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Friday 9 August 2019

The Munsters - Uncle Gilbert Action Figure by Diamond Select Toys

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I've always loved The Munsters and The Addams Family, ever since I was little, now I'm an adult, I don't laugh as much at the jokes and situations as I used to but there is something weirdly wholesome and sweet about they way both those families just accept anyone, no matter how weird they look except "normal looking folks" that is, except of course for Poor Marilyn Munster, who seems to have been brushed with the ugly stick by the family's standards!

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One of my Favourite character's from The Munsters is Uncle Gilbert, played by Richard Hale, who only appears in one episode, "Love Comes to Mockingbird Heights" and only for a few minutes at the end.

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In the episode, poor unlucky in love Marilyn gets taken in by an opportunistic Bank Clerk who wants to get close to her to get even closer to the crate full of Gold Doubloons  Uncle Gilbert sends to the family to look after for him until he arrives.

Being The Creature from The Black Lagoon, he has collected this huge treasure (a total of $180,000) which he got from savaging shipwrecks etc

Lily doesn't feel good having that much money in the house and so decides it's safer to deposit it in the bank while they await Uncle Gilbert's arrival, and it is there that Marilyn meets a young gold digging bank clerk who takes an interest in her and more especially,  Uncle Gilbert's treasure.

That said it will come as no surprise that I was really pleased to discover that Diamond Select Toys produced a range of four Munsters action figures which included Uncle Gilbert as part of the range.

This was back in 2013 as you can see from the above picture which was a preview photo from the Diamond Toy Fair of that year, that the other three figures in this series were Hot Rod Herman, Race Way Lily, Hot Rod Grampa and of course Uncle Gilbert.

While I found it weird that they included Uncle Gilbert in this set as the theme was obviously The Munsters Hot Rod episode from 27th May 1965, but Love comes to Mockingbird Lane was aired on 22nd April 1965 and has nothing to do with Herman's stint as a Road Racer, I am very glad they released him as part of the set, I would just love to know why!


Anyway, I guess You want to see the figure itself now, so here he is... I had planned to get another so I could have him out of the package to display him as unfortunately he comes in on of those packages that will be completely destroyed during opening.


But sadly, I didn't manage to; he was the last one on Amazon when I purchased him for £17.70 and yesterday, I decided to look on Amazon to see if  he is now available for sale, the good thing he is, the bad thing is he now is listed for £91.33! 



So it's really not likely I'm going to get another one any time soon!

Anyhoo, as the previous picture of him in his package wasn't a close up... here's one so you can see his handsome face in more detail!


One thing I have to say, which should come as no surprise, if you've read any of my other posts and know that I have a thing for The Creature from The Black Lagoon,  is that I really love this sculpt.

The artist Jean St. Jean did such an awesome job on this figure and even though he is clothed in the style of his Munsters incarnation he is not only a very true likeness to that incarnation but also to the character Uncle Gilbert is based on.

I love the paint on his eyes too, they really do look similar to a toad or frog's eyes. I would love to be able to hold him and check out the rest of the sculpt in person but until I get another, and knowing it would set me back 91 quid to get one, I'm going to have to keep that wish to one side for now.
Amazon.co.uk

By the way, if you would like a little more information in the artist who came up with this sculpt, you can read an interview with him by clicking the link in the above paragraph.


I was happy enough with my Uncle Gilbert figure, and not being massively enamoured with the others in this run, I initially thought I'd leave it at that...



Until I received him and discovered that each figure comes with a section of The Munster's staircase and if you do get the rest of the figures, you can display them on an awesome diorama the staircase of The Munster House at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Mockingbird Heights, California.

www.bigbadtoystore.com

I absolutely love this diorama set, and really want to have it so I could display a loose Uncle Gilbert or Herman walking down it, or as the above photograph shows, with a miniature version of Eddie Munster's pet "Spot" who lives under the stairs and comes complete with nasal flames as part of the finished piece.

But alas, that too will have to wait a while as they are all averaging at £42 on Amazon now, and like I said to remove them the packaging has to be destroyed, which will considerably lower their value so even if I did have them, I'd probably keep them in their packaging too and then try and find more of them loose or for cheaps so I can remove them form the package without feeling bad about it!

Anyway, I found a really good review of this and the other characters in the set, plus the diorama on mwctoys.com so if you want to check them all out, my advise is to click the link in the name.

Well, that's it for now,








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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, money value is all you see... Enjoy your collection of boxes :)

Herbie Hopkins said...

Hardly, I like to have the boxes as they often have cool graphics and display the item in the best way possible, I have many items I have removed from their boxes - the issue is when doing so destroys the boxes and I am unable to afford another, I have to consider the value as my collections are for my enjoyment based on how much I can afford to spend on the things I love and replace them if need be and partly as an investment so I have something of value to leave to my son.
If you'd read this post you would have known that when I purchased Uncle Gilbert he cost under £20.00, which was affordable to me at the time, but since purchase his value has increased to over 4 times the price I paid and is now outside of my budget... And I was pleasantly surprised to find out he was now worth something.
If you'd read my other posts, you'd have known that many of my other collections such as my Living Dead Dolls have been removed from their boxes despite the fact that most of them have increased in value.
But thanks for visiting and leaving your opinion.
Herbs

Anonymous said...

@Anon You focused in on a single part of the blog post and rather than reading and comprehending what was said, you were willfully ignorant and decided to post a comment that completely missed not only the point of the blog post itself but even the section that you honed in on.

You'd think that if you wanted to comment on a specific part of a blog post, that you'd at least have the brain cells to comprehend what's being said prior to commenting. You've shown that you're an utter imbecile in all honesty and rather than commenting on anything in future, I urge you to educate yourself so that your reading level and comprehension skills are at least above that of a five year old.

Nothing inherently wrong with just being stupid but when you combine that with your malicious intent, it just shows what kind of pathetic person you are especially when you use the protection of anonymity too.

What I'm saying in simpler terms as I feel you'll need them is that you need to grow the fuck up. ':)'

Herbie Hopkins said...

Hi Anon 2,
Thank you for taking the time to comment and for visiting my blog.
Take care,
Hugs,
Herbs x