Tag Archives: Darwin

#4030: Darwin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

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.

#3161: Darwin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

DARWIN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“True to his name, Darwin has the power to adapt against any threat, be it searing volcanic heat or the cold vacuum of space!”

Hey, remember when I was talking about retcons?  And, more specifically, the retcon that introduced Vulcan, the third Summers brother?  And, how terribly handled it was?  Well, for the sake of argument, how about a retcon character that I actually don’t hate, who is in fact from that exact same story?  Yes, today, I’m talking about Armando Munoz, aka Darwin, one of the other three members of Vulcan’s ill-fated team, and the only other one to survive to the present day.  Darwin has the ability to adapt to the threats around him, and has generally been a pretty low-key sort of character, whose unique (and actually decently defined) abilities and lack of connection to pre-existing characters make for a far less obtrusive inclusion within X-history, even if it was added after the fact.  And, he’s even gotten to be in a movie, which was pretty cool.  And now, he’s got a Marvel Legend.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Darwin is figure 5 in the Bonebreaker Series of Marvel Legends.  He fits well with the overall oddball-theme of the assortment, as well as having the added benefit of being in the same assortment as his former teammate Vulcan, which I suppose is a pretty nice little tie.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Darwin is built on the Pizza Spidey body, which is a reasonable choice for the character, who is usually portrayed as being more on the slender side.   He gets a new head, belt, and hands, which capture his look respectably well.  The new head is suitably alien in its appearance, matching the character’s earlier appearances, as well as the costume choice that they’ve gone with, which is his original “Deadly Genesis” design.  He winds up looking a little bit like John Lithgow, if I’m honest, which I don’t really hate.  The paint work on Darwin matches up with his comics design; I really dig the purple, and the skin tone is appropriately pale and washed out.  I like the slight accenting on the head, in order to bring out more of the sculpted details.  Darwin is packed with two sets of hands (open gesture and fists), as well as half of the tank treads for the Bonebreaker Build-A-Figure.  It might have been nice to get a few parts showing off his adaptive skills, but this figure is pretty clearly the assortment’s low-cost figure, so I get why they stuck with what we got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first exposure to Darwin was actually in X-Men: First Class, where I quite liked him, despite his relatively small role.  I haven’t been actively following him in the comics, but I’ve always enjoyed the stories I’ve read with him, and, like I mentioned in the intro, I find his retcon status to be far less frustrating than Vulcan’s, so I just generally like him more.  While I didn’t *need* a figure of him, it’s one I can appreciate, and, for as basic as this one is, he’s honestly pretty fun.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.