I love the Gillman from Creature
From the Black Lagoon. He is my favorite movie monster of all
time and opportunities to review toys of the guy are sadly few and
far between.
I do not, traditionally, love Mezco.
For many years they made excellent super-deformed and
caricature-style toys (like this one), but couldn’t produce a
realistic sculpt to save their lives. While that might well have
changed now, it doesn’t matter for this figure because it is
decidedly and intentionally non-realistic. And I’m good with that.
I saw Frankenstein’s Monster a month
or so ago at Toys R Us. He looked great and was a nice, bulky figure
with a good heft, but I just couldn’t justify dropping the money on
him. But once I saw this Gillman there was no question – I was
going to have to buy him. Even though there were four on the shelf,
the figure was so awesome that I experienced that weird toy panic
where you suddenly get nervous that you’re not going to be able to
buy an item for some reason.
Okay, if you’re a Collector you might
know what I’m talking about here. If you’re not, you’re just
going to think I’m a lunatic.
Sometimes when there is a toy that is
particularly awesome or that you have been looking for a long time
and then find it, you experience this weird anxiety or paranoia where
you get a brief, intense feeling like you won’t be able to buy it.
Maybe you’re going to set it down for a second to tie your shoe and
somebody’s going to snatch it. Or a little kid might walk up and
that’s the toy he’s been looking for and you’re going to have
to hand it over (I’ve been lucky enough to never have this happen,
but I would cede a toy to a kid if the situation arose). Perhaps
you’ll get to the register and it won’t ring up and they won’t
sell it to you (I’ve had this happen). Even worse, the item could
have the dreaded Street Date, where it can’t be sold before a
certain date, but some cretin put it out on the shelf and you should
be able to buy it but the Street Date actually came up in the
register because technology has just come too far (this has also
happened to me).
So I had a brief, intense moment where
all of those things ran through my head.
I grabbed the Gillman (and another
Xenomorph because I want, like, fifty of those) and almost but
not quite ran to the register.
Fortunately for everybody involved I
checked out with no problem and here we are today.
First Glance: The
articulation appears to be minimal, but the sculpt looks very cool
and dynamic. The weight of these figures is very satisfying. They
aren’t some cheap, hollow rotocast figures. These things have a
heft to them.
Articulation: This is a
very different kind of action figure from what I normally review.
Honestly, Mezco could have released it with no articulation as a
statue-type thing and I still would have bought it.
Head – pivot/swivel
Shoulders – ball joint
Elbows – swivel
Wrists – swivel
Abdomen – ball joint
Waist – swivel
Ankles – ball joint
It took me a minute to figure this out
because it isn’t obvious, but the Gillman’s head moves up and
down. It’s on some sort of slider so that it can be fully upright
or hunched down. It’s a neat bit of functionality. The head also
moves side to side slightly, but this is restricted by the sculpt
(which is fine).
The shoulders have a full range of
motion. Combined with the 360° swivels in the elbows and wrists you
can achieve a satisfying number of arm poses. Actually, you can even
have the arms hanging straight down in a neutral pose, but the
forearm fins end up on the wrong side:
Who wants the Creature just standing
there like that anyway though?
The abdominal joint has a great range
of motion and is sculpted into the design quite well. From the front
it is simply a seam under the chest. It is more noticeable from the
back, but it doesn’t mess up the profile of the figure. The back
fin is sculpted in such a way that it can be covered by the top
portion of this joint and not look weird.
I was concerned that the ankle joints
would make this figure hard to stand up, but they are very tight and
hold poses well (so far).
All of the joints are tight and
function well.
Sculpt: The sculpt is
fantastic. The whole figure has a sort of pebbly texture that is more
prominent on the upper portion. The scale-like layers that run down
the body have a great thickness and definition.
The head looks very similar to the
movie version – not a whole lot of license was taken here aside
from a mild proportional change. The namesake gills are a good bit
more prominent. The level of detail is nice. I like the sculpted
accents on the brow that set it apart from the rest of the face.
The fins on the feet, legs, back, and
arms are done in a very cool way. They look sort of light and
flexible – like they’d wave in the water. I’m particularly
impressed with the way the back fin was sculpted around the abdominal
joint.
The oversized hands and feet look
great. The toes and claws on the feet are thick and distinct. The
hands are easily my favorite part of the figure. They are posed for
reaching and clutching and the suckers on the palms are creepy. The
webbed, clawed fingers are solid. These aren’t going to warp or
bend.
