Tag Archives: Universal Monsters

#3683: Metaluna Mutant

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

METALUNA MUTANT

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS REACTION FIGURES (SUPER 7)

1955’s This Island Earth is a generally mediocre and rather forgettable sci-fi movie, whose entire reputation is salvaged by one thing and one thing only: a killer creature design. Okay, I might be being a little unfair to the movie. It’s honestly not bad, but the Metaluna Mutant is such a memorable design that pretty much everything that’s not him fades away moments after the movie’s over. Universal seemed to recognize this too, as he’s I believe the latest addition to their Universal Monsters stable, coming in some 20 years after the bulk of the others. And, since he’s got such a distinctive look, he’s also a prime candidate for toy coverage. Hooray!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Metaluna Mutant was released in the first series of Universal Monsters ReAction Figures released under the Super 7 banner. The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. Super 7 taking over ReAction directly was accompanied by a slight shift in the exact styling of the sculpts, which is reflected here. While the Funko Universal figures were honestly some of the best under their tenure, they were still a little soft in the details compared to a genuine Kenner product. The Mutant, on the other hand, is quite sharply rendered. He’s not a perfect match for his on-screen counterpart, but that wouldn’t be quite right anyway. He instead goes a bit more idealized, “what you’d remember in your head after seeing the movie”, which feels right for the vibe. There’s lots of fun little details going on here, with all of the membrane stuff on the head, as well as the folds and creases on the “pants.” His paint work is very much dialed into the style they’re going for. Rather than strictly movie coloring, he’s got a far more saturated hue, which gives him more of that ’70s era pop. I really dig the little vein lines on the arms and legs; they help to sell the overall look in a small but notable way. The Mutant is packed with no accessories, but I’m not sure what you’d give him anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had a fairly expansive viewing sci-fi classics as a kid, thanks to my dad’s own fascination with the genre. This Island Earth was shown to me when I was about 7 or 8, and it hit pretty well, largely because this guy was just so cool. I recall the Sideshow 8 inch figure coming out around that time, and being rather interested in him, but I didn’t wind up getting one for another 20 years. This one’s an even more recent addition, snagged from a batch of traded in figures at All Time a month or two ago. He’s simple, but very 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 and their eBay storefront.

#3368: Donatello as the Invisible Man

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

DONATELLO AS THE INVISIBLE MAN

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES X UNIVERSAL MONSTERS (NECA)

