☠ The Pumpkin King Jack Posable Doll Made by Applause 1993 ☠

Anyone who's seen The Nightmare Before Christmas will recognise this doll, as Jack in his guise as The Pumpkin King appears as the finale of the Halloween Town post- Halloween procession, this is the first time we see Jack in the film and it is also our introduction to Halloween Town, it's residents and the world in which they exist. 

http://christmascartoons.org/christmas/nightmare-before-christmas-wallpapers/jack/

During this scene he is seen standing on top of the straw horse he is "riding" when we first see him. He resembles a scarecrow with his head made from a carved pumpkin and his body stuffed with straw and seems lifeless when first the horse is dragged into the town square by a character with an axe lodged in his head, called "Behemoth".

the-nightmare-before-christmas.wikia.com

"Scarecrow Jack" aka The Pumpkin King, rotates slightly on top of his horse and for the first time we get the impression that this "scarecrow" may in fact be a living being... We also get a pretty good close up, but it only lasts a few seconds as Jack sets himself on fire whilst fire eating, and falls from the horse - into a pond and emerges as Jack Skellington; his true form - a lanky skeleton with extra long fingers, wearing a rather snazzy pinstripe suit. 

Film Still - Source: Google Images

The film came out in 1993, and following its success, so did several toys, one of which was a posable doll made by the Applause toy company, which was a very good likeness of Jack as The Pumpkin King, from the opening scene of the film.

Several years ago I discovered through the dolly encyclopedia called Ebay, that this doll existed, not only that I found the only listing of it, which I ended up winning!

The seller I purchased him from bought him while she was in America and while she had opened his box to view him, she had never removed his ties and taken him out  - and neither have I.

The doll is 13 inches tall and comes in a black coffin shaped box, decorated around the edges with Burtonesque skull "railings" style motif. 

Photo from original Ebay Listing

He has extremely long dark flesh tone, jointed hands (like a skeleton's only skin tone & long), and incredibly small feet. He has a fully wired body which allows for his poseability and the mouth, eyes and nose carved into his pumpkin face have been coated with glow in the dark paint, so when the lights are out a disembodied pumpkin head glows eerily just over a foot above the shelf!

 The front of the box has an almost full length viewing window and the back bears the legend: 

"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" and below this is written: "HO, HO, HO, BOO! 

'Tis the season to be screaming. When creepy Jack Skellington and his ghoulish pals try their hands at playing "Sandy Claws", Christmas will never be the same."

There is also the original price tag stuck to the box which reads "Puzzle Zoo - $24.95" which was considerably more than I paid for it at the time I purchased it.  I paid £5.00, which by today's conversion rates works out as a saving of £9.80, so all in all not a bad little buy!

He also seems to be quite rare in this guise as I've only seen this version come up for sale on Ebay once in the four or so years I have owned this doll, and that was a couple of seconds ago when I decided to do a bit more research on him for this post which has been in draft format for years now!

Hugs,