Medusa, Mythical Realms by Safari Ltd.

Review and photographs by triceratops83, edited by MonsterToyBlog.

Medusa is a monster from Greek Mythology, one of the three Gorgons – though she got the short end of the stick being the only mortal one of the sisters. Famous for having snakes for hair, to merely behold her would turn anyone instantly to stone. She was defeated by the hero Perseus, who used a mirrored shield to observe her while he decapitated her. The winged horse Pegasus was born from her blood. That seems like setting a bad precedent to me: cut off some poor woman’s head and basically get a free sports car. Oh well. Perseus ran off with her head, its dripping blood breeding more monsters, and used it as a weapon to petrify a Titan and a corrupt king. It finished up in the hands of the goddess Athena, to whom he gifted it. Yuck, what a nice present.

This Safari Ltd. Medusa, part of the Mythical Realms line (product #801929), is a gorgeous and highly detailed toy. This version of Medusa has the upper half of the body of a woman and the tail of a snake, similar to a Lamia. She’s posed in an upright position, looking slightly to the left. Her right arm is by her side and her left arm raised daintily at the elbow. She looks like she’s having a conversation with the girls.

The signature head of hair comprised of snakes is portrayed with over a dozen silver serpents coiled menacingly. She’s clothed in a bronze or copper corset. A tiara separates her face from her slithery ‘do. There is a grey line on her forehead. I’m not sure if it’s her eyebrows or jewellery of some sort, and to prove how stylish she is she’s wearing a necklace bejewelled with a purple gem.

Her ‘human’ body morphs into a serpentine tail at the waist, the top of which still shows the slight shape of a butt and hips. The tail tapers and forms four coils. The bottom of the tail has prominent ventral scutes and the dorsal area has overlapping snake-like scales. It’s coloured brownish grey with a darker brown reticulated pattern reminiscent of a python or rattlesnake. There is a seam joing two halves of the toy at the base of the tail.

Medusa is typically depicted with a woman’s body, legs and all, but this version recalls Ray Harryhausen’s serpent-tailed design from the 1981 film Clash of the Titans (and its 2010 remake). Medusa is generally thought of as hideous but is sometimes portrayed as beautiful. For instance in the original Clash of the Titans she’s a leathery, scaly hag, but in the remake she’s performed by a Russian supermodel (she can turn me to stone any day). The Safari Ltd. Medusa is certainly not hideous, but I wouldn’t exactly call her pretty either. Her yellow pupils and a wart on her right cheek are not helping.

The Safari Ltd. Medusa was released in 2010, possibly to coincide with the Clash of the Titans remake, and is still widely available now. It’s about the size of a coffee mug, standing 11 cm tall, 10 cm long from the right arm to the tip of the tail, and 5 cm wide between the widest coils of the tail. I’m not about to put in the effort to calculate the scale but it looks at home with other 1:24 scale figures I have. It’s pretty cheap at around ten or fifteen bucks, and if you’re into mythology, fantasy films or just a cool looking figure, I thoroughly recommend it.