REVIEW: SLUG Zombies Decrepit Katie

#MinifigureMonday

Welcome to today's #MinifigureMonday Review, where today we're looking at Decrepit Katie from the awesome (and much missed) SLUG Zombies line-up. Is she another great addition to the line or should she just be put out of her undead misery? Read on and find out!

SLUG Zombies Series 3

By the time JAKKS Pacific released the third series of SLUG Zombies, the line had really come into its own, with some great characters and superbly detailed sculpts. Unfortunately though, this was also around the time that the figures became a little scarcer on shelves, signaling that - unknown to us at the time - the line hadn't quite been the success JAKKS Pacific - and indeed, fans of the line - had hoped for.

Like the previous waves, Series 3 featured a 12-figure pack and 4, 3-figure packs, both of which that included exclusive and shared figures. Decrepit Katie comes from a 3-figure pack (along with Trashcan Sam and Johnny Two-Guns) and was one of the two exclusive figures in that set.

Decrepit Katie

Let's begin with the figure's basic ''character'' or inspirations. Decrepit Katie is dressed in a nurse's outfit (so she's a nurse, natch.) But is she intended - as many of the SLUG Zombies were - to be an homage to a famous person or movie character? I can see two possible influences: she's either a riff on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's Nurse Ratched (which, given how many non-zombie pop culture references are in the line is possible) or - and I'll admit this is a stretch - she's inspired by the victim nurse in the excellent (but very gory) Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue/Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. I'm fine with either but I'm also open to suggestions here...

EDIT: It's been suggested that she may be referencing the nurse zombie in Dawn of the Dead, which makes perfect sense!

As with all the SLUG Zombie figures, the sculpting is great. From her shambling pose and bent limbs to the ragged clothing and nurse's hat to the great hair detail and - coolest of all - drooling mouth, this is a superb-looking figure with a lot of close-up detail that's worked enough to be interesting but not so complex or ''busy'' to overpower the figure's look.

Considering the shambling stance, it's surprising to see how well-balanced the figure actually is. She stands well without support and is fairly sturdy on her feet.

As you can see from this angle, the hair sculpt is really impressive. I also like all the bite details and torn clothing. The overall effect is really impressive.

Like all SLUG Zombies, Decrepit Katie is cast from a lurid green. I've always liked this hue of green, as it's the perfect pitch to really show-off the sculpt detail yet also have a sickly kind of feel to it.

Final Thoughts

The SLUG Zombie line really deserved a better run. It's still something that baffles me, as the line checks pretty much every box you'd expect of a great minifigure line, from competitive pricing to great sculpts and the right balance of enough figures to avoid too many duplicates but also not so many that you'd never be able to get them all. There was also a great, wicked sense of humor to the line that's not really found in most toys these days.

Such a shame...

Decrepit Katie is a perfect example of everything right with the SLUG Zombies line. The figure has a superbly-detailed sculpt, the pose is great, the cast is clean and although the zombie nurse idea  may be simple, this is an excellent rendition of the concept.

A great figure that serves as a reminder of just how good the SLUG Zombies line was.

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