Review of Creature from the Black Lagoon
Action Figure

Introduction

Since NECA announced they were picking up the Universal Monsters characters in their 7" action figure line, I have been anticipating one in particular. While I'm a huge fan of the entire stable of characters, having spent my childhood watching them every Saturday afternoon on Sir Graves Ghastly, there was one that has always been at the top of the pack - the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

It isn't because this was the best film they produced. Frankenstein was far superior, and Dracula was a better overall movie as well. But CFTBL had something they did not - one of the top three best 'man in a rubber suit' creature designs of all time.

The suit was designed by Milicent Patrick, an animator for Disney who also created the terrific Metaluna Mutant and Moleman. She was fired from her role as a designer by Bud Westmore after the Creature started to gain notoriety, because he had taken sole credit for the Creature design and wanted to keep it that way.

As is the norm with this series, I assmue there is both a color and black and white version. I'm looking at the color tonight, as I've usually (though not exclusively) stuck with the color versions. I also haven't seen the black and white yet anywhere. There was also a Glow in the Dark release, put out as a SDCC exclusive.

Expect to pay around $38, depending on the retailer.

Packaging - ***1/2
The box sports some great poster themed graphics, right from the original film. Like the rest of the series, this fifth panel box gives you a good look at the figure and accessories inside, and is very sturdy and damage resistant. It's also fairly collector friendly, although I did have to snip a handful of twist ties, pulling down my score a smidge.

Sculpting - ****
This sculpt, combined with the excellent articulation, makes this figure my favorite Creature ever produced. Considering how many I own, that's quite a high bar.

There are three head sculpts to choose from. He comes wearing a slightly open mouth (he was always a mouth breather), but you can switch that to an open mouth expression, or a wide open mouth expression. Hey, he wasn't the most expressive guy - most fish aren't - but by going with three very distinct mouth poses, they created three very different looks. The mouth pose also translates to a slightly different look with the gills. The wider the mouth, the angrier the expression, the more flared the gills are.

There's a ton of detail on the texture of the skin and scales. You can tell this is the costume worn by Ben Chapman for the land scenes, because he was much larger than Rico Browning (who did the underwater scenes), and required three plates across the chest, rather than two.

He stands about 8 inches tall, and fits in nicely with the rest of their Universal Monsters line up.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint application is excellent, from the small details around the eyes to the broader wash on the body that brings out the sculpting details.

I will say that it's slightly too dark for my tastes. Of course, the original release was in black and white, so any color is going to be a judgement call. The actual suit was a color IRL, but with black and white films that color was often dictated by what looked good when converted to gray scale, not necessarily what looked 'realistic'. This is actually pretty realistic, putting a lot of the 'frog' in 'frogman', but it is darker than he looks in my own mind's eye. Your mileage will clearly vary.

And since the quality of the paint work is so high, I doubt any variation from the color you expect him to be will detract in any way from your enjoyment of this release.

Articulation - ****
What really surprised me was the articulation. There have been lots and lots and lots of gillman action figures over the years - tomorrow I'm going to do my top ten video at the youtube channel for the CIOPCC - but none have managed to incorporate useful articulation this well into the figure, and maintain such a high quality sculpt.

There's a ball jointed neck, and you can get tons of personality in every pose. The shoulders are rotating hinge, well hidden but with a good range of movement, and the elbows are rotating hinge and doubled up! Yep, there's two joints at the elbow to provide a ton of range, yet they are well hidden under the various scales. The wrists are the usual rotating hinge joints, and the hands swap easily.

The hips are ball joints, with the same doubled up joints for the knees that we saw at the elbows, and the ankles have good rocker or side to side movement, allowing for the big feet to be flat on the ground in shallow to medium stances.

Finally, there's not one but two torso joints that give you a lot of lean and tilt in every direction. While you will notice it in the sculpt of course, you can use these to break up the stiff straight lines in the torso and make poses more natural looking.

Accessories - ***1/2
He doesn't come with a ton of extras outside the heads, but those additional two portraits really boost this score. I already raved about the quality, but it's worth noting that they swap easily as well, and stay in place while posing.

The same can be said of the various hands. They give you six more hands to go with the two he comes wearing, each sculpted in a slightly different pose. While the differences might seem minor, they can make a very big difference in the look of any overall figure pose.

I do wish we'd gotten either a spear gun, net, or the fossilized hand. The net would have been particularly useful with some of these hand sculpts, with him breaking free of its confines.

Fun Factor - ****
You're going to have a ton of fun posing this guy, thanks to the excellent articulation. Swapping in different heads and hands with a certain pose will also provide hours of fun, as you look for the perfect combination of the three for your display.

Value - **1/2
This guy is the same price as most of the current Ultimate figures from NECA, running in that $35 - $40 range depending on the retailer. Regular readers know that a score here of **1/2 means an average, expected value, and hence does not either raise or lower my personal overall. You're getting what you're paying for with an average market price.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing - everything about this guy is solid and sturdy, and I had no worries when swapping hands or heads.

Overall - ****
I've been anticipating the release of this figure for so long now, that it could have been easy to be disappointed. Thankfully, I was not, and this NECA version takes my top spot for the best Creature action figure produced so far, in any scale. Yep, it even bests the Mondo and Sideshow sixth scale figures, at least for me.

I'm really hoping we see NECA continue this line past the obvious releases, and give us more early monsters like DST and Sideshow did. I'd love a new Metaluna Mutant, Moleman, Fly, Hunchback, and others, and perhaps a few that we never got in the earlier series, like a Clive Dr. Frankenstein. I'm still waiting on my Phantom of the Opera, and we know we're getting another Frankie and Nosferatu, but that can't be the end!

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **1/2
Overall - ****

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has him for $35. He's still a pre-order, but once he's in stock you can use my link and get an additional 10% off, plus free shipping!

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Other Creature reviews include the Creature from Mondo, the Sideshow 12" version, Mezco's version, and the better DST version.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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