Dollman Vs Demonic Toys (1993)

"All is not well in toyland"

Plot

A tramp breaks into a toy factory but falls and accidentally kills himself, spilling blood over the floor and inadvertently resurrecting the Demonic Toys. They are now intent on summoning the powers of darkness to Earth by impregnating a woman with the spawn of the Devil. So policewoman Judith Grey seeks the help of diminutive 12-inch tall detective Brick Bardo, aka Dollman, to stop them.

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Back in the early 90s, Charles Band and Full Moon were the masters of low budget horror films. Made for pretty pennies, featuring outlandish ideas and having a bit of fun about them that more mainstream releases lacked, the studio saw the likes of Puppet Master strike a chord in the hearts of horror fans. Two of their lesser known cult films were Dollman, about a 12-inch alien detective who lands on Earth to deal with some intergalactic criminals, and Demonic Toys, a Puppet Master-lite film about some children's toys that come to life. Instead of creating sequels for the films, Full Moon just lumped them together for a cash-in long before Hollywood's fascination with crossovers and multiverses was ever conceived.

Dollman Vs Demonic Toys not only contains the title stars from said films but also features a 12-inch tall chick from Bad Channels, which was another Full Moon effort about aliens that come to Earth to shrink human women and kidnap them back to their planet. Nurse Ginger wasn't lucky enough to be returned to her normal size before the end of the film and she makes an appearance here as Dollman tracks down the only other person on Earth he can, well, er…..I'm guessing he only had that on his mind because she's pretty hot. So you've got the back story of three films jockeying for position and it's obvious as to why that is. Seeing three of Full Moon's early efforts crossover here is nifty for all of about two minutes. Once the highlight clip shows from Dollman, Bad Channels and Demonic Toys have all begin to roll, you wonder just what you've got yourself in for. At a trim sixty-four minutes, it's hardly worth the effort of watching given that there is a lengthy credits sequence too. The new footage consists mainly of the finale inside the toy factory. The rest of the running time is basically flashbacks to fill you in with the back stories of Dollman, The Demonic Toys and Nurse Ginger. I'd much rather have seen a sequel to Dollman or a legitimate sequel to Demonic Toys back in the day when Full Moon films were reliable for their goofiness. Eventually, Demonic Toys did get a sequel and it also got the 'dream' showdown against the puppets in Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys.

Tim Thomerson is awesome as Dollman. He's got the attitude. He's got the look. He's got some great dialogue and he's got a strong, deadpan delivery. It's a pity that Dollman wasn't more high profile because the performance deserved better recognition for him. Melissa Behr does what she needs to do as Nurse Ginger and that's look really hot in a bikini (well as hot as a 12-inch woman can look!) and scream and call for help. However, there's only about twenty minutes of new footage so the actors probably filmed their scenes in a day or two and moved on to their new project.

Three of the four Demonic Toys are back: Baby Oopsy Daisy, Jack-in-the-Box and that robot. It's sad to say but the teddy bear doesn't re-appear and instead we get an Action Man-style figure that comes to life. The toys flit between being puppets (when they share scenes with normal humans) or really laughable men-in-suits (when they are squaring up against Dollman). So I can see the logistics in ditching the bear and bringing in Action Man. At some point during the finale, Dollman has to fight the toys and we get the obligatory scene of an actor dressed up like the Action Man (complete with a really cheap Styrofoam head) locked in mortal combat with the tiny detective. Not only that, but the finale involves a rather sinister angle where Baby Oopsy Daisy tries to mate with Nurse Ginger. At this point, Baby Oopsy Daisy is also an actor in a big, puffed-up suit with a huge round head. At least the voiceover for Baby Oospy Daisy is ominous in a rather comic way.

To make the whole thing look legitimate, there are giant sets to make it seem like the characters are fighting alongside a plug in the wall, next to a pile of boxes or inside a doll's house. I'll at least give the production designers a bit of credit because as cheap as the sets look, there's no question that it adds to the effect of making Dollman, Nurse Ginger and the Demonic Toys all seem small. The scene inside the kitchen drawer where Nurse Ginger lives could easily have come out of classic TV series Land of the Giants.

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Final Verdict

Dollman Vs Demonic Toys is basically a highlight reel of a couple of Full Moon's lesser known cult gems but there's enough laughable bad taste, goofy fun and another great turn from Tim Thomerson to just about scrape through to the end.

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Dollman Vs Demonic Toys Director(s): Charles Band Writer(s): Charles Band (story), Craig Hamann (written by) Actor(s): Tim Thomerson, Tracy Scoggins, Melissa Behr, Phil Fondacaro, R.C. Bates, Willie C. Carpenter, Peter Chen, Frank Welker Duration: 64 mins