Fairy tales may never be the same again... now that Mezco Toyz have gotten ahold of them. Mezco's Scary Tales action figures are new interpretations of fairy tale characters.

Whoa, calm down, because by "new interpretations" we don't mean a Planet of the Apes-style "re-imagined" kind of thing. We just mean that these characters are brought more vividly to life than we remembered them from our childhood picture books.

The first series of Scary Tales consists of:

• Red - Lil' Red Riding Hood
• Wolf - the Big Bad Wolf
• Alice - Alice in Wonderland
• White Rabbit
• Mad Hatter

While the RTM Spotlight is only examining Red this time around, there are a few things you might want to know about the rest of the Scary Tales:

• The packaging for Scary Tales is rather clever: a fifth panel box which looks like an old book. Open the front flap to see the figure through the window, with all of the figures pictured on the inside of the flap. The inside of the flap also gives sculptor credits (Varner Studios), while the bottom of the box gives credits for the package design (Design Edge). The back of the box gives a short description of each of the fairy tale characters upon which these Scary Tales figures are based.

• Alice is also available in an African-American version, which is packed one per case of Scary Tales. The AA Alice features a purple and yellow dress, which makes her a hit with Lakers fans. (The white Alice is in the white and blue you would expect an Alice figure to be in.) Some of us here at RTM are oblivious to sports, and it was Mez himself who pointed that out to us; the Lakers paint deco was not planned, but rather was a happy coincidence.

• ClubMez (Mezco's Collectors Club) will be featuring two Scary Tales exclusive repainted action figures: Red repainted with a Latin twist, as Rojo Pequena, and a White Rabbit repainted as the Black Light Rabbit. Rojo is part of the membership package when you join, and the Rabbit will be available for purchase through the club later. Both repaints will be "black light" paint deco schemes, meaning that the paint schemes have the same colors as if they were seen under a black light. Want to see this concept? Go to the ClubMez page and "mouse over" the descriptions for Rojo and the Rabbit, to see the pop-up images of each.

The Scary Tales action figures retail in the $9.99 to $12.99 USD price range and can be found at stores such as Musicland, Suncoast, Electronics Boutique and similar stores.

Getting back to talk of Lil' Red Riding Hood, the first thing one notices about Red is that it is cold in the forest. The second thing is that she is not "going commando." Moving right along, the third thing one notices is her lack of leg articulation, but luckily her sculpt allows her to stand without being pegged onto the base. Red has articulation at her neck, waist, both shoulders, and both forearms (at the cuff of her gloves).

Red's arm articulation allows her two poses: (1) the horrified "oh my! a wolf!" pose, and (2) the non-horrified "oh my! it's cold in the forest!" pose. She can hold her basket in her right hand - the basket handle swivels.

Red's diorama has a scenic cardboard background of the forest and two plastic trees which snap onto the base. The limbs on the trees are articulated (one point each, a "shoulder twist") to allow for spooky poses, especially on the limb that ends in a hand. There is a skeleton which pegs into a tree - the skeleton is holding up a sign which points "to Gramas Crib." (The really neat thing about the skeleton is that if you unplug it from the tree, you can see that it is just as detailed with paint application on the back.) The instruction sheet for the diorama is the same for all of the Scary Tales action figures: directions for all five are printed on the sheet, along with a membership form for ClubMez.