Either due to sheer laziness or a feeling of redundancy, I took a few days off. Doctor Who month continues though with the Sea Devil. I suspect I'll continue to run these Doctor Who reviews past March, but we'll see. Let me know if you enjoy them, now on with the review!

The Sea Devil figure is from the Classic Doctor Who Series 1 collection made by Character Options and imported into the US via Underground Toys. The Sea Devils themselves are your typical aquatic creatures as often depicted in sci-fi. They are an advanced race and live in a sort of Atlantis style underworld. According to WIkipedia: They were scientifically advanced, and lived during prehistoric times in an aquatic civilization. At some point, the Moon approached close to Earth, threatening to cause geological upheaval, and both the Sea Devils and the Silurians went into self-induced hibernation to survive.

Interestingly these are villains who first appeared in the Third Doctor's series. This is interesting because we haven't gotten a 3rd Doctor yet. Many suspect he's coming in the often rumored Classic Series 2, but that remains to be seen. If and when we do get a 3rd Doctor, the Sea Devil will be there to do battle with him.



Packaging:
This is the same packaging as featured in the other classic figures. No change here. It remains a suitable package for not only keeping the figure safe but for collectors who want to keep the figure inside. I should note though that one of the twist ties holding him in went through his "shirt" so you might be careful when removing him from the package. I didn't rip mine, but I could see it happening. Word of warning.



Articulation:
Fish people need lots of articulation. This guy has it to the gills. (*rimshot*) The Sea Devil has Who Crotch®, swivel thighs, swivel forearms, swivel wrist, swivel waist, swivel feet, cut neck, cut arms, cut legs and knee and elbow joints.



This is more than enough articulation to get this guy into all sorts of poses. As an army builder figure, this is important because you can have a small herd school of these guys in a variety of fun poses. Great for dioramas and the like.



Sculpt:
The detail here is actually quite good with an expressive face and large eyes and turtle-like snouts that certainly seems lifelike. It has a sort of bird-esque quality about it. That's pretty common though as birds and turtles tend to have similar facial structure and this creature seems to be a fish/turtle style. The fins on the feet look nice, though a bit plain but I can't help feeling that this looks a bit like a rubber suit monster. Of course that's what it was, so it's a testament to CO for making it look so much like the on-screen model, for better or worse.


Check out the Disco belt.

The paint is excellent with various brown shadings over a very realistic green. There could have been a temptation to make this more brightly colored in order to make it more interesting, but they stuck with realistic colors. It looks like a fish. Another interesting note is the height of the figure. He's quite tall. Which is again very screen accurate as the Sea Devils tended to tower over the other actors in the show due to their big heads and long necks.



The soft goods skirt/shirt/dress/toga don't look as impressive however. It sort of looks like cheese cloth. That's not to say it isn't accurate. The actual Sea Devil costumes looked a bit like cheese cloth hospital gowns. It's just not a flattering design. The addition of the 70's disco belt doesn't really make it better either. I think that you could remove the gown if you tried, but I couldn't find an easy way to do it. The belt comes off easily though.


Try Long John Silvers new Sea Devil Poppers!

Accessories:
The Sea Devil comes with his Heat Ray, which I'm not sure is actually a gun. It fits into the belt and is the belt buckle but can be pulled out and used as a blaster of sorts. The belt is also removable and I assume the costume could count as an accessory. Still out of the package, it seems like he has much of nothing, but once you start to strip him down you can see the accessories.



Since this is part of the build-a-figure series, he includes a piece of the giant K-1 Robot. His piece is dreadfully boring though. It just looks like a big radiator. Or an air conditioner. If you aren't building the robot, this piece is a waste. But you SHOULD be building K-1 and you can't build him with out.


An Air conditioner...?

Additional Notes:
I'm not a fan of the Sea Devil so much, but that doesn't mean this isn't an excellent figure. DC Collectors should probably pick up a few of these guys if they're looking for a way to flesh out some Aquaman ranks. They could be enemies of Atlantis or friends. It's definitely a cool aquatic figure and one of the less popular Doctor Who figs, so it could be put to good use in other areas. Plus he kind of looks like Admiral Ackbar in a way.


While we devotin'

Full time to floatin'

Under the sea

It's a trap!

Value:
This is one of the cheaper Classics figures and ran me about $11. Despite being a army builder, he's just not that popular. It could be because the Sea Devils weren't featured a lot. It could be because of the somewhat mundane design. It could be a clear discrimination against undersea people... Whatever the case at $11 he's not a bad value, but I also don't feel the need to amass quantities of him either. If you're a bigger fan of the characters you might prefer them.



Score Recap:
Packaging - 7
Sculpting - 8
Articulation - 9
Accessories - Disco belt, Heat Ray, BAF piece
Value - 8
Overall - 8 out of 10



Upon reviewing this figure I've become more tempted to army build this guy. He's got all the right parts to make up a great figure, he just lacks the intangible "umph" to put him over the top. Still there aren't enough figures of underwater monsters and this guy could go good with his brethren.