures the appearance of the character as well as I could hope. For fans of the movie, these action figures make excellent display pieces, although I would recommend getting more than one. Dr. Finklestein is a little lonely on my shelf by himself. I don’t have any of the previous lines to compare him too, but from what I’ve seen these new figures should go well with previous lines too.