Scary Tales is Mezco's new line of figures based on two of the more familiar fairy tales: Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood. Each figure comes with a base/mini-set for display purposes.

Upon first glance, you'll immediately notice the liberties taken with these figures. Both versions of Alice (Caucasian and African American) and Little Red Riding Hood are busty with extremely short miniskirts, leaving the impression that they are more influenced by Tex Avery than the Brothers Grimm and Lewis Caroll. Also, other than the hyper-sexual stances, they seem to be under-detailed in comparison to the other figures available.

When it comes to the other three figures (the Wolf, White Rabbit and Mad Hatter), it looks like the remnants of a bad B-movie horror flick. The wolf is smeared with blood and both the White Rabbit and Mad Hatter look like they've seen better days in the sanitarium. Sculpting wise, though, all are well done.

The sets themselves are fairly well-done, even if morbidly so. I don't immediately recall either story being littered with skeletons. It makes each of the figures feel more like Halloween decorations.

While I think that Mezco had a decent idea in doing a variant type of toy line, I think that this line will probably not find a strong batch of buyers. Other than being posed to stand on the base, none of the toys are multi-poseable. Traditional fans of either story might not care for the base characterization of the figures and I really doubt there's a huge market for twisted versions. I think that Mezco might be riding it's line of Silent Screamers too long by trying to keep the same feel in this set.

- - Vane