Toys - Pennywise Ultimate Figure : From Stephen King’s nightmare to NECA’s masterpiece of fear

By Mulder, 23 october 2025

There are horror icons that lurk in memory, and then there’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the manifestation of fear itself born from the mind of Stephen King. With the upcoming release of the new HBO series It: Welcome to Derry, NECA is seizing the moment to resurrect one of its most chilling collectibles: the Ultimate Pennywise figure. Expected for shipping in the second quarter of 2026, this 7-inch figure stands as a miniature monument to dread, bridging cinema, literature, and the deepest recesses of the imagination. The attention to detail is pure NECA mastery — a sculpted face that captures the alien charm of Bill Skarsgård, multiple interchangeable heads and hands, the infamous red balloon with wire, and even a decapitated head accessory. Everything about this piece has been carefully designed for display, but also for storytelling. Collectors will recognize the craftsmanship as a continuation of NECA’s ability to turn the grotesque into art, a skill that matches perfectly with King’s own fascination for the thin line between the ordinary and the monstrous.

When Stephen King first conceived Pennywise in the early 1980s, he described the process as a “final exam on horror.” He wanted to create something that embodied every fear at once — a shapeshifting creature that reflected the anxieties of childhood and the corruption of adulthood. Walking across a bridge in Colorado, he imagined a troll-like being dwelling in the sewers instead of under a bridge, and the entire story of It “just bounced” into his head. The result was Robert “Bob” Gray, a cosmic predator who feeds on fear and takes the form of a clown to lure his victims. In King’s own words, “what children fear more than anything else in the world is clowns.” That simple yet devastating insight gave birth to a character whose legacy spans decades of nightmares.

The translation of this terror to the screen began in 1990 with Tim Curry, whose Pennywise mixed humor and horror with unnerving precision. Curry’s version was a carnival of contradictions: bright colors masking a void of evil. Makeup designer Bart Mixon emphasized a “normal” clown façade to amplify the shock when the horror finally surfaced. Decades later, Andy Muschietti reinvented Pennywise for a new generation with Bill Skarsgård, steering away from the mischievous killer-clown archetype and into something ancient, twitching, and incomprehensible. Costume designer Janie Bryant layered historical inspirations — from the Elizabethan ruff to the Victorian sleeves — to evoke a timeless evil. It wasn’t just a costume; it was history itself staring back at you through cracked porcelain skin. Skarsgård’s Pennywise didn’t just kill — it performed fear like a symphony, with every grin and drift of the eyes calibrated to feel wrong in ways the human mind barely registers.

Now, NECA’s new Ultimate Pennywise celebrates this latest incarnation while honoring the myth’s deeper roots. The sculpt mirrors the 2017 and 2019 films’ monstrous elegance: the cracked forehead, the ruffled silvery-gray suit, and that iconic smile which feels as if it could stretch forever. The accessories speak to both lore and carnage — a bloody ruffle and the severed head recall the creature’s shapeshifting sadism. It’s more than a toy; it’s a tactile study of one of pop culture’s most psychologically loaded monsters. In a sense, NECA’s release coincides poetically with It: Welcome to Derry, the upcoming HBO prequel series that aims to explore Pennywise’s beginnings, expanding his mythology and the curse that grips the town of Derry.

Set in the 1960s, It: Welcome to Derry is the brainchild of Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Jason Fuchs, with Bill Skarsgård not only returning to his signature role but also stepping in as an executive producer. The show promises to delve into the creature’s early influence over Derry, beginning with the mysterious disappearance of a young boy and spiraling into a study of why Pennywise remains tethered to this cursed town. According to Jason Fuchs, the intent is to show that Derry itself may be as sentient and cursed as the creature that feeds beneath it. Filmed in Canada with cinematography by Rasmus Heise and a score by Benjamin Wallfisch, the series has been designed as a three-season arc moving backward in time — 1962, 1935, and 1908 — a structural inversion that mirrors the cyclical nature of fear itself.

For fans and scholars alike, the simultaneous return of Pennywise in collectible form and on screen feels almost fated. The figure’s Q2 2026 release date positions it as a tangible continuation of the HBO narrative, arriving just months after audiences revisit Derry’s past. It’s also a reminder of the cyclical dread that defines It: every twenty-seven years, the creature awakens. In a meta twist, so does our cultural obsession with it. NECA’s decision to unveil this figure at this precise moment is more than a merchandising move — it’s a statement on how Pennywise’s terror keeps evolving alongside society’s shifting fears.

Decades of critics and academics have examined Pennywise’s significance, interpreting him as everything from a Lovecraftian deity to a mirror of small-town corruption and repression. Tony Magistrale argued that Derry’s indifference toward its children makes it complicit in Pennywise’s crimes, while others like Margaret J. Yankovich and Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns see the creature as the embodiment of collective trauma. NECA’s Pennywise, frozen mid-grin, captures that duality perfectly — the playful surface and the cosmic rot beneath. Displayed on a shelf, it’s not just a collectible but a conversation about why horror endures: because fear is both timeless and intimate.

What makes this Ultimate Pennywise figure special is that it doesn’t just commemorate a villain; it encapsulates a lineage. From Tim Curry’s sinister charm to Bill Skarsgård’s alien menace, from Stephen King’s bridge-born troll to NECA’s sculpted plastic nightmare — every incarnation feeds on the same truth: the real horror is what we bring to it. This figure, like the story itself, is a mirror waiting to reflect what frightens us most. And when it ships in 2026, collectors will once again prove that some nightmares are worth keeping close — even if they’re smiling back at you.

You can discover the official photos in our Flickr page

Synopsis : 
Strange events unfold in the town of Derry in the 1960s involving Pennywise the clown, a mysterious character who haunts Derry.

It: Welcome to Derry
Directed by Andy Muschietti
Showrunners : Jason Fuchs, Brad Caleb Kane
Executive producers : Jason Fuchs, Brad Caleb Kane, Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Shelley Meals, Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Bill Skarsgård
Producers : Lyn Lucibellon Sarah Rath
Written by Jason Fuchs, Austin Guzman, Guadalis Del Carmen, Gabe Hobson, Helen Shang, Brad Caleb Kane, Cord Jefferson, Brad Caleb Kane
Based on Characters by Stephen King
Developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs
Starring  Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Blake Cameron James, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, Rudy Mancuso, Clara Stack, Amanda Christine, Mikkal Karim-Fidler, Bill Skarsgård
Cinematography :  Rasmus Heise
Edited by Esther Sokolow, Glenn Garland, Matthew V. Colonna
edited by (as Matthew V. Ace Colonna) / (as Matthew Colonn
Music by  Benjamin Wallfisch
Production companies : HBO, Warner Bros. Television, Double Dream, FiveTen Productions
Release dates :  October 2, 2025 (United States), 
Running time : 8 episodes