New Photos of The Shape of Water – Amphibian Man by NECA

The Shape of Water - Amphibian Man by NECA

I feel like this movie wouldn't have gone over nearly as well had the genders been reversed... Cool figure though!

Knowing Neca, I'm surprised they didn't include a cat accessory. (that's always my question for it winning best pic--I want to ask all the academy voters "did you decide before or after the cat scene, that it was the best movie of the year"? I suspect a lot of votes were the standard "didn't actually watch the movie, just the special Oscar-voter Cliff-notes version they send out for review, which certainly emphasized the "golden-age-of-Hollywood musical dream-sequence", and not the "actual events in the movie itself"). Sorry, rant over.

::edit:: Re:above. I think swapping genders would have been more interesting/better, but then it might be seen as a take on the fairly common "man falls in love with a mermaid" scenario.

May I recommend a movie called Cold Skin then. Very different movie than Shape of Water, but it's essentially reversed roles and far more horror themed.

Thought at first NECA was doing Hellboy figures. Thought this was Abe Sapien. Oh well.

Ha! I was thinking the same thing.

Actually, I think my girlfriend was just watching that the other day! I have to ask her what she thought.

Splice (with Adrien Brody) also has a similar premise of a guy getting it on with a freaky female creature.

With regards to the dynamic of the Amphibian Man and the protagonist, Elisa, I actually think that the specific gender choice for the two is what made the movie. The story it was telling only really worked if you keep the specific gender dynamic in mind, and this is even more apparent when you account for the sort of societal hardships that Elisa faces throughout the story, even more obviously with how she's framed against the main antagonist played by Michael Shannon.

I'm not saying the story would've been better/worse, rather it wouldn't be the same story at all had the genders been swapped, since it told a very specific story that carefully accounts for their respective genders.

I definitely agree Cold Water is a great movie that puts you in the mind frame of The Shape of water if you haven't seen give it a try.

Yup. Thought that was Abe from hellboy. I have yet to see this film.

It was a good movie but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed when I found out it wasn't a Hellboy prequel about Abe.

It essentially is. It's the same design really.

So, I know this is gonna get me brandied as a anti-tumblrista, but I felt the movie would have ended better if both the monster and Elisa had died, and the underwater scene with them would have been a dream sequence of them in the after life. What they did to Michael Shannon was just uncalled for. He was the character I most identified with. Like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast

Also, if you're looking for a monster love gender swap movie, try 1984's Splash with Tom Hanks. Some of the scenes in Shape of Water are lifted straight from that, shot for shot.

He had that death coming. Being a condescending prick doesn't merit execution but he did murder an unarmed woman and was pretty enthusiastic about torture, also given his workplace conduct with Elisa he seemed headed towards rape. His behavior isn't entirely unexplained as he has his own bad boss breathing down his neck and belittling him but his venting of stress is decidedly cruel. Since the film is ultimately formatted as a fairy tale it fits the bill that a character with such negative qualities does not get a happy ending.

That movie would have no impact. A man bangin' a fish is old news. Happens every day.

Slap some shorts on this guy and you got a decent Abe Sapien. Sadly no super realistic Hellboy in this scale.

Maybe we'll see an Abe down the road, along with Hellboy.

Just re-watched the ending scene and yeah Strickland was a mean SOB.

Sadly as it stands they only have the licensing for GDT's own IPs so they would have to acquire Hellboy's rights separately. Having said that it still seems like something that could happen one day, unless some other company gets it first and blocks them.

It depends on if Mignola or the studio is even willing to approve licensing for it. Mignola and del Toro didn't end their run on the best of terms.

Final Packaging Photos for The Shape of Water - Amphibian Man by NECA - The Toyark - News

Me: /looks at most of the figures in the lineup

More like the Doug Jones Signature Collection, am I right?

(I kid, I kid. And the figure is beautiful.)

Also, for all those talking about "it wouldn't work the same if gender-flipped" ...uh, so? It's supposed to be a romantic twist on Creature from the Black Lagoon. GDT has said as much, multiple times.

Doug Jones doesn't get enough credit for the awesome work he's done.

The Shape of Water - Amphibian Man Available Now via NECA eBay and Amazon Stores - The Toyark - News

Could you elaborate on that, if you have any more information? Why did the relationship sour? I know early on during their collaboration the two seemed to get along very well. I believe they did a commentary track for the first movie and even had a cameo together in it.

I'll have to dig around for the links. But Mignola wasn't particularly happy with the deviations from the source material, especially for Golden Army. He also didn't like the proposed direction that Part 3 was going to take. Right up until the announcement that a reboot was in the works, both del Toro and Pearlamn were actively lobbying for a Part 3.

I wonder why there's 2 extra forearms? I can't really tell from looking at the figure, couldn't make swappable hands work?

In his review Joe says the alt forearms are for the wrist clasps.