Let's Chat About LDD Presents

Dolls upon dolls upon dolls into my Living Dead Dolls collection, and not one of them is licensed. What's up with that?

Well, part of it is just that I like LDD for its original characters best--the things it offers that no other brand will because the characters are unique to LDD. Original characters can be inventive or homages and provide surprises in ways horror-movie licensed dolls won't. Part of it is also that I'm not a massive fandom-merch collector. I like horror, a lot. I like horror movies a lot. But I like to collect toys as storytelling and characters through a unique medium. I don't get quite as pulled by licensed dolls unless they're really creative or inventive or marked by their medium's style, but it does happen. I've dipped into and reviewed Monster High Skullector licenses enough times to prove that. 

So let's have a little discussion of what LDD Presents have done and what dolls I could possibly see myself swayed by, because by no means is this avenue of dolls dull. All photos in this post are sourced from Mezco and are not my own.

LDD Presents has changed. The slow creep of custom sculpts has definitely increased to the point of the classic LDD sculpts and aesthetic seeming ever more endangered by each release, like what in the actual hell is this, Mezco?

I don't think this is the product of wanting to make a Living Dead Doll.

I also don't understand the smattering of Presents dolls that simply aren't horror or in the horror sphere, like DC Comics villains or Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass. I think there was even some muttering about the branding changing from "Living Dead Dolls Presents" to "LDD Presents" so they could weasel in non-horror entities without clashing with the name? Weird choices.

Still, there are dolls here that are worth discussing, even via distant overview.

American Gothic

These are a highly atypical release, and I'd probably have categorized them as LDD exclusives rather than Presents dolls because they're in a coffin and are public-domain imagery that wouldn't have needed licensing, but LDD filed them under Presents in the archive tab. American Gothic is the iconic painting by Grant Wood, depicting dour farmers in front of a house with a stylistically odd Gothic window on top, and it's a very commonly parodied image. LDD's take on the characters as white-haired corpses seems to follow the misconception that they are husband and wife, but the painting actually depicted a father and daughter. Because the man has the bent-arm gripping hand (and I think he debuted it), these are certainly dolls of the ball-joint era, but something about their look feels so pre-Series 5 to me, particularly with the large clothes and the face paint for the woman. I think the woman could have been better if she was pale blonde and the designers conveyed she was younger than the man like she was meant to be in the painting, but I like these dolls. The glasses on the man also intrigue me. I guess my only problem with them is just that...there's like, one picture you can stage for them--the painting composition. Yes, you can obviously use the dolls in other scenery, but they only really exist for one diorama. It's not a "never", though, and as public-domain characters, they have the edge on appealing to me.

LDD also, oddly, redesigned this set as either a variant release or a reissue? They aren't Resurrection dolls and aren't called variants, but they're just another rendition with a very different art style. (If they were classed as variants, American Gothic would be the only two-pack in a coffin who had a variant set. Resurrection IV was two two-packs and each had a variant release, but they had rectangular window boxes.) These dolls, which are confirmed ball-joint LDDs, are depicted as sketchy-drawn green zombies with exposed bone under missing flesh.

I think this loses a lot. The dry, yellowed corpses, warm palette, and minimal blood of the first release tapped better into the aesthetic tone of the classic painting and feels more classic LDD. 

If LDD wanted to dip into the art world again, The Scream could work. Gosh, it feels like eons since I played with that concept for a doll.

Nosferatu and Victim

Now, this one isn't filed under LDD Presents on the website, though it is based on a horror movie. Loosely so, and a public-domain horror film, but still.

The original Nosferatu silent film by F.W. Murnau was an unauthorized German adaptation of Dracula which changed enough details to become iconic in its own right, down to spawning its own remakes up to a recent reimagining by Robert Eggers which I've heard only good things about. Murnau's Nosferatu renames the characters, changes the vampire's supernatural animal motif to be a plague rat instead of a bat, and introduced the idea of a vampire dying in sunlight. 

This set is a somewhat shallow adaptation. The vampire is called Nosferatu despite the word being framed in the film as just an adjective for the vampiric--the vampire's name is Count Orlok. The woman is also called the "Victim" and is a generic doll in a take on the Series 1 Posey dress formula also used by Abigail Crane, when she could have been based on Ellen Hutter, the victim in the film who sacrifices herself to kill Orlok by keeping him up until sunrise as he feeds. I like that Orlok debuted the long clawed arms, and he introduced the rat-tooth insert on the open-mouth head as well as pointed ears glued over the head, a technique also used by a couple of Series 21 dolls but not Resurrection Lilith, whose pointed ears are built-in. I also like the recolor of Hush's rat Shriek, but this set isn't quite compelling enough for me to consider getting it.

