Metal Health'll Drive You Mad...
I'm not the biggest Iron Maiden fan, though I've long worshiped their album artwork. Featuring Eddie, the covers have depicted the zombie-like mascot in a number of themed settings, such as a futuristic cyborg (Somewhere in Time), Egyptian mummy (Powerslave), and my personal favorite, a lobotomised mental patient (Piece of Mind). It doesn't hurt that Piece of Mind also has some of my favorite Maiden songs on it, namely the metal classics "Flight of Icarus" and "The Trooper". NECA has produced an action figure of Eddie from the 1983 album before, the chained creature including an amazing padded room display base. For those that missed that figure, or are like me and just can't have enough Eddie, Piece of Mind Eddie returns to shelves as part of NECA's newer Mego-style 8-inch figure series.
While sans the cool diorama, this Eddie still retains a powerful mental metal attitude. The head portrait in particular is really nice, Eddie's crazed look easily surpassing the 7-inch figure's sculpt in detail and expression. NECA's Mego-style figures have only gotten more articulated as the series has progressed, the company now using the Type 2 body. Ironically, Piece of Mind Eddie doesn't use half of it, NECA purposefully restraining figure arm movement with, what else, a real-cloth straight jacket! Complete with numerous faux leather straps, buckles and real-metal chains, Eddie looks like he has just escaped from a mental asylum. So yeah, while the padded room base is missed, posing Eddie in a variety of insane poses as if he has broken free is still pretty cool.
Zombie (the undead variety, not Rob) and Iron Maiden fans are gonna love this figure. Piece of Mind Eddie is available now at many fine retailers, including BigBadToyStore.com where it is priced at $27.99. Coming up next this November: combat Eddie from the Iron Maiden Powerslave single, "2 Minutes to Midnight"!
All Photos by Jeff Saylor
Review Sample Courtesy of NECA
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