When it comes to the Walking Dead, I guess you could say I started out as a casual fan. I had never really heard of the comic book and my first taste of the series came with the TV show. I wouldn't say I’m a big fan of the zombie genre in general (although I have seen most of the big Hollywood zombie movies) and I decided to check out the series mainly because it was getting a lot of fanfare.
I wasn't totally won over by the first season though and it took me awhile to get going with the second. But by the end of the second season, I was totally sold on the series. Anyway, an eventful moment or should I say teaser at the end of the second season was the quick cameo introduction of the katana wielding Michonne. To be honest, I didn't know what to think the first time I saw her; here first appearance was so quick that it failed to make any major impressions. But in reading previews of the 3rd season, I figured out that her character introduction really was a big deal since she was a major character in the comic book.
In the first season, main characters Rick Grimes & Kenny manage to survive walking through a group of zombies by slathering zombie guts all over their bodies to disguise their “human” smell. Apparently zombies in this world identify living vs dead primarily by smell…
In season 3 we are given a proper introduction to Michonne and her more unique way of keeping the zombies off her scent, with the help of her two….pets. To survive walking amongst zombies, she get a couple of zombies (supposedly her former boyfriend and his best friend) chained really close to her. Apparently this is enough to disguise her scent. And just to make sure her pets can’t harm her (and turn her into a zombie as well) she hacks off their arms and lower jaws making them relatively…..harmless. It's a lot neater than the Rick Grimes gutsy method, plus they make pretty great porters for baggage….no complaints and no need to pay or feed them.
Anyway, although it was a quite short lived arrangement (she ended up decapitating them both soon after they were introduced) the image of Michonne, sword in hand and walking with her two chained pets paints quite an iconic and memorable image, one that has been luckily immortalized in plastic thanks to McFarlane Toys.
Now McFarlane Toys is generally known their for their excellent life like toy sculpts which unfortunately usually comes at the price of little to no articulation, which is a main reason why I never got into them in the first place (that and I’m not really big on the whole horror toy genre). But when I saw this special “Bloody” 3-pack, I knew it was something I had to get.
Now this is a special edition 3-pack as Michonne and her 2 pets can actually be bought separately with a more traditional paint job. Having them all together though in one set makes things a whole lot more convenient. And the 3 pack is appropriately named “Bloody” because the paint job for all 3 figures are noticeably toned down quite a bit to shades of black & gray with only details like blood splatters and Michonne’s piercing white eyes maintaining their colors.
As mentioned earlier, true to any McFarlane toy, the sculpts are excellently detailed and the articulation is rather limited…but quite acceptable in my opinion. All the key accessories are here, like Michonne’s sword, a removable hood/poncho that fits perfectly over Michonne, a shotgun that can easily be stowed away in one of the backpacks being carried by one of the pets as well as real life like chains to keep the pets in their place. An added bonus is that they included zombie arms and lower jaws which can be re-attached to the pets if you prefer your zombies whole...
Even though I have since become a major fan of the show & the comic, I don’t see myself getting the rest of the Walking dead line as I really do prefer my action figures being more poseable, for now, this bloody 3 pack will do. That is until they come up with a Merle & Daryl Dixon brothers 2-pack, then all bets are off :P
*after writing this entry I realized that Mcfarlane toys are indeed releasing a Dixon Brothers 2 pack....bastards.
