Jason Voorhees in Plastic Form

For our Halloween Celebration I thought we’d take a look back at some of the many toys that have depicted the main “monster” character from one of the most popular Slasher franchises, Friday the 13th. Let’s go back to Camp Crystal Lake and see the many plastic faces of Jason Voorhees!

 

1998 McFarlane Movie Maniacs Series 1

Starting 16 years ago, back in 1998, McFarlane toys came out with it’s first series of Movie Maniacs figures. Included in the initial lineup was Jason Voorhees. The figure had a Bloody variant that was released single packed and in a Kay Bee Exclusive two pack with Freddy Krueger. The figure appears to be loosely based on Jason’s appearance from Jason Goes to Hell

 

The classic hockey mask is glued into place, but can be removed and replaced due to two small tabs on the sides of the mask. This brings us to the most disappointing feature of this figure. For all of the detail that McFarlane does for it’s toys, I’ve always hated that they decided to just make up some twisted face that neither keeps to movie cannon nor even looks like it blends in with the rest of the head’s sculpt.

 

Jason came with an Axe, Machete & Hooked Spear (There was also a cardboard movie poster that was glued into a sculpted frame made of bones, but I lost that many years ago) Only one of the hands could actually hold any of the weapons but in the case of the spear you could incorporate the open hand a bit. The figure is notable really for only being the first Jason Voorhees figure. The articulation was minimal utilizing swivel joints and really only making the arms poseable.

 

1999 Matchbox Character Car Collection

This is a funny little addition I found at Kay Bee the same day I picked up the McFarlane Jason/Freddy Two Pack. Matchbox released a line of Character Cars in 1999 that included regular Diecast cars based on different movies and TV shows with a plastic character from the same media tie in on top of the car. Included in the set were cars from Animal House, Gilligan’s Island & Nightmare on Elm St. to name a few.

The Jason figure is non-poseable and is permanently attached to a die-cast Jeep Cherokee that has been painted up to be a Camp Crystal Lake Councilor vehicle.

 

2002 Mezco Mez-Itz

In 2002 Mezco released a box set of their small “Mez-Itz” figures called Cinema of Fear. This included figures of Freddy, Leatherface and Jason with sculpted mini displays they could stand on.

Jason came with his trusty machete and a two piece stand that consisted of a Crystal Lake sign and a stand painted up to appear like the edge of the lake. The figure has ball joints for it’s neck, shoulders and hips while the claw-like hands can rotate.

 

 

2005 Neca Cult Classics Series 1

2005 saw NECA’s first series of Cult Classics figures, included in the line up was Jason from Friday the 13th Part VII – The New Blood. This figure took everything McFarlane did 7 years previously and cranked it up to 11! The detailing on the figure is awesomely intricate (even by today’s standards) and the paintjob was a lot less sloppy/dry brushed looking than McFarlane’s attempt. Unfortunately, the articulation took a half step backwards using the same swivel joints, but less of them than McFarlane used.

 

The mask was made to be removable this time and underneath is a screen accurately disfigured monster of a face!

 

Jason came with a forest stand (that honestly didn’t keep the figure standing upright as well as it should) His weapons of choice this time around were more detailed versions of the McFarlane weapons, a Machette, Axe & Spear. The tree stump on the stand has a notch that allows you to place the axe in it.

 

 

2007 Mezco Cinema of Fear Series 1

In 2007 Mezco used the Cinema of Fear title again for their new 6″ figure line. This time we got a Jason figure from part IV (The first Friday the 13th I ever saw) The figure has nice sculpting and finally a good amount of articulation!

 

The mask is removable again and the face looks like the deformed visage we saw in the movie (Though the paint job isn’t quite as nice as the NECA one)

 

Jason comes with an extra left hand that has a notch in between the two middle fingers to allow you to recreate the scene where Tommy’s sister slices Jason with his own machete! The hand pops out easily, but stays secure when attached.

 

Included with the spare hand, there’s an unmasked head that also includes a notch in the side of it. Again, this let’s you recreate a scene from the movie…Jason’s death scene!

 

This Jason comes with a plethora of different weapons featured at different times in the movie. You have an Axe, Hacksaw, Machete and Meat Cleaver. There is also a Pamela Voorhees Tombstone included with Jason.

 

 

2009 Mezco Cinema of Fear 3 3/4″ Series 1

In 2009 Mezco shrunk Jason, Leatherface & Freddy down to 3 3/4″ Jason is again based on Friday the 13th Part IV The figure has just as much detail as the larger Cinema of Fear figure, but with better articulation!

 

Jason’s mask is removable (and in this Toy Fair version, Glow in the Dark!) The face looks good and this Jason can terrorize my GI Joes!

 

 

2009 Mezco Cinema of Fear Series 4

Cinema of Fear’s Series 4 gave us Jason from Friday the 13th Part III The leg articulation was drastically cut down from previous figures, but the arms gained a mid bicep swivel joint.

 

Again, the mask is removable and has a decent looking early Jason head underneath.

 

There is also an alternate head (with glued on mask) that features the classic axe mark in his head. The included axe can fit in the notch to recreate his death scene from the movie.

 

This Jason comes with a Machete, Axe, Alternate Head & a body part (The right arm from the biker chick, Fox) I really would have liked a few other accessories from the movie and better leg articulation, but it’s still a decent figure from the first Friday the 13th movie to feature Jason’s signature Hockey Mask.

 

 

2014 Funko Horror Classics Mystery Minis

Earlier this year, Funko released a set of blind boxed miniature vinyl figures all based on Horror figures. Of course one of them was Jason Voorhees. The figure is non-poseable (this one’s head broke off so it was customized to be able to rotate it’s head) Jason has a stylized look to him that I like and features a slightly altered classic look. There is a variant chase figure colored like Jason from the 8-Bit Nintendo game that’s also in this line.

 

There are many more Jason Voorhees figures out there based on the other movies and made by McFarlane, NECA, Mezco & Funko/ReAction. These are just a small sampling of the toys based on my favorite slasher. Feel free to list down some of your favorites in the comments section below.