POP! Television – The Master (The Strain)

This instalment of the Lupine Book Club comes to you live from London! Yes, I’m travelling at the moment, which is the cause of the delay in updates – but rest assured, there are more articles planned for the next few days.

This POP actually came out a couple of years ago, but I picked him up because he was going for a song at a comic store. He resembles a grossly corpulent Nosferatu, and thus I figured he’d look great on the shelf with my other horror POPs. The Anne Rice take on vampires is fine and all, but I like my undead to look a little more overtly disgusting.

But with that caveat, I’ve never actually watched The Strain. So I can only assume it’s called The Strain because the Master here has given himself terrible haemorrhoids during his bathroom visits. The thought of spending an hour each week watching this guy grunt away is not an appealing one, but hopefully he gets the whole situation under control by the end of the season.  

Jokes aside, Funko seem to have put a lot of effort into this guy. He’s really big and chunky in comparison to most of his POP counterparts – around the same size as Cthulhu – which lines up nicely with the reference shots of the character I came across online. He’s heavy, but not actually solid. His body is actually hollow, and he has a hole in his base, similar to kid’s bath toys. The plastic has a similar odour too. The only real downside to the sculpt is that he can't really turn his head -- though given how high the collar is, I guess that's "realistic" anyway.  

As cool as he is, the resemblance to the character is kind of loose. It’s entirely possible that the figure was based on preliminary concept art and test shots, rather than finished work. However, I’d argue that the figure actually looks better than the real thing. There’s a strongly inhuman aspect to him, which is always important when you’re dealing with monsters onscreen. I mean, it’s obviously based on a guy in a suit – but you can kind of believe that it’s not just that. It’s quite passably a literal undead entity, which is impressive.

As always, paint could be better. The face is pretty good, but the unicolour wattle on the neck lacks the intended subtle shading and so it kind of looks like he has some kind of genitalia there. The wash on his hands is good, but a little heavy. The robe and its attendant details could have done with the wash or some drybrushing too; as it stands they’re just a little flat.

Still, The Master is a great vampire figure. I may check out the show eventually, but really I’m just happy for Nosferatu to have a shelf companion.