During the vintage TMNT line run, Playmates was faced with the dilemma of needing to keep the main Turtles in the line, without the line becoming just repeats of the same basic looks over and over again.  Enter the wacky variants.  But not just any wacky variants; the Turtle variants were like variants on steroids.  They covered all sorts of themes and play features, and eventually they even started doing cross-over figures with other properties.  In 1993 and 1994, they did two sets of Universal Monsters cross-over Turtles, and 30 years later, NECA is also exploring that concept.  They’re actually reaching the tail end of the line-up, it seems, but they’re also getting around to the best Turtle, crossing over with the best monster, with Donatello as the Invisible Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Donatello as the Invisible Man is the sixth figure in NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Universal Monsters line, and he started hitting retailers at the end of March/beginning of April.  He’s the second to last figure in the line (at least based on what we know so far), and he’s also the final of the four Turtles.  For Playmates’ vintage versions, there was an Invisible Man, but it was actually Mikey that got assigned the identity, while Donnie’s only figure in the set had him as Dracula.  NECA’s changed almost all of the crossovers for their versions, and while I think some of it’s been a bit of a mixed bag, making Donnie into the Invisible Man is one that feels much more natural than either of the Playmates choices.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The movement on this guy is pretty decent, an improvement on the usual set-up for their actual Turtles molds (which were first sculpted a good long while ago), bringing him closer to their more recent Ultimate offerings.  Range of motion has some slight restriction on the mid section and hips, due mostly to how the design is laid out.  Donnie sports an all-new sculpt, courtesy of Tony Cipriano and Kushwara Studios.  It’s an all-new design, of course, since they’re not doing a direct translation of any prior figures.  It’s a pretty good set-up; the actual turtle side of things seems to be more 1990 movie-inspired than anything else, which I think vibes pretty well with the horror feel.  The Invisible Man elements are a bit more broad strokes, and less specifically the Universal version.  This one’s a tad more steampunk, and that honestly works out alright with it being Donatello.  The sculpting has quite a bit of detailing, including some impressive texturing, especially on the jacket and the scarf.  While other Invisible Man figures go for making the invisible parts truly invisible by just omitting them entirely, this one molds those parts in clear plastic, which feels more Playmates-y.  The standard head has exposed “eyes”, and the feet are wrapped up to the toes, both featuring clear parts for what you can’t see.  Likewise, the shell is also clear, which allows for some fun Playmates-esque details, notably the pizza slices visible in his shell on the back; how exactly they got there is anyone’s guess, but it’s a funny touch.  The only thing I’m not keen on is an issue I also had with the movie Donnie; the straps on the back of his shell for his bo staff storage are just cloth ties, and they really don’t work all that well, especially at this scale.  It’s really difficult to make use of them at all, and I’m honestly just not going to bother.  Donnie’s paint work is rather on the muted side, which has been the general theme on this line.  While the other three turtles kept their bandanas in the usual colors, the adjusted design for Donnie removes the bandana, replacing it with a more Invisible Man appropriate set of goggles.  To help keep some of Donnie’s trademark palette in play, the strap of the goggles, as well as his scarf, are purple, which adds a nice little splash of color.  Donnie is packed with three sets of gloved hands, one set of clear hands, an alternate set of clear feet, an alternate head, his goggles, his hat, his bo staff, a TGRI journal, and a beaker of serum.  For the most part, the extras are pretty solid.  The only one that’s weird is the extra head; it goes for the “going mad” partially wrapped look seen in the original film, and achieves its invisibility by leaving it hollow, much like the standard NECA Invisible Man did.  That’s all well and good, but everywhere else this figure commits to the molded clear plastic look, so it makes for a rather strange mix of styles.  I wouldn’t have minded seeing a standard turtle head in clear for an unmasked look, like the vintage Mikey had.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The crossover Turtles are a cool idea, but they weren’t wowing me at the start.  That said, I’m a Donatello fan, so I was always planning to wait until they showed him off to pass final judgement.  I wasn’t really big on him as Drac in the vintage line, so the move to Invisible Man, who’s also one of my favorite monsters, was quite fortuitous.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he’s a pretty good one.  I don’t see myself getting anything else from the line, but he makes for a fun standalone piece.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3312: The Invisible Man

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

THE INVISIBLE MAN

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS (JADA TOYS)

Back at the beginning of last year, I took a look at a couple of Universal Monsters figures from a rather unlikely source, Jada Toys.  The line was just generally a surprise, in terms of both existence and quality.  It was also just a really cool little set of figures.  A lot of the basics were covered in that first assortment of four, but there was still some room for a few additional offerings, based on a few more of the old Universal films.  The one that got me the most excited was the figure based on the titular character from 1933’s The Invisible Man, and I’ll be taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Invisible Man is one half of the second “assortment” of Jada’s Universal Monsters line.  Assortment is a loose term here, of course, since they all ship in solid cases anyway, but he and the Wolf Man went up for order together, and a shipped to retailers at about the same time.  As I’ve noted in previous Invisible Man reviews, there are a couple of looks for the title character from the original film.  Like the 8 inch Sideshow figure I looked at before, this guy is sporting the robe/smoking jacket look, which I really feel is his most distinctive and most impressive design.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Invisible Man’s articulation scheme continues to follow the impressive standards set by the rest of this line, being just shy of the current Hasbro level.  That said, he’s improved even a little bit from last year’s figures.  The range remains similar, but he doesn’t break up the sculpt quite as much to get there.  The only slight issue I ran into was with my figure’s right ankle, which appears to be stuck due to the paint; nothing a little hot water won’t fix, though.  The figure’s sculpt is an all-new one.  It’s a very strong one, much like the others I’ve looked at.  In fact, I’d say it’s the strongest of the bunch thus far.  All of the detailing is nice and sharp, and there’s just a ton of great texture work on the clothing, especially the jacket and the wraps on the face.  His glasses are a separate piece, which helps to give things the right amount of depth.  The jacket for the upper torso and the waist is made from a soft rubber; it’s not bad looking, and it preserves the posability, but I do worry just a little bit about the long-term durability of it.  We’ll just have to see on that one.  The paint work on this guy is a little bit of a mixed bag; the bandages are fantastic, as is the detailing on the glasses, and even some of the smaller details of the jacket and pants.  The biggest issue is the trim for the jacket, which isn’t terrible on mine, though perhaps a little misaligned.  The trouble is that I had six of them to choose from, and had to ultimately settle for one that was “good enough.”  It’s definitely the one weak point of the figure.  What’s *not* a weak point is the accessory selection.  This guy gets an alternate head with the bandages being unwrapped, five different hands (a fist and two styles of grip for the right, a relaxed for the left, and a really cool left hand that’s designed to look like he’s taking off his right glove), a hat, a book, and a beaker.  I like the mix of parts to “reveal” his invisible nature, so those are definitely my favorites.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Invisible Man is one of those designs that I’ve always really loved, and it’s one I’m always on the lookout for whenever there’s Universal Monsters stuff.  When NECA unveiled their Universal stuff, I was sort of interested, but then got more pulled towards Jada’s first round.  I was waiting to see which would get to this guy first, and it was NECA, but then they did the version of the Invisible Man that I didn’t want as much, so when this one was shown off, I was in from day one.  He’s got one or two small flaws, but I really like him, and I continue to be impressed by the work that Jada’s putting in with this line.  They just announced Street Fighter and Mega Man lines as well, and I’m very interested to see how those go, because they’re really shaping up to be a serious contender in the 6 inch market.

