Toy Review: Classic Predator

NECA’s Classic Predator

As far as I’m concerned, action movies peaked in the years between 1982 and 1991. Before then, we got old fogey’s like Charles Bronson and Charlton Heston who’s movies always kind of bored me. After that we got moronic new recruits like Vin Diesel and The Rock who’s star vehicles never really worked.

But back in the 80’s, man… in the 80’s we had Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was THE action hero during my childhood. More than Sylvester Stallone, more than Bruce Willis, and more than Chuck Norris (despite the abundant anecdotal evidence to the contrary). The The Terminator could have kicked Rambo’s, McClane’s or… well whatever role Chuck Norris is really famous for’s collective asses all together. Arnie was the man. Unlike Stallone’s vehicles, Schwarzenegger’s roles seem to hold up better with time. I still get a kick out of watching Kindergarten Cop and Terminator is still up there on my list of favorite movies. Then there’s Predator.

Predator is probably the first movie that comes to mind when I think about action films about covert military fire teams. It is probably the reason I enjoyed A-Team and The Losers so much. Stories about small groups of soldiers going up against an enemy are just like crack to me. Mission Impossible, Aliens, Doom; even if they aren’t that good cinematically speaking, I tend to like them. I loved the movie so much, I couldn’t pass up this little guy.

As you can see, he’s not really as geared up as the Hot Toys Predator is, but he does come with his photon/laser cannon assembly (just called a “backpack” on the card). It seems a bit small to me, but it works fairly well. The thing clips onto his left shoulder where there’s a soft rubber piece of armor there. It doesn’t really snap into place, but there are tabs that hold it fairly securely. The cannon itself is pretty fragile though. There are 2 joints, a hinge joint which seems to come off very easily, and a balljoint that allows the gun to swivel and pivot.

This is the “Classic” Predator, which is basically the one that showed up in the first film. There are 2 other Predators in the first set of figures that NECA’s released, but seeing as how there were 4 Predators total in the new movie, you can easily predict that we’ll see more of these soon.

I decided to get this one first before the others because 1) I didn’t really like the design of the new ones as much as this one, 2) it’s sort of short packed at 4 per case (the others have 5 per case), 3) he’s unmasked and 4) this is THE Predator. The others are just someone’s idea of The Predator.

The fact that he’s unmasked is a big factor in getting him. There’s a ton of detail here, unlike the 2 new Predators in the line. At Php 1,200.00 at Toy Kingdom (they’re only Php 1,000 at 2Rats) I felt that that extra detail in the face would make it more worthwhile. The open mandibles and the eyes set in deep sockets are just like I remember in the first film, so all the “accuracy” fanatics should be satisfied.

The rest of the figure is just as detailed, from the dreads to his hands, to the gauntlets to the netting and armor. It’s all there in it’s sculpted glory. You’d expect that they would just paint the netting onto his legs and torso, but I was surprised to see that it’s actually sculpted.

He’s even sculpted with his thumb sticking out. I assume that the costume in the first film restricted the actor’s fingers which is why he was always posed like that. I don’t know why NECA decided to translate that (it feels like taking the screen accuracy to an illogical degree), but there you go. Like I said, accuracy fans should be pleased.

There are some things that caught my attention though. Nitpicking time.

The biggest issue is paint. Over all, it’s good. There’s a top coat that gives him a sweaty, grimy, slimy look to his skin, and the shade and colors are spot on. But he suffers from being painted piecemeal, and not as a whole. it’s painfully obvious on his thighs. The pieces above and below the swivel don’t match up no matter how you look at it. At least the loin cloth tatters on the thigh portion of the V-swivel at the hip are painted. I hear there are some units that were not, the reddish brown left the pale yellow green of his skin.

You’ll also notice that the black lines that are supposed to go on the strings of the netting aren’t registered properly, and there’s a lot of spillage around those applications, globs of black pooling around the thighs and torso. It’s not TOO bad, but it is noticeable. I guess even NECA is cutting corners now.

Another thing I hate about it is the aforementioned V-swivel hips. NECA hasn’t been really consistent when it comes to articulation. Sometimes they have terrific joint schemes, like the Ninja Gaiden and Dead Space figures, and then sometimes you get throwbacks like the Gears of War figures. And it’s not even a sculpt issue, since the GOW line has the COG Soldier in it which shares the same aesthetic, but shares the Dead Space hip joints.

As it is, the range of motion on The Predator’s lower half is limited. If you really want him to do a JCVD impression, then it’ll work. If not…

It’s actually a lot like my Kabuki Scarab figure; another toy that looks great, but has limited play value.

The upper half is decent however, with some good swivel-hinge shoulders and elbows, and balljointed wrists. I do wish there was a ab crunch somewhere in there, to get him in a hunched-over waiting position, but I can live without it. Especially with the balljointed neck which has a decent range.

If you look closely at the head, you’ll notice that his jaw is a seperate piece. It’s not removable (it’s glued on), but it lets you know that NECA has plans to re-issue this sucker down the line. We’re definitely going to get a “closed mouth” version at some point, and then one with a mask, and then others as they come up with them.

The scale is about right. He’s about an inch and a half over the Terminator 2 Arnold, which puts him at about a foot (?) above him in real terms. NECA could pull that head off the T-800 and use it for a 7″ scale Dutch figure easily. *prays hard*

There’s also another great feature I’ve yet to mention. I’ve heard that the other two predators share the fact that they have a single arm blade that tends to fall off. This one has the classic dual blades and the designers have worked EXTENDING blades into the figure. They’re not spring-loaded, but they do work well, and they don’t fall out.

Excellent.

Sadly, the other side doesn’t have a fold out self-destruct panel. You’ll need to shell out for the Hot Toys version if you want that level of detail.

Overall, this bastard is HEAVY, well sculpted, acceptably painted, with decent articulation. Most of the Predator releases near at near this scale have largely been pre-posed statues, so this figure is a nice departure, even with the V-cut groin. The inclusion of the blades, the backpack and the cannon is just icing. It might have added to the value if they had included more accessories (another jaw, mask, extra hands), but like the T-1000, you know we’re gonna see those in future releases.

You can feel free to wait for those, but if you can’t, then this is a perfectly good buy right now.