Tis the season to be scary! Halloween is coming up and the winter holiday season is just around the corner, so what better way to celebrate than with the legendary Tim Burton’s ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’? Earlier this month at New York Comic Con, our friends at Diamond Select Toys debuted their convention Exclusive ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Minimates Box Set. This set includes some of the film’s iconic characters like Lock, Shock, and Barrel, as well as their Walking Bathtub vehicle, and a Battle Damaged ‘Santa’ Jack Skellington. While the set was initially planned as a convention exclusive, it’s proven so popular that Diamond Select Toys has announced they will doing a wide release of the set in Spring of 2016! So today we’re taking a look at this fantastic NYCC Exclusive ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Minimate Set.
Starting off, this Box Set is great to look at! From the larger than usual packaging alone, you can tell that this is going to be something a little more than most of your standard Minimates sets. The packaging is mostly a dark vibrant red color that really makes it pop out at you. The figures themselves contained within are display prominently through a window as per usual, with some accessories hidden away behind the branding. From the get-go, you can see this Minimate set is truly something distinctly unique.
The figures themselves in this set are phenomenal! We get a Box Set made almost entirely of unique pieces that are not found anywhere outside of this set! This is the only place to nab fan favorite characters Lock, Shock, and Barrel, all of whom have specialty parts like their unique face masks, newly tooled hair pieces, or odd lengthed body parts (example- Shock has an especially enlongated head). We also see a Battle Damaged ‘Santa’ Jack Skellington, who clearly looks a little worse for the ware, and a Walking Bathtub vehicle, which might be one of the weirdest Minimates we’ve ever seen.
Battle Damaged ‘Santa’ Jack Skellington looks great and perfectly captures the forlorn moments of woe as seen towards the end of the film’s second act. This is the version of Jack where he has literally just been shot down out of the sky by the military, and realizes he has failed at recreating Christmas in his own way. His facial expression is one of shock and utter defeat, while his clothes are tattered and torn, revealing his classic striped tuxedo beneath his Santa Claus costume. I really like the roughed up nature of Jack’s coat tails and sleeves, as they are minor details that add a lot to the figure.
Next up is Lock, who is a devilishly good looking figure! This pale-faced trick-or-treater comes in a Devil costume, complete with a demonic looking mask and a tail! Lock is a fun figure, as his fiendish grin on both his face and his mask perfectly encapsulates the nature of the character. The figure itself is pretty basic, but so is the characters design from the film, so that works to its advantage. The tail is also a nice touch!
Shock, the only female character in the set, is dressed as a Witch! Shock is unfortunately the only weak figure in the set. Somewhere between her oversized head (which is part of her actual character design, and in no way a flaw of DST‘s), her mask, and her actual costume, it just doesn’t fit together well. I couldn’t manage to get her head to stay on her shoulders for more than a few moments once her face mask was attached due to the lack of space between her head, mask, and dress. It’s just too tight of a squeeze. Still, if you can manage to get her all together in one piece, she looks great! Her hair/hat piece looks fabulous and flawlessly captures the character’s look! I also really dug that her dress is frayed around the edges, looking extra worn and spooky!
Barrel is a lot of fun! He’s slightly shorter in stature than the others, as is the character in the film, and he comes dressed as a Skeleton! Barrel is simply done, and it works wonderfully. Much like with Lock, Barrel’s maniacal grin shines through on both his face and his Skeleton mask. Barrel here might actually be my personal favorite in this set, he looks insane like he is ready to do whatever it takes to please Oogie Boogie and get the job done!
This next piece is kind of hard to categorize. Is it a Minimate figure? Is it a Minimate Vehicle? You decide! Check out this Walking Bathtub! It’s got the joints and limbs of a standard Minimate, but also has space to seat Lock, Shock, and Barrel inside it to transport them wherever they need to go! It’s a pretty odd piece, but it’s wonderfully representative of the film. It’s probably the most unexpected Minimate in any line I’ve seen to date.
Overall, this NYCC Exclusive ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ Minimates Box Set is a must have for any ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ fan! It’s a fantastic group of characters we’ve never before seen as Minimates, and as such it includes a ton of unique parts! The characters are mostly well put together and there was clearly heaps of love put into making this set. It’s worth noting again that this set was initially released at New York Comic Con 2015, but is getting a limited release at comic shops and specialty stores in Spring 2016, so don’t wait too long to pick one up as they are likely to sell fast! We highly recommend this one!
