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For 30 Days every winter, the isolated town of Barrow, Alaska is plunged into a state of complete darkness.  It’s a bitter time when most of the inhabitants head south.  This winter, a mysterious group of strangers appear: bloodthirsty vampires, ready to take advantage of the uninterrupted darkness to feed on the residents remaining in town.

Oh!  Hi, there!  It’s okay, Comic Attackers.  You can read this review with the lights on if you wish.  There’s nothing to be afraid of.  It’s just a hunk of bloody plastic which happens to be the center of attention in this week’s installment of Gotta Have It! Figure Edition.  We’re going to be checking out one of Gentle Giant LTD.’s action figures, based on the hit comic series by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith from IDW Publishing and the subsequent movie from Ghost House Pictures, Marlow from 30 Days of Night!

Product Line: 30 Days of Night Deluxe Action Figures
Company: Gentle Giant LTD.
Release Date: January 2009
Packaging: Full plastic blister card encasing.
Where to Buy: Online and specialty shops.  I’ve seen these at video stores and book stores such as Hastings.  I found this at my local comic shop (LCS), Prairie Dog Comics.
Price: I’ve seen anywhere from US $14.99 to $49.99 (eBay can be a little frakkin’ crazy).  Mine was found on clearance for $7.50.
Points of Articulation: 4 1/2.  One hand turns, but not so much.
Height: 6 inches.

Paint Job: Marlow is pretty much flat, black plastic for his legs, feet, and arms.  His rubber trench coat is also the same black.  He’s wearing a gray, button-down shirt underneath.  Pretty drab and boring.  Not something your tweenage daughter is going to be drooling over.  Unless she’s twisted, in which case I say to you, “Awesome!”  He’s got a good flesh tone painted on the exposed chest and face.  No signs whatsoever of sparkles.  He’s topped off with black hair which interestingly fades to the flesh tone in the back.  To show maybe the back is a close buzz?  I don’t know.  I like it though.  Lastly, Marlow’s hands, face, and chest are covered in delicious, glossy, red blood!  Something interesting, Marlow is sparsely covered in white dots, most likely to simulate a snow effect, but it looks like he walked past someone using a spray tool to paint their house on a windy day.  I know what that looks like.  I’ve been a victim of over-spray in the misadventures of my youth.  Did I mention he’s BLOODY!?  Marlow has a little bit of skin tone that bled on the shirt collar.  Nothing major.

Sculpt: Highly detailed, this plastic Marlow is.  Gentle Giant LTD. does a damn fine job, much like McFarlane Toys does.  He even smells like my Candyman action figure from McFarlane’s Movie Monsters series.  Yeah, I smelled it.  Laugh it up, fuzzball.  Like I said before, the trench coat is rubber and would probably come off if I manipulated it just right, but I don’t want to do that.  It could rip, and Marlow would look kinda stupid with a gray shirt and black sleeves.  He’s got creepy long fingernails and a mouth full of sharp teeth.  He also has a peg hole in the sole of each boot.

Durability: Marlow is a total hunk of plastic.  You aren’t going to break this guy unless you’re a knob and do something nameless with him.  He’s pretty heavy duty, man.  Far out!

Poseability: None.  Marlow comes in a pre-sculpted pose.  You can tilt his head to each side like an inquisitive dog, and you can make him look up.  His left hand rotates around completely, but his right hand only rotates slightly.  It is impaired by the way his coat sleeve is sculpted.  Both arms rotate completely, but doing that is probably pointless, as it doesn’t go along with the pose that Gentle Giant LTD. decided to put him in.  Marlow, also, can’t stand up on his own.  He has to be standing on his “snowy” display stand.  More on that……now.

Accessories: Marlow comes with a “snowy” display stand that is crucial to his out-of-package existence.  He will fall over without it.  The display stand is very textured to give it that “snow-covered ground” look of Barrow, Alaska.  His feet fit into the molded footprints and there’s a peg sticking out of them, to place Marlow firmly on the stand.  There is also debris and a severed, BLOODY head, staining the surrounding snow in a glossy red.

He also comes with a bloody teddy bear, a candy bar, a blood covered torso of a young girl, and a ribboned pony tail.  Why?  If you buy the entire set (Marlow, Arvin, and Iris), you can put all of the parts together and build the fourth figure, Lilith.  Lilith is the scariest little undead girl this side of Raven Gregory’s The Waking.

What’s Awesome: Scary vampires are awesome!  Many give American Vampire the credit for making vampires scary again, but in 2002 Steve Niles teamed up with Ben Templesmith to get vampires back on track with their award winning series.  This figure is obviously modeled after the movie, and it does a really good job of capturing the likeness of actor Danny Huston (also Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

What Sucks: Marlow is not very poseable.  Also, I think it would have been kind of cool to see maybe a variant based on Templesmith’s design.

Overall: 4 out of 5.  I give this Marlow action figure four BLOODY thumbs up.  Horror movie action figures are always very cool and detailed.  This offering from Gentle Giant LTD. keeps up that tradition.  30 Days of Night: Marlow…gotta have it?  If you don’t think it will give you nightmares to see it sitting on your shelf at night and occasionally illuminated by the headlights of a passing car through your window, yes you do!

Aron White
aron@comicattack.net