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, where a mad scientists attempts to humanize the Gill Man. I always got a chuckle at how each movie ended with the same scene, of the monster floating dead in the water.
The accessories include an alternate head with the mouth closed, a spear gun, a net, an extra right holding hand, and a mummified skeletal hand. Jada Toys included just about everything needed to make this a worthy release. The only other thing I could think of would be to include a Julie Adams figure to go along with Gill Man, but then it would've been a 2 figure set and a bit more pricey. I find the closed mouth face slightly goofier, though it's still undeniably the Creature. There is a shade of red under his eyes, and I noticed that it's darker on the open mouth head. Other than that, both portraits accurately capture his fishy face.
His articulation includes head that's on a ball peg, allowing him to look in all directions, hinged, ball jointed shoulders, double jointed elbows and knees, bicep and upper thigh swivels, ball jointed upper chest and waist, ball jointed thighs, swiveled ankle pivot, and swiveled wrists. His joints are just as good as most Marvel Legends figures, so you won't have too many issues posing him, whether it's in a classic monster attack stance, or sitting for cocktail hour. I wonder if he drinks seaweed margaritas or salt water beer. But anyway.....
At 6", he scales well with most Marvel Legends, is shorter than NECA horror figures (which are about 8"), and towers over imports, such as S.H. Figuarts. Much of the stuff in my collection are horror and monster toys, so his size difference doesn't bother me much anyway. I'm just glad to finally have a good Gill Man figure, as I've loved the character since I first saw the movie as a young child. I even had the old rubber toy as a kid, this one:
Jada Toys Universal Monsters Creature is a great release for fans of this watery beast. He has good articulation, a great sculpt and paint job, and a nice amount of extras to make him worth the price, which I got him for $24. I'm very pleased that I finally have a good version of him in my collection.
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