Lava Pred’s body and almost all the additional armor is molded in a translucent red for that cool cloaking look, but there are still plenty of paint apps on the figure. His mask, wrist blade, and other bits of armor were done in a dark metallic red. This makes all those parts look like they came from the Vy’drach carcass. But it’s not all bug. There are also some silver armor and dreadlock beads. Probably the neatest effect is the tampoed swirling patterns from where his cloak isn’t covering.
Even though he has a shoulder canon and wrist blade, Lava only comes with one accessory. This long machete-like blade has an interesting patter with some deadly looking grooved cuts. The hilt looks like a piece of bone with fabric wrapped around it. It also has the same metallic red paint job as his mask, knocking home the point that this weapon was also fashioned out of bug carcass.
If you can’t tell by now, I’ve got a pretty big crush on these Kenner figures. Rarely does a figure appeal to my adult collector and nostalgic kid mentality at the same time. I can’t wait to get the Blade Fighter in person, or see their upcoming Aliens inspired figures. Heck, I’d even love if they’d expand into Kenner Terminator territory also. Either way, NECA’s pretty much secured my wallet for the next few years if they keep this up.
-Vault
Still got my original Kenner version of this guy (and all the others, too). If I weren’t so deep into MOTUC, I’d be collecting these guys, too.
WTF is with NeCa not doing any paint on the back of their figures?
In this case, it’s supposed to be that the figure is cloaking, so only a few tiny bits of physical matter are visible on the guy’s front side, and the back is all translucent cloaking energy. I’m not aware of NECA figures having, say, the Bandai problem, where literally all paint stops at the seam that joins the front to the back.
I always thought he was completely cloaked. If you’ve ever watched footage of a lava flow, it often has cooling chunks of black rock surrounded by fiery glow. I had assumed he was blending in completely, in an area with glowy chunks.
and of course, in nature, a lot of predators have asymmetrical camouflage to hide them from prey/other predators from multiple angles. sharks are a great example, light colored from below to blend w/ the sky, dark from above to blend with coral or seabed
Just seems lazy to me. They did the same thing with Thermal Dutch. If he was supposed to be cloaked and bits of the environ are showing through wouldn’t they be on both sides?
Well, no, because if you view something that’s cloaked, you’d see what’s on the other side of them. If you look at him from the front, you’d see what’s behind him, in this case lava. If you looked at him from behind, you’d see whatever’s in front of him, which is who-knows-what. You wouldn’t see the same things. At any rate, adding paint anywhere else on the figure would ruin the translucent effect from the front. This isn’t the first time NECA’s done this, made a cloaking Predator, and that sort of figure only looks right when viewed from one direction (heck, their Predators cloaked figure only looks right standing in front of the included backdrop).
I’m not really sure what’s lazy about any of that. Paint was left off for aesthetic reasons, not budgetary. Lazy/cheap would be like, as I mentioned, what Bandai often does, not painting the back half of a figure that’s supposed to have paint back there. Power Rangers with no color on the back half of their belts and shield, that sort of thing.
I guess in this case it makes sense, but coupled with Dutch still seems lazy to me. I’d much prefer a fully painted figure over some silly keeping the cloaking effect half paint job any day .
LOVE this guy! In fact, this is my first foray into the NECA Predator stuff. I honestly didn’t care that much, but the old Kenner stuff was where my interest last left off. I never actually had this guy, but friends did, and I coveted it. About a year ago a friend dug out his old one and gave it to me, so it’s hilarious this comes around not long after finally getting the original.
I’m impressed, though the tube on his arm did come off his back (I just shoved it in his armor rather than gluing it). I figured I would be afraid to move it around, but it’s a lot of fun! I’m glad they are doing one of my few Predator figures back in the day, too: The one in the two pack with the standard Alien. Certainly gona grab that when it comes out!