NECA Evil Dead 2 vs Army of Darkness Ash

When I first opened the new Evil Dead 2 NECA Ash, I thought there was something off about the head.  My immediate thought was NECA had gone backwards from what I could remember of the awesome Army of Darkness Ash head.  Unfortunately at the time I reviewed Ash from Evil Dead 2 I could not locate my Army of Darkness version.  I have since corrected this wrong, and am actually surprised that I may have had been looking back on Army of Darkness Ash with rose-tinted glasses.

As you can see both versions have very strong Bruce Campbell likenesses.

Army of Darkness:

• Hair is really well done and actually detaches from the face.
• Damage is sculpted onto the head sculpt, ED2 version damage is almost entirely done in paint.
• Eyes look more natural, no black eye shadow.
• Paint is stronger than the ED2 version, which helps the sculpt.

Evil Dead 2:

• More natural skin tone.
• Features are more round and natural, as opposed to the pointy features in the AOD release.
• Sculpt of the face is so strong some questionable paints can be looked past.

Every issue I seem to have with the Evil Dead 2 Ash’s look seems to come back to the same thing, the eyes.  I’m not sure if it was a cost saving maneuver or what, but I wonder if the likeness would be stronger if they used the same paint style they did in the Army of Darkness version.  To be fair, the scene this Ash depicts is pretty “cartoonish.”  So the eyes kind of work, but even in this state they don’t do that crazy Ash face from the movie.

Looking back at the Army of Darkness Ash from many years ago, it still has a strong likeness.  But NECA has come so far in all these years and I would love to see them do an eventual update.  The figure stands well on its own but if they were to add the current articulation and tweak the face a bit, it could be the best Bruce Campbell figure ever.  Then again any figure of Bruce Campbell is the best thing ever.

To pick a favorite of the two I can not do, mostly because they feel like my plastic, chopped up children.  I don’t think it is fair to have a favorite because they depict the character in two different movies with a different look in each.  While paint and sculpt are both stronger on the new Evil Dead 2 NECA Ash, the paint is strong on the right spots for the Army of Darkness NECA Ash which just puts me in a stalemate.