This figure looks
so cool!And it is
so tempting!Tempting, because it takes me back to those years when I was in third or fourth grade, staying up late on weekends to watch "Creature Feature" and "House of Fear" on television, and seeing all the classic Universal Studios horror movies for the first time.
It is difficult to convey what it was like having to
wait to see movies, in those pre-VCR and pre-DVD and pre-streaming days, movies that you got tantalizing glimpses of in books and magazines but had no way to actually
see unless they turned up on television.
Oh, and there weren't a hundred channels back then, either. There were, like, three. Maybe four. Then something called "cable" arrived, with
twelve channels! One of which was KTVU-TV from Oakland, California, offering up Bob Wilkins and
Creature Features on the weekend!
Ah, the magazines!
Famous Monsters of Filmland! Uncle Forry regaling us with tales and black and white still photos from the Golden Age of horror and science fiction movies, the 1930s to the 1950s, movies we
desperately wanted to see... but couldn't! We had to wait, scanning the TV Guide every week, looking for Saturday afternoon movies, Sunday afternoon movies, and weekend late-night movies, hoping to see the title of one of those movies we'd only heard about or read about.
And which was the coolest, scariest looking monster of them all from all of those movies we read about and talked about and dreamed about long before we ever saw them? The "gill man" from
The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Who remembers the Aurora Plastics Company monster model kits? My friend Rick had The Creature, and I was
so envious! Because...
The Creature from the Black Lagoon! 'Nuff said!
Seeing this release - ten minutes ago I didn't even know this thing existed. Now I
want it! I want it bad! Because... because... because it might make me feel nine years old again. A time when the world was exciting and the future held promise.
I actually watched
Creature fairly recently. I must admit, somewhat sheepishly, that my appreciation for the movie has
evolved somewhat in the decades since I was nine years old. In the recent viewing, I had a difficult time shifting my gaze from the stunning Julie Adams. Back in the day, she was just "the girl" to scream and get carted away by the monster. Today... my appreciation for "the girl" has matured.
Nevertheless... I am coveting The Creech! But... with taxes and shipping, that's two hundred dollars -
two hundred dollars - for... what? A plastic toy monster that will stand there and look cool... if "cool" is being defined by a nine year old nerdy kid.
Which I freely admit to still being, for the most part; although with a more
sophisticated appreciation for Julie Adams.
If I were to invest... I'm kidding myself, I'd be
spending... in one of these figures, I'd find myself wanting a Richard Carlson figure to go with it.
Richard
who? Richard Carlson, the guy in the movie. You've got The Creature and Julie vying for top eye-candy spot, and then you've got the actual star of the movie, Richard Carlson, who starred or co-starred in all kinds of outstanding motion pictures:
The Magnetic Monster,
It Came from Outer Space,
The Valley of Gwangi. And does anybody remember seeing the old
Bell Science films in school, featuring Dr. Frank C. Baxter? Richard Carlson was in a couple of those.
Is it worth buying a two-hunnert buck Creech fig to time-travel back to 3rd and 4th grade... when I also dreamed of being a WWI flying ace or a submarine captain or a paleontologist (none of which happened)? Would it
work as a figurative, if not literal, time-travel device? Would looking at the creature posed in a simple styrofoam diorama (I'm already getting ideas) "spark joy"?
Of course, if I'm going to get all "Marie Kondo," would that "joy" actually be a sign of an unhealthy connection to the past rather than true joy?
'Kay, this is getting too complicated, even without factoring in the as-yet unproduced (to the best of my knowledge) Richard Carlson action figure.
Anyway... I'm delighted to see this review and the superb photos of
The Creature from the Black Lagoon figure. I'm kind of wishing I had not blown my hobby budget on a couple of other figures recently and had gone for this one instead, but until a few minutes ago, I did not know this one existed. Maybe I was better off not knowing it existed.
Perhaps I should try to content myself with my Monster High Lagoona Blue fig.
Or...
how cool would it be to have Lagoona's dad!Arright... what can I sell fast on eBay to raise some funds... before these Creature figs sell out?
As always, thank you, Michael, for the review. 
