My figure addiction started in the early summer of 2000. I had just graduated from high school and I had college plans lined up for the fall. I went to DeSales University with a major in Television and Film, so a natural prerequisite is being a film buff.  I used to go to my local mall and buy movies at Suncoast and posters at Spencer’s Gifts. So, on one trip into the latter store, I found these… And it changed my life. This next sentence will just be filler while you chuckle at what I just wrote. Let me explain. Figures for horror movies like these didn’t exist in this style. Actually, figures like these in general were relatively new. They were from a company called McFarlane Toys, founded by comic book artist and creator of “Spawn,” Todd McFarlane. The company’s logo is Spawn’s mask, in fact. They had already produced a very successful line based upon their signature character as well as from various movies. But, this line was based solely on horror and sci-fi films, Movie Maniacs. And I would go crazy for them.

The first series consisted of five characters: Jason Voorhees as seen in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Freddy Kreuger as seen in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 3: The Dream Warriors, Leatherface as seen in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Eve and Patrick from Species II. I bought Jason right away as he is my favorite slasher. I didn’t have enough money on me so I drove home, got more and drove right back for Freddy and Leatherface. I loved the detailing, the blood splattering, the accessories and the gore hound in me loved the body parts that came with Leatherface!

Fans have often commented on the fact that the Jason figure from this series doesn’t resemble Jason in Jason Goes to Hell very much. They’re not wrong. Jason wore more of a Michael Myers style garage suit in the film and the figure looked more like this:

Freddy comes with an awesome, little puppet version of himself from Dream Warriors. Leatherface comes with a massive chainsaw, meat mallet (missing from photos), bloody bucket, severed arm and a severed head complete with smashed glasses!

The Eve and Patrick creatures from Species II rounded out the first series at five figures. I picked them up later when Movie Maniacs series 2 came out and my addiction went from a small blaze to a raging inferno. So, that’s what set me off and I’ve met some really cool artists and fans along the way.