Toy Review: ‘Operation: Monster Force’ Makes A Strong Showing With The Ambassador Of R’lyeh

Big Bad Workshop’s Operation: Monster Force made a big splash when it debuted at the end of 2024. Now the series debuts its third wave of figures, and we got our hands on perhaps the coolest of the bunch.

The texts reveal the legends of an ancient city, R’lyeh, buried deep beneath the waves. The city is ruled by a dread evil, the elder god Cthulhu. Now the Forgotten King, in his campaign to rule the world, has revealed one of his most frightening allies. A survivor of one of the battles against the Forgotten King was driven mad, muttering four words – ‘The Ambassador of R’lyeh!”

This Cthulhu-like emissary is far and away one of the most interesting designs action figure fans have seen in a very long time. It also fills a very specific hole in many fans’ collections, in a very unique and unexpected way.

This figure comes out of the gate strong. It has an amazing, sturdy box, with some great art across it. There’s a story page on the inside, and the figure looks fantastic on display.

Opening it up is exciting. I would say the only place this figure falls short as to what’s included is there’s no obvious weapon. The eldritch horror could use a staff, short sword, dagger or even just a simple pistol. Beyond that, there’s two alternate heads, each in different stages of transformation, four sets of additional hands, two different versions of the spellbook, and two sets of magic effects. 

The design is fantastic. Combining a simple military uniform with eldritch horror is incredibly effective. He looks like a fascist monster, exactly the desired effect. The spellbook is a necessary part of the design as well, with its alien carvings and language adding to the realism and horror. And one of the best parts of the design are the two alternate heads. The first is a mask with the Cthuloid tentacles bursting out of it, as the creature’s magic degrades it. The other is the unchanged mask with human eyes with a very familiar design.

Yes, despite the color, this figure in his human form is what I’ve started calling Cthulhu Commander.

For posing, it’s a mostly good figure. The stand helps a ton. His long trench coat does prevent quite a bit of action posing, but it does have long enough slits in it that you can still get quite a bit of leg movement. Otherwise, he looks like a fantastic monster figure, standing at full height, summoning his dread lord. And if you want to use him as a terrorist leader, rather than a dark mage, then it’s easy to do so (you’ll just need to borrow a few accessories from other figures).

Operation: Monster Force continues to prove itself as one of the best independent toy lines on the market right now. This figure has guaranteed future purchases from the line. Just need to figure out what classic monster we need to see adapted next.

Operation: Monster Force figures are available exclusively from Big Bad Toy Store.