Cool Stuff: NECA Gives ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ The Action Figure We’ve Been Waiting For
NECA is responsible for bringing us some of the coolest action figures from blockbuster genre films likePredator, Halloween, Alien, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play, Godzilla, Gremlins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and countless more. But they’ve also given us action figures for movies that don’t usually get any collectible action figures, such asA Christmas Story, Pan’s Labyrinth, Home Alone, The Hateful Eight, andNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Now one more is one the way.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detectiveis the movie that turnedJim Carreyinto a comedy superstar, and it sparked what would become what might be the most lucrative comedy career of the 1990s. NECA previously immortalized the standard version of Ace Ventura as an action figure, complete with animal accessories and his trademark tacky clothing made of real cloth. But now they’re giving us a much better version of Ace Ventura from when he pretends to need psychiatric care at the Shady Acres mental hospital.
NECA Ace Ventura: Pet Detective Action Figure
This version of Ace Ventura comes with two new head sculpts, Wiggles the Yorkshire Terrier that he’s looking for at the beginning of the movie, and a real cloth tutu, shorts, and button up shirt. It’s a shame he doesn’t come with any accessories that he might have found in Ray Finkle’s personal locker while sneaking around Shady Acres, but that outfit is reason enough to buy this figure.
However, as great as this new figure is, I must say, there’s always something that’s a little off-putting about the head sculpts for the 8-inch scale figures with real cloth clothing. They look just a little off with the proportions, bordering on being slightly warped in a cartoonish way. That appears to be intentional as a way of honoring the classic Mego line of figures that were popular for decades, but it honestly makes me wish these were more like NECA’s standard action figures.
Furthermore, getting the clothes right for these scale action figures isn’t easy. They’re often too big for the figures and they don’t sit right on their bodies because the stitching isn’t small enough to allow them to be shaped in a way that real clothes are on people. It’s what makes Hot Toys so good at what they do when it comes to making clothing for their figures.
None of that means this figure isn’t still worth buying, especially since it’s probably the only figures we’ll see created from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective that have this level of quality.
The NECAAce Venture: Pet Detectiveaction figure isavailable for pre-order nowand will arrive in June.