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.

#3216: The Creature From the Black Lagoon – Glow-in-the-Dark

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

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON — GLOW-IN-THE-DARK

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS (JADA TOYS)

Happy Halloween, readers!  In honor of the day, I’m erring slightly on the spookier side, as I like to do, settling in for another Universal Monsters review.  In something of a change for the site, my last Universal Monsters reviews were actually not last Halloween, but in fact were in February of this year, when I took a look at Frankenstein’s Monster and the Bride from Jada’s own Universal Monsters line.  Today, I’m taking a look at another figure from the line, in the form of Gill-Man from The Creature From the Black Lagoon.  Let’s see how he turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Creature From the Black Lagoon is the first follow-up to the first four figure series of Jada’s Universal Monsters line.  He takes the standard Gill-Man from the first series and makes him Glow-in-the-Dark.  He was released as an Entertainment Earth-exclusive.  The figure stands just shy of 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  As I touched on when I reviewed Frankenstein back in February, the articulation scheme on these figures is actually pretty impressive for a company of Jada’s standing; it’s on par with some of Hasbro’s best offerings, albeit perhaps a year removed from where they are now.  2022 was a good year for Hasbro on the articulation front.  That doesn’t undermine what Jada’s got going on here, though, and Gill-Man’s articulation is even better than the Monster’s, due to his slightly less bulked-up build.  The figure’s sculpt is another strong offering.  He does quite a nice job of capturing the film design for the character, right down to getting all of the texturing and everything down with quite sharp detail.  Additionally, all of the articulation is worked in pretty nicely to the aesthetics of the overall sculpt, and they don’t require his sculpt to be broken up too badly when he’s posed either.  For the purposes of this release, in order facilitate the glowing feature, he’s molded in glow-in-the-dark plastic, with the rest of the paint built on top of that.  The plastic takes a fair bit of time to charge up for a proper glow, but it does at least hold it for a while.  The accent paint works out pretty nicely, though, and offsets the general look of the plastic rather nicely.  Gill-Man is packed with an alternate head with the mouth closed, an extra left hand for gripping, a harpoon gun, a net, and the decayed creature hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Creature has never been one of my favorites of the Universal slate.  It just always felt like the red-headed step-child of the group, and it’s really just never clicked with me the same way.  That being said, it’s hard to deny that Gill-Man has a killer visual, and one that makes for some cool toys.  This one in particular, in all of its glow-y glory, was one I definitely wanted to mess with, if perhaps not one I was dead set on owning.  One got traded into All Time a few weeks back, and they were kind enough to let me borrow it for the purposes of this review.  He’s honestly a ton of fun, and I look forward to the upcoming figures from the line.

