REVIEW: SLUG Zombies Series 2 - Mr Jangles

Produced by JAKKS Pacific | Released August 2012

Previous Job: Bo Bo the Circus Chimp

Likes, Bananas, Tire Swings & Opposable Thumbs

Dislikes: His Cage, His Boss, His Life,

Favorite Food: Banana Braised Brains

SLUG Zombies Series 2

The second wave of JAKKS Pacific's rather excellent SLUG Zombies Keshi-style minifigures has just landed at retail. As before, the figures are available as four, three-figure packs, blind-boxeded single figures and as a twelve-figure pack, each with their own an assortment of shared and exclusive figures. But rather than provide a ''blanket Review'' of the packs we've elected instead to Review each figure individually, as this approach will hopefully  not only provide a more in-depth overview of each figure but also help you decide which packs are for you.

Mr Jangles

Our first pick from the new wave is lab-monkey (well, chimpanzee)-turned-undead-nightmare, Mr Jangles. 

Mr Jangles is currently available as part of a 3-figure pack along with pack-mate exclusive Blazin' Basel and Cleopatra Commin'Actha.

Sculpt and Design

I have to admit that I initially thought he was either a werewolf or a Mr Hyde-style transformed human but according to his bio, Mr Jangles is a mutated chimpanzee, presumably the test subject of the 12-pack exclusive Dr Outbreak and no doubt cause of the zombie outbreak. My guess is it's a little 28 Days Later... nod from JAKKS Pacific, which makes sense, given how many other zombie/undead (and other) movie references litter the line.

The sculpt is pretty neat, overall. He's covered in rather nicely-rendered hair, his lab coat is detailed with some tears and holes and there's a great cadaverous look to his sunken belly and his zombified hands, one of which holds a bottle of (what I assume) is some form of ''Zombie Potion.''

The head sculpt is particularly cool. There's a great expression of menacing insanity, with his bulging eyes and dropped-open, slobbering jaws. However, how much he actually looks like an ape is open to debate. His ears are simply the wrong shape and his jowls seem more lupine than ape...ine... Personally were it not for his ape-like feet I'd be included to think JAKKS Pacific designed him as a character for the SLUG Monsters line but then decided to shoehorn him into the Zombies line instead...

Mr Jangles' pose is kind of cool, in a somewhat menacing manner and I appreciate how sturdy he is on his feet.

Paint

The SLUG Zombies do not feature any form of paint app (although you could easily paint them yourself) but are instead cast from a single colored plastic. In the case of the undead figures, they're rendered in a rather garish, gangrene green hue. It's a cool way to differentiate the types of figures (i.e. zombies from humans and then, presumably, Aliens and Monsters) but part of me does wish they'd gone with a few alternate colorways, as that would take some of the sting out of having duplicate sculpts. Still though, this is a very minor point.

Final Thoughts

Mr Jangles is a very solid addition to the line. I have to admit I chose the Mr Jangles exclusive-featuring 3-pack over the 12-pack because his strong Monster In My Pocket aesthetic appealed to me. That's not to take anything away from JAKKS Pacific and their designs or to denigrate the other figures. It's simply that Mr Jangles is a very cool, unique-looking SLUG Zombie that also echoes one of my favorite toy lines. Which is a good thing.

Even if the Monsters in My Pocket toys passed you by, there's still a lot of fun to be had with Mr Jangles. The sculpt is solid, with a very tactile, durable feel to him. I just wish JAKKS Pacific's designers had really gone to town with his monkey-ness (well, ape-ness), as monkeys are awesome, zombies are great and Keshi rock, so using the Power of Math, he should really be a little funkier than he is.

Still, minor ape-related quibbles aside, this is a cool, fun figure. He's got a solid, tactile feel to him, the sculpt detail (what there is) is very nicely executed and he stands very well unaided, which is a definite plus. And if you are a MIMP fan then you'll love this homage to the line.

A solid, fun figure.

Final Score: B+

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