Edward Scissorhands

I really love this film and its title performance. I deeply distrust and dislike Johnny Depp. That being said, this doll looks pretty wild on a production level, and pretty ambitious. The character's body being covered in leather and straps and of course, the scissor hands, all seem represented well with some standout detail. The scissors seem to be articulated to a degree. I wonder if any part of the costume comes off. I see some of the studded straps are just printed without full detail dimension, but this still looks impressive. The hair looks to be the furry material troll dolls use, but some pictures show the fake leather ages and peels very badly. This would be a cool doll to have in peak condition. This is one of those I could easily see being done by Monster High too someday.

Pennywise (1990)

There's just something iconic and appealing about the design for Pennywise the Dancing Clown as seen in the 1990s IT miniseries. As the most famous form of the shapeshifting extradimensional being IT, this Pennywise (played by Tim Curry) is bright, colorful, and has sharp teeth when he feeds. While I have no emotional attachment to this miniseries, the appeal of the clown is undeniable and I like him in LDD form because he has a unique upper-tooth insert for his extra long sharp teeth and a special single balloon accessory. He's one of those characters that suits the LDD "look" really well. This one also seems to have "troll doll hair". 

Leatherface

Original.

Deluxe remake.

This is one (or two) I'd just purely want to investigate craft-wise. Leatherface, a bulky killer in a skin mask who wields a chainsaw, is depicted with some obvious unique body sculpts, including thicker arms with forearm swivel joints unique to the character which let the arms pose a bit more to interact with the chainsaw. Beyond that, I want to know what the body sculpt looks like, because that looks heavier too. Is it the same as Gluttony's? Is it the ball-joint equivalent I know was used for Uncle Fester? I want to know. Original Leatherface is more of a concerted effort to render the character in the LDD visual aesthetic, giving him more charm, and there's a bit more mystery about how he's made because of that feeling that he's closer to a normal LDD. The newer version might share a lot body-wise but the heads are not LDD-like. 

I wonder if I could customize a redesign of Butcher Boop on the original Leatherface.

Psycho

Norman Bates.

Marion Crane.

Psycho has a complicated legacy and I have no personal attachment to it, but these dolls are pretty cool. Norman is dressed as "Mother" for the famous shower stabbing, and he has the unique attribute of a full fiber wig over rooted hair to create his cheap disguise. I'd wondered if maybe the "Mother" hair was rooted and the Norman hair was painted, but no, his head is rooted with his own black hair and the wig is a real wig that can come off. I think the doll would have been a 10 if he had a complete outfit under the granny dress and could be fully dressed as Norman, but he has no shirt layer. He might be full greyscale per the film, but the dress creates the impression of a blue tone. Marion is a doll I find very striking due to her stark greyscale palette that's nearly all white with small black contrast. I also think her towel wrap is a clever way to dress her and identify the character, given that her most famous scene is actually unclothed. A doll of a crossdressing killer and a naked murdered woman carry certain baggage that makes them uncomfortable fandom objects, to be sure, but they are iconic characters and the dolls are done in a smart way. Norman is also explicitly a victim of trauma-based split personality ("Mother"), stated to not be responsible for his murderous alter forming, and is textually separated from any gender queerness by the film's psychologist, so the impact of the character being iffy was not the intent. These two were not a two-pack, but were sold as individual dolls under the same branding as an obvious duo.

I think Norman and Marion are the only LDD duo where both characters have the screaming face mold.

Pinhead

Oh, so LDD can mold arms with upward-facing palms if they want to, hm? Peggy Goo would like to have words.

This isn't actually a doll I would want, but not out of any dislike. I enjoy Hellraiser, but the 2022 remake film is actually my favorite interpretation. I just wanted to spotlight this doll because this shows an interesting adaptation--because the leather demons known as the Cenobites are so skintight and pierced, the upper half of the Hell Priest (nicknamed Pinhead by pop culture at large) is rendered in all plastic molding rather than a costume layer. Honestly, fair. I'd be challenged to accurately depict the costume another way. It's less fake leather or vinyl fabric doomed to rot on the doll, too. The pins in the head are also impressive, and I like that it's still mostly a LDD face underneath. 

