Continuing to look backwards at Diamond Select’s Universal Monsters line, here we have the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth. This is one of those iconic alien monsters from 1950s-era science fiction/horror movies that has had a ubiquitous presence on every weird movie list and television broadcast around. Mystery Science Theater even took their shot at it. Shamefully, despite the alien itself being a very familiar image throughout my life, I’ve never seen the movie. I’m planning on rectifying that as soon as possible.
The Metaluna Mutant has a fascinating design, topped off by the perfect science-fiction alien head. It’s like a Mars Attacks alien mated with a gas mask – -all strange, circular eyes and bulging testicular brains, with weird veins everywhere. The toy is a very faithful interpretation of the on-screen version. The head itself has a ton of painstaking texture and detail, and that work is carried down to the crustacean-esque shoulders, arms, and chest. And then, to top it all off, he’s wearing pants. Ordinary, average pants. Why? Ask the prop department. If Robot Monster can have a monkey in a diving helmet, then the Metaluna Mutant can be a testicle-headed lobster in pants. I really need to watch this movie.
His articulation is decent everywhere except in his shoulders, which obviously suffer completely with the stiff overlay. If the plastic used had been a bit more giving, he might have been able to raise his arms, but instead the plastic is very hard, reducing his shoulder movement to zero. This would be a huge minus against the figure if his arms didn’t come with a pair of joints each, which make up for his lack of shoulder motion by a few degrees.
He manages to get a lot of motion out of the two ball joints, each of which feature a full swivel. So I’ll overlook the lack of shoulder articulation this once. But only this time!
From the non-articulated waist down, he has the DCUC-style hip hinge with mid-thigh swivel like all the other Universal Monster-type figures have had. He has single knees and only swivel ankles. The swivel ankles without a hinge seems like it would also be a problem, but his design allows him a peculiar balance that means he can get into a decent amount of poses without toppling over, despite the lack of ankle motion. Must be the big giant head.
The paint on mine is fine; there are some dry brushed details to bring out some of the sculpt here and there, and the paint is clean. I love the clashing distinction between the turquoise pants, the baby-blue torso, and the red accents. With so many gray or black monotone aliens out there nowadays, it’s nice to get a colorful alien-mutant-monster-type that isn’t afraid to let his freak flag fly.
For accessories, he comes with the Interocitor, which is apparently some type of communication device that a viewing of the movie will clear up. It’s appropriately science-fictiony, with nobs and tubes and such.
I’ve enjoyed Diamond’s offering in this line so far, and the Metaluna Mutant is a worthy purchase to anybody into aliens, monsters, weird ’50s B-movies or just really cool looking designs translated into action figures. He’s got a nice amount of articulation, his paint and coloration looks great and he’s random enough to generically fit in as an alien monster-type for your Marvel Legends or DC super heroes to fight.
