Review II: 2005 released NECA Deluxe Jack Skellington with interchangeable heads toy figure

continued from earlier post...

Part 2 review of my Halloween toy blog post of the 2005 released NECA Deluxe 14-inch tall Jack Skellington with interchangeable heads toy figure. In the first part review posted HERE, I covered the packaging and each of the 12 interchangeable heads individually. Now let's look at the Jack Skellington figure itself.

NECA Deluxe Jack Skellington is 14 inches tall, and besides a total of 12 interchangeable heads, is said to have 19 points of articulation. The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as a Disney animator. Disney only decided to produce the movie after the success of Burton’s films Beetlejuice and Batman in 1989. Even then, Disney released the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought the film would be "too dark, and scary for kids." Scroll down to see the pictures of this NECA 14-inch Jack Skellington :)

The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday, with some dastardly consequences. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. (source: wiki)

As you can see, Jack certainly needs help standing and posing ;p NOTE: The clear display stand is NOT included. I had to use it for Jack to pose and take pictures.

Putting Jack Skellington in a running pose helps to highlight his lanky body the way he was designed. He is supposed to be a human skeleton wearing a suit after all.

I loved the movie and the concept. Different towns for different holidays and Jack ends up in Christmas Town. His intentions though noble has a disastrous effect on himself and teaches us that we should never try to be somebody we are not but just love ourselves for who we are and what we are good at.

Jack Skellington first appeared in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988). His head can be seen atop Beetlejuice’s carnival hat.

Burton did NOT direct the movie due to the film’s time commitment and his scheduling conflicts with Batman Returns. Burton hired his friend, Henry Selick, to direct — this was also his feature film directing debut. He went on to direct two other classic stop-motion films, Coraline and James and the Giant Peach.

The film used over 230 sets that were set up in 19 soundstages. The stop-motion musical had 24 frames to a second, meaning they had to pose characters 24 times for each second of the completed film. That consisted of roughly 110,000 frames. It took an entire week of shooting to create one minute of film. And the movie therefore took more than three years to complete.

Each puppet had an armature inside it, enabling flexible movement. There are as many as 60 individual characters, with three or four duplicates each. The sculpture department consisted of only four people.

Sources:
18 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About "The Nightmare Before Christmas" posted HERE
20 Crazy Facts About The Making Of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” in honor of the movie’s 20th anniversary posted HERE

Related posts:
January 19, 2009 - Pirate Jack from Walt Disney Pictures "James and the Giant Peach" posted in my toy blog HERE
December 24, 2009 - T'was the night before Christmas with Jun Planning 16-inch Jack Skellington as "Sandy Claws" posted HERE
October 31, 2010 - Happy Halloween from Jack the Pumpkin King (pictures HERE)