The Sleeping Beauty

Companies like McFarlane and NECA have made a lot of cool figures and collectibles of various horror movie characters, but one area they've constantly overlooked is the protagonists of these movies. A lot of fans are just as interested in figures of characters like Nancy Thompson or Laurie Strode to add to their collection as they are in Freddy Kruger or Michael Myers, but the general consensus is that these companies are afraid to make a figure of a character that's not a for certain seller the way the monster of the movie is. So, until that mindset changes, that leaves no choice for fans but to make customs.

As I've said, the Nightmare on Elm Street series is my favorite horror franchise, and they've released a figure for just about every single one of Freddy's appearances and all of the cute little cosplays he likes to do in his movies. But unlike some other slasher movies, the protagonists of the NOES movies are important, they're made to be pivotal characters and not just essentially cannon fodder for our monster. I think it would be cool if some love was shown to the heroes and heroines of horror. (The only one who's ever got much love in terms of merchandising is the Evil Dead's Ash.) Granted, horror films have the silly rule that a returning character must die in a sequel, so a lot of the protagonists are limited to just two appearances as opposed to the villain's having been in all 17 movies, so awareness of that character could be low to the general public, but these collectibles are already aimed at a group who would be familiar with those characters, so...I don't understand it.

Anyway, I find it unlikely that they'll ever get around to releasing a figure of A Nightmare on Elm Street's Nancy Thompson (I seriously wouldn't be surprised if NECA released a Wicked Witch Freddy figure from Freddy's Dead, or creepy Robert Englund in drag nurse from Dream Master), so I commissioned someone to make a custom. While I would have preferred an action figure sized Nancy, I know customizing action figures is brutal and costly and I imagine that there's not many options available in terms of female characters you could base your custom off of. The person I used makes custom Barbies of a wide range of genre characters and video game characters. Now, I was a little unsure of how a Barbie would turn out, but I figured there could be a lot of leeway since Mattel does release Barbies based on movies and TV shows (there have been Star Trek, X-Files and Mad Men Barbies, for example) and the priority isn't really to get an exact likeness of the actor. (Nevertheless, I was really surprised by the doll the customizer chose -- it doesn't look like a Barbie, and I do think you can see a resemblance to Heather Langenkamp.) I chose the pictures and accessories -- I wanted it based on Nancy's appearance in the first movie (in the pajamas she wears in her last battle with Freddy, and because considering the theme of the movie is sleep, so...) and I wanted her to have the Stay Awake, coffee pot and picture of her friends as accessories, the bandaged arm, the grey hair. If packaging could be done, I knew I wanted to use that European poster.

Nancy Thompson is my favorite horror heroine. While she's a good person with a lot of heart, she has an edge and an attitude about her that helps her stand out from the usual slasher leads. She herself is tormented by nightmares and on no sleep, but she still goes out of her way to try and solve the mystery of Freddy Krueger and help her friends. She has the courage to face Freddy and uses her experience in the first film to come back in the third one to help out more teens in need. I always thought it was interesting how she returns in a position of power in Dream Warriors -- she's been damaged by her experience, but she's an authority, she's grown and advanced, so it's not the typical horror sequel of the monster returns to torment her; she's learned, she's prepared, she puts together the Dream Warriors! And being the first person to really outwit and defeat Freddy, it's awesome how super-pissed Freddy is when he first sees her. No jokes, no puns -- the sight of Nancy really pisses him off.

While a lot of credit obviously goes to Wes Craven for creating the character, a humongous portion of credit goes to Heather Langenkamp for how she played the character, giving her that attitude, making Nancy stand out. (Craven essentially gives Langenkamp credit in New Nightmare, by making the story that the demon who takes shape as Freddy can only be stopped by Heather because she was the one who gave Nancy her strength.) And while it's not exactly canon, I like how the comic books from Innovation pick up on Kristen's line in Dream Warriors (using her powers to place Nancy in a "beautiful dream"), which gives Nancy a certain immortality in that she has power over dreams the way Freddy has powers over nightmares, cementing Nancy as Freddy's ultimate opponent.

Doesn't any of this warrant an official Nancy Thompson action figure?! Why, of all horror heroines, does Jessica Biel's character from the Texas Chainsaw remake get a figure, but not someone like Nancy?