As a child of the ’80s I have a soft spot for the film E.T., so when I saw this figure on the shelves of my local TRU, I had to pick one up. Click through for more pics of NECA’s E.T.!
Accessories
This E.T. comes with a removable blanket, some Reese’s Pieces, and an extra swappable neck piece. The extra neck piece is longer than the one E.T. is packaged with, so you can simulate the neck extension move the little guy does throughout the movie. The extra neck piece is wisely packed behind a sticker because it looks a little odd by itself.
The blanket is made of a nice soft plastic and the neck is made of a fairly stiff plastic. It’s a little tough to swap out the neck pieces, but not impossible.
Sculpt
I remember seeing E.T. in the theaters and I had a ton of E.T. merchandise from back then (including a doll, action figures, clothes, and a board game), but I can’t remember the last time I watched the movie. I’m not an E.T. expert, but the likeness looked pretty much perfect to me at the store. It felt ‘right’ and a quick Google image search confirms that the sculpt is very accurate to the source material.
But beyond screen accuracy, it’s a beautiful sculpt with amazing textures. The leathery skin on E.T. is fantastic and even the cloth texture on the blanket looks great.
Articulation
E.T. has swivel/hinge shoulders and elbows, ball and socket ankles, and wrists and ball joints at both ends of the neck. The articulation at the neck helps you get E.T. into a slew of expressive poses. I would have liked ab articulation of some kind, but that’s more my super-articulated bias. I was able to get this figure in any E.T. poses I wanted.
Paint
The figure looks to me to be cast in a solid color with a lighter dry brush that brings out the leathery skin texture sculpt. The paint on the eyes is perfect, which is good because they are a main focus of the figure. He does have some red paint on his right index figure to simulate the light-up finger from the film. It’s a decent effect, but doesn’t quite work for me. I wish it had been cast in a yellow translucent plastic. The only other paint issue is that some of the white paint from the blanket rubbed off on the figure’s shoulder.
For the relatively low price of $12.99, this is as good a standard E.T. figure as I could have hoped for. The sculpt, articulation, and paint are all solid and my nostalgia was perfectly sated.
