NECA’s brand new T-800 action figure from Terminator 2 has benefited under the umbrella of their upgraded “Ultimate” line, delivering a fully articulated version of a figure that had previously been released without articulation from the waist down. The benefits or necessities of this move were hotly debated on the Fwoosh forums not too long ago. Many who had already bought the previous Terminator offerings didn’t care to rebuy those figures with only a few articulation points added. Others, myself included, weren’t going to go near a Terminator figure unless it had the full complement of articulation.
A statue-toy that can’t toy like a toy can toy is useless to me. So as big an Arnold fan as I am, and as big a fan of the first two Terminator movies as I am, I couldn’t buy figures that were, to me, inferior in some way. I need more than “looking good.” I would never be able to enjoy a toy without proper articulation. Thankfully, NECA saw the need for Terminator figures that were fully realized action figures, and have put out what is practically the definitive version of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 from Terminator 2. Finally, the giant black hole created by the absence of these toys is going to be filled. The T-1000 and Sarah Connor herself are getting figures later in the year, and hopefully we get a decent T-800 and Kyle from the first movie as well.
Arnold’s badass cyborg-biker look is iconic. While the overall look of Arnold’s T-800 from the first movie is a bit of a fashion victim of the ’80s, black leather never goes out of style, so this is a more timeless look. With Predator and Commando already getting fully articulated representation, the Terminator completes the essential trifecta of Arnold action figures. Of course, I’d still dig a version of Arnie from Conan, Total Recall, Running Man, and Junior.
Arnold continues NECA’s high standards of sculpting excellence. His clothes are packed full of detail. From bullet holes to textured leather and wrinkles, zippers, seams, folds buckles — these are busy clothes, and they’re pretty frickin’ gorgeous to look at. There’s a subtle drybrushing to make them look lived in, along with some grays and a bit of browns to evoke dust and dirt.
He comes with three heads: sunglasses on, off, and battle damaged. The likeness is good, maybe not perfect in the head without sunglasses, but there’s no way that it’s not who it’s supposed to be. The paint is a little off — he’s got some pupil on his eyelid, and some eyelid under his pupil, so if the paint fit in the lines a little better, then the likeness may work a bit more. There is a bit of paint slop here and there on heads and some missing paint at the hairline, so, you know… mass-market woes.
His heads pop off at the bottom of the neck, not at the bottom of the head. I actually like when necks can move; it seems to add a lot to the head’s ability to emote through motion. I think my default head for him is the one with the sunglasses because it really suits the whole ensemble. He looks like a killing machine. Or I guess a hugging machine, since he’s supposed to be a good guy here. More or less.
The articulation is why we’re here, though. Yes. Completely unnecessary and not canonical to the films at all, but Terminator can do the splits:
Deleted scene, yo.
As you can see, he’s got a great range of motion in his hips. He also has a couple added points of articulation to his left leg, right at mid-thigh — hidden by a seam — and down where the top of his boot would be. I couldn’t figure out why he had them on that leg and not the other, or why they were there in the first place, but then it hit me that they’re for when he sits on a bike. He can stick his leg out and have it look natural while he’s perched on top of a bike. Which, again, is something he couldn’t do at all before.
His knees don’t have the greatest range of motion, but he has them, and they add a ton of options to his overall posture and poseability, so I’ll accept it. He does have a decent expressive range in his ankles, so he has nice balance with his legs spread in a variety of ways.
For wearing a jacket, his elbows have an unexpectedly decent range to them. They cut out just enough of the plastic to allow for at least 90 degree bends in both elbows. That’s actually as much as I expect from NECA as they do tend to try to preserve as much of the sculpt as possible with their articulation choices, so I can’t argue with it.
Overall, the articulation gets the job done, and there’s not any real instance of feeling like I’m not being allowed to do something I’d like him to do. I consider that a win.
As iconic as the clothes are, the weapons the T-800 uses are just as iconic. Being Ultimate, Arnold comes with four weapons that were used throughout the movie. First, the Winchester 1887 that he uses in his first major confrontations with the T-1000. He holds this weapon the best of anything he comes with, and never fails to look awesome doing so.
Up next is the Colt M1911A1 that shows up regularly throughout the movie. The toy holds it a little oddly with the tip tilted down due to how the hand is sculpted for the other weapons, but it works if you angle his hand right.
Next is the M79 Grenade Launcher with ammo belt. He doesn’t hold this very well, the grip is a little large and stretches out his hand. You can get it to work serviceably enough, but it’s not a perfect fit like the Winchester.
Finally we have the Hand-Held M134 Mini-gun with big bag of ammo. I will never complain when a mini-gun is included with any figure ever, because the sheer awesomeness of a weapon like this can’t be denied. Yeah, Predator made a big impact on me, and this is essentially the same basic gun, and that’s awesome.
The only major weapon that the T-800 uses that isn’t included is the MM1 Grenade Launcher that he uses to fire smoke bombs. Maybe later.
Overall I’m very happy with this figure and am super excited that I have not only a fully articulated version, but more figures from the same movie coming up. Terminator was sorely lacking a presence on my shelves, but not anymore.
