CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

 While many movies manage to get succes and recognition in the box office and with public, VERY FEW manage to be relevant and influential for 60-90 years like the original horror cycle from Universal did by building a universe that flourished around gothic horror and burn itself on the memories of many generations; Dracula, the Monster of Frankenstein and his Bride, the Phantom of the Opera have been present in one way or another for close to 100 years and they been very present on toys as well.

The amount of toys based on the Universal Monsters is really astonishing, tough it wasnt untill 1999 when Sideshow created figures 100% accurate to the characters and with the higest quality in action figure form, 12" figures and premium format statues. I been in love of this serires for a long time already and almost - almost - completed with one exception: The Creature From the Black Lagoon is like the jewel of the crown, not only is super rare, but its ultra expensive too and escape from my hands 3 times already.

To be honest i was ready to give up on getting him until a few months ago, when Mondo released theyr own version of the Creature in 12" scale. Sadly, it seems this is a stand alone release and i was skeptical, i had my doubts....was this a good substitute to the Sideshow Creature? I finally give up and got him tough he is now one of the most expensive pieces in my collection, this guy wasnt cheap at all but the quality is astonishing.

First of all, is limited to 2400 pieces around the world and this is number 63 (that explains the crazy price a little bit ) and the box itself is a piece of art. Is thick, sturdy, full of green tones and with a beautifull and amazing painting on the cover of the Creature coming out from the water with the title on the back, painted by the amazing artists Jason Edmiston . Every single detail, even the title, ooze 50s horror aesthetic with a black and white shot of the swamp inside the box and the figure surrounded by an old cinema teather display. The Sideshow version had the original poster of the movie with the credits on the inside, i loved that box style, but i love this one too, is very different but extremelly classy and consistent with the character.

The Creature is huge, 12" 1/2 actually but he was extremelly tall on the movie was well and towered over Julie Adams soo the scale is perfect. He can stand on his own perfectly with those two huge feet but the articulations are also strong enough to keep with his weigth.

The sculpt, by Mathew Black,  is just perfect. I think you cant have a more perfect recreation of the character than this: the shape of his head, position of his eyes, wrinkles around his face, the gills, the mouth size and shape,  they nailed everything including every single scale on his body divided in different plates. Every scale follow a pattern soo theres a natural flow on them, like the body of a real reptile, there is a didference of size and chape depedning on the place of the plate and scale.

He is articuated on the neck, whoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, stomach, waist, legs, knes and ankles, every section have a ball joint and an amazing engineering (by Tommy Hodges)  build in exclusive for the Creature: each articulation is perfectly hidden by the plates and scales while keeping the freedom of movement. He have an extra soft plastic piece under the head to hide completelly the neck articulation and the same happends on the ankles and elbows. In the eblbows the plate surroinding them is made with soft plastic and can be rotated around the arm to hide the ball joint from every angle.

The Sideshow version had an articulated skeleton with a rubber suit on top soo the articulations are totally invisible, but the rubber suit dint let him bend his elbows and knes too much. Wath Mondo did here is totally different, noo suit at all but managed to maximize both movement and aesthetic.

The paint is amazing too, made by Anthony Mestas, Mike Pflaumer and Hector Arce. Instead of doing the radioactive green with yellow stomach and red lips way, they decided to give it a much more natural look. A soft green to camouflage with nature, or should i say, soft greens since there is a lot of different tones in here, darker green in every single crevise and around every scale, wish is not small feat since there is a lot of scales in here and no sloppynes or mistakes with the paint.

The lips have a soft pink but my favorite part are the eyes. The eyes are golden and have this...viscuos appearance only eye fish have, they even reflect light.

He have more accesoryes than the Sideshow version tough compared to other figures he is lacking, i mean, theres not a whole lot of items to add here since he dosnt use any instrument in the movie. He comes of course with the fossil hand that ignites the entire movie, seiding the scientific group to scout the Black Lagoon in search of more bones. The hand is really pretty, have a sharp sculpt and the paint make it looks like bone.

His other accesry is a screaming face, with an open mouth you can see his tongue and is perfect for an attack pose, tough not much different beyond that, the Creature is not specially expressive. He also comes with a third underwater head: Waths the diffeence? The gills on the neck are cosed as well as his eyes and this have an explanation: when underwater, the actor used googles under the Creature mask and they can be seen briefelly in some scenes. Is really outstanding how Mondo pay attention to such detail.

The other accesorys are swiming hands and swiminf feet. The hands have his fingers slightly open soo the cups his hand forms are bigger. The feet are sculpted like flippers, flowing with wather and titled back for an aerodynamic position and of course, is imposible for him to stand with this feet, tough just like the hands and heads, is pretty easy to swap them.

Lastly there is a base. The base have a pretty weird shape and is just baclk, with a post and a metteral rod that enter in between the Creature´s legs. Not only the base is unnecesary, but it clash with the Creature look and looks out of place, its simplicity betrays the rest of the package. Why not give him a diorama with plants or rocks? Also, under the base there this strange carving with a big "M", i asume this is Mondo´s signature, but why carving itunder the base where no one will see it?

Also, the swiming feet, hands and head....the base dosnt help anything for any swimig position at all, i managed to balance the creature on the metal rod but is evident this will not last. Why make a "swiming" figure without a stand for him???

