I picked up the TRU exclusive NECA Alien Vs. Predator two-pack the other day. Click through for some more pics and thoughts on these two figures.
The set comes with an Alien figure (a re – release of the 2008 Alien figure), a Predator 1 figure ( Predators series 1 Classic Predator figure with a new mouth and additional necklaces), and two skulls – Predator and an Alien.
Articulation:
The Alien’s articulation includes a ball jointed neck, hinged jaw, an inner jaw that slides out, ball jointed shoulders, bicep cuts, elbow hinge, cut wrist, ball jointed torso, cut hips, hinged knees and hinged ankles. The tail is flexible and fully poseable.
The Alien has a pretty good range of motion and the hip cuts are at an angle so he can get into some decent crouching poses with the aid of his thigh cuts. It’s not my preferred method of hip articulation, but it looks great and allows for some decent movement. The neck joint has a nice range of motion and allows for some expressive posing. The torso joint allows for some good side to side motion, though not much forward and backward motion.
The hinged jaw feels nice and sturdy and you can reach in to slide out the inner jaw.
The Predator sports a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, hinge/swivel elbows (Elbrows), cut waist, cut hips, ball and socket wrists, cut thighs, hinge/swivel knees and ball and socket feet.
The cut hips actually work a lot better than I thought they would when I first heard about them. Like the Alien, they are cut at an angle and allow for some decent crouch poses. Not as good as say a McFarlane Spidey Marvel Legends figure, but decent and matching my recollection of how the creature moved in the films. I think a ball jointed waist would have been nice here as it could have provided some slight pivoting without marring the sculpt. As it is, the Predator is a little bit of a stiff poser.
I had a couple stuck joints that I was able to work out with some applied heat, so be cautious with the articulation upon opening.
Paint
The paint work is pretty nice for figures at this price point, a few nitpicks aside. The alien is cast in a dark plastic and has a couple different (drybrushed?) colors that highlight all of the sick detail. Both the Predator and Alien have a bit of a sheen to them which seems appropriate because my memory of both creatures is that they were a bit slimey. My only nitpick on him is that his teeth paint is not quite as sharp as it could be. There is a little bleed here and there on my Alien’s chompers.
The predator has a nice gradation to his skin tone and all the appropriate spots (as best as I can recall). My only nitpick on him is that his eye paint is not quite as sharp as I’ve seen elsewhere in the Predators line. I had my pick of figures from a case when I got mine and many of the Predators had some dodgy eye paint, so be on the lookout for that in the store.
Sculpt. The sculpted details look perfect on these two for my dollar. No complaints there. The Alien is a particularly interesting design and NECA captured a ton of detail there.
At 24.99 this set felt like a steal to me in this action figure market (especially after the 5 dollar coupon I had). Even though the Predator in this set is basically a variant of the Predators series 1 version I already have, the extra stuff (new head, necklaces and skulls) makes it seem worth this price. In an ideal world, the trophies, an unmasked, masked and screaming head would all be included with one figure, but that’s just not the action figure world we live in now.
This is my first Alien figure from NECA, so if you already have this guy it may not seem like such a good deal. I could see wanting a couple of this figure and it’s a fairly cheap way to get one if you want the Predator. Who doesn’t want an Alien horde?