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

#3025: Bride of Frankenstein

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

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS (JADA TOYS)

Released four years after the original Frankenstein, 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein adapts and expands upon later elements from Mary Shelly’s original novel, both in its attempts to more fully humanize the initial Monster, and in his desire to have a mate, the titular Bride.  Bride is pretty widely agreed to be an improvement upon its predecessor, and is probably the best of the Universal films in general.  Though she only gets a scant few minutes of actual screen time, the Bride’s design is quite distinctive, and she’s become a fixture of the franchise as a whole, especially when it comes to merchandising.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Bride is another piece of the first assortment of Jada Toys’ Universal Monsters line.  With only one film appearance, it’s pretty clear which one she’s based on, so I guess that’s simpler than it was with the Monster.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  She’s once again going by the Hasbro playbook for the articulation scheme, and it again works pretty well.  The joints don’t have quite the same range of motion this time around, but they’re still more than serviceable.  Like the Monster, the Bride is an all-new sculpt, and it’s a pretty good one at that.  The facial likeness of Elsa Lanchester is pretty decently rendered, and they’ve done a respectable job of making the distinctive hair style work in toy form.  The body sculpt has a ton of detailing on the bandages, and the texturing is pretty top notch.  It’s kind of a shame to cover it up with the sheet, especially since it’s the weakest part of the figure.  It’s just a pretty simple cloth piece with a velcro strip in the back to help secure it.  It’s not particularly tailored or fancy, and the edge is a little uneven.  It gets the job done, but I do wonder how it will hold up long term.  The Bride’s paint work is pretty solid, though somewhat of a reverse from the Monster.  The head is kind of basic in how it’s laid out, and ultimately lacks the more lifelike qualities to the face.  The hair also is just a pretty basic black with white streaks, with very little accenting or subtleties to it, which is kind of a shame.  Lanchester’s hair was red, so I like when they can give it that slight tinge of color at the very least.  On the flip side, the work on the bandages on the body is pretty cool, as it really helps to showcase all of the detailing in the sculpt.  I mean, it’s again mostly covered by the sheet, but it’s cool that it’s there.  The Bride is packed with a second head with a hissing expression, as well as two sets of hands in differing gestures, and two of the pieces of equipment used in the experiment that brings her to life.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After deciding to grab the Monster, it was hard to pass on the Bride.  They do make for a good pair and all.  Bride is certainly a favorite of mine, so I do always keep an eye out for good toy coverage.  Thus far, it’s always been iffy.  While this one’s not quite as good as the Monster, she’s still very good.  The only thing that really holds her back for me is the sheet, and even that’s really not bad, if you get it futzed just right.  Overall, she’s a nice companion piece to the Monster.  I hope Jada continues the line, as I think there’s some real potential for success here.

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

#3024: Frankenstein’s Monster

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

FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS (JADA TOYS)

