Toys have a funny way of coloring our perceptions - the old Kenner Star Wars Cantina aliens were wildly off model, but correct to anyone alive in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Similarly, this Predator (Masked) is a little weird to those of us who grew up with Kenner toys, because my 2-pack Predator had a brown mask. Silver is, of course, more correct - which leads you to the big question on if doing a ReAction figure correctly is, in and of itself, inauthentic. To be right, must you be wrong?
The masked Predator has been used 3 times so far. The first was July's awesome bloodied clear Predator. The second and third are this figure and the clear, non-bloodied version of this figure. They're all fundamentally the same except for paint - so if you have some unreasonable love for Predator, you should probably get all of them. And the two unmasked ones. I have them harassing my one lone Alien right now. I don't even know why but this makes me weirdly happy to have a little clan of classic but different Predators hanging out on my desk. I was thinking "gee, I don't need all these Predators" but dammit - they're great.
I don't see Predator as a troop builder, or at least, I didn't until I started writing this review. It's not exactly true to the movies, but the multiple head sculpts and colorways lend themselves to keeping a gaggle of them around. It's the same sculpt you've seen before, with the nifty quasi-mesh shirt sculpted but not painted and some brown stripes on a yellowish green body. Sandals, skulls, and armor make this figure feel like the barbarian Boba Fett figure you've always wanted. The gunmetal silvery helmet has dark brown matte eyes, which is pretty cool. It'd also be cool if they gave it something weird like yellow or glow-in-the-dark or blue eyes, but I'm not terribly picky when it comes to colors on these guys. Go ahead and paint one orange or blue. I'd still be excited to buy it, I love the Kennery stuff. Arctic Camo Predator, please!
The only real weak parts of the sculpt are the legs - which are a little skinny - and the wrist blades. I know they have to be soft for safety reason, but in the 1980s they'd have been sculpted flush with the arm and not stick out one bit. Here they're a little thin and bent, but that can be fixed with patience and/or boiling water.
With 5 joints - the head is restricted, the arms and legs move great - this is one of the better ReAction figures in terms of functionality. The spirit is there, but he looks a little scrawny relative to his nemesis, the Alien warrior. I'd still suggest getting a Predator, but my enjoyment of them increases exponentially as the group grows on my desk. At this point I can almost fill an Imperial Troop Transport with them, which I assumed would be something that would've happened with the Alien first. Well, if he could fit. He's pretty wide.
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