The Invisible Man (1933) Scene Gets Recreated By NECA

NECA has recreated the big reveal scene in Universal Pictures’ 1933 classic The Invisible Man starring Claude Raines as the title character. For the 90th anniversary of the movie, the company is coming out with the Invisible Man in action figure form. The figure stands in 7” scale and comes in a display-friendly window box packaging with a front opening flap. To showcase its new product, the company shared the video on its official Instagram account.

The scene in question happens at the very beginning of the movie, where a bandaged wrapped Dr. Jack Griffin is confronted by a mob for distressing his innkeepers. Fed up with the villager’s behavior and growing increasingly unstable, Griffin reveals his condition to the shocked onlookers. This is the prelude to Griffin starting a “reign of terror,” including murder, robbery, and train disasters.

Though the original movie was in black and white, the new video is entirely in color. The video also showcased the figure’s accessories, including the notes containing the results of all of Griffin’s experiments and alternate hands and heads that show the various stages of unmasking. The figurine’s detail and decoration are shown off using multiple camera angles to capture the scene.

Related: NECA Unwraps The Mummy for Universal Monsters Toy Line

Legacy of The Invisible Man

James Whale directed the 1933 original, which was an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1897 novel of the same name. It has been selected to join the US National Film Registry for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically” significant. It was later remade in 2020 by Leigh Wannell and Blumhouse Productions. The success of the remake has also led to the promise of future Universal Monsters reboots, following several attempts at a big Marvel Cinematic Universe-inspired crossover franchise.

As with the other monsters of the era, the Invisible Man has left a large impact on pop culture. Besides numerous imitators, there have been shoutouts to the film across various media. For instance, during season one of Heroes, Christopher Eccleston’s character has the power to become invisible and calls himself Claude Raines.

Raines’ performance also had an impact on the world of Batman as well. Back in 2018, Mark Hamill revealed to Sway’s Universe that the movie was a source of inspiration for his Joker voice. As a kid, Hamill would do impressions of the old Universal horror films, and subconsciously, that ended up seeping into the performance that he would go on to reprise multiple times and in multiple pieces of media, such as in the Arkham videogames or the adaptation of Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke.

Though you can preorder NECA’s new Invisible Man action figure now, the estimated shipping is November 2020. If you’re a collector, you’ll be able to own it and several other Universal Monsters owned by NECA, such as Dracula, the Wolfman, and the Mummy. Besides that, NECA has also released a Universal Horror/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle crossover sublime. That includes Donatello as The Invisible Man, Leonardo as Igor, Michelangelo as The Mummy, April O’Neil as the Bride of Frankenstein, and Raphael as Frankenstein’s monster.