With all the great Christmas shows, like Rudolph, Frosty, The Little Drummer Boy and others, Rankin/Bass held sway over the little kiddies. Of course, it helped that there were only three television channels worth watching, and since VCR's weren't even the sludge on someone's synapses yet, the only chance you got to see them was the one time they were broadcast each winter.

While we loved the heroes of these stories, it was the villains that kept our attention. Bumble, the Ice and Heat Misers, Professor Hinkle, and the subject of tonight's review, Winter in his friendly and Warlock form. This old Winter was the protagonist in the Santa's origin cartoon, Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Action figures based on this cartoon are now available at stores like K-Mart and Meijers. Expect to pay around $10 each for the two versions of Winter, and around $7 each for the other figures.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"Winter - Friendly and Warlock versions"

Playing Mantis has been producing a wide variety of action figures based on old holiday cartoons for several years, including various Peanuts shows, Mickey's Christmas Carol, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and now Santa Claus is Coming to Town. There are six regular figures for the line - Kris Kringle, Mrs. Kringle (Tanta), Burgermeister Meisterburger, Grimsby, Topper the penguin, and Miss Jessica (the eventual Mrs. Claus). There is a deluxe Mail Truck which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago at my other site, and there are the two deluxe figures of Winter. One is the nice guy version who helps Santa, and the other is the initial evil "warlock" version.

Packaging - **1/2
Most of the Playing Mantis Christmas packaging is fairly straight forward - lots of red, the logo in the trademark style and font, some shots of the other figures in the line. That's the formula they've gone with here, and while it's serviceable, it isn't exceptional.

Sculpting - ***1/2
But do you really care about the packaging when the sculpting is just so damn good? The beauty of the old clay-mation style characters is that they are already three dimensional. They don't have the same issues as figures based on two dimensional cartoons, where scale and character design can alter from one frame to the next.

All Playing Mantis has to do is produce a figure that looks just like the clay-mation version. Of course, that's easier said than done, and can still get screwed up in the execution. Fortunately for fans, that's far from the case with both versions of Winter.

The Winter Warlock is an excellent villain, with a great evil design. He looks like he could kill you with the eyebrows, let alone the many sharp, pointy teeth. The long harsh nose looks perfect, and there's no hint of the kindly old man he would become.

The regular version is like night and day with the warlock version. Here's a sweet old man, willing to help out a young Saint Nick. Both head sculpts match the show extremely well, and look very much like the clay-mation counterpart.  The hard edge is missing from the friendly version, with softer lines and a smoother sculpt.

The head sculpts are the only area of the sculpting that really varies between the two. Both have very thick hair/beards attached with glue. This wild mane of hair looks great, and fits the character perfectly. The hand sculpts are designed to hold the accessories (at least some of them), and have long, icey fingers. While not radically different, the hand sculpts are different so that each figure can hold various accessories.

The bodies are identical, with a fairly basic sculpt. I don't think we ever got to see Mister Winter without his robes, so I'm going to assume blue tights (with knee patch) and big white booties correct. The huge feet are a big plus, and this figure has absolutely no trouble standing on his own in multiple poses.

Paint - ***1/2
There's not a ton of paint ops on these two - blue and white are the predominate colors - but what's here is well done.

Most of the paint application is on the face, with some fine detail around the eyes and mouth. Everything is clean and neat, with perfect teeth and a nice touch of blue around the eyes that's adds to the sculpt without being too obvious.  The friendly Winter even has a rosy glow to his face, rather than the harsh icy blue of the warlock version.

Although the big booties are part of his clothes, they simply could have gone with white. Instead, they added some sparkly sprinkles added to the paint for that extra touch of color and light, which matches with the sparkly appearance of the cloak and cap. Going the extra mile to make the plastic boots come close in matching with the cloth pieces of clothing makes these figures stand out in the overall line.

