Height: 3 7/8ths inches
Articulation: None
Accessories: 2 piece metal "soda" can and a "POG shaped collector card."
Edition Size: 15,000 (with 1 in 6 figures being a metallic variant)
Year of Release: 2023
Original Retail Price: $15 dollars
The Positives:
* This is a pretty cool take on the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I love the stylized look of these figures as they're still fairly accurate to the characters in design and proportions, but they look like breakfast cereal mascot versions of them. If Creature from the Black Lagoon cereal had existed in the 1960s or 1970s, this guy would be on the box proclaiming it turned your milk black. It's a breakfast lagoon of little cereal nets and claws! A murky part of your complete breakfast! The colors are really fantastic here as the Gill-man even has a mottled texture on his body. It's a fantastic sculpt with excellent paintwork.
* The likeness is pretty good, too. You could easily pick this guy out of a lineup. Yes sir, that's Gill-man right there! The back eyes on these guys are much more fitting with the figures than the POP! eyes. His head proportions are quite good (something that not every Creature figure gets right) and there's plenty of detail on his scaly skin.
* Here's a closeup to show off his clawed feet, his webbed hands, and his scaly body. He's seriously really well done. I would have loved to have seen more of the Universal crew in this line, but all we really got was Frankenstein and the Gill-Man.
* Here's a shot from the back to show off more of the Creature's spooky scales. What a design, huh? I've just recently re-watched The Creature from the Black Lagoon and watched Revenge of the Creature for the first time and I'm still impressed by how realistic the character feels. A fantastic costume with great movement from Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning (the men behind the mask) definitely elevated this movie, making it far more impactful than most other 1950s creature films.
* The trademark of this line was that each figure came package in a very nice metal soda can. The can was a real quality piece that was a neat collectible on its own. Far sturdier than a standard aluminum can, the top of the can popped off so you could remove the figure and then pop it back on for display. You get a cool image of the Creature with a fitting color scheme. What would Creature from the Black Lagoon soda taste like? Probably something like Mountain Dew but maybe with even more bite, like a Sundrop. Definitely colored more like Surge though.
* Inside the can is a round, sturdy cardboard disc that is kind of like a POG, though a bit larger. On the front is the Gill-man, perhaps the last truly great Universal classic monster (Metaluna Mutant is a cool design but he just doesn't get a lot of time to show his personality and really endear himself to the public, whereas the Creature could host a late night show with subtitles and be a smash hit.
This is a Great stylized version of the Creature that's just a lot of fun. I'm definitely of the opinion that the can is almost as fun to display as the figure and they pair very nicely. I rarely like the look of packaged items on display and this line gave you the ability to display a cool minifigure separately from the packaging with both still looking impressive. The Gill-Man is one of the nicest Vinyl SODA figures Funko released and it's a shame they never got to do any more other than Dracula. I didn't think this line handled chases poorly as you at least knew the figure you were getting but apparently it was one of the reasons the line became unsustainable for Funko. That's a shame as I'd love to see these pop up again.
Looking for more of the Creature from the Black Lagoon/ Gillman or other Sea Creatures inspired by him? I've reviewed plenty of other Gill-Man-like creatures including the NECA Crypt Club 4-Pack w/ the "Scaly and Scary" Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Funko ReAction Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Glow-in-the-Dark Costume Colors) and Creature from the Black Lagoon "Monsters of the Silver Screen" edition from Super7's ReAction series, the Diamond Select Creature from the Black Lagoon, Wavecrawler from Hasbro's Kre-O line, the Imaginext Gillman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon from Monster Force, the Gill-Man from the Big Bucket of Monsters, Leonardo as the Creature from the Black Lagoon from NECA, the Sea Creature from Mezco's Tower of Fear, and the Swamp Creature from Lego Monster Fighters.
* This is a pretty cool take on the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I love the stylized look of these figures as they're still fairly accurate to the characters in design and proportions, but they look like breakfast cereal mascot versions of them. If Creature from the Black Lagoon cereal had existed in the 1960s or 1970s, this guy would be on the box proclaiming it turned your milk black. It's a breakfast lagoon of little cereal nets and claws! A murky part of your complete breakfast! The colors are really fantastic here as the Gill-man even has a mottled texture on his body. It's a fantastic sculpt with excellent paintwork.
* The trademark of this line was that each figure came package in a very nice metal soda can. The can was a real quality piece that was a neat collectible on its own. Far sturdier than a standard aluminum can, the top of the can popped off so you could remove the figure and then pop it back on for display. You get a cool image of the Creature with a fitting color scheme. What would Creature from the Black Lagoon soda taste like? Probably something like Mountain Dew but maybe with even more bite, like a Sundrop. Definitely colored more like Surge though.
* Inside the can is a round, sturdy cardboard disc that is kind of like a POG, though a bit larger. On the front is the Gill-man, perhaps the last truly great Universal classic monster (Metaluna Mutant is a cool design but he just doesn't get a lot of time to show his personality and really endear himself to the public, whereas the Creature could host a late night show with subtitles and be a smash hit.
Looking for more of the Creature from the Black Lagoon/ Gillman or other Sea Creatures inspired by him? I've reviewed plenty of other Gill-Man-like creatures including the NECA Crypt Club 4-Pack w/ the "Scaly and Scary" Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Funko ReAction Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Creature from the Black Lagoon (Glow-in-the-Dark Costume Colors) and Creature from the Black Lagoon "Monsters of the Silver Screen" edition from Super7's ReAction series, the Diamond Select Creature from the Black Lagoon, Wavecrawler from Hasbro's Kre-O line, the Imaginext Gillman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon from Monster Force, the Gill-Man from the Big Bucket of Monsters, Leonardo as the Creature from the Black Lagoon from NECA, the Sea Creature from Mezco's Tower of Fear, and the Swamp Creature from Lego Monster Fighters.
For more Vinyl SODA reviews check out the following:
Just saw Creature from the Black Lagoon the 1st time this season! So much fun!
ReplyDeleteIt really is a fun film and is one of the top tier Universal Horror films. Revenge of the Creature is pretty good, too.
DeleteAlways my favorite horror character, but don't think I ever saw the original movie. May have to remedy that soon.
ReplyDeleteI think the first one holds up very, very well. I like the Revenge of the Creature, too. I haven't seen the Creature Walks Among Us yet but as I'm making my way through all of the Universal Classic Horror era films in order (just watched 1955's This Island Earth and am getting ready to watch 1955's Tarantula) and I'm almost to it.
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