While the Universal Monsters are not absent from this site by any metric, there’s certainly a tendency for them to pretty much only be reviewed at Halloween time.  I do like my thematic reviewing, I guess.  On top of that, a lot of the Universal stuff is older releases, which don’t tend to need very timely reviews.  Last year marked the 90th anniversary of the brand, though, and in honor of that, the license actually got a fair bit of toy coverage before the year was up.  Perhaps the most surprising came from Jada Toys, a company typically associated with smaller die-cast items, who are making their way into the 6-inch figure game, starting with a batch of four of the monsters.  I’ll be taking a look at their stab at Frankenstein’s Monster today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Frankenstein’s Monster (who is billed only as “Frankenstein” on the package; in Jada’s defense on that one, they seem to be naming the figures after movies, not after individual figures, so I don’t think it’s quite the same as the usual mis-titling of the character) is part of the first four figure assortment of Jada’s Universal Monsters line.  He’s clearly meant to be based on Karloff in the role, and appears to be more specifically patterned on his appearance in Bride of Frankenstein, which does sort of go against the based on a specific movie branding of the package, but also means he’s got what’s arguably the more memorable appearance, and goes with the Bride figure from the same assortment.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this figure is pretty much on par with the various Hasbro 6-inch lines.  There is a good range of motion on most of the joints, and the tolerancing seems to be pretty decently handled.  I didn’t have any really issues with things being too tight or too loose, and he’s pretty stable on his feet.  They even seem to be somewhat mimicking Hasbro’s pinless joints, at least for the knees; the elbows still have visible pins.  In general, the styling here is definitely going by the Hasbro playbook, and that continues to the sculpt.  It’s an all-new affair, and it’s honestly really good.  There’s a respectable likeness on the face, so it’s pretty clear which version of the character it is.  Some of the features there are a little soft, but not terribly so.  The body sculpt is pretty solid itself.  The articulation is a little less worked in around the elbows and ankles, but otherwise the aesthetics are pretty well-preserved, and the level of texture detailing is quite impressive.  They had a lot of visual space to work with, and they’ve managed to fill it well.  The paint work isn’t bad. The face is certainly the best work, with printing for the eyes, which gives him the proper (un)lifelike quality.  The body is more basic, but the application is clean, and the palette fits with how the character should look.  The Monster is packed with an alternate head with his teeth exposed (presumably from when he’s learning to speak in the second film), two sets of hands in relaxed and open gesture poses, and two sets of manacles with chains of differing lengths.  It’s a nice selection of extras, and gives him enough options to make things interesting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical about these when they were announced, mostly due to Jada’s usual products not seeming to line up with this quality of line.  We all saw how the earlu Funko Legacy lines turned out.  That said, I was still cautiously curious.  After seeing them in hand, I was impressed enough to give them a try.  I don’t regret grabbing this guy in the slightest.  He’s surprisingly well-done for a first outing in this style, and is honestly the best you could hope for on a 6-inch scale Monster.  I wholeheartedly recommend trying out the line if you’re looking for good Universal Monsters toys.

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.

#2939: The Mummy

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

THE MUMMY

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS MONSTERS (SIDESHOW)

“In 1932, Boris Karloff starred in Universal Studios’ The Mummy.  The story tells of Im-ho-tep, a high priest that is buried alive, locked away in the darkness of a sealed Egyptian tomb.  As the seal breaks open, the towering figure comes to life after 3,700 years.  Fragile bandages rip and tear.  The withered skin is wrinked and grey.  The eyes widen, glowing intensely, remembering a mission unfulfilled, a passion undiminished by time.”

It’s once again Halloween.  How about that?  Halloween typically consumes the whole month of October, but both this year and the last, it hasn’t seemed quite so far-reaching.  I guess it’s hard to get into a mood of horror and fear in a “fun” sense when there’s, you know, everything going on, you know, everywhere.  Still, I do like to at least try to get that spooky mood for at least the one day a year.  So, in that sense, I’m going to be continuing a look into the line I looked at last year, with a focus on a figure from one of my favorite of the Universal Monsters movies, 1932’s The Mummy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Mummy was part of 1998’s inaugural series of Sideshow Toy’s Universal Studios Monsters line.  In a set that included both Frankenstein’s Monster and the Wolf Man, Im-ho-tep was certainly the more minor inclusion, though he’s far from an unknown choice.  Im-ho-tep’s got two major looks in the movie, but this figure goes for his main mummified look from the beginning of the film.  It’s a short-lived look, but it’s also the most classically “mummy” look, so it’s the best visual.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  As I discussed in last year’s review of the Invisible Man, these figures were more plastic statues that just happened to have articulation, and less actual action figures, and Im-ho-tep sticks right to that.  Notably, the right elbow in particular is effectively useless.  He’s really just good for slightly tweaking the pose for the sake of better stability.  Im-ho-tep’s sculpt was an all-new offering (re-used for both his glow-in-the-dark and silver screen editions), and it’s quite an impressive one.  It’s definitely more consistent than the Invisible Man, since the texture work on the bandages continues over the whole body.  He also has a pretty decent likeness of Boris Karloff, which is certainly a plus.  The paint work on the figure is generally pretty strong.  The best work is on the bandages, which have quite a bit of accenting, bringing out the texturing of the sculpt.  The exposed skin’s not quite as well detailed, but it’s still better than just base color work.  The Mummy was packed with a scroll, a sealed chest, and a rather elaborate display stand.  All in all, not a bad selection of extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Last year, when I picked up the Invisible Man figure from this line, which is the one I really wanted out of the bunch, I also picked up two others.  The Mummy was included there.  I wasn’t planning to grab him at first, but his package was messed up, and he wasn’t going to be very expensive.  That, coupled with me being a fan of the movie, made it easy enough to just go ahead and grab him.  He’s not a super playable figure, but he’s a pretty nifty display piece, much like the rest of the line.

