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.

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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.

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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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☞ The Creature from The Black Lagoon - Living Dead Dolls: Birthday Prezzies 2015 ☜

Living Dead Dolls Promo' Poster 

As  soon as I saw this promotional poster for the Living Dead Doll Exclusive: The Creature From The Black Lagoon I was smitten. I showed it to Aaron, expecting him to say "Yeah, that's cool" and yay he preordered it immediately as a surprise Birthday prezzie for me!

I'm not sure why, but The Creature has always been my favourite movie monster, like Frankenstein's Monster he is an innocent who, through no fault of his own is introduced into "the world of humans" and as a consequence is misunderstood and falls fail because of it.

If you've read my post about the Universal Studios Monsters Signature Series by Hasbro / Kenner, you'll already know a little about this iconic movie monster's design and my love for this particular beastie, if not and you're interested, you can access that post by clicking the link above.        

       Living Dead Dolls advertising.

While the Hasbro Creature is as close to the iconic designs imagined and drawn up by Millicent Patrick, I can't help loving the unique twist that the Living Dead Doll designers came up with, of course this is due in part to the fact that they couldn't reuse their existing moulds as they often do, but instead had to create a whole new one in order to produce this doll.

 The resulting design has given the Creature a more humanoid appearance, and also a more innocent and childlike look.

I love the attention to detail on this doll, he's perfect, right down to his scaly feet. Like The Creature from the Universal films, he has overly large hands (paws?) in relation to the rest of his limbs. These are covered with tiny bumps (suckers?) and he looks just as good from behind as he does from the front.

Unlike other Living Dead Dolls he is articulated at the wrists and ankles as well as the standard hips, neck and shoulders.

His box is decorated on the front with graphics and writing which resembles the artwork used on the lobby posters from the original Creature from The Black Lagoon film.

The back of the box has a "seal" depicting Frankenstein's Monster and reads "Universal Studios home of the original Monsters".

                                              

The sides of the box also bear this seal as well as a picture of the real Creature, below which is the film title emblazoned in yellow, again resembling the lobby posters from the original film.

                    

                                               As you can see he's a bit of a joker!