☞ Menard - Living Dead Dolls Series 22: Birthday Prezzies 2015 ☜

I've most likely said this on numerous occasions but well my Son is awesome!

For my birthday last year he spoilt the heck out of me, but then it was a "Big One",  I'll show you what else he bought me in other posts but for now, and because it's almost Halloween - here's my new Living Dolls that Aaron bought me... Having listed and posted them all here, I released this post was huge, so I've decided to split it into separate posts...

Ever since the release of Series 22, I've wanted a Menard Living Dead Doll, as you probably know by now I'm a huge horror fan and have been a Zombie nut ever since I watched George A. Romero's "Dead" series of films in the early 1980s. 

I was somewhere around 5 or 6 at the time and then when Michael Jackson released the video for Thriller - that was my life long love of Zombies sealed forever in one funky as all hell music video, but I digress... 

                                                               

It's also a whole new other post I've just thought of so I'll get back to you on that one soon... But for now I'm talking Menard so ...

2011 marked the 13th anniversary of Living Dead Dolls, to honour this occasion Mezco released series 22, each of the 6 dolls in this series followed the same theme ... Zombies *grin* 

They came in tatty little wooden casket style boxes covered with scratch like markings which indicate they might of been "buried alive", in several places the number 13 is "etched" into the casket and in bold stencil style 13th Anniversary is also written.

Menard is from Series 22 of the Living Dead Dolls, and is one of the few dolls that can actually claim to be based on a "Living Dead" entity, while I love most of these dolls, there aren't many that are in fact true Living Dead creatures, with the most recent editions being based on other film characters, but then again, I guess that is true to form as the first Living Dead Doll produced was a miniature version of Damien from The Omen!

http://livingdeaddolls.wikia.com/

In fact, the entire 22nd Series of Living Dead Dolls which were released in 2011, featured 5 dolls who were each based on a character from a Zombie film, the 6th doll in the series called Patient Xero, was only available for purchase online, the variant version of her being sold exclusively through Mezco Direct.. But again, I digress, so back to Menard himself.

http://www.livingdeaddolls.com/archive_series.html#ser22

As you can see from Menard's Mezco write up, his "Date of Death" is listed as 18th July 1980, and as you'll find a lot during this write up about him, here's were it starts to get confusing... 

I'll explain this in a little while but first I want to show you this... 

The inlay art on Menard's box is based on the 1978 Dawn of The Dead promotional Poster...

Menard actually has nothing to do with that film however, and neither does the above poster except for the "play on blurb" taken from this poster which was used in the promo' images for this series, as you can see in the Series 22 group promo' image above ... 

Unless you know your Zombies it can get a little confusing, but I'm going to try and give it to you in brief anyway, 'cos well Zombies!  

Enough gibbering, I better get to it...

Dr. Menard is a character in Zombi 2 released in 1979 in Italy and directed by Lucio Fulci. 

Living Dead Dolls advertising

 The date on Menard's Mezco blurb relates to the U.K and other English speaking countries release of this film; 1980. 

 This title relates to the fact that it is a sequel to Zombi; the Italian language version of George A. Romeo's Dawn of The Dead, released in 1978.

gaming.youtube.com

To make matters more confusing, this film was also released under a variety of other titles; Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Island of The Living Dead, Zombie, Sanguella ( to me this title makes it sound like a Vampire film), Nightmare Island, Woodoo in Germany and 6 other titles...

 I can only assume that this may be due to it being released in several non- English speaking Countries, or could in fact be a way to sneak around the Censors - as this film was placed firmly on the "Video Nasty" list in the U.K, and subsequently banned.

 This of course made it more of a lure to us kids and fellow gore seekers and really upped the rental appeal when the word "Banned" was placed on the video cover and made it one of the most sought after cult classics of the time!

I mean who hasn't wanted to watch a zombie wrestle a shark?!

Hugs,