In the late 80's B-movie producer Charles Band formed Full Moon Entertainment and had a decent run of direct-to-video franchises with such titles as Puppet Master, Dollman, Trancers and Demonic Toys. The characters proved popular enough to warrant action figures, a fan club, and even a crossover attempt that's better left unmentioned (Dollman Vs. The Demonic Toys). But then bankruptcy struck, distribution deals went south, and Charles Band found his Full Moon empire on the skids.

Years later though, his characters still live on, and that might explain why the Sci Fi Channel decided to create Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys to air on their network. And while they didn't bring Band onboard with it (apparently he no longer has rights to the characters), they did recruit former Full Moon stalwarts Ted Nicolaou (Subspecies) and Courtney Joyner (Puppet Master III, Lurking Fear) to help.

Former teen idol Corey Feldman stars as Robert Toulon, a descendent of the famous toy maker who's working on a serum with his daughter that will bring his great Uncle's puppets to life. All it requires is an eight-hour brewing time and two drops of pure Toulon blood. The serum is also of interest to Erica Sharpe (Vanessa Angel), who is the head of Sharpe Toys and wants to use it to boost the already tremendous sales of her 'Christmas Pal' dolls.

Upon striking a working version of the formula that brings back our beloved puppets Blade, Pinhead, Jester and Six-Shooter, Toulon's doll hospital is attacked by some of Sharpe's cronies who want to steal the serum. Of course, the puppets won't stand for that and we get a glimpse at the first of many poorly done doll attack scenes. Seemingly, though, our puppets aren't too bright as Six-Shooter sets the lab (and a few fellow dolls) on fire.

From there it's a race against time as Erica kidnaps Toulon's daughter and will sacrifice her to a demon is she doesn't get the serum. She also happens to have the Demonic Toys at her side (Baby Oopsy-Daisy, the killer teddy bear and the evil jack-in-the-box), which leads to a final showdown between Toulon, female cop Jessica Russell (Silvia Suvadova) and the two title titans.

Puppet Master Vs Demonic Toys is one bad movie. Despite the fact it's obvious the makers were going for tongue-in-cheek right from the get go (check out Feldman's overacting and bad white-streaked hair for proof), they've completely missed what made the original movies fun - the puppets. In fact, there's only a few attack scenes on hand and when the two groups meet up in the finale it only lasts for a few minutes and is lame to boot.

Admittedly, this is no worse than the Dollman crossover and, let's be honest here, the Puppet Master series has been stumbling since part five anyway, but that's no excuse to insult the many fans of the series that are out there by making a movie that fails to deliver on the main thing they've come to see in the first place.

On top of it all, scripter Joyner even mildly rips-off Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (you know, the one WITHOUT Michael Myers that's hated by many) by having a "days to Christmas" countdown and having Erica's main motive be trying to use her 'Christmas Pals' dolls to murder innocent children to feed their souls to the demon in her office's basement. That, of course, is when he's not pilling on the fart jokes.

Even the puppets look way different from the way you remember them. They've taken on a more cartoony, rubbery look at it just didn't agree with me. Plus, the stop motion used for them is nowhere near what David Allen (R.I.P.) managed to do in the first batch of Puppet Master movies.

Folks, this is about as awful as they get - I wouldn't even recommend it for the most diehard fan of the two franchises. Trust me, it'll just make them angry. (Chris Hartley, 2/9/07)

Directed By: Ted Nicolaou.
Written By: Courtney Joyner.

Starring: Corey Feldman, Vanessa Angel, Danielle Keaton, Silvia Suvadova.