DOLLMAN VS DEMONIC TOYS (1993) An early cinematic shared universe comes into being.

DIRECTED by Charles Band.

SCREENPLAY by Craig Hamann from a story by Charles Band. 

STARRING  - Tim Thomerson as Brick Bardo,  Tracy Scoggins as Judith Grey,  Mellisa Behr as Nurse Ginger,  Phillip Brock as Collins,  Phil Fondacaro as Ray Vernon.

ADDITIONAL VOICES - Frank Welker as Baby Oopsie Daisey,  "Evil" Ted Smith as Zombietoid,  Tim Dornberg as Jack Attack,  Brigitte Lynn as Mr. Static.

PLOT - Brick Bardo arrives in the small town of Pahoota (setting of Bad Channels) looking for Nurse Ginger (the only abductee from the previous alien invasion to remain in a shrunken size). Bardo is lonely being a miniature man in a world full of giants and seeks Nurse Ginger for companionship. Arriving at her home he finds her being menaced by a house spider. Brick saves Ginger's life and the two quickly become friends and then lovers.

Meanwhile,  Cop Judith Grey is reliving nightmares about the evil demonically possessed toys that she encountered a year ago at the Toyland warehouse. Risking her badge and career, Judith breaks into the warehouse and finds that the toys, led by the psychotic Baby Oopsie Daisey, have been accidentally resurected. Judith is disbelieved by her superior offices in the police force and is stripped of her badge. Desperate and afraid, Judith seeks out the only help she can find - Brick Bardo and Nurse Ginger - Judith figures that a 13 inch cop with the universe's most powerful handgun is the only man that can stop the tiny terrors.

Brick agrees to help and very soon he and Ginger are fighting for thier lives against the toys from Hell, but Baby Oopsie Daisey has sinister plans for Ginger, plans that may result in the rebirth and resurection of the toy's demonic master...

TAGLINE - ALL IS NOT WELL IN TOYLAND.

PERFORMANCES  - Dollman Vs Demonic Toys sees the return of several characters and actors from previous Full Moon Features movies. What we have here is the second stage in a full blown cinematic universe, the stage where everything that has been built for the past couple of years finally comes together in a good old fashioned comic book style team up. We get to see Tim Thomerson back in action as Brick Bardo - "the Dollman". Brick (and Thomerson's take on him) has changed little since we last saw him in a full length movie and why should it ? Brick is still the same one liner spitting badass as he was before, if it ain't broke then it doesn't need fixing.

Mellisa Behr reprises her role as Nurse Ginger from Bad Channels. She gets a lot more to do here than she did in the earlier film, there she was pretty much window dressing, here she gets to be an actual three dimensional character and she's pretty good. She spends much of the film's run time as a damsel in distress sure, but she sparks off Thomerson well and the two make for a good double act as the story progresses. She's VERY easy on the eye as well...

Tracy Scoggins reprises her role as Judith Grey from the earlier Full Moon movie Demonic Toys (1992). Here Judith is a bit more broken down than she was in the original movie, appearing to be suffering from some form of PTSD. You can hardly blame her really, I think most people would be a bit screwed up after battling inches high animated kid's toys being inhabited by a demon from the bowels of Hell, it's not something you see everyday. Scoggins is really good at playing this but she's not in the film for very long, the film's only 64 minutes long anyway so EVERYONE'S not in it for very much but seeing as Judith gets killed off about half way through, she's in it for even less. She was good while she lasted though.

A special mention must be made for Frank Welker doing the voice for Baby Oopsie Daisey. Welker is best known for his voice over work in many an 80's cartoon series. I find it quite amusing that the voice of The Transformers evil Decepticon leader Megatron is also the voice of a demonically possessed rapist baby doll for some reason...

SFX - There's some nice old school Incredible Shrinking Man style effects for Brick and Ginger, especially when Brick battles the "giant" spider but also as we see Brick and Nurse Ginger interact with the full size world around them. Surprisingly there was very little of this type of thing in the first Dollman movie so its nice to see it here.

There's also some nice puppet and model work for the Demonic Toys themselves...

Baby Oopsie Daisey is a great creation. I think its that permanent scowl that does it, this is one baby thats long past the need for a nappy change. He manages to be both repellent and cute at the same time.

Then we get Zombietoid, a new character exclusive to this film who didn't appear in the first Demonic Toys movie. Zombietoid is basically G.I. Joe/Action Man from Hell. Once again the facial expression is what really sells this. That thousand yard stare has seen it all, if Toyland has a 'Nam then Zombietoid has been there and he's clearly not been quite right since he got back.

Next up is Jack Attack. He's a jack-in-a-box from the Infernal Realms and he'll laugh at your misfortune and pain...and then he'll laugh some more, because that's what he does...ALL he does really...

Finally, we get Mr Static - a killer toy robot. He's the tactical firepower of the toys. Seeing as he's demonically powered, is that Hellfire or common or garden lasers that he's shooting from his hands ? We'll never know.

Of course the really good thing about all this nonsense is that if the special effects look a bit plasticy or rubbery then that's absolutely fine...they're supposed to - they're toys. Clever old Charles Band, we're onto you y'know, don't think for a second that we aren't.

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Shootings, laserings and lots of green slime based demon blood, all bought to you via good old fashioned practical effects.

RATING - Cinematic shared universe's are all the rage these days. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been getting bums on seats for over a decade now. The DC Expanded Universe has also been doing well, although arguably to a lesser extent than thier long standing rivals. What a lot of modern day cinema goers don't realise is that Charles Band's Full Moon Features has had a fully functioning shared cinematic universe in operation for the past 30 odd years. Yep, these bargain basement beauties got there first and where ahead of the game by several decades. 

Naturally, these being B-movies that where made in a much more guerilla style than a multi-million dollar corporately funded Marvel epic, things don't always hang together as well as they should. Continuity is not as well adhered to as you might expect. The most glaring being the fact that at the end of Bad Channels it actually WASN'T Nurse Ginger that remained shrunken but rather the character of Bunny instead. Maybe Daryl Strauss wasn't available at the time of filming to reprise her role, or maybe the producers figured that Ginger's character was a better fit. Either way, its glossed over in such a slipshod manner that its clear the producers didn't really care.

A particular fault with this film is the overuse of footage from the three original movies in the form of flashback sequences. I can see why they did this, but when your film is only 64 minutes long in the first place, you really don't want to be using up 20 minutes of your screen time on stuff everyone's already seen.

No matter, this is a great bit of low rent fun, not to be taken remotely seriously of course, but it's a good laugh all the same. I'd say this rates about 4 mini massacres out of 5. Sit back, relax, switch your brain off and give it a go. If nothing else it's way ahead of its time.

Inevitably things went full circle with the Full Moon Universe and it span off into its own line of comics, the very medium that inspired it in the first place. Brick "Dollman" Bardo remained one of the prime linchpins around which the shared universe revolved, even at one point meeting up with Jack Deth from the Trancers movies. The joke being both characters where played by Tim Thomerson. Needless to say they both clearly look like Thomerson in the comics too, as I've not read them I can't say whether or not this resembelence is commented upon. I don't suppose it matters...Welcome to the Full Moon Universe, the shonkiest shared universe there is...