Wednesday 8 June 2011

Blue Moon Zombies 06

And so I eventually get round to reviewing the ten male zombies from the Blue Moon Manufacturing BMM111C boxed set 9 "I Just Can't seem to Get a Good Night Sleep" Zombies 3. You'll find this and the other two boxed sets of zombies under BMM's Things That Go Bump In The Night range. As I mentioned previously, all of the figures in this boxed set are two part castings made up of upper and lower body parts joined at the waist by means of a ball and socket joint.
Moving from left to right I'll start with a figure that could be male or female. My only major criticism of these figures is that too many of the legs are clothed in skirts (or maybe they're kilts!), meaning they look odd when placed with an obviously male torso. This figure, if male is more akin to a peasant from Medieval times. He/she has long hair, which is draped down over his/her chest. I've called him a male just to balance the set out with ten of each sex, but I could easily be persuaded to call him a she. Apart from a cut on his right arm, his upper body is wound-free. His legs, however, bear a few bite marks and cuts
As for the next nine figures I'll be reviewing, there is no question about their gender. There was a one-armed female that I reviewed earlier and now we have a one-armed male. Unusually for this set, he has far more wounds to his upper body than his lower half. The loss of his left arm just above the elbow is nasty but so too is his head wound. A piece of his skull has been removed from the left side of his head, revealing his brain. From the neck down he is peppered with bullet holes and bite wounds.
You'll notice that some of the heads have been duplicated but they appear on different posed bodies. The head of the figure in the centre of this group was used as a female head in my last review of this set. One look at the torso is enough to show this is certsinly a male zombie. He wears a torn, short dress, which is unusual but not totally unheard of amongst males. A large chunk of flesh has been removed from his left breast, presumably bitten off before he turned into a zombie.
Remember what I said about duplicate heads popping up on different torsos? Well, here's the head I mentioned on the second zombie reviewed above appearing again. He bears the same wound as mentioned before with a piece of skull removed from the left side of his head. His pose is very similar to zombie number two but he wears different trousers and his arms are raised higher. Plus, of course, he does have two fully intact arms. He has a wicked-looking cut stretching from his lower back to his left shoulder.
The fifth zombie in line from the group above wears a very long dress and I have leant him forward as if he was about to grab hold of someone. His hands are covered in the blood of a victim. His face is almost skeleton-like as the flesh has dried on his skull. I keep mentioning how old these zombies look and he just reinforces that point. This is definitely "a good thing!"
At the far left of the next two photos above is another male zombie dressed in a long skirt. He has been shot quite a few times but that has not stopped him or slowed him down, Tellingly, his head is unmarked. It would seem some folk still don't know about head shots! With the ball and socket joint connecting upper and lower body parts you have a lot of flexibility in how you position the upper body. Most of my zombies are leaning forward because I felt that best suited the pose. It's a very clever way of joining the two halves.
The second zombie from the left shows just how flexible these figures are. I have twisted the upper body to the right and leaned him slightly forward to give him a very animated pose. He is wearing what I suppose must be a loincloth. He has bite marks, bullet holes and cuts all over his body except for his right arm.
In the centre of this group is another very animated zombie. The way his torso has been sculpted, showing him twisting round is very clever. His head hangs to one side due to a large neck wound. His stomach has been torn open to reveal internal organs that look like they're on the point of spilling out. He is one of the more gross figures amongst a horde of gross zombies. He gets a big thumbs by me as I love gory, gross out zombies!
In sharp contrast, the next zombie in line has no majorly gross wounds. What he does have are lots of minor wounds on his limbs and a bullet wound to his stomach, with an exit wound in his lower back... or maybe it's the other way round as both wounds are of a similar size. My only criticism of him is that he, too, is wearing a dress. Why couldn't the sculptor have done more lower bodies dressed in trousers?
Finally, is the only zombie in the set holding a weapon - a wooden club. So, I guess this guy is a Smart Zombie. He has a small hole at the left side of his mouth and a larger hole at the right side of his mouth, which I think are the result of a bullet. They could be bite wounds but I like the idea of a bullet passing through his mouth from side to side. There about six or seven other wounds on him, four of which are to his legs, but none look too serious.
So, that's it. This concludes my review of the 60 zombies from BMM's Things That Go Bump in the Night range in general and from boxed set 3 in particular. I think they are great figures. The level of skill in the way they have been sculpted is very high indeed. If you buy all three boxed sets you'll end up with a very reasonably sized horde. Because the figures in set 3 can be posed in a multitude of ways you could certainly buy more than one set for even greater numbers and variety. I am certainly considering buying more sets of this particular boxed set. However, with the amount of unpainted figures I have at present it might be quite a while before I send in an order.
One thing that I must mention about these figures is that they come with integral metal bases. The bases are circular with a diameter ever so slightly smaller than a 25mm diameter plastic slottabase. I have stuck all of my BMM zombies onto circular plastic slottabases. This raises the slightly above other 28mm scale figures but it makes them uniform with the rest of my miniatures collection.
You can purchase this set from the BMM website for $40.00. For European customers, I'd advise going to the Old Glory website, based in the UK, where this set retails for £30.00. This is what I did as it meant I could buy all three boxed sets at once without the fear of getting ripped off by our Customs and Excise department.

