Vault and I have accumulated a number of NECA toys of late (with hopefully more on the way, I’m looking at you ED-209!), so we thought it might be a good time to kick off another week of reviews! But we need a better name than NECA WECA 2 since you have to say “NECA” wrong to get it to rhyme? We are open to clever suggestions, my brilliant readers!
I’m kicking things off with one of my favorite new toys this month, the Hive Wars Predator from Series 10, the Kenner based series. These Kenner figures are evil, by the way. When I first started collecting the Alien & Predator lines from NECA, I was happy because, one, they’re awesome, and two, they were a relatively small investment. A Xenomorph. A City Hunter. A Jungle Hunter. A Dutch. Some Colonial Marines. A few other key characters, maybe, then you’re out. NECA had other plans.
NECA’s Predator line had already established itself as a great line by crunching through the Lost Tribe of Predators seen at the end of Predator 2. There were some cool figures there, but I was okay to pass on them. I waited, and was really happy when the ball-joints hips replaced the v-crotches and I scored a great pair of the Predators from the first two films. I was good. I kinda wanted Big Red (I still do… I need to track one down), because he looked neat. He stood out from the Lost Tribe to me because he was a little more “toyetic” to me. But I was good, I had my two. I didn’t need the legion of others, cool though they may be.
And then NECA went for the jugular. If you’re my age, or even a little older and a fair bit younger, chances are you had more than a few Kenner figures. I had tons: Super Powers. The Dark Knight Collection, The Real Ghostbusters, Batman & Superman TAS, RoboCop & the Ultra Police, Terminator, M.A.S.K., Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, Centurions, The Shadow, Play-Doh. Heck, I had a Care Bear or two. I’ll admit it. And, oh yeah, a little thing called Star Wars. You’ve probably heard of it.
A few mega-hits from the “Big Two” aside, Kenner owned the boy’s aisle from the late 70s to early 90s, particularly when it came to licensed toys. And included in that list above but held back for dramatic purposes is, of course, Aliens & Predator. The great thing about that era of toys, and some collectors will balk at this I know, but the toys were… toys. It wasn’t always about articulation, scale, accuracy, all these things that I think are important today – I didn’t care much about back then. If Caramel-Spinkick Batman or Screamin’ Winston Zeddemore was fun, I was happy. And if a Predator looked cool in baby blue? So be it.
Which brings me back to NECA. While I still really want to see NECA make Harrigan or Keyes in his containment suit, I respect the importance (& need, really) of having to reuse molds. Repaints have always been a toy company’s best friend, but moreso now than ever. And some smart reuse goes along way. With the Lost Tribe complete, NECA looked to an even deeper well for inspiration and they came back with a simple conclusion: If a Predator looks cool in blue, so be it. Continue to Page 2…
Neca Deca 2013! 😉
this guy look cool, almost like an Atlantean or Kree gladiator cameoing in whatever massive crossover Marvel is up to this month.
I’ll admit I didn’t get the Worf joke at first, but it does make sense. (is that the DST Worf? no Klingon Borg?)
Looking forward to the story/review on that blue/gold Predator on p2.
NECA Weca 2, NECA hiney ho.
Great review and pics, as always! I had to be VERY strong not to collect these. (I still have all the originals, actually.) As much as I’d love to, I just can’t spare the money or the space.
Now you’ve got this guy sounding like Eeyore in my head. Considering Peter Cullen voiced both the donkey and Predator, that works out rather neatly . . . .
NECAstravaganza?
Didn’t notice these until last year because I thought they were the usual semi-articulated statues. I was proven wrong, now I’m hooked. Delightfully so.
I still have my few Kenner Predators (including the cloaked mail-away), but I never saw the ones NECA has updated on the store shelves – sold out too fast.
my biggest beef w/ these has been the difficulty in finding them locally… i have to venture to st louis apparently, to find the merch i wish my stupid TRU would stock.
that said… if you don’t love what NECA’s done with this line, the aliens and the preds… i just am not your friend. you represent everything i hate about collecting toys. 😉
seriously, does a single line, in modern toy history, do it better than this? ok, you could nitpick individual features, could we add a chest articulation, could the knees get deeper stances, etc… but what the line does do if make repaints into much-demanded repeat buys, they offer very good articulation, great paint aps, some of the best sculpts in the business, and retail availability, at a price point we’re being told is a thing of the past by other toy makers. marvel legends, dcu, dcc, marvel select, motuc, simply put, not a single line out there is doing what NECA is doing with this product, none, not even at 150% price point… how are you not cheering these guys on and rewarding their hard work with your hard earned dollar?
as for the theme week name, i second Necryan’s “NECAstravaganza” suggestion.
Totally agree – personally I have zero interest in the Predator franchise and only slightly more in Alien… but these toys are so tempting just for being excellent figures that I doubt I could resist them if I saw them in store (I actually got staff at the Edinburgh Forbidden Planet to check their stock for a xenomorph on a recent Scottish vacation, sadly without success). The sheer number of cool-looking releases have kept me from bingeing online, but it’s probably just a matter of time…
And I third that suggestion, but the extra ‘A’ is a bit cumbersome – can we truncate it to “NECstravaganzA”?
Toys R Us here in NYC is charging $22 for these NECA figures. Thank God for price matching their website
do you guys generally charge more for in-store merch because you’re such a high traffic location? or are they an anomaly?
I keep hearing Times Square TRU is always higher?
StL ain’t much better for finding anything. It’s grown really stagnant around here, lately. WM won’t carry 6″ SW Black, and everywhere else has the same old stock. Target having an ML sale several months ago then only stocking the Zola/Terrax refresher cases did NOT help. Then what random lines that are out there, show up in weird places, like TWD in Walgreens, and random WMs like Sullivan carrying s2 of Assassin’s Creed! LOLwhut? I didn’t even know there was a s1!
Honestly, I’m buying all my stuff online, these days. it’s cheaper and less aggravating.
NECAphilia Week?
It might attract some weirdos, but think of all the extra hits you’d get!
Predator is one of my favorite movies. Hadn’t bought a single NECA Predator figure until this Kenner wave, something about the retro-homage colors on modern sculpt figs really works. Especially the translucent red Lava Predator. They got me.