TOY REVIEW ARCHIVE    LIVING WITH LATE FEES    FEATURES    LINKS    BIO    MISSION    EMAIL    MAIN PAGE >


12" Terminator 3

Tonight's guest review is from another new reviewer, Biohazard.  It might be his first time, but I'll be he'll be back...he'll be back, get it?  Okay, I'll let Bio take over.

The future’s not set, the only destiny is what we make for ourselves, blah-blah-blah yakkity freakin’ schmakkity. The future of this toy was certainly set, and its destiny was my shelving unit.

Well, it would seem McFarlane Toys has done rather well with this new Terminator 3 line of toys. I wouldn’t go as far as to say they’ve been flying off the shelves faster than the stock boys can stock ‘em, but I’d view them as a successful venture nonetheless. Today I’m reviewing the 12” T-850 figure. I’ve been pretty excited about the entire line of T3 figures, but this one really stands out.

 

Packaging - ***1/2
Window boxes generally look really good, and this one is no exception. There are all kinds of neat little details. There are quotes from the figure’s talking feature, and pictures of the rest of the line. Unfortunately, the window is rather thin; so take care if you’re not an opener. This thing will crease easily.

The figure displays very well from inside the box… but frankly, this is a toy meant to be opened.

Inside the box, removing the T-850 from his cardboard prison is, surprisingly, a snap. Sure, there are a lot of twisty ties and whatnots, but they’re hardly an obstacle. Just do what I do and get a pair of scissors. Snip, snip, snip and out comes the toy!

Sculpting - ****
Even a Negative Nancy like myself will have a difficult time finding fault with this sculpt. McFarlane’s sculptors captured Arnold’s likeness perfectly. From the pockmarks on his face down to the zippers on his pants, this figure is perfect. There are two variants out there, one with sunglasses, and one without. I got the shades version. While I haven’t seen them in person, the prototype pictures of the no-shades version looks good, but Arnold’s eyes look off. So that might deduct a half-point from either sculpt or paint apps. I’ll let you decide.

Paint - ****
Only one complaint here, and I don’t think it’s big enough to detract from the score. The base is designed after the military base bathroom fight scene between the TX and T-850. The broken plaster just strikes me as a bit sloppy. It doesn’t bleed over onto the rest of the bases paint apps however, and the rest of the base is absolutely perfect.

As far as the figure itself is concerned, the paint applications are dead-on. No bleeding over or anything of the sort. Granted, that’s not horribly difficult when the figure is made up of seven different parts, and five of them are black.

Articulation - *
The Terminator is articulated at the neck, both shoulders, right bicep, right hand, and waist. It’s basically a statue with a couple points of movement. None of them are particularly useful in changing the pose of the figure, but it doesn’t really need to be changed. It does pretty well as is.

Accessories - ***
A star for each accessory included. The T-850 comes with a combat shotgun, a submachine gun, and a custom base. Seeing as every one of these accessories has some little feature I’d like to wax upon, I’ll just go over each one individually.

Submachine gun- Well sculpted and painted, and fits easily into the Terminator’s right hand. Comes with two side-by-side magazines, one loaded into the gun, one out. Give a little tug, because the magazine is removable, so you can switch from clip to clip.

Combat shotgun- Nothing really special about it, aside from the uber-cool rubber strap and metal o-rings that hold the strap to the gun.

Base- The base is modeled after the bathroom at the military base. Black tile, metal gratings, and all kinds of smashed plaster and drywall. Plus, a small speaker in the back that says four lines from the movie. Unfortunately, the speaker is very tinny and Arnold’s voice is far too deep. It sounds terrible. (Requires two AAA batteries to function).

Value - ***1/2
I got this figure for $26.99 at FuncoLand, and that seems a little high to me, but if you can find it for $25 or less, I say get it, cause it’s a great figure. Not much in the way of accessories, unfortunately. At this price point, a couple more guns would’ve really been nice.

Overall - ****
What can I say? I can’t possibly badmouth this figure; it’s nearly perfect. Kudos to Todd McFarlane Productions. My only issue with this figure is the voice box, but that just doesn’t strike me as important enough to knock the actual figure down. I don’t feel the sub-par electronic features should affect the stellar sculpting and paint apps.

Where to Buy:
Electronics Boutique, Media Play, Sam Goody, and Gamestop have these on the shelves, but on-line:

- Killer Toys has him for $25, similar to the bricks and mortar stores.  Ask if you want the glasses or no glasses version.\

- Entertainment Earth has him in stock, but at $30.


Figures from the collection of Biohazard.

This page copyright 2003, Michael Crawford. All rights reserved. Hosted by 1 Hour Hosting.com