Background
We went to the source to ask David Horvath about his Flatwoods Monster figure, produced by
Wonderwall. He said “when Sun-Min and I met we realized that we were both huge fans of the more odd UFO folklore, especially with Mothman and the Braxton County Flatwoods Monster. We sort of made a promise that if we were ever able to do so, we would make toys of these creatures on our own. Sun-Min was the first person I've ever met who knew what these creatures were. Turns out we both had the same creepy book when we were very young. Sort of like an encyclopedia for cryptozoology.”
Why is it that folks from West Virginia see all of the good aliens? Maybe it’s whatever’s in the water...or moonshine. The folks from the 1950’s who encountered the creature described it as at least 10 feet tall and glowing red.
Wikipedia states: Witnesses described the creature's head as having bulging non-human eyes and as either being shaped like a heart/an Ace of Spades, or as having a large a heart/an Ace of Spades shaped cowling behind it. The creature's body was described as being man-shaped and clad in a dark pleated skirt; later described as being green. Some accounts record that the creature had no visible arms, others describe it as having short stubby arms; ending in long claw-like fingers, which protruded from the front of its body.
Packaging
Wonderwall's Kaiju For Grownups line is packaged in the traditional
Kaiju plastic bag with header card. The figure includes a small
informational card in both English and Japanese.
The Figure
The Flatwoods Monster figure is approximately 5.5” in height. It’s
made of rotocast vinyl and has 3 points of articulation (waist and
arms). This version (UFO Crash Type) is clear orange vinyl with a
light orange/yellow spray paint pattern on the figure’s back.
Our Opinion
If you check out the description of what the eyewitnesses saw in the
woods of West Virginia, it looks pretty darn close to what David
Horvath has created.
David and Sun-Min definitely put their unique spin on the character.
And the nice thing about the figure is that there are a number of
different colorways. You like green? You got it! Is your favorite
color red? OK! A fan of rainbows? Yuppers!
Since that other West Virginia bred alien – Mothman – was also designed
by Horvath and produced by Wonderwall…they go together perfectly.
Unlike a number of vinyl toys, Wonderwall produces all of their figures
in Japan. You can tell that the quality of vinyl is a little higher
than average.
You can pick one up at the following:
3DRetro: Dark Green - $72.99
Urban Retro: Black and Dark Green - £31.95
Flatwoods Monster Grades:
Quality: 9/10
Paint: 9/10
Durability: 9/10
Hype: 8/10
Fun Factor: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Overall: 9.2/10
