In 2005, Peter Jackson released his version of the old fantasy adventure film "King Kong". I really enjoyed this film and thought it was well crafted and, for me at least, much of the enjoyment lay in its retro treatment, filmed as a 'period' movie of the 1930s. It was big, it was cool, and it had some awesome prehistoric-like CG creatures. Many of the creatures were inspired by prehistoric dinosaurs and such, but the creative staff took it one step further and did a 'what if' scenario. 'What if' Skull Island was cut-off from the rest of the world and prehistoric creatures allowed to evolve separately from the rest of the world. In this scenario some of the bad boys of pre-history, like T-Rex, survived and evolved to survive in the unique conditions of Skull Island.
When Playmates started releasing its "King Kong" licensed movie tie-in toys, it would have been unthinkable not to include some of the fantasy creatures we enjoyed watching in the movie and in this set, #66004 Kong vs Terapusmordax, we have our hero, The King, battling two giant hairless bats - Terapusmordax or 'pungent bat'. Okay, let's call it for what it really is - STINKY BAT! The Kong figure is fairly standard for most of Playmates playsets. He has multiple points of articulation and gripping hands to help hold his captive or fight off his enemies. There have been a number of jungle themed playsets, including a large "King Kong" playset by Playmates, which could be used in conjunction with these figures to form a really cool diorama. Hmmmm, perhaps one day I can combine some of the stuff laying around here into a nifty scene!. But for now let's take a close-up look at the contents of this set. Enjoy!
The entire set: 1 Kong, 2 Stinky Bats
A face only a mother could love! Notice the 'bloody' gash on his face.
Kong striking a pose!
Detail shot showing Kong's 'gripping action'
Collector's tend to classify plastic toys as either 'hard plastic' or 'soft plastic'. Hard plastic has no 'give' to it and will break easily. Soft plastic is usually some form of vinyl. These Stinky Bats are really soft plastic and would not stand up easily on their own because the legs or so soft and wiggly! This was not a good design feature in my opinion. The legs should have been stiff enough so that the figures could be posed in multiple ways. As it is, if Kong isn't holding or gripping these, they are simply limp figures on the ground.
The look like they're holding on to the fence. In actuality, I had to snap the photo really fast before they fell off.
High-diver Kong
(okay, the Photoshopping isn't so great but I was in a hurry)
