NECA’s “Jason and Pamela” SDCC Set!

Can I be honest?

When I heard about NECA’s SDCC exclusive “Jason & Pam” two-pack, I knew I was going to buy it, but I wasn’t exactly happy about buying it. When I had the set in my cart during the online sale, I could only click the appropriate buttons through gritted teeth.

Fifty bucks for a couple of action figures, PLUS shipping? I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a little exploited, because I just couldn’t imagine the figures being cool enough to view with anything but residual guilt.

Well, they arrived yesterday. Sister, I WAS WRONG.

We can go back and forth on whether these were really worth fifty bucks, but I’ll tell you this: I’ve been a NECA fanboy for over ten years now, and these are unquestionably some of my favorite figures from them.

I think back to NECA’s 8-Bit Jason, and how much I treasured it. While conceding that the cool “Nintendo box” packaging factored into its $25 retail price, the figure was downright basic compared to the two shown here.

What’s most impressive is that they could’ve afforded to suck. Maybe not so much with Pam, but fans were going to line up for a “Boy Jason” figure no matter WHAT it looked like. (Seriously — if Funko did a ReAction version and made it a true SDCC exclusive, tell me you wouldn’t have paid 25 bucks for it.)

I don’t know how NECA operates or who created these, but the figures were obviously works of passion. The likenesses are a tad exaggerated, yet still so dead-on that I see no need to even provide movie stills for comparison. If you wanna know how these two looked in the film… that’s how they looked.

I realize that not everyone who reads Dino Drac is a Friday the 13th fan, and that a fair portion of you have no idea who you’re looking at. Fine, I’ll explain. The rest of you can skip the next thirty billion paragraphs.

In the original Friday the 13th, supposedly sweet Pamela Voorhees turns out to be a crazed killer, maddened over the drowning of her son, and bent on killing camp counselors as revenge. That son, of course, was Jason Voorhees.

During the film’s final moments — after Pamela had been killed — a lone survivor canoes over Crystal Lake, exhausted but safe. Then in a shocking twist, Jason — now an undead scum-covered demon — pops out of the water and drags poor Alice into the drink.

(Of course, that last part was revealed to be a dream sequence, but considering the full canon, I think it’s more accurate to say that the haunted lake forced a hallucination on her.)

It’s one of the most famous scares in Hollywood history, and certainly the most famous scare from any Friday the 13th movie. That we’ve had to wait so long for a “Boy Jason” figure is downright odd, when you think about it.

Betsy Palmer, God rest her soul, has never looked better in toy form. That sweater is like something a talented grandmother might knit for her Barbie-loving granddaughter. Even at this size, it feels more expensive than any shirt I own.

Pamela comes with an axe, a knife and a gnarly grill. It only now occurs to me that she and I have roughly the same haircut.

As nice as Pam is, Boy Jason is the pièce de résistance. I wasn’t expecting nearly this much detail. Notice the lake gunk stains on his arms and legs!

The clothes — which again, are awesome — are all removable. There’s no need to take off Jason’s shorts unless you want to see a Ken doll groin, but removing the shirt lets you reenact his most famous scene. (NECA even tossed in a removable “muck” accessory, so you can give him a necklace of congealed fish shit!)

Also: I just love how posable these figures are. I’m not an articulation stickler — I rarely even care if there are no points of articulation — but it’s super cool to be able to position them in any way I see fit. Get me a stop motion camera and a tiny version of Twister, because I’m setting up a goddamned Vine account.

I’ve seen a few collectors suggest that NECA should’ve included a switchable second head — one that represented Jason before he became a swamp monster — but I can totally understand why they didn’t. Monsters are monsters, but by 2015 standards, a truly human Jason might’ve skirted into tasteless territory.

What a fantastic set! If you missed it during SDCC, I think I heard that it was going to be available in stores with a less-braggy sticker on the package. Even if not, the hype has cooled and you can find it for (relatively) reasonable prices on eBay. I can’t deny that this is an expensive set, but if you’re overdue for a splurge, Wee Jason is pretty irresistible.

(Also, I’m never one to tell people whether or not to open their toys, but… yeah, open this one. I mean, I never opened last year’s Super Freddy exclusive, and all I see when I look at it is the $50 it can fetch on eBay. Sometimes it’s good to break the seal. How else are you gonna let these two hug again?)