I haven't been collecting
Jakks Pacific's SLUG Zombie minifigures, but I have to admit that they are pretty neat looking. What appeals to me the most as a non/casual collector who generally just looks at them on the toy store shelves are the 'inspired by' figures. They've done everyone from Superman
(or should I say 'Bizarro?') to Elvis to
Abraham Lincoln to Moe Howard; and the 'normals' or 'Zombie Hunters' are often based on pop culture zombie hunters like Sheriff Rick and Shaun of the Dead, or simply mere pop culture icons like Chuck Norris and Crocodile Dundee (neither of whom fought zombies to my knowledge.)
While perusing the sets at stores and on various blogs, one figure caught my eye in particular:
Double-Barrel Carol. She's just awesomely geeky cute, but I had no idea who she was 'supposed' to be so I passed, but always looked over the sets that contained her whenever I was in stores.
Target currently has all their SLUG Zombies sets on clearance, and I was lucky enough to find the
Series 3 12 figure set that Carol is part of for $4.98 and could pass no longer, especially since I only recently discovered over at
That Figures who Double-Barrel Carol's inspiration is:
Velma Dinkley! This piece of
Scooby Doo fan art by
Travis Pitts has made the internet rounds for a while now. Double-Barrel Carol is so close to this Velma (while being nothing like any other zombie hunter of pop culture fame) that she simply must have been inspired by this piece. Which makes her even more awesome than without a reference source, if that's at all possible!
While not an exact duplicate, the translation is close enough for me to imagine Velma fighting off the rest of my 12 pack Zombie horde, and that's worth every penny of the $4.98 I spent for these guys. Not to mention the fact that I just wrote the synopsis to what would be the greatest film of all time. Make it happen, Hollywood!
"Jinkies!"
Now to find an in scale Scooby Doo figurine!
Holy crap. I own both the figure and the t-shirt, and I love them both... but never made this connection. It's REALLY obvious to me now that you've pointed it out. I think they probably made a few visual changes just for legality sake... but the socks and the ammo belt, and the shotgun... it all fits.
ReplyDeleteThey did a zombie dog with a hand in his mouth called Ferocious Frankie... although he doesn't look much like Scooby.
Even though I say I don't collect these, I ran to Target last night looking for that dog you mention, and found him! So my 'non-collection' grows lol!
DeleteBTW I think the dog looks like Mad Max's dog, but that might just be me.
I'll be pointing it out in a SLUG post next week but there is coincidentally a guy in a Hawaiian shirt in Series 4 that's missing his hand. I'm wondering if they intended for it to be his hand in the dog's mouth.
DeleteIn the 3 pack the handless man and dog are packed together, so I can only assume it was intentional.
DeleteBTW I think the guy in the Hawaiian shirt was inspired by 'Bernie' of 'Weekend at Bernies.' Or just some random guy in a Hawaiian shirt lol.
I like this one Eric and it almost makes me want to run out and find one for myself. : )
ReplyDeleteThere's no better time to do so, since they're all on clearance at Target!
DeleteVery cool about the Scooby Doo connection.
ReplyDeleteAlso: Carol has a nice rack. Just sayin'.
I hadn't noticed. Yeah. Ahem.
DeleteI never planned on collecting these, and all of a sudden (also partially thanks to the Target clearance, but MOSTLY thanks to the Christmas special figs) I have a huge pile of them. I want to track down the Hulk Hogan look-alike, and the Three Stooge figures.
ReplyDeleteThe 3 Stooges are on my want list too. I have the 'Moe' inspired figure already!
DeleteIt's more of an Ugly Betty than a Velma.
ReplyDelete