Count Chocula (General Mills (Jada Toys)) Review

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Count Chocula (General Mills (Jada Toys)) Review

Count Chocula
General Mills (Jada Toys) (Jada Toys)With Jada Toys making action figures for various popular licenses such as Mega Man, Street Fighter, and even Cyberpunk Edgerunners, sometimes we'll have to look back to a few years ago when they decided to enter the figure market. Universal Monsters was one of their first lines, and going hand-in-hand with those were a few figures of General Mills' spooky cereal mascots. Sure, anyone could make a Frankenstein, but who was willing to do Franken Berry? I've been on the fence on the figures for a while now, but I finally caved in and picked up Count Chocula for a good price not long ago.

The packaging features the classic box art on the front, which fits for a cereal-based figure like this one. The back has a comic, albeit covered up a bit by other graphics, and there's even mock nutritional info on the spine. This is a fifth-panel box similar to NECA, with magnets allowing you to flip the front open to reveal the figure inside. It's not too hard to remove the figure and accessories, with only a few ties to snip.

Compared to Count Dracula, Count Chocula is a friendly guy who'd rather suck chocolate than blood. His head has a bit of a goofy, cartoony look, with buck teeth in place of usual vampire fangs, and half-lidded eyes. Not sure who sculpted this guy, but whoever it was did a great job, as he's accurate to the character's traditional design. A second head is included with a more excited look, as his eyes and mouth are wide open. Both heads bear a nice finish, though the paint suffers from some uneven edges, especially on the eyes.

At about 6 1/4" tall, Chocula wears an outfit similar to his inspiration, but it's almost entirely brown save for a few white areas. It makes sense as he's promoting a chocolate cereal, so he has to be the color of chocolate. The white paint on the body is pretty clean, with the only bit of slop being some bleed onto a button. The paint on the whites and skin stand out from the browns due to the more matte finish, giving him a unique aesthetic on the shelf. The cape is solid plastic, no fancy soft goods here, and is a separate piece that just hangs around the neck. Overall, Chocula is a very simple design with only a few colors, and one easy to make into a three-dimensional form.

Although he's one of Jada's first figures, Chocula has surprisingly great articulation. He gets a barbell head, ball-jointed neck, waist and hips, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists and ankles, swivel thighs, and double-hinged knees. The joints move pretty well, and while the left elbow hinge is a very loose-feeling joint, it can hold a pose just as well as everything else. His only accessory, aside from the extra head, is a cereal box. The box fits well in his right hand, and the heads swap easily. It's not a lot, and I know some people would've loved extra hands and some other extras, but I think it's enough for this guy.

I don't think anyone thought there would be a fully-poseable, collector-grade action figure of Count Chocula, but here we are. He's very solid, and like Jada's more recent releases, the price reflects the quality well. I'll probably get the Franken Berry and Boo Berry figures they've made, but I really want to see them do the Trix rabbit as long as they have this General Mills partnership going on.

- 4/7/24