Christmas in Hollywood continues as we draw even closer to the big day. Right now I'm taking a look at a really cool figure, this is an exclusive Holiday version of Ash from Palisades Toys Army of Darkness line. They made this figure a few years ago as an exclusive just for friends and retailers of Palisades Toys.


Palisades Toys' Army of Darkness line was probably one of most mishandled lines of the forgotten company, but say what you will about how they handled the line itself Palisades was a great toy company. Inventive little incentives like this really made the company's connection with it's fans so nice. It's a shame that Palisades went bust. But enough of that sadness, let's look at this festive Ash Williams!

Packaging:

As an extremely limited exclusive, this item more or less came boxed in the package it was shipped in. It's a quaint little package with some holiday theme to it. It's supposed to be like an actual mailed package and it achieves that effect quite well.


The back has a little amusing holiday message about this figure and why you would have received it.


Inside is a simple shell with the figure and his hat. He's got two twist ties on him that are super tight and have to be clipped. I couldn't undo either one of them.

Articulation:
Although Palisades didn't do a ton in the 3 3/4 market, they really redefined the articulation in the scale. A ball jointed head, ball elbows, elbow swivel, double hinge elbows, wrist swivel, waist swivel, thigh swivel, swivel hinge thighs, double jointed knees just about makes this guy super articulated.


The articulation on these figures do seem to get loose over time, but there is plenty here to do with. Perhaps too much honestly. Especially because the articulation isn't the best engineered, but you have to give them credit for adding a lot of play value.

Sculpt:
In retrospect a lot of people love the Army of Darkness line. It was revolutionary for it's time, the sculpts were great and in hindsight the prices weren't as bad as people made them out to be. Of course back then you could get an 8 inch figure for the same price, so people were skeptical.


The one area where time has not been so nice is that the sculpt for Ash's head really isn't very good. Certainly it's not terrible, but it looks more like an animated caricature than actually a small scale Bruce Campbell. Later on they would make two other Ash figures that looked a little better, but both were blind boxed in the second series with one being packed like 1 in 100... Which killed this line quicker than a boomstick.


The likeness here is the same as it was on the regular Ash figure, which isn't very good. Still if you can deal with the not so great head sculpt, he's otherwise pretty flawless. He's decked out in green and red for the holidays, although the red pants are almost a brown color.


The paint work isn't sloppy, it's actually pretty clean throughout and since this Ash hasn't been fighting deadites, he's got none of the dirty or blood wash that the others had. He even has some extra paint on his shoes for metal studs. However, the paint on the body is clumped and some of the joints are practically glued together with paint. So when moving him the first few times be very careful in breaking the "seals" of paint.

Accessories:
The regular figures in this line came with a ton of accessories and really good ones too. Sadly since this was a free gift, it comes with only his Santa hat and his shotgun holster. No shotgun though? What's Christmas without a boomstick or two?!


Although the hat is pretty cool and definitely small scale, it's still a little too big for him to wear without looking silly.

Value:
I believe these were originally free and that's my favorite price, but if you can track this guy down on Ebay you'll pay quite a bit more than free. I think I paid $15 which is a steal really, regular Ash goes for more than that. I wouldn't pay more than $20 though unless you just really need a Holiday Ash.


Score Recap:
Packaging - 5
Sculpting - 6
Articulation - 9
Accessories - Santa Hat, Holster
Value - 6
Overall - 6.5 out of 10

This is a fun oddball figure but he's not really worth a ton in actual terms of toyness. He's pretty rare and if you're into rare collectibles than this guy is no doubt worth it. Plus he can spread some Christmas Carnage Cheer!