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

#2574: Invisible Man

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

INVISIBLE MAN

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS MONSTERS (SIDESHOW)

“Universal Studios created and truly defined the horror film genre beginning in the 1920s.  In 1933, Universal released The Invisible Man, starring Claude Rains.  It was Rains’ unique speaking voice that won him the part and which was vital to portraying a man who, in a great portion of the film, would be invisible to the audience.  The role also assured Rains a place in Universal Studios’ unique and rich history of horror films.

The Invisible Man is the story of a mysterious doctor who, through his relentless experiments, discovers a serum that renders him invisible.  Covered by bandages and dark glasses, it is only his clothing that will reveal his form and presence.

Fleeing to a remote English village, the doctor tries to hide the effects of his serum.  However, the drug that was his ultimate discovery is slowly driving him to the brink of insanity, as he begins his spree of horror.”

It’s Halloween dear readers!  I know, given the general horror abounding in our everyday lives this past year, today is, perhaps, not as hard hitting as prior Halloweens.  But let’s try to be somewhat in the spirit, you guys!  Every Halloween, I like to review something appropriately spooky for the day.  In contrast to 6 of the 7 prior Halloween reviews, I’m not reviewing a Minimates set, though I’m still sticking with the overall Universal Monsters theme I’ve grown so accustomed to.  Sideshow Collectibles was kind of synonymous with Universal Monsters for a solid chunk of the ’00s.  While their main claim to fame for years has been their impressive output of 1/6 scale figures, their initial offerings were actually a little bit on the shorter side.  I’m looking at one of their earliest figures, the Invisible Man, today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Invisible Man was released in 2000 as part of Series 3 of Sideshow’s Universal Studios Monsters line.  Packed alongside the Hunchback and the Metaluna Mutant, the Invisible Man was definitely this assortment’s heavy hitter.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  The Invisible Man has a couple of looks over the course of the film, and this figure opts for the robed appearance.  It’s probably the most distinctive of his looks, and certainly makes for the sharpest looking figure.  The sculpt on this figure was unique to him, as was the case for most of the line.  He, again like the rest of the line, was designed more or less as a plastic statue that happened to have some joints for minor tweaking to the pose, rather than being a more traditional action figure.  The best range is definitely on the neck joint, though the elbow and shoulder joints do have a little bit of flex to them as well.  The mid-leg cut joints are pretty much exclusively for tweaking the balance of the figure to keep him standing, which isn’t too dynamic, but does help keep this guy standing.  Moving past the mobility of the figure, the actual quality on the sculpt is pretty good, if perhaps a touch un-even.  The best work is definitely on the head, which has a ton of texturing and pretty much perfectly recreates the masked appearance as seen in the film.  From the neck down, there’s markedly less texturing work.  It’s still a good recreation of his garb from the film, in a sharp and clean fashion.  It’s fairly striking looking, and honestly works out pretty well, even if the texturing is absent.  Given what he’s wearing, it actually looks pretty solid.  The figure’s paint work is pretty strong work as well.  Again, the head’s the best work, with a believably weathered set of bandages.  The rest of the figure is more basic coloring, but there’s some impressive work on the patterns on the robe and the pants.  As with the rest of the line, there was a “Silver Screen” edition, which did all of the paint work in a grey scale color scheme, matching the actual film presentation.  It’s a little more limited in its application, but it’s still a cool concept.  Regardless of version, the Invisible Man was packed with an unmasked head, three books, and a display stand.  The head’s a fascinating piece, because honestly it’s something that would be far more accurately recreated with just a removable head, but they went to the trouble of sculpting a really impressive Claude Rains likeness and then totally hiding it by leaving it translucent and unpainted.  That’s commitment right there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This line hit right in tandem with my first real stint with the Universal Monster movies, so I was very actively aware of it.  I only ever owned one figure from it, largely due to it being a pretty popular line, and me being an 8 year old without any money or transportation of his own.  I recall seeing this particular figure one time in a Toys R Us, while on a shopping trip with my Nana.  She was always pretty invested on pushing me into more conventional toys, so I ended up leaving the store with two X-Men: Movie figures instead (though, me being me, I went with Jean Grey and Professor X; yes, the girl and the guy in the wheel chair, which still raised some comment from Nana, who was really pushing for Wolverine and Magneto).  That marked the only time I saw this figure in person until earlier this month, when an entire set of this line came into All Time.  I snagged this guy for me right away, and I’m honestly really happy to finally have him.  He’s perhaps not the most action oriented piece, but he’s a really nice display piece.

