September 2, 1999
Inset:Collect them all: Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and the Crone.
Sleepy Hollow Spawns Action Figures
Movie memorabilia hounds: Put down that Darth Maul action figure and pay attention. You can soon be playing horsie with your very own Headless Horseman action figure, one of the collectible characters from Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow.
Although Burton's movies, apart from the delightful Batman Returns, don't always cry "action," the action figures associated with his films, including A Nightmare Before Christmas, are extremely collectible. (A talking Jack doll from the stop-motion-animated film recently went for $160.50 on eBay.)
Burton is teaming with McFarlane Toys to present four "highly detailed and accessorized" collectible figures in November 1999 in conjunction with the film's Thanksgiving release.
McFarlane Toys is the action-figure line from Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, which also released the surprisingly realistic Austin Powers doll earlier this year.
The Sleepy Hollow collection includes Ichabod Crane, the first figure ever created in the likeness of Johnny Depp. Say, it does look just like the cheekbone-blessed actor.
Burton has called the film "a great mix of drama and horror," with "a lot of classic beautiful horror images." The gorgeous trailer bears that out (hey, Burton films always look great), as do these carefully rendered dolls, clearly a cut above such action figures as The X-Files version of Ken & Barbie.
The Ichabod Crane doll boasts "articulation at the neck, shoulders, left bicep, hips, wrists, and shins" (all stuff collectors care about, apparently). It comes with such detection accessories as eyeglasses, a pistol, and a satchel with various bottles and potions, forensics tools, and books.
There are also two Headless Horseman figures: One is standing, and comes "complete with an axe, two decapitated heads, a skull, a Hessian head, and a cape." The Headless Rider and Horse Box Set comes (for the first time) with "invisible, internal knee joints." Ooooh. This box set also comes "complete with detailed tree and skulls of the unfortunate."
And last but not least, the Crone, who comes with "snakes that pop in and out of her eyes and mouth." Sounds like kiddies who get these as holiday gifts may be just as terrified as were the moppets in Nightmare Before Christmas, who found shrunken heads and worse under their tree.
Sleepy Hollow is Burton's adaptation of Washington Irving's classic tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, set in upstate New York in 1799. The film changes lead Ichabod Crane from a mild-mannered schoolteacher to an "eccentric and earnest constable with an unconventional approach to solving crime." Ichabod is sent to the small village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a string of murders, allegedly committed by a headless horseman.
Co-starring with Depp are Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, and Richard Griffiths.