Coloring: I’m glad
they didn’t get all wacky with the colors on the Gillman. The base
is the exact green that you expect the Gillman to be – subdued
rather than bright.
There are three main colors in the
scheme – the green of the skin, the greenish yellow used on the
highlights, the stomach, and the hand suckers, and the ivory of the
claws. The fins are painted with a combination of these. All of it is
very cleanly applied and looks great. This figure is proof that even
a simple paint job can still be impressive. Just look at the hand
suckers:
The mouth is a bright red that is
almost off-putting in all of that green (this is a monster, so that’s
a good thing). The eyes are appropriately walleyed. The detail in
them is tight and accurate. These are eyes that say, “I am going to
pop out of the water and do something unpleasant to you.”
Accessories: The Gillman
doesn’t come with any accessories, but this really isn’t that
kind of figure. I feel like it’s more in the statue range and just
happens to be articulated. I’m not gonna say it couldn’t have
come with an awesome fossilized hand or something, but it wasn’t
necessary.
Packaging: This guy comes
in a fancy window box. I just love the Universal Monsters logo:
The cardboard of the box is thick and
high-quality, the kind that doesn’t get banged up during shipping.
I like that the box is printed in black-and-white to evoke the
original movie.
This is some fine packaging.
Value: This figure was
definitely worth thirty bucks to me. I’m not saying that was a
great value, but I didn’t have any trouble paying it and I
ended up more impressed with the figure than I thought I would be.
Realistically I think these should be $24.99 at most, but I suppose
Mezco is going to get what they get.
Overall: This isn’t the
be-all, end-all Creature From the Black Lagoon. That would probably
be Sideshow’s sixth scale version. But it is a darn good figure and
one that I had to have. If you’re looking for realistic proportions
and screen accuracy this isn’t your Gillman. But if you’re a
collector of Creature merchandise, then this one comes highly
recommended by Phantom Troublemaker.
5
out of 5
So far I have seen these at two
different Toys R Us stores and I bet you can order from their
website, as well. I’m sure BigBad and Entertainment Earth are
stocking them too. Check the prices and order yourself a Gillman.
***BONUS
REVIEW!***
Wow! It just so happens that my San
Diego Comic Con Exclusive Glow-in-the-Dark Creature From the Black
Lagoon figure arrived in time to be included in this review! Since
it’s just a variant of the above figure, I’ll quickly go over the
differences:
Coloring: This Gillman
is molded out of a glow-in-the-dark plastic that glows like f**king
crazy. It is the brightest glowing thing that I own. Also, I HAVE NO
IDEA HOW TO TAKE PICTURES OF THINGS GLOWING IN THE DARK.
I just about lost my mind when I did my
Scareglow review. I could not understand for the life of me why the
glow effect wouldn’t photograph, and I still don’t. This Creature
glows so darn bright. I don’t understand why it won’t photograph.
Value: I’ll be honest –
I’m ashamed to tell you how much this figure cost. It was sixty
bucks. That is, obviously, insane. There’s no way I should have
paid that for this figure. The painted version – the version that
actually required more materials to make cost half as much. I
am a dum-dum. But I don’t regret buying this awesome Gillman.
Overall: I’m not happy
about what I paid, but I had to have this. I have passed on too many
Creature figures in the past and I always regret the heck out of it.
And this one is outstanding. Just not $60 outstanding.
5
out of 5
This is a novelty item, not an
essential. If you’re a sucker for glow-in-the-dark (like me) and a
fan of Creature From the Black Lagoon (like me), you’re
really going to want this guy. I was lucky enough to catch it while
it was available from Mezco’s webstore. I’m not sure if it will
be offered through any retailers or it that’s it. Keep your eyes
open.
-Phantom
Woman sitting on man facing away. This is very visually exciting for the man as he gets a good view of the woman's buttocks and anus. He could also tickle her anus lightly while in this position.
ReplyDeleteJennifer White
I would recommend that nobody click on "Jennifer White" in the above comment. This is obviously spam, but it's so funny I don't want to delete it.
Delete^^Hey PT, I think you have another independent journalist wanting to contribute to your site :)
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened with that girl anyway? Was that legit? I googled her name, and that was a real person, at least the name belonged to a real person.
I have actually contacted a few people that have inquired through comments or e-mail. They all turn out to be some kind of ad scam.
Deletethose are RAD!
ReplyDeleteThey are. I'd love to have a blank one to paint in some odd way. But I'm not paying thirty bucks for it.
Delete