NECA Hero Ash and Henrietta Review + Gallery

NECA is doing a little celebration for the 25th (can you believe it has been 25 years?) anniversary of the Evil Dead 2 by putting out more Ash!  I don’t necessarily think you ever really need a reason to put out figures of Bruce Campbell, but this anniversary seems like a good enough excuse.  For this anniversary we have gotten the Farewell to Arms and Deadite Ash in the first wave, a ‘Hero from the Sky’ SDCC exclusive, and now we have Hero Ash and Henrietta.  So Ash fans have gotten four versions of him this year, and fans of the movie will also really enjoy Henrietta.

I searched for quite some time attempting to find these two at retail but never found the pair anywhere.  I started to think that Toys “R” Us didn’t put out the Henrietta due to the exposed nipples.  It could be true, or she could just be really popular.  There is no way to tell unless I am NECA or Toys “R” Us, and I am neither.  What finally drove me over the edge was a review on Poe Ghostal’s website, I didn’t realize how good Henrietta looked and had to cave in and order online.  A week later and I got myself a nice set of Evil Dead figures thanks to Amazon and off I went!  Well maybe one snag was that the UPS guy dropped it off at my neighbor’s house … luckily they brought them right back over!

Getting these new figures also made me go back and watch Evil Dead 2 again, it had been a while.  I feel like I have come full circle now on this 25th anniversary and I owe this all the NECA and the kick-ass Evil Dead merchandise they have put out this year.

I dislike the new trend that every company needs to reuse a base body as many times as possible to save some money.  As much as I hate it, I think NECA has always been good about giving you something worthwhile when they reuse parts.  Back when they did Ghostbusters I think it was appropriate to use the same bodies with a different heads on their Terror Dogs.  I also think it makes sense that they used the legs and head from the previous Ash.  I’m more keen to the legs, as it would have been cool to have a different facial expression for this version.  He has an all new torso and arms with a strong amount of detail and articulation.

Something that I really enjoy about NECA is that they try to throw in little details from the movies that a fan would enjoy.  For example in their Predator line they have been including trophy skulls that are found in the ship at the end of Predator 2.  If you have followed the line this entire time you should have close to all the skulls on the wall.  Ash, like his first wave, comes with a little nod as well … the laughing mounted deer bust from the shed.  It also has an articulated neck, so if you can find a place to hang him he can adjust his neck to your needs.  Now this also makes me think a laughing head for Ash as an extra would be amazing, but I’m sure that might have been cost prohibitive.

Ash’s headsculpt is the same this time around but the paint is different.  When I first got the ‘Farewell to Arms’ figure I thought his face looked a little too cartoony.  As time went along it really grew on me as I have had him standing next to the AOD version and I definitely prefer this face over that.  I feel like Hero Ash’s body works even better with that face.  His face is a little darker and the blood is distributed in different areas.  This makes more sense to me because he looks more like he did at the end of the movie.  It also helps that he has more exposed skin because it blends well with his head.  I have one quality concern on mine, it looks like he has a bit of a wandering eye.  This seems to be happening all over the place lately, and if I was Jesse Ventura I might think it’s a conspiracy.

Enough about the about the head and face, I’ve harped on it plenty of times before.  The new torso is fantastic.  The new arms are amazing as well.  The attached chainsaw looks great, and his exposed arm has good natural articulation for a movie figure.  I just can’t say enough about Ash, through this Evil Dead 2 run they got him and his variations covered really well.

This brings us to Henrietta, the new 100% newly sculpted villain of the movie.  I am loving the undead bodies NECA has been putting out, like the Boomer, her detail is simply fantastic in a completely gross way.  If you lift up her shredded blouse you can see the detail of her ribs and if you go down her body the skin just falls apart.  The upper leg articulation is built into her deteriorating guts.  She stands fine on her own, but if you are worried about falling there is a stand included that makes her fly!  It plugs into a hidden hold on her back.

Now had NECA wanted to make some serious cash, they could have made a Henrietta variant with the crazy crypt keeper face.  Instead, since they seem to really love their fans both heads are included.  The heads connect through a peg in the neck and the alternate has a long bendy neck.  Normally I am scared of bendy parts because they show ware if you pose them too much.  I’ve posed this one quite a bit and have yet to see stress marks.  I’m not claiming it will never happen but the plastic (or rubber) feels really strong so it just instills more confidence in me that this will last.  The other interesting decision for the alternate head is the rooted hair.  I’m usually not a big fan of rooted hair but it looks good.  I also think sculpting in the hair would not have worked out as well and the chances for paint slop would have been higher.

Ash and Henrietta have already made themselves at home in my collection and they seem to be fitting in pretty well.  While I loved the first series, I think the second was the real knock-out punch.  I hope they end up selling enough of these to do a few more things with Evil Dead 2.  I believe they have stated they don’t make much on Evil Dead stuff, it’s more of a love of the property for them.  And that’s cool, we’ve gotten a good amount of Bruce Campbell this year and I would not have thought a Henrietta would ever happen.  I suggest following what NECA is up to as they are on a roll lately.  They are the one company I don’t have a specific line allegiance to, if they make cool stuff I usually buy it regardless of the property.

So I say to you all, celebrate the 25th anniversary of Evil Dead 2 and buy these up.  You can grab a single of Hero Ash or Henrietta over on Amazon.  Or you can save yourself a few bucks and grab the pair together.

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