"I DON'T WANT TO GROW ANYMORE!!!!!"

Actually, that line happened in the original "Amazing Colossal Man" movie. But I've always loved it and I love this figure from X-Plus, too..

Growing up in Massachusetts, many of us here spent our Saturday afternoons watching "Creature Double Feature", a matinee of back to back classic monster movies. I'm sure each of us has our own fond memories of specific movies, but two films really stuck in my mind. "The Amazing Colossal Man" from 1957 and it's sequel "War of the Colossal Beast" from the following year had a strange hold on me as a kid. It was easy to dismiss many of the other films as pure fantasy, and while I never believed a man could grow to such enormous size, it was the characters mental breakdown as he tried to deal with his unfortunate circumstance that I found chilling. A deterioration of the mind is far more frightening than the growth of the flesh.

Of course, in this day and age, it's harder to take the films seriously since the special effects are laughable in comparison to what we see now. But back then it must have been remarkable, considering that director Bert I. Gordon seems to have made himself a career consisting largely of films about normal creatures grown to tremendous size.

This figure is the last of the "AMC Monsterfest" line from X-Plus that I managed to snag. For some reason, I hesitated on buying it when it first came out and for awhile I didn't see one. But due to the magic of Ebay, I finally got one a couple months backs, and for less than retail, too.

The figure is pretty well done, in my opinion. I think it was a great decision to have him holding the bus above his head. A colossal man is only colossal if you've got something to show scale, after all.

There's been some dissatisfaction with the sculpt of the face, but I think it looks fine. I do think it looks better when viewed from a low angle, but it's not bad overall either.

The base is a great addition, just like it was with the previous entries, The She Creature and Marty, the 3 Eyed Mutant.

But do you notice anything? How about that ad line? "See a sixty foot giant destroyed.....IN COLOR!" Did you see any color in the trailer above? I sure didn't. The fact is, only the ending (which is given away in the tag-line, of course) is in color. Less than 1 minute. Ahhh, I'd say I miss the 1950's and it's cheap marketing gimmicks, except of course, I never lived it. I'm forced to live it vicariously through these toys. On the bright side, kids in 1958 didn't have Colossal Man toys so I guess I can't complain, can I?

Quite possibly the least intimidating name for a monster ever.....Marty.

Another entry in X-Plus' excellent, but sadly short-lived series of AMC Monsterfest toys, "Marty", the 3 Eyed Mutant hails from the 1956 Roger Corman film "The Day The World Ended".

I haven't seen this movie yet, but judging by the trailer, it looks like the monster looks better as represented by this figure than it really did in the movie. Much like the She Creature toy from this line, this is a really nicely detailed figure, which is more of a statue than a toy. It has no articulation and no gimmicks. The figure appears to be made of a very solid PVC with a beautiful base that I think is resin. It's very nicely done, but not as interesting as the She Creature one.

"Marty" (no, I have no idea why he's called this) comes in the same box as the others in the series, but is packaged in it's own unique plastic try and his name on the UPC code on the back. The box is nicely compact at 12" tall and 7" wide and has some nice artwork of various monsters on the back. Unfortunately, of these monsters, only Marty, The She-Creature and the Amazing Colossal Man were ever released.

Front

Back

The display base comes in three parts with the title of the film engraved on the front, and separate pieces for the film's tagline ("The screen's new high in NAKED SHRIEKING TERROR!") and the advertisement for "SUPER SCOPE".

The detail on this guy is fantastic and it makes a truly amazing display piece. I really like these figures and regret that it hasn't continued.

HYPNOTIZED! Reincarnated as a Monster from Hell! It can and did happen!

Released in 2004, the She Creature is an excellent display piece for monster fans. It stands 8" tall and is very accurate in it's portrayal of the monster. The detail is excellent. However, it doesn't do anything. There isn't any articulation at all. It's just a vinyl statue. It does come with a really cool resin base though. The front features the name of the character and on the back is a sign with the tagline from the movie. The circular base is split into two parts, with sand at the front and the waves against the shore in the back. It makes for a nice image of the creature emerging from the water.

There are tabs that insert into the monsters feet to keep her standing, but I found it extremely difficult to get them in. The toy comes in a cardboard box with a window on the front and is one of the AMC's Monsterfest line of toys. It's a piece that is a must have for serious monster fans, but with no play value and a $40 price tag, others will likely want to pass on it.