Mondo's Creature From The Black Lagoon Figure Is Up To The Gills In Creepy [Exclusive]
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Nothing says Halloween like the classic Universal Monsters, of which the Gill-man from 1954's "Creature From the Black Lagoon" was the final addition to the team, so to speak. Now the fine folks at Mondo have provided us with an a chance to unbox their incredible Creature from the Black Lagoon sixth-scale action figure which came out earlier this year. See what lurks below the bubbly surface of the Amazon river below...
Art Box
The gorgeous artwork on here hails from Jason Edmiston, who has done his fair share of creature feature artwork over the years. The back shows off some of the different poses.
Art Box Window Display
The box also comes with a great fold out window display, along with a green-tinted background perfect for photographing your new Gill-man in front of. Manufactured out of PVC, the piece stands 12-inches tall and features 16 points of articulation.
Accessories
The accessories include two switch-out heads, two alternate swimming feet with an extended "thumb," two swimming hands, and a base stand.
Switch-Out Heads
The switch-out heads in particular are great, as they show off Milicent Patrick's exquisite make-up designs from the film, which later inspired Guillermo del Toro's "The Shape of Water." It's particularly cool that they included the alternate head with the goggle eyes worn by stuntman Ricou Browning for the underwater sequences.
Incidentally, if you want a great read check out author Mallory O'Meara's "The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick" for some great info about the controversy behind this design.
Reverse View and Details
Here are some close-up details of the feet and torso where you can see the joints and points of articulation. You also get a detailed view of the backside of the Gill-man, which features his spiny fins all in movie-accurate form to the costume worn by 6-foot-5-inch actor Ben Chapman.
Poses
Check out some of the poses you can do with this figure, which actually goes to great pains to integrate the points of articulation seamlessly into the design so it presents as more statue-like than toyetic.
Swimming Pose
Another fun option is to pose the Gill-man horizontally on your shelf so he is swimming. This is where a figure like this has unique opportunities for presentation you don't normally get from other monster figures.
Silver Screen Variant
Unfortunately, the Collector's Edition in color we presented you with is sold out on the Mondo website, but you can get on the waitlist over at distributor Sideshow Collectibles where it retails for $175 dollars. Otherwise, you can still order the Silver Screen Variant pictured above which offers a black-and-white alternative that is just as rad as the color version. This would make the perfect Halloween season gift to the classic horror fan in your life, and retails for $185.
Be sure to check out our previous unboxing of Mondo's premium format Godzilla '89 statue!