I saw this new NECA figure on the shelves at TRU the other day, and even though I’ve never played the video game this character comes from, I felt compelled to pick this figure up. Click through for more pics and thoughts about NECA’s Player Select Borderlands Psycho Bandit.
For fans of the game who may read this, I feel like I need to say upfront I am not a fan of the game. I haven’t played it or really know anything about it. I’m looking at this from the perspective of a guy who likes cool toys. The card back gives us a little background on the Psycho Bandit for the uninitiated, like myself:
“Strip the flesh, salt the wound!” The cry of the Psycho Bandit reveals much. Some say it’s the hunger that drives them insane. Others, the monstrosities they witness. Yet others believe it’s the realization of becoming the monster, of performing unspeakable acts in the name of survival, that finally breaks their feeble minds and forces them to hide behind the mask. Whatever the reason, their mindless behavior causes the Psycho Bandit to rank among Pandor’s most persistent (and most frequently killed) foes.
Sounds to me a lot like the Reavers from Firefly. It also sounds like these guys are common low-level opponents faced often in the game.
Accessories
The Psycho Bandit comes with one accessory, but it’s pretty darn cool. Looking like a mixture of a club and a skill saw, this weapon features an impressive paint job. There are several different metallic tones used here and it is all weathered nicely to complete a dirty, post-apocalyptic feel to the wicked weapon.
Another neat touch is that the saw blade actually spins! I’m not sure that I needed it to spin, but it’s a cool touch.
Articulation
One area that I have seen lots of improvement in from NECA lately has been articulation, and I have found myself much more tempted by their offerings of late. As you can see above, Psycho Bandit sports a wide range of articulation.
He’s not as poseable as, say, a Toybiz Marvel Legends figure, but he is better articulated than most DCUC or MOTUC figures.
I especially like that they use ball joints for the wrists and ankles. The ankles don’t have quite the forward range of motion that you see in an ankle hinge, but it allows for nice rocker functionality that stabilizes poses.
The ball-jointed wrists are nice because you can get the figure into a two-handed weapon grip.
The range of motion on the joints is good, though the knees don’t quite get a 90 degree bend due to the bagginess of the pant sculpt. The pic above shows full knee bend for this figure.
Sculpt
Sculpt on this figure is impeccable. They captured the lanky build and baggy pants perfectly.
The creepy death mask is also well done, with fantastic detailing in things like the red designs and the the engine turbine looking thing over the mouth.
Paint
The paint is also really nice here. I already mentioned the grungy paint goodness on the weapon, but the body also has some airbrushed shading on the flesh and the pants.
The Psycho Bandit also has black lines painted along the details of the figure to mimic the cell-shaded look of the game. As I haven’t played the game, I can’t say how successful this is at recreating it, though the cell-shading look on the box art seems a bit more subtle than the thick black lines seen on this figure.
That said, I really like the effect. It brings to mind the amazing Ninja Turtles figures NECA released a few years back (Raphael from that series is shown in some of the above pics), so I immediately have a place for him in my collection as some heretofore unknown Ninja Turtles villain.
Heck, he could be Casey Jones gone really wrong if you wanted. He just needs some sporting gear.
At $17.35 after tax at my local TRU, this figure doesn’t feel like a particularly good deal, but it’s on par with most figures around this size. It’s a pretty high-quality figure for the price, though. NECA continues to blow me away with their sculpting, paints, and articulation lately.
This figure seems to be in NECA’s usual 7-inch scale, so he’s a little big for Marvel Legends or DCUC collections, but fits in scale wise (if not stylistically) with MOTUC. I bet he would make a nice opponent for a DC Direct Arkham Asylum Batman. I think I’ll put mine on the shelf near the NECA Ninja Turtles. Or maybe I need to start a Borderlands section… Claptrap looked pretty cool on the shelf…
