Sunday, January 24, 2021

CRM Toys - Crime Cure Boy

Fair warning, this is gonna be a long one!

Sometime before 2003(I'm unsure of the exact year & trust me, I have HUNTED for this information... It may have been as early as the 90s!), a company called CRM Toys created a handful of figurines which they sold at Superfest(Tokyo).
CRM, or more specifically 'CRM 114', is a recurring series of letters & numbers in Stanley Kubrick films. In A Clockwork Orange for example, the serum used in the Ludovico Technique is named 'Serum 114'.
CRM Toys really is a pretty brilliant brand name, particularly if one of your major focuses is characters from Kubrick movies!
Over the years CRM Toys did two runs of their Alex Delarge figure, which they called 'Crime Cure Boy'. The first came in coloured packaging & the second release came in black and white packaging. No one really knows for sure, but there's a estimated 70-100 of each figure in existence. Each figurine was available for just 24 hours.


These figures have become more & more scarce as the years went on. I honestly never expected to own one, until I saw one in black & white packaging on ebay at a price I couldn't ignore! I decided to dip into my savings to buy it(& no, I won't be elaborating on how much I paid for it!)!
It's always a little unnerving buying something so expensive, but in this case it turned out to be ABSOLUTELY worth it! I opened the package & the first thing I saw was 'scribbling' on the front of the box, which was honestly a bit concerning! Two seconds later my brain realised it was a Malcolm McDowell autograph(which I have had a friend confirm)!!! This was NOT mentioned in the ebay listing(they in fact neglected to include a image of the front of the box) & honestly, I'm just blown away by this extra addition to my purchase!


Besides a small tear in one of the tabs that slides into the box, the packaging is in surprisingly good condition considering it's age. The box art is fantastic, covered in quotes from the film & a black and white redition of the figure itself.
Additionally, of the three accessories included, the hat & walking stick are still sealed in their original packaging! The mask, oddly, still has one of it's eyes attached(i'm guessing a factory error), which I honestly kinda love. It adds to the uniqueness of my own personal figurine! There will never be any confusion over who this particular figure belongs to!


Please excuse the shitty photo!

All CRM Toys figurines are 12 inches tall(1/6 scale) hand painted & hand-sewn. A lot of people seem to have issues with the paint work on these figures, but I personally love the simplicity, as it dosen't steal from the brilliant scult work! This figure is jointed & in fact, I've read that apparently even the fingers can be articulated! Making this a extremely versatile & poseable toy!


I still can't beleive I own this figurine! It's honestly one of those items I knew existed, but never thought I would possess. It's going to take me months to replace the money from my savings & it was completely worth it!
I'm personally still undecided how I'll display this, though I deifnitely think it's one of those times the packaging will be part of the aesthetic! Plus side, I do believe I have a spare figure-stand stashed somewhere, but I'll definitely need to move a few things around to fit it into one of my cabinets. It may even be time to upgrade to something taller!
Now that this figure has been successfully knocked off my grail list, it's time to get back to the endless hunt for the others!

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