Burger King Universal Monsters Scary Squirter Featuring the Creature from the Black Lagoon Burger King, 1997
Day #931: May 29, 2014
Scary Squirter Featuring the Creature from the Black Lagoon Surprisingly Decent
Universal Monsters Action Figure
Item No.: n/a Manufacturer:Burger King Includes:Glow in the Dark character sticker Action Feature:Squirts water Retail:$2.99ish Availability: 1997 Other: Nifty
The laboriously named but lovingly crafted Universal Monsters from Burger King are largely things of beauty - you got a really good toy with a sack of greasy food and a comically small soda by American standards. The Scary Squirter Featuring the Creature from the Black Lagoon was the reason I collected these figures, even though he sort of is the worst. Dracula has a coffin, Frank's monster has a light-up table, Wolf Man has a cellar, and the Creature is cast in a rather ugly clear green plastic with no accessories and only one paint application. You can pretty easily tell that the budget did not go to this figure. He towers over the rest of the class, standing nearly a head above the Monster and coming with a v-crotch. Of all the figures, he feels like he may have come from another toy line.
With no paint other than a tiny pair of green dots for eyes, the figure looks like a vague scary green blob from a distance. This scaly fellow has a ton of sculpted detail that is all but completely absorbed by the plastic, making it seem outright dull unless you hold it up to a bright light source. It's impossible to deny the sculptor did an excellent job with oversized feet and hands, making this a fantastic figure. Almost. It comes close, but it also proves just how important deco could be. Were this some bizarro chase variant it'd likely be remembered as a classic, instead it's just sort of pretty good.
Burger King's toy people developed this figure to have a squirting feature - the only true figure-based action feature in this entire line. The idea is that you push in his stomach and he sucks water into his mouth. Press it again, and it squirts out. It's a clever design that comes at a cost of the neck articulation - the torso and head is a single fused piece, with rotating arms and legs.
It's a neat, if oversized, toy to have in your toy box. It should set you back about four bones, or less if you bought it as part of a set. I would only suggest grabbing it as part of a larger collection, in and of itself it's just kind of OK unless you have a thing for clear figures. The fact that this figure was in no way properly cared for since boxing it up in the 1990s makes it slightly more remarkable - I see no discoloration, which can happen when clear plastic is near other colors like red. I'd suggest going after the ReAction Figure or the Remco original first... but this one is cheaper. The Remco one is more charmingly awful, Funko's just generally looks like it was made with modern sensibilities. Burger King's is very cheaply done, so it makes sense that some people are dumping them for a couple of bucks.
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