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

#1840: Creature From the Black Lagoon & The Wolf Man

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

BLACK AND WHITE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON & THE WOLF MAN

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS MINIMATES

It’s Halloween, and I’m desperately trying to avoid opening yet another Halloween review with “Ooooo!  Aaaaah!  Scary!” lest I become some sort of cartoonish caricature of myself.  I have to hold to what little remains of my dignity, right?

On three of the five Halloweens for which I’ve written a review, I’ve focused on Diamond Select Toys’ ill-fated Universal Monsters Minimates.  It was a bold line, certainly well-received by the Minimates fanbase, but unfortunately hurdled by DST’s attempt to keep it a seasonal offering, thereby sentencing it to disappear from the public radar for about eight months out of every year.  Today, I’m setting my sights back on the first of the line’s three-year run, with a double offering of both The Wolf Man and The Creature From The Black Lagoon.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Each year of Universal Monsters Minimates focused on two entries in the Universal Monsters catalogue.  2010, the debut year, chose Universal’s two most prominent in-house properties.  Specialty stores got two boxed sets, one based on each movie, while Toys R Us got an assortment of four two-packs.  Three of the packs were just re-packs of the boxed sets, with the fourth set being the TRU-exclusive re-colors of the main monsters in black and white.  That’s the set I’m looking at today.

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

“The Creature from the Black Lagoon was originally released by Universal pictures in 3D in 1954. Before the days of high definition color movies, the cinematographer and lighting crew had to work much harder to convey emotion and detail in their subjects. This paint variation attempts to pay homage to those past masters.”

I have a confession to make: I’ve never made it all the way through the original Creature movie.  I’ve tried, but it just never grabbed me the same way as the others.  I did, however, love Del Toro’s throw-back to it in The Shape of Water, so maybe I just needed a take with a little bit romancing?  The Gill-Man’s rather distinctive design made him one of the more complicated translations to Minimate form.  He’s built on the usual body, but gets new hands and feet, as well as a head piece and a chest cap.  Its success in capturing the design from the film is kind of mixed.  There’s no denying that a lot of effort was put into these parts, and the detail work is definitely top-notch.  In fact, I’d say the hands, feet, and even the torso cap, do their job pretty well.  The biggest failing, really, is the head piece.  If they were willing to do fully molded pieces, I think the Creature was definitely a design that should have gotten one.  In the movie, its all one slick piece; here it looks like he’s wearing some really goofy headgear.  The paintwork is respectable.  Obviously, it’s monochromatic, but that’s kinda the point.  The subtle detailing of his scales on his arms and legs works surprisingly well, and his face is as decent a rendition as we could have hoped fore.  The one slight drag is how dull the black detail lines are; these sets were produced during one of the worst periods of time for QC on Minimates, and while this pairing mostly escapes unscathed, this is the one lingering sign.

THE WOLF MAN

“The Wolf Man was originally released by Universal pictures in 1941 and was actually the second Wolfman picture they released. Before the days of high definition color movies, the cinematographer and lighting crew had to work much harder to convey emotion and detail in their subjects. This paint variation attempts to pay homage to those past masters.”