Aside of some small issues, like the ugly base and the fact his legs cannot move backwards thanks to the fins on the back, this figure is really perfect. The quality is really really high even on its packaging and still, is soo different to the Sideshow version i am not sure is fair to call this a replacement of that first figure, but he deffinelty looks perfect with the rest of the Monsters and other modern figures like Hot Toys or Three Zero.

I am very happy toy companys are still working with thsi characters even after such a long time and specially, with Halloween soo close. I just wish Mondo take the lisence again.

DEMITRI MAXIMOFF

Some brands really knows how to stand out by giving to the fans wath they always wated, like McFarlane introducing the figures of horror movies to a hungry market or NECA and Sideshow with Gargoyles or Predator and Storm Collectibles is deffinetly leaving a big mark behind, first for theyr great quality figures of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and also for giving us figures of classic games that didnt had any kind of merchadise in the last 20 years. 

Street of Rage, Tekken, Samurai Shodown, Golden Axe and in this case, Darkstalkers. Toybiz take care of the Darkstalkers back at the end of the last century producing a bunch of characters in a very descent quality. SOTA would try a few years later but despite producing really good looking base models, they cancelled the series. Now more than a decade later Storm have the brand and IS ACTUALLY making the figures.

I would lie if i say i wasnt crazy hyaped by this and it took five extra months to the first figure to arrive to my hands, the Prince of Darkness Demitri Maximoff. He is big, much bigger than Ryu and a little taller than the Street Fighter or King of Fighter characters soo he is really tall and heavy, perfect for him. He can stand n his own perfectly tough a base wuold have been extremelly helpfull for his lvitation poses but since he dosnt fight on the streets, he dosnt have the luxury of a base.

Just like all other Storm figures, he is articulated on the head, neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, chest, waist, legs, knes, ankles and half foot and given his design, nothing get in the way of the articulations, he have full freedom of movement to tilt his head and torax to any direction tough he cant rotate his legs, wich is odd since that limit his lower half a little bit, he cant join his legs for example. Despite that detail, all articulations work perfect and are pretty strong and sturdy.

The entire cast of Darkstalkers is much more closer to cartoon style than reality, given how they can distor theyr entire body like a Tex Avery cartoon and on illustrations the anatomi of each character is really off, for example Dimitri have a tiny head and HUGE hands, feet and an extremelly thin waist. This is all part of Capcom trademark style, wath make theyr characters stand out. But wath looks good on 2D, dont always does it on 3D.

Storm redesigned Dimitri to keep his huge frame but in a more realistic way, adjusted size but keep the volume soo he can fit perfectly with all the other figures from Tekken or Mortal Kombat, he looks huge but with good proportions, really good goood proportions i say since his costume dosnt hide any detail of his musculature soo this is the only figure to sport such perfect and impresive legs and chest.

the face sculpt is really good, with his chiseled face features that almost looks like sculpted on rock. His "Vegeta" like hair style have mre detail than we seen on the illustrations and i love the velvet texture on his entire body, it feels almost like peach. The inner red shirt and outer jacket are made with soft plastic soo the texture is really nice and dosnt block any of the articulation. But the best detail on the sculpt is deffinetly the handkerchief and poofy cuffs.

The cape is made with the same nice soft plastic and flows nicelly tough i got the feeling is kind of short....i wish it was longer and i wish it could me posed with a wire or something but real clothe cape woul look kinda odd on this scale soo this plastic cape just fall behind him but looks really integral to the sculpt.

The paint is minimum like always, all the pieces are cast on the dominant color of that section soo the color is really consistent all over the piece and the paint is aplied just in some small details, like the buttons on the sides of his pants, the red side of his cape, the cuffs, his hair and eyes and each section is painted perfectly. I specially love his eyes since they looks like shiny red jewels.

My only compalign here is the tone of his body suit, i always expecte something darker, like navy blue, but insted is a gray/blue color.

His accesorys consist on a bunch of extra hands with different gestures, 3 pairs to be exact aside of the closed fist and are really expresive. The hands can be exchanged pretty easy and the puffy cuffs dosnt get in the way (unlike Ryu´s). The other accesorys are a pair of extra heads that can be exchanged perfectly easy as well. One head have a sigtly open mouth showing his fangs and anothe one a huge smile.

The fierce looking is good for battle poses, but the best one is the smile, is really terrifying and monstruos and the inside paint and piranha fangs looks terrific. This is soo different to any other fight game character.

Then there is the effects and he have two: both for the same attack Chaors Flare. The Chaos Flare is a big yellow and orange fireball with not much detailing. Is big but completelly hollow and kind of soft but the transluscent effect is really nice and once you attach it to the base Dimitri can shot it from his hands.

The Chaors Flare DS3 version have the shape of a bat. The sculpt os really nice and the wing span is big. With no paint at all, the bat s cast on transluscent yellow and orange plastic and use the same base as the other Chaos Flare version. The base arm can be extended to adjuts the height of both effects.

An the last item is Demitris scenario, the Feast of the Damned. The impression is of very high quality and despite being really pixelated, it highlights the amazing artistry of Capcom with pixel art since every single character in the Feast stands out. My only complaing is that the backgrounds fall s alittle short compared to Demitry heigth.

I wish his legs have an extra articulation and his body suit was darker, i wish his cape was a little bit longer but despite those small issues, this figure is really amazing and deffinetly one of my favorites of Storm along Haohmaru. The wait was soo long to finally have Darkstalkers figures and Morrigan will come next to form the evil pairing. I just WISH Storm dosnt stop there and gives us more characters since a collection with this level of quality would be hard to belive.