Here come the '80s!
Once, when Wes Craven was young, he was looking out his bedroom window and saw a homeless man walking down the street. The man stopped and looked up at Craven, revealing a heavily scarred, disfigured face. Scared, the boy jumped back from the window and waited for the man to leave. After a few minutes, he looked out the window again, and the man was still there, staring directly at him. He then headed for the entrance to the apartment building and could apparently be heard climbing the stairs. The encounter stuck with Craven, and was one of the factors that inspired the creation of Freddy Krueger.
Freddy's head is sculpted with a texture meant to represent his burned flesh. He has his trademark fedora, and his mouth is open in a tooth-baring frown. His stripey sweater is tattered around the edges, and has the stripes on the arms as well as the body (because that's what people expect to see). His hat and pants are painted with splotches that may just be dirt, but might as readily be blood. His little glove is detailed well, with silver blades sticking off the Mystery Minis' typically square fingers.
Freddy Krueger, in the first movie, was a metaphor for puberty, something that changed or got lost as the series went along. But he's a classic movie maniac (hey, I just got that name!) and the Mystery Minis style seems appropriate for the silly goofball personality he developed in later films.
I'm bummed I missed the Series 1 Jason, but I'm still really glad to have this one -- I like the post-decay look Jason had in the later movies, even if the films had definitely declined in quality.
I kind of wish they'd made his bones glow in the dark...
Oh yeah, that would have taken things to a whole new level. Did you ever manage to get one of the glow Cthulhu Mystery Minis?
No, sadly, I did not. I was happy enough to get the plain one, so I stopped hunting for him after that...
Thanks for sharing your experience with Freddy Krueger and how he came to be created. I'm also a big fan of horror movies and collectible figures, and the Freddy Krueger toys from Larger Than Life Toys are some of the best I've seen. The attention to detail on the figure is impressive, especially the texture on Freddy's burned flesh and the detailing on his iconic glove. The tattered sweater and hat are also spot-on, making it feel like you're holding a miniature version of the infamous movie villain. It's interesting to hear that in the first movie, Freddy was a metaphor for puberty. As the series continued, he definitely became more of a caricature, but that only added to his charm (if you can call it that).