In this recurring feature here on Dread, we’ve thus far shined the spotlight on the coolest toys from the majority of the big horror franchises, including Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Evil Dead. According to my calculations, that leaves only one left to tackle.
Freddy Krueger has been a merchandising powerhouse since he came onto the scene in 1984, with very few years passing by in the subsequent decades without the release of new Nightmare on Elm Street toys and goodies. NECA, Mezco, Sideshow, and McFarlane have all churned out Freddy figures over the years, making it incredibly difficult to pick and choose a mere ten.
That being said, I feel pretty confident that the list I currently hold in my hands represents the absolute best of the best. So without further delay, let’s take a look at the ten Nightmare on Elm Street toys every fan of the franchise absolutely needs in their collection!
We begin with the first Freddy Krueger toy that I ever owned, and which I still cherish to this day. In 1989, the same year The Dream Child was released, Matchbox put out this talking Freddy doll, which blurted out several sayings at the pull of a string. Shortly thereafter, the company removed the dolls from shelves amidst parental complaints – the character is a child molester, after all – with only 40,000 of them being shipped out before the protests began.
Around the time New Nightmare came out, a limited run of the same dolls – presumably leftovers from Matchbox – were released into Spencer Gifts stores, with new sayings and the pull string replaced with a push button activation. Mint in the box, the original Matchbox dolls sell for at least $100, but they can be found much cheaper if the boxes are damaged or missing altogether.
Toys sure have come a long way since I was a kid, as this 2012 release from Sideshow Collectibles serves as a perfect example of. Sideshow has put out several 12” Freddy figures over the years, based on franchise installments such as Dream Warriors and Freddy vs. Jason, and at the tail end of 2012 they gave the burnt-up dream demon their prestigious Premium Format treatment. Measuring 18″ tall, with real metal blades, and limited to 1,250 pieces, this incredible statue originally sold for $350 and now sells for nearly double that. Another Premium Format Freddy statue, based on Freddy vs. Jason, was also released by Sideshow.
Shortly after NECA put out a couple New Nightmare figures in 2005, Mezco spent a few years playing around on Elm Street, and their first order of business was inducting Freddy into the inaugural series of their Cinema of Fear line. Thinking outside the box and bringing something different to the table, Mezco decided to ditch the iconic striped sweater and instead throw Freddy in a tux, depicting him as he was in the hilarious “Where’s the f’ing bourbon?” scene from Dream Warriors – complete with the severed head of Kristen’s mom and even his own skeleton. The toy was released in 2007, and it was followed up by figures that saw Krueger dressed in a waiter’s outfit and surgical scrubs, based respectively on The Dream Child and Dream Master.
In 2008’s Cinema of Fear Series 2, Mezco released another Freddy figure and also gave some love to his main adversary, which is the first of only two toys ever released that depict Nancy Thompson – the other being Mezco’s Screen Grabs figure, which recreated the scene where Freddy bursts through the wall above a sleeping Nancy. This figure recreates another highly iconic encounter between Freddy and Nancy, a display piece that immortalizes the original film’s bathtub scene in plastic. To date, an actual “action figure” of Nancy still remains unreleased.
Mezco got even more creative in the fourth and final series of the Cinema of Fear line, at long last giving us a full action figure of one of Freddy’s victims. Alongside the aforementioned Freddy in surgical scrubs, this awesome figure of Dream Master’s Debbie “Roach Girl” Stevens was released in 2009, depicting her horrifically gruesome demise in the film. Not surprisingly, it didn’t sell too well and can be purchased nowadays for even less than it originally sold for. Nevertheless, it is in my opinion a standout gem in the world of Elm Street collectibles, and I can only hope that another toy company someday decides to give us more toys of Freddy’s victims.
Jumping ahead a couple years, Series 2 of NECA’s Nightmare on Elm Street line was released in 2011, comprised of figures based on Dream Warriors and Dream Master. It was the Dream Master figure that was the standout highlight of the two, immortalizing the final moments of the film – where various souls (including a topless Linnea Quigley!) rip and tear their way out of Freddy’s body. This one is a truly awesome figure, as well as an Elm Street display piece that is sure to spark conversation and bring back fond memories of the franchise’s memorable practical effects.
A few figures over the years have depicted a pre-burn Fred Krueger – including one from Sideshow Collectibles and another courtesy of NECA several years back – but none of them nailed the likeness of Robert Englund more than this more recent one from NECA, which was released back in 2013 as part of the fourth series of their Elm Street line. The head sculpt is absolutely dead-on accurate, and this is quite frankly the only “Springwood Slasher” figure you need to own.
NECA’s long-running line of video game-inspired action figures began with a Comic-Con exclusive Jason Voorhees toy and was followed up with this figure of “8-Bit Freddy.” While the purple and baby blue Jason is no doubt the more exciting of the two, I nevertheless can’t imagine any Freddy toy collection without this highly unique figure in it. It’s the kind of toy that you just have to own, and though they were limited to only one production run, you can still find these for a decent price. A retro-style version of the NES toy was more recently made available, exclusive to Toys R Us.
As unique as NECA’s video game-inspired Freddy toy was, they one-upped themselves with this 2014 San Diego Comic-Con exclusive, which brought “Super Freddy” to the toy shelf for the very first time. The retro-style action figure was of course based on Mark Gray’s death scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, wherein Freddy bulked up and became a super villain of horrific proportions. Featuring real fabric clothing, Super Freddy joins a slew of similar Freddy figures NECA has recently put out, based on the original classic and the first two sequels.
Living up to its name, NECA’s “Ultimate Freddy” toy is just that, and it’s arguably the very best Freddy Krueger action figure ever made. Put out last year, in celebration of A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s 30th anniversary, the 7″ figure was based on Freddy’s very first big screen appearance and includes a handful of accessories such as an alternate head, Tina’s skinned face, and even the infamous tongue phone. Oddly enough, very few Freddy toys over the years have depicted him as he appeared in Wes Craven’s original film – wherein the sleeves of his sweater did not have green stripes on them – so this one is a real treat for hardcore fans.
Which of these Elm Street toys are your favorites, and did I leave off any that you feel are must-owns? Comment below and let us know!