Toy Review: NECA’s Isaac Clarke of Deep Space

NECA’s Isaac Clarke of Deep Space

How can you go wrong with a character named after two of the greatest Science Fiction writers in history?

You can’t.

Unless you put that character in “nail-biting”, “visually striking” video game. Isaac Clarke is an engineer on the USG Kellion, sent to investigate a distress call from the USG Ishimura, a mining ship in orbit around the planet Aegis VII. If you’ve EVER played a horror survival game, you know the rest. The Kellion’s crew is killed off and Isaac and a few others have to find out what the heck happened. It sounds a lot like Pandorum but then all series, games, and movies in this genre follow the same formula.

To be honest, I haven’t played this game. Oh, I want to, but I’ve got enough obsessions in my life without throwing in video games into the mix. For now, I’m satisfied with the NECA version of Deep Space’s main protagonist.

If you’re interested in picking up one of these for yourself, you’re in luck. 2Rats, the local distributor of NECA, Mezco, Play Arts and a bunch of other lines has brought in quite a few of these. They’re readily available at the NECA/Mezco section in Toy Kingdom Megamall (in the Superhero section next to the DC toys) or any 2Rats branch. The regular versions cost p1,200.00 if I’m not mistaken, while the SDCC black version is p1,500.00.

The packaging for Player Select figures hasn’t changed much from the first time I encountered it, and it’s not a bad thing. NECA is one of the only companies I’ve come across that doesn’t seem to feel the need to waste copious amounts of plastic on packaging. Their clamshells are just enough to encase the figure and accessories, with some liner graphics. The clamsshells are great for MOCers since they display the figure nicely and they’re harder to mess up on the pegs. They’re also easy to store since they don’t take up a buttload of space.

They do look pretty boring though, and they’re a b*tch to open.

Once out of the clam, Isaac is impressive. He’s a 7″ figure, so if you’re Marvel Legends Iron Man is supposed to be 6 feet, this guy’s the size of that dude from “My Giant”. I’ve got a few 7″ scale figures so it’s no big deal for me, but you’re going to want to think twice if all you’ve got are DCUC toys.

Sculpt is excellent, as most of the recent NECA Player Select figures have been. All 3 variants use the same basic mold, which shows the design of Isaac’s space suit off quite nicely. The segmented armor looks just like Clarke’s been “upgrading” his armor by super-gluing stuff to it over a period of days. He’s pretty bulky, as befits an engineer wearing lots of layers that are meant to protect him from vacuum and whatever crap Deep Space engines throw out. Tachyons, Muons, Unicorns, whatever. His hands do look kind of tiny and effeminate though, and they don’t hold his weapons very securely.

Paint is kind of weird. On the two normal orange versions, it’s slopped on to simulate the rusted quality of Isaac’s suit I guess. It looks pretty good in photos, but up close it’s kind of thick and the “rusty” paint is glossy. My first thought was to get the “bloody” version of the figure since he came with a different accessory, but you’re going to want to think that through. The “blood” on this version is little more that ugly paint dabs that look like they were applied by an unartistic 4 year old. If Gil Grissom were examining this blood spatter, he’d KNOW it was planted.

The Unitology Suit version is far more impressive, done up in clean matte black and gray, with alien runes all over. I looked for bad applications here but couldn’t see anything on any thing of note on any of the examples I saw in the toy store. The sculpt on this one is a little less close to canon. Apparently, the Advanced Unitologist RIG it’s based on has 5 slats on the face plate and more armor. Still looks good.

The NECA website doesn’t mention the black version of the figure, since it was an SDCC exclusive. Luckily, 2Rats has apparently been greasing some wheels. They’ve been very good about bringing in SDCC exclusives into the country for local collectors. We got the blue April, the Hellboy Golden Army warrior, TMNT boxsets, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And it wasn’t just one or two either. So far, I haven’t had much of a problem finding any of the aforementioned items. If only Bankee could work with Mattel like this. It would be nice to see some of those convention exclusives make it over this way.

But enough about that. Back to the figue. Articulation is great, especially for something this detailed.

Isaac has effective joints in all the required places; neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. For once, I’m not complaining about the lack of thigh swivels. This figures got two joints on the legs that accomplish what their supposed to do; the thigh cuts themselves and the ball/post knees. NECA could have done away with the thigh cuts all together and still have had the same functionality. The same goes for the left arm which has the same two redundant joints. The right arm doesn’t since it’s covered with the shoulder armor.

Together, all these joints give the figure some very nice flexibility. They opted for a DCUC T-joint for the hips, but I think it goes well with the figure. Somehow, I don’t think the ball joint they used for Ryu Hayabusa would have gone over well.

The best thing about this toy is that it lights up.

In the game, you’re health are displayed as lights along your character’s spine. It’s a 3rd person shooter, so you’re looking over the guys back. It’s a pretty novel way to show stats. The toy version is a pretty good representation of that. Inside the head (the “ball” of the joint in there is a lightbulb) and under the suit’s spine, there are LED lights, blue/green for the rusted versions and white for the Unitologist. If you press the top portion of Isaac’s spine, the light comes on. The button is pretty unobtrusive and it locks into place in case you want to take pictures. It’s really the kicker that makes this toy worthwhile.

So recap; The regular rusty RIG Isaac Clarke comes with a blue/green LED light and the plasma cutter. Bloody Clarke comes with the sane LED and a ripper (circular saw) weapon and those extra paint applications. The exclusive SDCC Unitolotgist comes with the black deco and Unitology runes, white LEDs and a plasma cutter done in appropriate paint. All share the same nice sculpt and 19 points of articulation.

All three are great figures and if you’ve got 7″ space marines lying around, they make great additions to your collection. The choice of which is yours really since they’re basically the same. If you’re a fan of the game and want the one closest to the Isaac you know, then get the orange one. If you want a badass spaceman, get the black one.