Barbecue's Show & Tell #6: S-Mart Ash
"Army of Darkness" was the first film in the Evil Dead series that I ever experienced. I was staying at my grandmother's house for awhile during the summer of 1999 and was going through boxes of old VHS tapes that various family members and friends has left in my grandma's basement after a large yard sale. I found some real gems that summer, including a VHS copy of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (I had only ever seen "Temple of Doom", "The Last Crusade", and the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles), "From Dusk 'til Dawn", and of course, "Army of Darkness." Both of those films are in on the list of my top 5 favorite films of all time (Raiders is #1, "Army of Darkness" is #4) and I spent much of that summer watching them over and over. Since then I have become not just a huge fan of the Evil Dead series (and splatstick in general) but also of the pinnacle of acting and manliness that is Bruce Campbell. As a toy collector and an Evil Dead fan, it just makes since that I would pick up Evil Dead action figures, right? Take a look at this excellent S-Mart Ash figure from my collection after the break....
NECA released this figure as part of the sixth series of their Cult Classics line in 1998. Ash was definitely the standout figure of the wave, although he was released alongside Michael and David from "The Lost Boys" and the Hare Krishna Zombie from "Dawn of the Dead." This wasn't the first Ash figure ever made, however, now was it even the first S-Mart Ash figure ever made. Back in 2005, Palisades released a series of 1/18th scaled Army of Darkness figures. While the first series was sold in two packs, the second series was sold blind boxed. One of those series 2 blind boxed figures was Ash in his S-Mart outfit. I purchased quite a few of the series 1 packs from a Suncoast Video clearance sale but found that they broke far too easily (often right out of the package) and thus never put in the effort to obtain series 2.


Now for my complaints, be careful with the accessories. The plastic used is very brittle and the stickers can have a tendency to peel if handled frequently. The figure has some varied points of articulation, but other than moving his arms and his head you aren't going to get a lot of poses out of him. He really is intended to be a figure you get in a pose you like and just leave on display. While NECA has been moving away from this over the past few years, this was pretty standard for collector figures back in the 2000s.
While "Army of Darkness" was the first Evil Dead film I saw, it wasn't my first exposure to the character. Toy Fare magazine always included plenty of references to the films and to Ash in their issues. I remember reading the first issue of Toy Fare in December of 1996 and wondering who exactly this character was. It's a shame it took me so long to find out, but I've watched the movie enough times to make up for all of those lost years. This figure excellently captures the mixture of coolness and absurdity that makes Ash such a lovable and iconic character. Work shed!
Barbecue17 always shops S-Mart: he shops at S-Mart. He also takes lots of pictures of action figures and puts them on Flickr. You got that?
Another awesome and informative review by Barbecue17!
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