Retro Toy Week: Toy Biz Resident Evil Zombies!

We're more than doubling up on this one, but this is a batch of toys I especially wanted to look at this week. Not just because it's still more videogame characters from a game I haven't played: the Resident Evil Zombie with Forest Speyer and Resident Evil 2 Zombie Cop with exploding action!


Even though I enjoyed the first couple Resident Evil movies, I've never played any of the games. It's not that I've been avoiding them, but they haven't fallen into my lap, either. I have only a nodding acquaintance with the mythology of either version; the T-virus, the Umbrella Corporation, lickers, and whatnot. Ditto the characters--I know a couple of the zombies came with Claire or Hunk or whoever, but they're in a different bin. (No, they weren't; I just wasn't interested in them.)

The bald zombie that came with Hunk reminds me of the cover of the original Dawn of the Dead, and since he came with a crow, I do believe that's an intentional homage. He may be a tough one to dig up now. The link is to eBay since I didn't find one of him on Amazon, and even with Hunk (the gasmasked fellow) and accessories he's a bit spendy. In that vein, if you look for the cop zombie, be sure he has the little top-of-his-head, cap/brain piece: press his guts, and he explodes into three parts!


But for figures from 1998-99, the Resident Evil zombies hold up great on the sculpt and paint fronts. There's a lot of exposed bone, tendons, and blood; as well as nice detail work on the lab zombies' little ID badges or the bald zombie's plaid shirt. However, they haven't aged as well in scale or articulation: they're too big to go with 3 3/4 inch figures like Star Wars or G.I. Joe, and too small for the six-inch(ish) scale of Marvel Legends or DCUC...


The zombies did turn up a couple times here, even though yeah, they're woefully out of scale. NECA has had the Resident Evil license in recent years, and I don't think they're the only one, either. So, there are more options out there for your videogame zombie needs, but I think a lot of them will be slightly bigger than six-inch scale!