Man, there was some serious copy-pasting going on for those bios, wasn’t there?  I guess after writing three bios each for these guys, even DST was at a bit of a loss for words.  I’m more familiar with The Wolf Man than I am Creature.  It’s still not my favorite of the Universal stable, but I can at least appreciate it for what it is, and I do like the main Wolf Man design.  His slightly more humanoid appearance does lend itself slightly better to the Minimate style.  He still gets a unique set of hands and feet, as well as a full-mask cover for his head.  The hands and feet are respectable pieces, and have seen plenty of subsequent re-use. The head-piece…less so.  While they didn’t give Gill-Man his own head, Larry Talbot apparently warranted one, despite the fact that a hair-piece seems it would be far more appropriate here, since there’s a clear distinction between hair and face.  What’s more, the choice of a slip-cover mask instead of a fully-sculpted head is another baffling one, as none of the three versions of the Wolf Man available has anything but a blank head beneath it.  So many questions, and no real answers.  The paintwork on Larry is okay for the most part.  The details on the body look fine enough, though that shirt seems a fair bit on the light side for what we see on-screen.  The face/hair also doesn’t feel quite right; a number of people have commented that he gives off more of a Teen Wolf-vibe than a Wolf Man one.  He’s packed with Larry’s wolf-headed cane, and while I’m hardly one to complain about extra pieces, I’m not certain what he’s supposed to do with it without any sort of alternate Larry pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was excited by the prospect of Universal Monsters Minimates when they were first shown off, but I’ll admit that after waiting the better part of a year for the actual product, and then finding out that the first two offerings were both films lower on my list of wants, my general interest cooled a bit.  It didn’t help that both boxed sets included unnecessary variants of the main monsters, and the civilians weren’t much to write home about.  So, I ultimately only picked up this one set, as it allowed me the opportunity to get the main monsters without any of the excess.  Neither of these two is really winning material.  The sets that followed definitely out-paced these greatly, but I think the line as a whole was always kind of stunted by the soft opening assortment and the long wait to see if anything better came of it.

#1470: Frankenstein’s Monster

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

FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER

UNIVERSAL MONSTERS REACTION FIGURES (FUNKO)

Oooooooooooo!  Spoooooky!  Scaaaaaaarry!  Is that good?  Have I conveyed enough of the Halloween spirit?  No?  Well, fair enough.  How about I review something a little bit Halloween-y, then, shall I?  Now, I know I usually review some slightly spooky Minimates around this time of year, but this year I’ve decided to be a little different.  I’m still sticking with the general Universal Monsters theme I like oh so much, but this time I’m setting my sights on one of Funko’s ReAction Figures, specifically Frankenstein’s Monster!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Frankenstein’s Monster was one of the four figures in the first series of Universal Monsters ReAction Figures, which hit in late 2014, just in time for the Halloween season.  Good ol’ Frankie  looks to be most closely based on his appearance from the first Frankenstein film, albeit a colorized version of what we see on the screen.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall (he was amongst the tallest of the set) and he has 5 points of articulation.  Lack of articulation is generally pretty restrictive for most characters, but for Frankenstein’s Monster, it’s actually not bad, since it’s enough to get all of his usual poses done.  The sculpt is actually pretty decent.  I found the Universal Monsters to be when Funko really started to come into their own with the ReAction style.  It helps that this sort of property more generally lends itself to this style of figure, resulting in figures that are a bit more genuine looking than, say, Firefly ReAction Figures.  Frankie still has some of the tell-tale signs of an early ReAction Figure, notably the slightly flatter torso, but it’s far less noticeable on him, since he’s supposed to be stiff and squared off to begin with.  The detail work could possibly stand to be a little sharper, especially on the head, but there’s still a lot of solid work, and he certainly doesn’t look unfinished or anything.  In terms of paint, this guy’s a little on the dull side, but that’s to be expected.  He is based on a black and white film, after all.  He follows Sideshow’s model for the basic color scheme, with a green jacket a greenish-grey skin.  The different color to the jacket helps to add a little bit more diversity to the palette, which is definitely for the best.  The Monster included no accessories, which is a little sad, but also excusable.  There’s not a ton you can give him, really.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When the ReAction stuff first started hitting, I fully intended to get a bunch of it.  And then I bought a handful of it, and thought better of investing too much of my time in the line.  Not that I hated any of the figures I bought, but the line was certainly flawed.  So, I mostly missed the Monsters line.  I bought this guy from Ollie’s just earlier this year, because, in addition to their usual lowered prices, they were also offering an additional 50% off all toys, meaning Frankie was $1.50.  That was enough to make me dig through the rack to find a figure still actually attached to his blister card and buy him.  He’s a good figure.  Not a great figure, but a good one.  He shows what the line should have focused on, in contrast to the plethora of modern properties it ultimately did focus on.