Art Design: This five-panel box for the Mutant Leader action figure from Beneath The Planet of the Apes features a great montage of photos from the movie mixed with photos of this 12" action figure. Strangely, the name of the Mutant Leader character and the name of the actor who played the role are not listed on the box.
Headsculpt: Mendez (played by Paul Richards), the Mutant Leader was a pretty creepy dude back when I saw this movie in 1970. The scene in the chapel when all the mutants take off their masks as they pray to the nuclear bomb was particularly chilling. The face sculpt of Mendez is pretty good, but his face is a bit too narrow compared to the movie version. The lips of the skinless version are also too full compared to the movie version. One of the things that made the mutants from BTPOTA (Beneath The Planet Of The Apes) creepy for me was that the faces of the mutants were kind of flabby. The Sideshow Toys version of the Mutant Leader reminds me of the 1960s Visible Man model? Perhaps a better comparison would be to skinless Frank from the first two Hellraiser movies? The purple-blue veins under the skin of the BTPOTA movie mutants added a lot to their grotesque look. Sideshow, however, did the veins in a much less sinister shade of a light lavender color.
Articulation: This is the standard ultra-articulated Sideshow body with molded-on tan gloved hands (just like in the BTPOTA movie)
Outfit: Mendez is outfitted with a very nice tan smock (with bomb-cross), jacket, hoodie, pants, and shoes (with white socks) that deserve a lot of credit for being a perfect copy of what Mendez wore in the movie. The smock, jacket, and pants are tailored with a great attention to detail, and a nice, thick cloth material is used. This is a high quality outfit. Mendez looks good without his smock so that his skinless head can be seen in all its gory glory. The shoes are very nicely done and they look like the loafers that were worn by the mutants in BTPOTA.
Gear: Mendez gets his Holy Book of the Almighty Bomb (very well done), and the red key to the detonation panel, which Taylor (Charlton Heston) uses to detonate the bomb at the end of the movie. If Sideshow had included the complete bomb panel it would have been a nice touch. I wish Sideshow would put more effort and resources into additional gear for their great figures, like Dragon usually does.
Market: Many of the figures from the Planet of the Apes series are still available directly from Sideshow Toys (if you use the links from this site, it helps me pay for this website--thank you!!). You can also get these figures from various online dealers or from Yahoo auctions or e-bay.
Overall: This Mutant Leader action figure hits the mark if you are a fan of BTPOTA. I saw this film back when I was a kid in 1970, and it has a soft spot in my heart even though the ending was very sobering and depressing if you were a fan of the human race (Taylor, Nova (Linda Harrison), & Brent (James Franciscus).
Grade: A
