So, I find myself with the coincidental honor of having quite a choice blogging day today, this day of Halloween. While the holiday has always been my favorite aesthetically, all black and orange and dead, I can’t say I’ve attended any memorable festivities during the past decade or so, so again my attraction to it is yet another vestige of my childhood that clings to the back of my brain and reminds me that life is worth living after all. Just not quite as much when you’re 26.

Something that has always, somehow, meant a lot to me was Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. I guess that it just caught me at the right time in my life where it was truly resonant - a film about a relatively popular guy whose iconoclastic tendencies always left him feeling alone, a distracted romantic with a passion to create and explore things that no one around him had even though to breach before. I saw it three times while it was in the theater, and the Danny Elfman soundtrack was the first CD I ever bought. Of course, it’s not the best film ever made, but it played a vital role in the redefinition of cinematic animation and influenced a good deal of artists for many years. And arguably, it’s also a Christmas movie, so we have something to bridge that awkward Thanksgiving gap besides unsightly weight gain.

So, I collected and surrounded myself with Nightmare Before Christmas STUFF. Mostly, my collection was composed of a handful of hastily made (but nevertheless awesome) action figures that came on flimsy purple cards - all of which were quickly opened and discarded. This initial set included a bendy Jack Skellington, and a bendy Jack in a santa suit. Sally’s plastic arms and legs came off, Professor Finkelstein’s head popped open to reveal his brain, the mayor’s head spun to reveal his unhappy face, and so on. Two deluxe figures came in the form of Santa Claus, whose back opened up to reveal a bunch of green presents, and Oogie Boogie, who’s stomach opened up to allow some black bugs to spill out. As far as action features went for figures of the time, they weren’t astounding, but they were appropriate and fun.

These are all in tact and complete, still within my collection over a decade later. NECA re-released these original figures a few years back, and also created their own line of NBX figures, all with amazing details, accessories and articulation, and spanning a wider array of characters. Of course, I didn’t hesitate to collect every one of these that I could also.

The initial NBX merchandising blitz wasn’t too strong, as the movie was still a bit too eclectic in 1993. Critics either called it too creepy for a kids’ film, or not mature enough to be an adult film - two criticisms obviously rendered by philistines and paranoids. Sorry, lady, but your kid is FULL of skeleton. Just open him up and take a look. If you can’t accept that, don’t blame the media. And if ‘skeleton posing as santa blown out of sky’ is the worst you can say about the questionable content of a movie, I think we’re doing pretty well by today’s standards.

Back in 1993, though, NBX collectibles were few and far between, and they were really hot. Comic conventions would have large sections of their booths dedicated to lost and forgotten NBX stuff, and a simple Jack Skellington bedspread would cost well over $200. A large Oogie Boogie plush doll would cost over $100, at the peak of the collecting phase. At 13, most of this passed me by.

In the years that followed, Japan’s Jun Planning released a strong collection of themed merchandise, which the US was not generally aware of until the internet became widespread and information about the collectibles of foreign countries became more accessible. These included sets of Jack Skellington figures with a huge variety of interchangeable heads for various expressions, and larger Jack and Sally figures with tailored clothes.

Roughly around 2003, NBX began appearing on everything again, since the film was a decade old and had cemented its cult status, and Hot Topic needed something to fill its shelves with besides poorly-drawn fairies. A quick eBay search will net you Skellington cologne, a clutch of plastic figurines, cookie jars, mugs, handbags, watches, car shades and underwear. Normally, such a vast merchandising fit wouldn’t occur so long after a movie had been released in theaters, but the fact that these unusual branded items continue to sell is a testament to the aforementioned cult status. Can you think of any other animated movies which remain merchandisable for ten consistent years after its release?

Most curiously of all, though, is that the DVD of Nightmare Before Christmas has temporarily gone out of print, and it’s fetching prices of 50 bucks or more on the secondary market. If you’re looking for a copy, the 15th anniversary of the film is fast approaching, so I’d suggest holding onto that 50 bucks and spending it on the super-deluxe edition that’ll surely be published. For now, you can suffice with the VHS copy - which everyone in the universe seems to have anyhow. Sorry, that’s not worth anything monetary, but your delight will be incalculable.

So tonight, join me in my annual viewing of the film. It’s the next best thing to dressing up and having a social experience. You can never go wrong with a skeleton.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 2:00 am and is filed under collecting fyi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.