Articulation - ***1/2
Although they could probably get away with less articulation, Playing Mantis does their very best to include as many points as they can. Both Winters have the same number of joints, and both can take on many poses.

There's a great ball jointed neck with an excellent range of motion, ball jointed shoulders, cut forearms, waist, hips and ankles. This is just about perfect for this style of figure, and allows you a ton of options. The ball jointed neck is particularly useful, and I'm really impressed with the level of quality in the articulation overall.

Accessories - Warlock ***; Friendly ***1/2
Both versions of Winter have some nice accessories, but the friendly old man has quite a few more than the warlock.

The warlock version comes with his "You are trespassing on the land of the Winter Warlock" sign, done up just like it was in the cartoon, and in a good scale. He also has a toy train, in a slightly large scale, but it was on the show as well.

Smiley comes with quite a bit more. He has 5 candles of various sizes, magical feed corn (seems like I tried that back in the seventies), his magic wand, the very cool magic ball he gave to Santa, and a potion can. This is definitely a nice number of accessories, and they all fit in quite well with the show. The magic snowball is my favorite, and includes a small scene inside. The pockets in his robe can hold a number of the accessories, and while the can might officially be for holding a 'potion', the size of the hole in the top is perfect to hold anyone of the candles.

Outfit - Warlock ***; Friendly ***1/2
Another area where the two figures differ significantly is in the outfit. While there's two pieces for both - a cap and a cloak - the cloaks are very different.

The cap for both fits great, and has an elastic strap that goes under the chin, hidden from sight by the freaky hair. There's some soft padding in the hat used to make sure it keeps it's form and fit. The hat looks terrific, and won't fall off, even in a major shelf dive.

The cloak for the Warlock version is fairly basic, and covers the body but has no special extras. It does have a velcro closure that allows you to remove it if you feel the need. The material is an excellent quality, and is thin enough to look good even in this scale. All the edges are stitched so there won't be any fraying, with the exception of the small points on the cap.

The cloak for the friendly version is slightly different, and actually features a flap that opens from the front, similar to a coat. This flap in his robe has three pockets which can be used to hold various accessories. Since this flap is attached as a separate piece to the basic robe, he can whip it open without fear of flashing the poor squirrels and penguins, and yet it fits so well that you won't even notice it at first.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
I hope that kids today (I know mine do) get to watch these shows at the holiday time, because they truly are some classics. Okay, so perhaps Santa Claus is Coming to Town isn't the best example, but it still has a couple very cool characters, and the Warlock is one of them. If you or your kids have been picking up various other Rankin/Bass figures, you really want to consider adding at least one version of this guy, and Playing Mantis has been kind enough to keep in scale with their other lines.

The great articulation, outfit and accessories really boost his play value as well, and the Warlock version can double as a generic evil Christmas character in just about any situation.

Value - **1/2
The only catagory that these take a bit of a hit in is their value. At $10 each, they are really about two bucks more than they are truly worth. However, with the continually shrinking toy retailer scene, I think we're actually pretty damn lucky to see these at all, and if you compare with many other ten dollar figures currently on the market, you'll see that these deluxe figures stack up well.

Overall - ***1/2
Some of the holiday lines that Playing Mantis has produced have been complete buys for me. I have to be honest and admit this particular line isn't one of them. The show just wasn't that high on my holiday favorites to convince me to pick up the entire set, at least not at full price. But the two Warlocks and the Mail Truck were such exceptional stand outs that I simply couldn't pass them up.

If you're a big fan of the old shows, you shouldn't either. If I could only get one of Winter, it would be the warlock version, simply because I love the bad guys so much. However, the good version has that nifty cloak and those cool accessories - now you see why I broke down and bought both. I also picked up Tupper the penguin, and I probably will buy at least a couple more once they hit clearance after the holidays.

Where to Buy -
For bricks and mortar stores, your best bet right now is K-mart or Meijers. On-line options include:

- Time and Space Toys carries all kinds of the various holiday lines, including this one.