This edition of LDD Pinhead had three variants (glow in the dark, red robe, red robe with blood splatter), and there was a later Presents edition remake, but all broadly similar in terms of how they were made. The other Pinhead edition doesn't have a palm up for the Lament Configuration cube.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

If Pinhead wasn't "LDD radical" enough for you, try this:

Is this even a Living Dead Doll at this point? There's no clothing, it's all custom sculpting, and it even looks like he has hand and foot joints! Well, I don't care. I kind of love it, because I kind of love all merchandise of the Gill-Man. There wouldn't be a better way for LDD to have adapted this character, and maybe things like the ugly new Count Orlok Nosferatu doll shouldn't surprise me with this having come before, but I think this one is fun, even if it's not much LDD.

Gomez and Morticia Addams

These are based on the recent MGM animated movie series, and gosh, Morticia looks flawless. Her face paint wears beautifully on LDD and even her unimpressive dress fabric doesn't bring her down. Gomez looks more worried than I'd expect him to, but he does look more handsome through LDD, as opposed to the grotesque film look derived from Charles Addams' original drawings. If you like your Gomez debonair, this doll works. It also does him some credit by being a brown LDD based on a brown version of the character, like, whoa, diversity? Even a crumb of it? Keep it up and ramp it up, Mezco. Give us Candyman.

Fester and It

From the same source material as above, depicting Uncle Fester and Cousin It from the family. Fester has a unique head sculpt, but also has ball-joint versions of the Gluttony fat sculpts, as well as a torso that accepts the standard ball-joint neck shape, potentially letting you swap in a more classic head to create custom fat LDD original characters with the ball-joint system. It is really fun, but is just hair affixed around a felt tube, so there's no magic underneath.

I'm surprised LDD Presents only did Wednesday Addams later, by way of the Netflix series (three dolls now), since she's such a popular character and LDD's own mascot is based so much on her look. Still, Gomez and Fester getting represented is very welcome.

The Curse of La Llorona

It's got to hurt to sign a merch deal for a movie that turns out to have no lasting cultural impact.

LDD Presents ought to be a place for horror icons, but this 2019 movie about the legendary weeping woman is not talked about or all that famous, despite not being a flop. Seeing her in the list of LDD Presents dolls feels like she was an inauthentic or at least a pre-emptive release hoping the movie would be a household name. The line works best hopping onto characters that made their mark before. Trying to promote a new, unproven film with a doll might not always work out for your doll. And poor LDD La Llorona, because I appreciate this doll design. While the film character's look might not be all that much, she makes a pretty good spooky-bride LDD and has a lot of visual classic-LDD charm to her. 

M3GAN

Monster High is doing this one too. LDD's M3GAN is less interpretive and is more faithful to the screen appearance of the original and does a good job. M3GAN is a unique viral success, becoming a horror icon before her film was even playing in theaters, and I knew she would get at least the one sequel and potentially a whole franchise because of how much fun she was in the film as released--she proved she was the horror icon everyone projected her to be. I love how M3GAN is styled in the movie, and the LDD captures her look really nicely. While she has a character-specific sculpt, it doesn't walk too far away from classic LDD, and the character being an AI with the intentional aesthetics of a doll probably helps there.

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

When Monster High first made this character, they put her on the same standard teenage body sculpt as most Skullector dolls, and while it was understandably a chaster adaptation of the character with a more modest cut, the teen sculpt still felt like it sorely missed the point. It looks like her second round at MH will be taking advantage of the adult G1 sculpt being brought back since the first Elvira, though. LDD, however, knew the assignment, and with Elvira, they made their first-ever doll with boobs.

It's an interesting and odd effect. On the one hand, this bebreasted sculpt feels like it could have been useful previously (and could have arrived far too late to rescue Series 7 Lust from potential optical problems), but on the other hand, does it work? I guess so; LDD's sculpts are generally versatile enough to portray cartoon adults, so I don't think the torso paired with the other body parts creates a child with breasts. I think the effect here is a mature cartoon woman. I'll be revisiting some of this discussion in my next uncomfortable roundup which is set to feature Series 7 Lust, based upon the very issue of the LDD body sculpt's applicability.

