Trick or Treat Through 31 Days of Toy Terror: Hooded Vampire/ Dracula from Flexy Halloween Creeps

 

   I'm really excited to show off today's installment of Trick or Treat Through 31 Days of Toy Terror: The Hooded Vampire/ Dracula from the vintage Flexy Halloween Creeps toys. Have you ever seen or heard of this guy before? I've had this vampire for as long as I can remember, and I think I have a few more of these floating around somewhere in my haunted house. What's the deal here? Well, the "Flexy Halloween Creeps" were sold out of big cardboard box that was set right on the shelf of a drugstore or novelty shop.  The assortment included the vampire, a witch, a skeleton, a scarecrow, and a mummy. At some point they were re-released by a company called Tony USA in 2-packs under the title "Halloween Bendy Monsters Scary Friends" and a Frankenstein's Monster figure was included, too. These were purchased in bulk boxes and were imported from China to the USA and UK for dirt-cheap between the 1970s and early 1990s with the figures receiving different color updates every so often. These figures don't have any official names so I'm using the names I found on Dinosaur Dracula when Matt gave these out as part of the 2018 Halloween Funpack (Tall Skeleton, Hooded Vampire, Green Scarecrow, Rainbow Mummy, and Ugly Witch) as those seem like as good of names as any. Ready to check out the spooky Hooded Vampire who is clearly based on Dracula? Then join me after the break...

The Facts:

Height: 4 3/4ths inches

Articulation: He's bendy!

Accessories: None

Year of Release: Between 1970 and the mid 1990s. (I'm guessing mine is from the mid to late 1980s).

Original Retail Price: Cheap!!!

The Positives:

* These guys are your standard inexpensive bendy figures but there's something about them that is incredibly charming and just evokes the look and feel of the Halloween decorations and novelties of my childhood; they're vivid, crude, and both frightening and hokey at the same time. If you ever went to a carnival in the 1980s or early 1990s and rode a ride-through haunted house dark ride inside of a trailer, this is the kind of art that was painted on the outside. The Hooded Vampire is wearing a green suit with red buttons and a black tie. That's actually not a bad outfit and I wouldn't mind something similar myself. To top it off, though, he's sporting a red cape with hood. That's a rather interesting choice, isn't it? It's almost like a cloak, I suppose. 

* Dracula looks like... well, he looks like Bela Lugosi mixed with an Orc from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's a really odd portrait with crooked bloody fangs, a large nose, and some very severe eyebrows. The back half of his head is under the red hood he's wearing, so he must be expecting unpleasant weather. Do you think there's any possibility that the person who sculpted this back in the 1970s or so is still alive and is reading this review? Are they still proud of their work? I hope so!

* Here's a look back at the cape. The red paint is starting to merge with the color of the plastic and such, so you can tell this thing has been around awhile. I can't remember if I put these with any other toylines I had as a kid or if I just kept them in a box that we called the Odd box as it was just random things and parts. By this point, you can probably tell I'm being pretty loose with reviewing this guy. He's not the highest quality toy but I've had him so long that I'm just nostalgic about how crazy he is. That red paint is probably filled with lead but my does it look delicious....

* What the heck is going on with this vampire's hands? He has bloody red... interior knuckles? What the heck is that about? I mean, bloody claws/ nails would make a lot of sense. Even bloody knuckles could work as maybe this guy is involved in bare-knuckle boxing. But on the inside of his fingers, behind the knuckles? No clue!

* His feet are oversized slightly which actually allows him to stand up. That's kind of nice, actually, as you can pose him on a shelf if you'd like. I remember having some sort of clear zippered bag as a kid that had my bendy figures in it, though I don't remember playing with them all that much. Sometimes they got mixed in with other stuff.

 

* The hooded vampire is nice and bendy with the ability to make some rather creepy poses. He's a very decent bendable figure and I'm amazed that he's held up as well as he has over the past three to four decades. 

   This guy is absolutely bonkers and I love him! He's so weird and strange, perfectly capturing the vibe of a toy that you feel like you saw in a fever dream or that a friend of your cousin owned and you saw one time but could never really place. Honestly, yeah there are some weird, goofy elements here, but the figure is also a pretty well done novelty toy with far more detail and individual paint applications than you might expect. He's an Epic figure solely due to how nostalgic he is and how well he's held up over the years. I don't know where I have any of the other figures I used to have as a kid, so maybe I lost them or sold them in boxes of random stuff over the years. I'm glad this guy is still around, though. 

 

  For more vampires who are kind of inspired by Dracula or who actually are Dracula, check  out the NECA Universal Monsters Dracula (Transylvania) and Dracula from the Crypt Club 4-Pack, the Hammer Count Dracula (Horror of Dracula), the Bitty POP! Towns Dracula and Castle, the TMNT x Universal Monsters Shredder as Dracula, the Funko ReAction Dracula, Super7's ReAction Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Count Dracula from Operation: Monster Force, the McFarlane's Monsters Dracula Playset, Jada Toys' Bela Lugosi as Dracula, the Playmobil Take Along Haunted House 9312, the Big Bucket of Monsters Dracula, the Marvel Legends Series Dracula, Mezco's Tower of Fear, the Haunted Haven Vampire Organist/ Dracula, Assortment #1 from Dr. Malgam's Body Bags, the Wendy's Frosty Bite, and Dracula from the original Playmates Monster Force line.