19 comments:

  1. Very nice figures and painted to your usual high standard. I gotta admit, I didn't notice the duplicate heads until you mentioned them.

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  2. I like their zombies, they are classic falling to bits, ragged wretches and brilliantly painted and displayed as usual.

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  3. @Ray. I must admit it is difficult to spot that there are duplicate heads. But when I painted one zed with a piece of skull torn away it was so easy to spot the next one, even if it was on a different torso. Wounds that are that rare do stick in the mind. That put me on alert and so made it easier to spot other duplicate heads.

    @Ray. Good description for them, my friend. They are classic, falling to bits, ragged wretches... and all the better for that, I say.

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  4. Ragged wretches...might have to use that phrase in a Batrep Fran!

    Great work Bryan, superb painting. I really like these.

    Thanks for the Old Glory tip too.

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  5. Adam, I don't mind ordering from abroad but If I can order the same product from the UK, I'll always take that option.

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  6. Braaaaaaaaaaaaiiinnss.......

    Nice going. They do remind me a bit of Mantic games zombies.


    They are looking great! I dare not ask....
    How many painted zeds have you by now?

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  7. I recently found your blog while researching ATZ, and it has been a great resource. Thank you.

    I would really appreciate if you could provide a brief explanation of how you achieve your blood and gore details. Your zombie wounds look much better than most that I've seen.

    Thanks again, and keep the blog posts coming!

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  8. Exactly as Lord Siwoc said, the first thing I thinked when I see them was "Hey, new Mantic Zombies"

    Another useful review, thanks!

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  9. @Johnny. Aye, I can see a similarity with Mantic's zombies as well.
    How many painted zombies do I have? I'm not sure but I reckon with these 20 I won't be far off the 700 mark. I'll do an accurate count tomorrow and let you know.

    @Adam. Hi and welcome aboard. The key to painting realistic gore is using Tamiya Clear Red or TCR as most folk call it. This paint is translucent and dries glossy. It can be mixed with other colours - black or dark brown for dried blood. It can also be painted over any shade of red and as soon as you paint over an existing red shade you'll notice an immediate transformation. I can not recommend it too highly to anyone painting zombies. TCR is simply a must have! If you don't believe me, then check out testimonials from other zombie gamer bloggers. Yes, it really is that good!

    @Zerloon. I can surely see why you would think that. I wonder if you could mix the two? I need to find out!

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  10. This post is both intriguing and fascinating, keep up the great work. as always

    //Cheer§

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  11. Thanks, Biff. I fully intend to keep up the good work and to entertain you with all things undead.

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  12. ooh i love the poses of this zombies, walk with the extended arms just what i like :) great paint, Grettins Vampf!

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  13. Greetings to you too, Jhon Sebastian! You can't beat the classic arms stretched out poses, can you?

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  14. haha absolutely, as if they had rigor mortis but alive, well but just not at all live haha Yesterday I bought some Horrorclix figures for supply in the eBay of Latin America called Mercadolibre and although there was only one zombie (UNEAD Vendor), the rest I will use it as altrnativos monsters, such as sasquatch (i Love this one), 50 foot ex-girlfriend, genie, heart eater, Satanist, lawn gnome (I love this too) and two more, all at about 11 dollars I'll try to make a Elseworld sort of classic monsters or crossover, it would be fun, imagine being able to ride out a hungry horde of zombies running through the woods and suddenly a Bigfoot but still hungry and hostile.
    Greetings Bryan!

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  15. That's a nice selection of Horrorclix figures you bought, Jhon. I have them all, I think. I'm not too certain about the heart eater. You may well be to play the likes of Big Foot in an ATZ scenario once After The Horsemen is released by THW. It should be coming soon. It adds a lot more horror monsters to the game, including vampires and werewolves, plus lots of other monsters.

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  16. Zombies are great, the movies are just epic!

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  17. Oh how good what I've said ATZ, I will like to try it, I apologize for the delay of my answer is because we have two different schedules. Greetings Bryan.

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  18. Greetings, Jhon and there is no need for any apologies. There are some exciting times coming up with ATZ and of course I'll keep you fully up to date with any developments.

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