The Elvira doll also has a heel-shoe foot and high heel sculpt rather than the sandals LDD previously used for fancy women, but I don't know if the shoes are separate. I also believe her legs are cast a darker color to simulate hosiery. This doll would be interesting to look at manufacturing-wise. The high-heel feet would be used for the Bubble Head Nurse doll afterward (depicting the sexualized surreal monster nurse figures from the video game Silent Hill 2), but oddly, the Nurse does not have the breasts sculpt despite the Nurses in the franchise having prominent breasts as a piece of their psychosexual design. If any character holds exclusivity on a boobs sculpt, it's gonna be Elvira, 100%, but it's strange that only she used it when another character afterward would be expected to as well.

Scooby-Doo

These are pretty fun-- dolls depicting the classic Mystery Gang with simple colors and minimal paint that mimics the Hanna-Barbera art while also suiting a kitschy 1960s doll aesthetic. The dolls build a pretty show-accurate Scooby-Doo figure when assembled, as each doll has a different part of Scooby.

Fred has a longer jaw that might also have been the sculpt on Evil Dead Ash Williams, but Shaggy and Velma seem to have the classic LDD head and Daphne might too, but the angles of the heads make her chin look sharper. I'm guessing it's no different in truth.

Pennywise (2017)

While I really like the 2010s IT duology's design for Pennywise, and his performance by Bill Skarsgård, I don't think this version of the clown takes as well to LDD, or at least, I don't think they got the hair right. I don't know. There's more doll harmony with the Tim Curry version.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Another franchise I have no connection to, and another doll banking on a current property that didn't go far, though not because it didn't have potential. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was a darker take on Sabrina the Teenage Witch hosted by...and cancelled by, Netflix. I like this Sabrina doll because it's very retro-sixties in the vein of classic LDD, and this doll could almost fit into Sadie's gang...it's just that she's not very spooky. She'd need something weird about her face to blend her into the LDD original cast.

Who Would I Most Likely Get?

To have out for appreciation of the doll design, I would pick 1990 Pennywise, Marion Crane (and maybe Norman too just because it would be obligatory), and Morticia and Gomez. I could also spin the American Gothic first release into a post if I thought of extended photo ideas.

To investigate as production novelties I could still see myself keeping, original Leatherface and Elvira have a lot of intrigue.

This was not a comprehensive discussion of LDD Presents, and I passed over several dolls that didn't grab my discussion this time. Including, surprisingly, their Frankenstein dolls. (The Monster is nice, but the Bride was done better by Monster High to me, and I like LDD's Bride character more with her various editions.)

Who Do I Want to See from LDD Presents Even If I'm Not Buying?

• Candyman. He's an obvious icon that's been passed over for too long, and his absence seriously doesn't help the very poor racial optics of LDD. Adapt an icon and prove you can make more Black dolls, Mezco.
• Adelaide Wilson and Red from Us. These are iconic recent horror characters, would make a fun duo, and Monster High is set to beat you to it, Mezco, because images of their take have been leaked. Also, see the former: make Black dolls.
• The Babadook? Could be fun, but could also be overly-character-specific sculpting I wouldn't enjoy.
• Madeline Ashton and Helen Sharp from Death Becomes Her. There's already one LDD with a hole straight through the torso; why not another? Both dolls would be fun glamor zombies. 
• Pearl Douglas from Pearl. Either her farmgirl overalls or her red dress. Pearl is a deeply compelling disturbing horror character acted to perfection and beyond in a truly industry-overlooked performance and would make a great doll. Maxine Minx from X or MaXXXine could also be fun, but she's not the trilogy's monster.
• Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It would be incredible.
• Ben and Barbra from Night of the Living Dead. Perhaps these wouldn't be as horror-themed since both are unscathed humans walled up in a house surrounded by ghouls, but they're iconic to the zombie genre, would make recognizable dolls, are from a film in the public domain, and Ben would be another opportunity for a Black doll.
• John Kramer (the Jigsaw Killer) in his hooded robe, and maybe Amanda Young in the Reverse Bear Trap? LDD has done Billy the puppet twice, so they could check Saw off their list if they wanted to, but more could be done.
• Samara Morgan from The Ring. LDD has done the Japanese original Ringu franchise with a doll based on the entry Sadako 3-D, but the American counterpart of the ghost, Samara, would be fun to see too.
• Esther from the Orphan films. She's got an iconic look and is a very memorable performance and character.

Conclusion

I make no promises, nor priorities, of any LDD Presents dolls, but there's no saying "never" and I enjoyed this small spot to discuss them in overview!