"When you think McFarlane, thinks Monsters" says the insert on the McFarlane Monsters action figures in 2002 and the responsible for that is actually the playset line of McFarlane Monsters from the late 90s. It was such a unique and spectacular idea, specially with the father of Spawn twisting the characters at his own style. It had some boring results (like the Mummy and the two Frankenstein) but most of the time his playset were stellar.
And one of the best was serires 2 Sea Creature, the reimagining of the Creature From the Black Lagoon. The titular creature is one of the biggest figures, like the Werewolf, he is hunched but still heavyer and bigger than Dracula or the Mummy (tough he is still the size of a Funko Pop). The big fins at the sides of the legs and arms as well as the back and the long limbs make it less human and more fish than the traditional Gillman. Also with the face and yellow tone he almost looks like a dragon.
The sculpt is really fantastic since it not only show all the muscles of the creature but the scales with a different variety of size and shape in the rigth part of the body. For a fantastic creature, its pretty accurate to reality and the paint helps him looks pretty natural and distant from the Universal original design. He can stand on his own and is artiulated on the head, legs and ball joints on the shoulders and chest wich gives him a pretty high range of movement.
His companion is a nameless human on a 19th century diving suit. His anatomy si as childish as Richard from the Wolfman - with a short torso and chuby legs and arms - typical from kids toys back then. His suit is grey with some black sections and his face is as generic as it can be: a bald man with a red mustache.
He comes with a small nife to fight the huge monster and a result, he also comes with an extra damaged arm with a bite on it. Change the arms is really easy and the blood and damaged muscle looks really good tough the arm can also bi displayed as another victims remains on the Creature claws, maybe the friend of the diver? He also comes with a big golden old looking helmeth that fover his head perfectly. I admit i prefer to display him with the helmeth on since theres nothing likeable into this tiny man.
The playset consist on the lagoon´s bottom, a piece of sand with bones, wood and even golden coins. The sculpt and paint are kinda on the childish side but is a good base. Next there is 3 thick posts that made me think this place is close to a harbor, and this are used as columns to sopport the water.
The water is a piece of green transluscent plastic with bubbles to indicate the presence of something under it. Its pretty cleaver since this water effect looks fantastic from the bottom of the playset and the top and would be even better with a light in the rigth spot.
There is also an ancient looking boat (is evident this set time period is not modern) that is cut in half, with some wood drevins floating around to stand the characters on them, the boat also have a rotating wheel as well as an harpon gun. The gun is articulated and can be moved to any side and upand down and includes a shooting spear. Since there was a lot of complaigns about kids eyes duffering with the missils of theyr toys weapons, the spear is made in very softish plastic (that could still damage any eye anyway).
The paint of the boat and the wood columns is really good, to the point that the bottom half that is under water is painted in a darker grey tone. The details on this set are really fantastic and a huge inprovement over the Mummy. It also have a better visual language since is pretty obvious the Sea Creature and the diver are not friends but still they complement each other nicelly and can take his battle under water or in top, on the boat.
Despite some childish details, like soft material or the lack of deep details on the bottoms lake, this is one of the gems from the begining of McFarlane and why of the reasons why the brand reached such legendary place on the industry.
