Musings of an Inkd Geek

When I saw early reviews of these new 6" Universal Monsters figures, I knew that I had to get the Creature, as he's always been my favorite. He came out looking spiffy, and I'm psyched to finally have a nice articulated Gill Man in my collection. This infamous monster is wonderfully sculpted and painted. I love the darker striped lines throughout his body, as well as his various fins, scales, webbed hands and feet, and that unforgettable face. His simple yet unique design is now iconic, and countless other films attempted their own aquatic creature, from U.S. efforts like The Monster of Piedras Blancas and Humanoids From The Deep, to the goofy Mexican Swamp of the Lost Monster from the 1960's. A fish man even appeared from Japan's Tsuburaya, the kaiju known as Ragon. But the Creature has always remained the top dog, or should I say fish? The first film was so successful that Universal went and made 2 more, the last one being the bizarre Creature Walks Among Us, whe...

Today marks Gamera's 56th birthday. He first appeared on the Japanese Daikaiju scene in 1965 as competition for Toho's successful Godzilla series. A giant fire breathing turtle who could fly by hiding in his shell and blowing flames through his arm and leg holes, spinning around around like a flying saucer (and later, jetting around Superman-style with flames shooting from his legs), the first film was a bigger hit than the studio (Daiei) expected, so they continued to release more. Soon enough, Gamera had his own series of movies and set of villain kaiju to battle, including Gyaos (arguably his most famous foe), Barugon, Viras, Jiger, Guiron, and Zigra.  By 1971, the studio went bankrupt. In 1980, the company New Daiei released Gamera Super Monster, in which they took footage from all the previous movies and used it to create a new story, with a few new added scenes of the star turtle himself. It's considered one of Gamera's worst films, on par with Godzilla's Reve...

  Stop motion starring Godzilla and Kong.

The latest figure I picked up is this 6" Batman from the 1966 series starring Adam West. It's a cool figure, and since I watched the show as a kid, and again in the late 80's when they played it to capitalize on the release of Tim Burton's film, it holds a nostalgic charm. The series was quite cheesy, but had memorable villains, such as Cesar Romero's Joker, Julie Newmar's Catwoman, and Frank Gorshin's Riddler. This figure only comes with 2 action effect pieces, one that says Pow, the other, KaPow. In the series, whenever they would punch someone, cartoon bubbles would appear with such words. The plastic pieces clip onto Batman's wrist and stay on snug. As for the figure, it's a nice representation of the series version, from his lavender suit, blue cape, to small bat ears. The face looks just like Adam West, who's Batman is easily recognizable just about anywhere. There is some minor scruff on the Bat symbol on his chest, but overall, the paint...