I will admit this now: I was never a big fan of the original Planet of the Apes movies. I knew what they were, I have a nostalgic feeling when I see pictures of them, but I have no attachment to the classic. And while I watched the Burton remake, it didn’t really lodge in my head. But with Rise of the Planet of the Apes I was hooked. I know it’s not the popular opinion, but it’s the one that stuck with me. I always meant to pick up the Hiya action figure, but never got around to it. So when NECA announced they were releasing figures for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I knew I had to have them. I only picked up Maurice and Caesar for now, figuring Koba was essentially the same sculpt as Caesar and I can pick him up later.
Yup. Packaging. My initial thought when opening the shipping box was that Caesar seemed huge, even in the packaging. But the packaging looks nice and most importantly serves its purpose of keeping other people’s hands off my toys.
I’m going to start with Maurice.
First off, let me say that the paint job is amazing. Shading, dry brushing, and nicely painted glossy eyes. It’s almost freaky how good the paint is. The extra mile taken here is truly appreciated. The same goes for the sculpt. Just fantastic with all the hair and textured skin bits.
But having that much sculpt comes with a price. While all the articulation you’d expect is there, a lot of it is either hindered by sculpt or is pegged oddly. That’s not a shot at NECA, just an unfortunate by-product of the character design. And don’t get me wrong, he can move and get into some nice poses, but it takes some work and maneuvering. Although I can’t see up in there to make sure, I think the hips are pegged straight up. This along with the hanging hair around the waist, while fairly soft, keeps him from moving his legs forward at the hip.
For articulation points, Maurice has:
- Ball head
- Swivel/hinge shoulders
- Swivel/hinge elbows
- Ball wrists
- Ball type abdomen
- Swivel/hinge hips
- Swivel/hinge knees
- Ball ankles
The biggest nit is because of the hips and the sculpt of the feet, Maurice is very hard to stand up. He wants to fall back. You can get him into an acceptable three point stance so that may be the way to go.
But really, with all the articulation issues aside, you can still get some nice poses.
The abs do get a good range of movement, more back than forward, but you have to work it. Another interesting thing done here is a rubber piece under the neck to fill the gap of the flat face when he’s looking up. I’m not familiar with orangutan anatomy, but the dark gray/black piece around his neck has a flap that is very soft and extends up to peg under his chin. This kind of makes up for Maurice only coming with a book. It’s a nice-looking book, but just a book.
Now, Caesar.
Just like with Maurice, absolutely beautiful paint and sculpt. With the addition of the war paint, he looks a little messier, but he’s supposed to. Not sure what the yellow on the upper torso is, but when I first saw it beside the red splotch I thought it was mustard and ketchup. But I’m wired like that. Caesar loves his hot dogs.
Caesar’s articulation is a little more free. Not much more but his legs can go forward a bit more and that’s better in my book. Abs go forward a lot more than back, which is also a plus. He’s also a lot more stable when standing both due to flat feet and better range of hip movement. But the hips are pegged at 45 degrees, so you have to kind of fight it. He also looks up really well.
Articulation for Caesar:
- Ball head
- Swivel/hinge shoulders
- Ball wrists
- Ball type abdomen
- Swivel/ball hinge hips pegged at 45 degrees
- Swivel/hinge knees
- Ball ankles
The elbows and knees don’t go quite 90 degrees on either figure. In fact, it may be somewhere between 45 and 60.
Caesar comes with a spear and an extra set of hands to hold it. The sculpt of the spear is awesome, of course, and Caesar looks great holding it.
If I had to pick out one thing to gripe about the figure it would be that the neck seems to have been sculpted to where the head should set looking to the left to look natural, if that makes any sense. That, and the left bicep is turned in towards the body, making the neutral position look off and the hinge pointing towards the right a bit. I assume this is to better hold the spear.
As far as scale goes, these are large. These are 7-inch scale, but even at that Caesar looks large. But then again, when standing at the end of Rise he was nearly as tall as Harry Osborne, so who knows. I need to dig out my Dutch and see how he compares there.
But if you wanted to, say, slip Maurice in beside your custom Red Ghost, I do believe he is totally fudgeable.
You can find these at Toy R Us now or, if you’re like me an don’t like to leave the house, order them from NECA on Amazon.
