DARWIN

SEAQUEST DSV (PLAYMATES)

“Name: Darwin (Male Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin — “Tursiops Truncatus”)

Rank: Non-Commissioned Officer

Assignment: Special Missions, seaQuest DSV 4600

UEO Military ID#: DD001-2018-NB0

Security Access: Classified

Date of Birth: Estimated as 2007

Character Profile: Playful. Trusting. Friendly to humans. Highly intelligent mammal. Extremely loyal to Captain Bridger. Special relationship with Lucas Wolenczak.

Personal History: Born in Caribbean waters. Rescued following gill net accident and trained by Nathan Bridger at Caribbean research center, 2015. Learned interspecies communication via hand signals, forming close bond with Bridger. Assigned to seaQuest, 2018, where Vo-Corder technology developed by Lucas Wolenczak allowed central computer to translate natural dolphin clicks and whistles into simple human speech. Uses dolphin tube system aboard ship to interact with crew and follow close friend, Lucas.

Mission Specialty: Dolphin Re-Breather allows prolonged dives at extraordinary depths without resurfacing — for strategic underwater assigments.”

Oh boy, I’m back to SeaQuest, aren’t I?  Bet you guys thought I’d get it all out of my system.  Well, no such luck!  I’m fully committed!  Or, maybe I should be committed.  I don’t know.  It’s one of the things.  In addition to its human cast, SeaQuest also had amongst its crew a creature more naturally adept to water, a dolphin.  Billed only as himself in the opening credits, Darwin the dolphin was, in fact, a rather convincing use of effects, largely relying on puppets, as well as “special vocal effects” by the legendary Frank Welker.  Darwin was a pretty big hit, and was ultimately one of only four characters to remain with the show for its entire run.  Not bad for a puppet.  Obviously, there was no way he was getting left out of the tie-in toys, no matter how short-lived the line may have been.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Darwin was released in 1993, as part of Playmates one and only SeaQuest DSV tie-in assortment.  Darwin was actually short packed at the time of release, which, coupled with his popularity, made the figure quit a hot commodity for a while.  The figure is about 5 inches long and, while he doesn’t have articulation in a traditional sense, he does have some points of movement.  His two pectoral fins are able to be pushed inwards, which opens his mouth, and emits a squeaking sound, sort of as if he’s “talking.”  Darwin’s sculpt was all-new and unique to him.  Obviously, as a dolphin, he’s rather a departure from the established style.  He’s a pretty good recreation of a bottlenose dolphin, and specifically looks accurate to the models of Darwin we saw on the show.  He’s in a rather basic pose, and sculpting is fairly clean.  There’s kind of an ugly joint where the mouth is meant to open, but it’s on the underside mostly, so not crazy visible.  Darwin’s paint work is honestly more involved than you might expect, with all the proper color variation on his skin, plus fully painted interiors on his mouth.  For a line of this scale and style, that’s generally pretty rare, so the extra effort’s appreciated.  Darwin was packed with his Dolphin Rebreather, a rather sizable overlay piece, which attaches quite securely to the figure, and gives him a more distinctive flair.  He also includes a vocoder, sonar tag (missing from my figure), and display base with a special attachment to hold him in place horizontally.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember Darwin being difficult to get early on, and specifically remember my dad getting Darwin separate from the others because of his rarity.  I was always a fan of dolphins, so I always liked Darwin.  As such, he wound up as one of the figures I actually got as a kid, albeit years after the other two I had.  Cosmic Comix had one (literally the only SeaQuest figure I recall them ever carrying), so I bought it, and he’s just been floating around in my collection ever since.  There’s not a ton going on with this figure, but I still think he’s cool, and appreciate the efforts by Playmates to set him apart from just a generic dolphin toy.